Call of Duty Vanguard: Release date, Campaign, Multiplayer, Zombies, Warzone map & anti-cheat, more
Call of Duty: Vanguard is on the horizon, and here’s everything we know about the upcoming game that will be taking the first-person shooter franchise back to World War II.
The Warzone Battle of Verdansk event took place on August 19 and officially revealed Call of Duty: Vanguard, which will see the fan-favorite franchise make a return to World War II and will be bringing plenty of content for players to enjoy.
Following the official reveal of Vanguard, a wealth of information was made available to the community regarding the game’s Campaign, Zombies, Multiplayer, integration with Warzone, and more.
With this in mind, here’s everything we know about Call of Duty: Vanguard.
Call of Duty: Vanguard release date
The next entry in the Call of Duty franchise will officially be releasing on November 5, 2021.
This Call of Duty: Vanguard release date follows the later releases that Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War started compared to previous entries.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Campaign setting and details
The campaign of Vanguard will be taking players back to the era of World War II, where they will focus on the rise of Special Forces across all four fronts of WWII.
This campaign will not be a sequel to 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII and will see players experience WWII in the eyes of four different special forces characters on the Pacific, Western, Eastern, and North Africa Fronts.
Arthur Kingsley, LT. Polina Petrova, Captain Wade Jackson, and 2nd Lt. Lucas Riggs are the main characters of the campaign and are all based on real-life heroes that fought in WWII.
These four characters are sent as a special forces group to Berlin, Germany, to identify Project Phoenix, a project believed to be how the Nazis planned to prolong their rule beyond Hitler.
More information on the Vanguard Campaign can be found in our full article about the story players will experience in the upcoming entry in the franchise.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Multiplayer
One of the most exciting pieces of information that has been revealed about the game’s Multiplayer is that the game will be launching with 20 maps.
16 of these maps will be for traditional 6v6 Multiplayer gameplay, with the other four being designed for the new Call of Duty: Vanguard Champion Hill game mode which has been described as a mix between battle royale and gunfight.
One of the new Multiplayer features will be Combat Pacing gameplay options. Players will be able to pick between the three Combat Pacing options in the Multiplayer features, with each one offering their own unique experiences.
The three Call of Duty: Vanguard Combat Pacing are Tactical, Standard, and Blitz. Standard is the traditional gameplay experience of past Call of Duty Multiplayers, while the Tactical Combat Pacing option is more like Hardcore.
Blitz has been described as a much more casual experience with plenty of action with as many players as possible being crammed into a map for pure “chaos and fun.”
The popular Gunsmith feature of Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War will return in Call of Duty: Vanguard. However, it will be coming with two new features that consist of custom ballistics and ammo types. This evolved Gunsmith will allow players to have a total of 10 attachments on their weapons.
Another exciting element of Vanguard Multiplayer will be that it will feature destructible environments that will open up new gameplay opportunities for players to experience.
One of the biggest changes that will be made in Vanguard from last year’s Black Ops Cold War is that there will be no Wildcards available for players to use in the Create A Class system.
A wealth of information has also arrived regarding weapons, killstreaks, perks, Field Upgrades, and more that are available in the game’s Open Beta. More detail for these items can be found in our comprehensive hub for them.
There is no doubt that two of the biggest topics regarding Call of Duty: Vanguard Multiplayer is how players will have to use a perk to see enemies on their minimap when they fire and that Dead Silence will be a Field Upgrade instead of a perk.
Players will want to make sure that their PCs are fitted with the necessary specifications if they want Call of Duty: Vanguard Multiplayer to run as smoothly as possible, which is why you will be wise to check out the minimum and recommended PC requirements for the new Call of Duty game at this time.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies
Zombies will be making a return in Vanguard and will be developed by Treyarch Studios.
This will be the first time two separate Call of Duty games have had a co-op game mode made by the same developer, as modes like Zombies were developed by the leading studio at that time, such as Sledgehammer Games their Zombies game modes in Advanced Warfare and WWII.
The storyline for the Vanguard Zombies game mode will be a prequel to the Dark Aether story playing out in Black Ops Cold War.
This news also means that Sledgehammer Games has been focusing entirely on the Call of Duty: Vanguard Campaign and Multiplayer.
New Warzone map and anti-cheat arriving with Call of Duty: Vanguard
In the same fashion as Black Ops Cold War, Vanguard will be integrated into Warzone in a major way, as a brand new map will be coming to the battle royale game based on Vanguard.
In addition to a brand new map, Warzone will also be getting a dedicated anti-cheat with the arrival of Call of Duty: Vanguard, while players will be able to use weapons from the new game in Warzone to battle against their enemies.
Check out our full article on the new Warzone map and anti-cheat for more information and the exciting additions coming in the future.
Which studio is developing CoD: Vanguard ?
In Activision’s Q4 earnings call, they confirmed that a new Call of Duty game would be releasing in 2021, with Sledgehammer Games in charge of development.
Sledgehammer released Call of Duty: WWII in 2017 but faced difficulties after their co-founders and many team members left.
However, Sledgehammer hired over 150 new people to the studio in 2020 and recently opened a new studio in Toronto.
Activision said that “Development is being led by Sledgehammer Games, and the game is looking great and on track for its fall release.”
What engine will Call of Duty: Vanguard run on?
The past two years have seen Call of Duty utilize two different game engines for Modern Warfare/Warzone and Black Ops Cold War.
However, it has been confirmed that Vanguard will be running on the Modern Warfare engine that became a favorite of players and will allow for “seamless” integration into Warzone.
You can check out more information regarding Vanguard running on the Modern Warfare and Warzone engine in our full article on the topic.
Call of Duty: Vanguard editions
Standard Edition
- Call of Duty: Vanguard (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or PC version).
- Console only: Plays on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S via backward compatibility.
- Digital Exclusive: Frontline Weapons Pack
Cross-Gen Bundle
- Call of Duty: Vanguard (PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, or Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S versions).
- Five hours of Double Weapons Experience Points (2x WXP) for Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone, available when the game launches.
- Digital Exclusive: Frontline Weapons Pack
Ultimate Edition
- Console: Cross-Gen Bundle of Call of Duty: Vanguard (PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, or Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S versions).
- PC: The PC version of Call of Duty: Vanguard (via Battle.net).
- Task Force One Pack with three Operator Skins and three Weapon Blueprints with Tracer Rounds
- Battle Pass Bundle (one Season Battle Pass with 20 Tier Skips***).
- Ten hours of Double Experience Points (2XP), comprising of five hours of Double XP, and five hours of Double Weapons XP (2x WXP) for Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone, available as Double XP Tokens when the game launches.
- Digital Exclusive: Frontline Weapons Pack
Call of Duty: Vanguard platforms
MicrosoftActivision stated that Vanguard was being built for next-gen consoles and PC, but it will also release on previous-gen consoles.
In their August 2021 earnings call, Activision confirmed that Vanguard will be available to “both current and next-gen console players.” So, Vanguard will release on the Xbox One, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC via Battle.net.
We will continue to update this hub with all of the latest information for Call of Duty: Vanguard when it becomes available.
For more on the next entry in the high-profile franchise, stay tuned to our dedicated Call of Duty: Vanguard page.
Image Credit: Activision / Microsoft