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After months of prolonged silence, the first Call of Duty: Vanguard footage has been shown in Warzone. The shooter will take place across the many battles seen throughout World War II with a campaign, multiplayer, zombies, and new additions to Warzone. Sledgehammer Games reportedly only had roughly two years’ time to develop Call of Duty: Vanguard, but the studio and its co-developers still managed to deliver all of the expected series content, presumably without much compromise.
Earlier in August, Call of Duty: Vanguard leaked, though there were plenty of rumblings throughout 2021 that suggested the game would feature the same title and a WW2 setting. Still, many have been eager to see if Sledgehammer can deliver given the short development cycle, especially with a setting that many are a bit lukewarm on and this year’s competition seems to be aggressively avoiding. Only time will tell how the full game turns out, but now fans have a better idea of what to expect from Sledgehammer later this year.
In a Warzone event, Call of Duty: Vanguard was revealed with its first trailer, confirming many rumors that have piled up over the last several months. The Call of Duty: Vanguard trailer, now live on YouTube, was first shown in an explosive Warzone PvE event that tasked players with destroying a train that ran through Verdansk. At the end, players were rewarded with in-game items and the official trailer for Vanguard which revealed the game will take place across all the theaters of war from WW2. The game will release on November 5 for current and last-gen consoles and PC, with a PlayStation-exclusive alpha rumored for the end of August. Players who pre-order will also get access to an open beta in September, exclusive weapons and operators, and other in-game items.
The last few months of 2021 will be packed with shooters such as Halo Infinite and Battlefield 2042, so fans of the genre will have no shortage of games to play. Whether or not Call of Duty will feel rushed thanks to its shorter development remains to be seen, but the series will certainly be tested with a strong holiday season on the horizon. Halo’s multiplayer will be free-to-play and the full game is on Game Pass, Battlefield 2042 is a large-scale modern military shooter with a mode centered around throwback maps, and Call of Duty: Vanguard will be a new spin on the WWII setting.
Sledgehammer also got a helping hand from other Activision studios, such as Treyarch which is confirmed to be handling the zombies mode, so that may have allowed the developer to focus its efforts on the campaign and multiplayer. Although the WWII genre is a bit exhausted, Call of Duty: Vanguard may have an interesting enough premise to reel players back into the trenches.
Call of Duty: Vanguard will be available on November 5, 2021.