Sledgehammer Games has finally revealed Call of Duty Vanguard to the world and - although the Battle of Verdansk Warzone event was a little lacklustre - there's a lot of buzz about Black Ops Cold War's successor. We know it's a little early to be making these claims, but Vanguard really does look like it could be the best Call of Duty title we've ever seen. On paper, it sounds like it's going to do everything right and we can see this being a real step-up for Call of Duty as a series.
You might think it's outrageous to think that Vanguard is going to be the best Call of Duty title yet - and that's fine - but here's why it could be.
Vanguard is a fresh take on classic Call of Duty
A lot of people feel as though the Second World War is a bit of a "done" era for Call of Duty and a lot of people are wrong. Call of Duty WWII was the only game to focus on the Second World War in twelve years of Call of Duty games. Yes - that's a long time.
Reznov and Roebuck graced our screens in 2008's World At War and that was the last time we saw a Second World War game until Call of Duty WWII in 2017.
We know Call of Duty WWII isn't a perfect game, but it was far from a bad Call of Duty. It did exactly what everyone wanted and it did it well. We don't know if Vanguard is going to follow on from Call of Duty WWII's narrative, but we do know that it's going to offer us a fresh take on this classic Call of Duty era.
Vanguard's narrative is going to take place across all four fronts of the Second World War - something World At War and WWII avoided - and we're going to venture into the immediate post-war world.
We know Vanguard's campaign is going to be a little fictitious, but Call of Duty games aren't exactly historically accurate at the best of times. We're going to witness the origins of the world's Special Forces in the wake of Hitler's death and see a part of history often overlooked. The Nazi Party was more than just one man with a moustache and Vanguard is going to shed a light on that.
It's going to look absolutely amazing
We know Advanced Warfare was a bit of a dud game, but it looked fantastic when it came out in 2014. Sledgehammer Games make great-looking games and Call of Duty WWII was a testament to everyone working on it.
Now, following on from two of the most graphically advanced first-person shooters out there - Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War - Sledgehammer Games are back to tackle how everything looks. This is going to be the second Call of Duty game to release on next-gen consoles, on top of all that.
We're easily going to get a Call of Duty game with the best graphics the franchise has ever seen. We know Black Ops Cold War felt like a step backwards when you look at Modern Warfare's fidelity, but Vanguard is going to blow both of them out of the water.
We're duking it out on Modern Warfare's game engine
If that wasn't enough to sway you, Vanguard is going to make the most of Modern Warfare's IW 8.0 game engine. There's going to be some improvements, of course, but everyone can agree that on a base level Modern Warfare plays better than Black Ops Cold War.
That isn't to say Black Ops Cold War is bad, but Modern Warfare's slower movement and weightier gunplay make it a much more rewarding experience on the whole. Leakers have been discussing a Blind Fire system and - when you couple this with Modern Warfare's corner-peeking and an improvement to destructible environments - it's hard to deny that this doesn't sound amazing.
We're due to see some Vanguard gameplay at Gamescom 2021, during the Opening Night Live showcase, and we can't wait to check out how all this is going to play out.
Treyarch is stepping in to handle the undead, too
To top it all off, Sledgehammer Games has confirmed that Treyarch is going to be taking control of Call of Duty Vanguard's Zombies mode. This is going to be a series first for Call of Duty and it's undoubtedly the right decision.
Every iteration of Call of Duty Zombies is good, but some are better than others and Treyarch's Call of Duty Zombies reign supreme. There's just something about them that makes them superior and Vanguard is set to continue the Dark Aether storyline established by Black Ops Cold War.
World At War, Black Ops, Black Ops II, Black Ops III, and Black Ops IIII all share a Zombies storyline and now, with Black Ops Cold War introducing the Dark Aether... We want to see where Treyarch is going with this storyline and Vanguard seems like the perfect place to do it. We do have concerns about Treyarch zombies on the Modern Warfare engine, as Modern Warfare didn't have a Zombies mode and Warzone's limited-time Zombies modes were less than impressive, but we know Treyarch is going to offer us their best going forwards.