For the holidays 2021, Call of Duty: Vanguard received some new skins in the shop. These are available in a bundle for premium currency – that is, for real money. However, one skin is said to be a blatant copy of a weapon that was available for free in a previous CoD four years ago. At least that is what some players criticize.
What kind of skin is this? The “Secret Santa” bundle is currently in the CoD Vanguard shop and costs 1,500 CoD Coins. That roughly translates to €15. The bundle includes:
- 2 weapon skins: Dasher and Blitzen
- 2 emblems: Fragile and Shake it Off!
- Talisman “Wrap it Up!”, a Christmas goose
- Full Plug “Hang the Lights”
- Highlight Intro “Don’t Peek!”
The Dasher skin is currently causing unrest among fans. It is a blueprint for the combat shotgun, one of the currently strongest weapons in CoD Vanguard. However, it is not the setup itself that is the problem.
In the past, there have been accusations that some blueprints are “Pay2Win”. In this case, however, the appearance is a problem. The skin features wooden grips, an engraved soldier, and the inscription “Trench Runner”.
Fans, however, point out that the skin looks very similar to an existing weapon from an old CoD title.
“Trench Runner” already existed in World War II – Free of charge
This is the criticism: The nearly identical skin was already available in Call of Duty: World War II in 2017. There are some variations, such as the color of the wood or the exact arrangement of the attachments as well as the fried chicken keychain that comes standard.
For fans, this is not a reason to pay for this skin. They are angry because:
- Previously, the skin was supposed to be free. Players were supposed to unlock it through challenges and more, not through the shop.
- The new Dasher skin is currently only available as part of the paid bundle. Even those who want just this skin must therefore pay the full price of 1,500 coins. It is not possible to earn the shotgun as in WWII.
This is how fans react: On reddit, fans are complaining about this. They say things like: “The Secret Santa bundle is just a copy/paste of a free WWII variant that is now being sold for $15. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it and realized what it was” (via reddit.com).
Other users join in, complaining that not enough effort is being put into the skins. Compared to previous games like Modern Warfare and Cold War, the Vanguard skins are disappointing.
Others say that players should just not buy the bundles. One can also enjoy the game without spending money on cosmetics.
There are even accusations that the developers are putting much more time into new skins and too little into fixing issues. However, a new system was recently introduced that is supposed to finally address the biggest criticism for years:
New tool in CoD Warzone bans 48,000 cheaters in one day – Does it finally solve the big problem?
