Another day, “Kolda” is still the same: fast-paced battles, minimal interactivity, a familiar arsenal of weapons and spectacular locations. You know what to expect.
WW2.0
However, these restrictions do not apply to weapons. The arsenal available in the beta version includes all the hits of the era: American Thompson, British BAR, German MP40 and 98k carbine, Soviet three-line gun and Degtyarev machine gun with a branded disk magazine over the barrel. As a bonus – regional exotics like the New Zealand NZ-41 assault rifle and the experimental Italian Itra rifle, which fires a powerful four-shot burst, but then requires a painfully long reloading time. A close-range miss is often fatal.
Almost all of the weapons available in Vanguard were either announced in WWII, or have direct analogues in other parts of the cycle. This is especially true of rewards for kills, many of which roam the franchise, regardless of the technical level of the era. Have WWII engineers invented the Predator drones yet? Not scary, we use a similar guided bomb with carefully highlighted targets. Veterans Black ops Did you like a radio-controlled car with explosives? Let’s blow off the dust from the drawings of the German self-propelled mine “Goliath”. Do players often use Flamethrowers and Heavy Juggernaut Armor? Well, let’s combine them into one award and call it … Pironaut!
Army afterburner
Signal latency is especially annoying when the match is at high speed. The developers call this parameter Combat Pacing and give a choice of three “pace” of battles. But here we are just talking about the concentration of players on the map, and not about full-fledged new modes. According to the same rules (for example, in the Kill Confirmed mode), you can play with different intensities – you just need to select the desired Pacing in advance when searching for a server.
The first version, Tactical, is designed for a minimum number of participants and is tailored for e-sports: squads of four people slowly and methodically move towards each other, holding their breath in anticipation of the fight. The second “tempo” is called Assault and is a classic 6v6 shootout, where the collision with the enemy occurs within 20-30 seconds after respawning. Finally, the most hectic battles take place at Blitz speed: up to 48 fighters are thrown into small arenas, and each intersection turns into a fascinating meat grinder.
However, at any intensity, players still have time to figure out their tactics – at least in traditional Team Deathmatch and Domination with their more or less clear arrangement of fronts. For those who want to experience the absolute power of chaos, there is a direct road to the new Patrol mode, which seems to be specially designed for the Blitz-pace. The usual rules of Domination are turned inside out here: the fighters need to hold only one control point, only it is not tied to a specific location, but slowly “migrates” throughout the map. The sight is both comical (a crowd of armed men chasing a white circle along a country road) and incredibly exciting. Enemies climb from all sides, and the terrain conditions are constantly changing.
As usual in Call of Duty, cards are taken with a thoughtful design rather than size. We were shown only four small arenas, but all of them are distinguished by commendable verticality, a variety of combat situations and elaboration of details. The press release also promises limited interactivity of the environment (a kind of “Tactical destruction”), but, alas, in the beta version, interaction with the world is not implemented even where it frankly suggests itself. Did you notice a powerful turret gun on the bow of the ship, to which even a separate ladder leads? But no, this is just a beautifully designed sniper “nest”. It remains to be content with the fact that at least the wooden doors (and those who risked hiding behind them) can be sewn through with a machine gun.
Interestingly, all maps in the Vanguard beta are based on real-world locations. The most compact arena Eagle’s Nest, recreates the eponymous residence of Hitler on Mount Kehlstein. An intricate network of rooms and corridors here leads to perfectly shot balconies and steep cliffs, along which you can carefully sneak behind enemy lines.
A similar principle is arranged Hotel Royale – a luxurious penthouse in the heart of Paris. The battles there are usually concentrated along the cornices and around the central hall, where you can always run into camper armed with shotguns that hide behind the bar.
Pacific front represented by map Gavutu – a tiny island base that American forces took in the summer of 1942 on their way to Guadalcanal. Despite its modest size, there was a place here for a radio tower, a damaged cruiser, and a long coastline dotted with concrete fortifications. In general, ideal conditions for upgrading assault rifles and light machine guns.
But, perhaps, the most vivid impression is made by Red star – a free interpretation of the defense of the Pavlov House in Stalingrad. All Hollywood iconography is in place: a fountain with dancing children, icy trams, corridors of houses covered with drying linen and charred ruins of the upper floors, where sniper duels never stop. Of all the arenas presented in the beta, Red Star provides the greatest scope for tactics and requires players not only to react quickly, but also to know the map.
Of course, this is just the first introduction to Call of Duty: Vanguard. In addition, it is very limited: the release version will include 20 multiplayer maps, as well as a new global location for Warzone. Of considerable interest is the storyline campaign, in which an international detachment of soldiers (American pilot, British parachutist, Australian infantryman and Soviet girl sniper) participates in special operations around the world. Finally, the Zombies mode will not do without, and the new story will continue the events of Black Ops Cold War.
PlayStation owners who pre-order the game will be able to join the beta test as early as September 10-13. And cross-play testing will take place in a week, from September 16 to 20. The final release is scheduled for November 5, 2023 – just enough time to fix the flamethrowers in the game!
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