Call Of Duty Vanguard Trailer thoughts and concerns

Call Of Duty World War 2 vanguard just got a trailer released today, and while it does look interesting, there were some things that I wanted to address.

First of all, this game is apparently going to cover all four fronts of World War 2:The Battle For North Africa, The Eastern Front of WW2, The Western Front of World War 2, and The Pacific front.

Given that the length of an average Call Of Duty campaign on Normal difficulty is about 3-4 hours, does this mean that we will only spend about one hour on each of the fronts?

Add to this the fact that this game is rumored to have less of a development time due to internal conflicts between Raven Software and Sledgehammer games over last years Call Of Duty; if you look at what's going on with a critical eye, then there are definitely some things that are worth discussing.

It's worth mentioning that I am a big history buff regarding the Pacific theater of World War 2.

In my previous blog, I detailed what I would have liked to have seen in a Call Of Duty game that focuses entirely on the Pacific Theater.

I am also a fanatic of well-written and well-designed Single Player Campaigns.

I know that single-player campaigns in FPS games are dying out, but I am still hoping that one day they will make a resurgence.
Games Such as Bioshock and Timesplitters are allegedly getting reboots, which makes me happy. But when it comes to grounded War First Person Shooters, Call Of Duty is pretty much the only game available now with a campaign worth playing.

Given how over the top and Michael Bay-ish Sledgehammer's last game, Call Of Duty WW2, turned out, I am skeptical that they will be able to provide somber moments to juxtapose the action.

World At War had one of my favorite campaigns in the series because, for as much action as that game had, there were moments where if you paced yourself and looked around every once in a while, you would get a sense of the horrors of War aspect by looking at what was going on around you.

That game didn't shove every explicitly horrible thing that the Nazis, Russians, or Japanese were doing in your face, trying to shock you.
There were even small moments where some of your teammates would argue amongst themselves on whether or not it was right to kill defenseless, unarmed soldiers in cold blood.

Moments like those are what made me respect the developers. It felt much more organic and less pretentious by giving the players things to discover naturally and at their own pace.

With four campaigns, it seems highly unlikely that the devs will fill them with scenes of nuance and grace.

The trailer looked like an action-packed Michael Bay movie.
Just compare it to the trailer for Call Of Duty World At War. Despite being only one minute and 5 seconds long, that trailer did a much better job setting the tone than the 3 minutes of tone-deaf action that Call Of Duty Vanguards trailer set.

World At War's trailer starts with an eerie atmosphere and shows many marines walking through terrain that they are not familiar with. After establishing through a narration that you are just some scared novice soldier who is in for the fight of your life, the action heats up.

It then cuts to your teammates being stabbed, lit on fire, and ambushed.
It didn't try to glamorize War; it was just as concerned with depicting these battles in the most authentic way possible within the game's age rating.

Looking at Call Of Duty Vanguard's trailer, I see a bunch of action with limited dialogue, and it ends with an over-the-top set-piece where your soldier jumps out of an airplane, his parachute gets burnt. He falls for thousands of feet and will probably survive like an invincible 1980's action hero.

The trailer did not get me thinking about how I would survive on my own or help me establish my own identity.
It made me feel like I was going through the motions, like on a roller coaster ride.

I understand that for most people who play Call Of Duty, the campaign is just used for marketing the game and teaching newcomers the basic mechanics to know how to play online. But I still hold onto a glimmer of hope that one day the people making these games will treat all their audiences with respect, not just the multiplayer and Warzone fanatics.

Speaking of which, Another thing that has me worried about the game is the ridiculous amount of RNG loot boxes and items that the devs can cram into them for the Multiplayer.

Since this game will cover every Front of World War 2, that means the devs will be able to put more weapons from said fronts into the game's single-player campaign.

Unlike 2017's Call OF Duty WW2, where you were only fighting in Europe, here it seems as though you will have access to every gun throughout all facets of the War.

This also means that the devs will have many more guns to put in the Lootboxes that you know will require you to grind forever to get enough in-game currency or spend ridiculous amounts of real money to acquire.

Another big concern for me is that the 9th gen console versions of the game are being held back by the devs making it for 8th gen consoles.
Whether we like it or not, the 8th gen consoles are antiquated. Hell, even at their release, they weren't as powerful as most people were hoping they would be.

I understand that these companies need to maximize their profits, and with a limited install base due to chip shortage, the 9th gen consoles are hard to acquire.

However, there have been many concerns that the 8th gen consoles are keeping the devs from developing this game at its full potential.

The last thing I'm hoping that this game doesn't do is to add a Zombies mode.

Not only was 2017's Call Of Duty WW2's Zombie mode was a soulless cash grab that lacked the fun of Treyarch's zombies; it also took away time that the developers could have put into making the Single-Player campaign better.

With four campaigns and a shorter development time than previous entries, I sincerely hope the devs don't announce a tact-on Zombies mode at the last minute.

I will pick this game up out of curiosity to see if Sledgehammer games can create something memorable, I will be skeptical, but I will do my best to be fair and impartial.

Here's hoping that sooner or later, these Call Of Duty devs can make a comeback and surprise us with a quality campaign, well-designed multiplayer maps, and respect for their fanbase.

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