The Beta for Call of Duty Vanguard ran from the 16th till the 22nd of September. Since I have been busy with writing papers, it took me a little longer to gather my thoughts on the Beta.
The entertaining Champion Hill mode (mix of Gunfight and Mini Battle Royale) from the Alpha was also a part of the Beta, but with an additional Solo mode next to Duos and Trios. The real meat and potatoes of the Beta however were the classic Multiplayer modes. Team Deathmatch, Domination, Kill Confirmed, Patrol (capture moving control points) and Search and Destroy were playable in classic 6v6 (Tactical) matches, but also in the new 10v10 (Assault) and 14v14 (Blitz) variations. It is certainly a nice idea, that this new combat pacing system is supposed to allow players to experience their MP in different intensities regarding the player count. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work that well so far. All the maps worked great on 6v6 and some of them even had some entertaining moments on 10v10 matches, even though those were certainly more chaotic than I liked. 14v14 however is just a mess. Maybe some people will enjoy having the 'Shipment' feeling on all regular Multiplayer maps, but I did not.
Overall the Beta definitely did provide a good variety of modes and maps to experience. Talking about the maps, I actually liked them all in the Beta. There is the tropical island map Gavutu (collection of beaches, palms and submarines), the rooftop map Hotel Royal (mix of a hotel/ fancy restaurant and surrounding rooftops), the winter map Red Star (atmospheric winter map in Stalingrad) and the beautiful Eagles Nest map (Axis mansion in the alps). As already mentioned, they all worked great for the 6v6 game modes and I really appreciated that they were all new and unique maps (different to BO4, Black Ops Cold War and MW2019, who remaster/recycle around 50% of their maps...). All of the shown maps were visually pleasing. The maps however still did suffer from some bad spawn locations, like it is the case in nearly every COD game (instant death spawns etc).
Movement and gunplay are nearly unchanged in comparison to the Alpha, which isn't a problem, since they simply remain very enjoyable. What definitely did improve is the visibility on the maps. This was a very noticeable issue during the Alpha (and apparently also during the Closed Beta), but has mostly been resolved in the Open Beta. Enemies are now clearly detectable and there aren't any blur effects while shooting. Footsteps have also become more audible (after being practically not recognizable in the Alpha), but the Audio still suffers from problems. Gunshots in the Alpha were a bit too loud in comparison to other sound effects, which were too quiet. Now in the Beta foot steps are louder (but certainly not too loud), but most other sound effects are a bit too quiet. I however believe this sound issues should definitely be fixable till the release. What also improved are the destructible environments, which did annoy me a little in the Alpha, but they seem to fit the MP maps much more naturally and aren't too many. Their placement does seem pretty balanced.
What however isn't 100 % balanced yet is the Weapon and Field upgrade balance. Some weapons, like most SMGs, so far seem a bit too strong in comparison to a lot of other weapons. The armour plates have been nerfed a bit, but I am still not a fan of them. They just seem a bit unfair and unnecessary in the MP modes. The balance however could definitely still get improved till release. Some COD games have factions in their multiplayer and some don't. In a futuristic setting or something more modern I wouldn't really mind, but in a WW2 setting it is a bit of a letdown to not have Axis and Allies teams consisting of their representative soldiers. There also appeared minor visual glitches during the Beta, but they were rather rare and not too annoying.
Result:
My impression is that Sledgehammer seems to listen to the feedback they are receiving and they are really trying to improve the game. Some of the issues certainly seem unnecessary, but I believe Vanguard is moving in the right direction. Black Ops 4 and Cold War for example had many more issues at the start than Vanguard currently has. Players, who liked WW2 or the newest Modern Warfare will certainly have a good time in Vanguard as well.
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