I Can’t Understand Call of Duty
So, recently I’ve played the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise, Vanguard. I have to say, I have struggled greatly to understand how some of the design decision make any sort of sense.
Sure, we sometimes do not like something, but we “get” why it’s made in a particular way. Not here though, I couldn’t find the “I get it.”
I consider myself competent enough to understand why some design decisions are set the way they are. Even if they’re objectively not the correct decision.
Now, it is often difficult to land on what is and is not objective, but hopefully after I mention the problems in this game you can solidify for yourself.
Here are the problems I “saw.”
I Cannot See the Enemy
A while ago I’ve written a blog on another video game called (Rainbow Six Siege) and criticized the visibility of it [read here.] After playing Vanguard, oh wee it’s a snake and an eagle difference. In Vanguard, the typical scenario is for you to simply not see the enemy, NOT the other way around.
The camouflage, particle effects, and dust are the ones to blame.
The camouflages color palates are shockingly similar to the environment. There are many maps that the enemy can blend in them remarkably well. The brownish colored ones are the worst offenders.
Particle effects and other type of feedback signals are excessive in this game.
When you get hit, your screen will shake and blur for a short period of time. This short period of time will simply be the cause of your death, and you die fast in Vanguard.
Call of Duty in general is well known to have fast TTK (time to kill) compared to other games. Why would they do it is beyond me. I understand that you need to give the player feedback if they’re being shot, but I certainly don’t comprehend the excessive use of signals to achieve that!
The other issue and perhaps the worst one, is the amount of dust that obscure your vision every time you pretty much do anything in the game.
You shoot your gun? Dust comes out. You hit an object? Dust comes out. You hit an enemy? Dust comes out of him/her. The enemy shoots their gun? Dust comes out. Explosions land? Dust comes out.
It’s insane. Never have I ever, EVER seen a game that uses this amount to obscure vision.
Even in single player games where you can get away with these sorts of effects for the sake of immersion. Not here though, you should definitely NOT do this in a multiplayer fast paced shooter. Not at these levels at least!
I Cannot Hear the Enemy
For the most part, I simply am unable to hear enemy footsteps.
Now, there is an ability or a perk in the game that lets you have “silent step” and maybe most people use them, but I doubt that many have unlocked and equipped them immediately at release.
I tried to justify this by thinking it must be a technical issue. However, I can hear the footsteps of my teammates perfectly fine!
The ability itself is simply horrible. Just a bad design IMO.
The Battle Pass
I don’t have much interest in Battle Passes in most games but out of curiosity I thought let me check this one out. I did and couldn’t believe it.
Most of the items in the paid Battle Pass are for an entirely different game, Warzone! The BR (Battle Royal) version of Call of Duty.
So if you’re one of those who doesn’t play Warzone and just want the regular Call of Duty experience, you’re simply out of your mind if you purchase the Battle Pass.
If you play Rainbow Six Siege or Apex Legends, imagine with a launch of a new season and you’re excited about the Battle Pass. Only to find out the majority of items in the R6 Battle Pass are for The Division 2 and the Apex one has most of its items exclusive to Battlefield 2042. You would be furious.
Granted Division 2 and BF2042 are not only paid for games but no where near as popular as Warzone is at the moment. Still, somewhat same principle. Not cool…
The Maps
I admit this isn’t entirely objective, but I’ll let it slide in.
The maps in Vanguard are a cluster of chaos in all the wrong ways.
It’s like they’re purposefully designed to make you just run around. All the time.
Do not allocate any brain cells to this activity. Just run and gun like they say.
This has always been the case in a Call of Duty. Still, the earlier ones from 4-5 years ago had some thought put into them. The layout was coherent to some extent.
In Vanguard, they just went all in with the randomness.
There is one particular map called Das Haus, and it is perhaps the tiniest Call of Duty map ever. It’s basically made of many small rooms and narrow hallways.
This is a recipe for a nade festival. Seriously, you will most likely die from some sort of explosive utility. Your ears will also hate you for playing this. Explosive sound effects left and right. Oh and don’t forget the dust… It’s madness.
Other maps are also relatively small. You know what that also means? Dying right as you respawn! YES! The infamous Call of Duty problem, respawns! They’re amplified to 11 in Vanguard. This is incredibly and offensively pathetic. Seriously, I can’t think of a single metric that speaks to this atrocity.