Lacking personality really, or thats at least the root of the rest of its problems
shrimpmaster0982
There’s a lot wrong with Vanguard zombies and to explain it all would take too long to fit in a reddit comment, but I’ll do my best to sum up some of the biggest complaints.
1. The launch, at launch Vanguard was nigh unplayable with game breaking bugs, a distinct lack of any familiar or staple features such as the ray gun, wonder weapons, round based zombies, the goddamn pause button, etc, and a single map that failed to be anything more than a massive disappointment and disaster.
2. Der Anfang and Terra Maledicta are both non traditional “objective based” maps. Der Anfang is literally just Stalingrad from the MP with an admittedly cool new skin over it. And features gameplay that would be best compared to Outbreak in that in order to advance through the rounds one must complete a series of objectives to open up the map and advance the round. It has no Easter Eggs, no wonder weapon other than the ray gun which was added I believe a month after launch, and no real innovation or unique qualities. And Terra Maledicta is just a bigger version of Der Anfang with a distinctly less cool looking backdrop, an actual wonder weapon and Easter Egg too.
3. Round based zombies in this game released in season 5 of the 6 season cycle of this game with a stunningly brilliant and innovative new map called Shi no Numa /s. Jokes aside Shi no Numa is just a remake of the old Shi no Numa that fans are familiar with and imo is an improvement on the original that gave us hope for what would come next. Unfortunately what came next was The Archeon, a no shit 1 for 1 copy paste of Terra Maledicta with round based gameplay, a different EE (that has no actual ending btw), and a green filter over top of it. It was lazy, unfinished, and unsatisfying in the eyes of most of the community. And that was the end.
4. The mechanics of Vanguard are rather similar to that of Cold War, you can spawn with any gun you want, there’s no perk limit, there’s a tiered pack a punch system, and operators and field upgrades make a return. But they made some key important changes that I feel drug the mechanics down. First they removed weapon rarity tiers, meaning base guns become obsoletscent faster than an old IPhone. Second there’s a grand total of 5 perks in the game, the OG 4 plus Stamina Up that require 5 upgrade tiers at increasing price points that total up to a bit over 20K to upgrade a perk to max level providing nothing but static number buffs. And third they forgot to actually make it a challenge or a process at all to unlock pack a punch with it often being in the spawn or just a few doors away from it. And finally they took away all the fun killstreaks of CW and just put in the war and death machine and that’s it.
Kanj0Bazooie
It tried to cater completely to the audience that only liked Cold War Zombies for Outbreak, while also being *worse* then Outbreak in more ways then it was better. We would have to wait for half the games entire life cycle to get a proper round based map/good content in general, and while it was good, it was also just Shi No Numa (The Archon was… eh). With only two round based maps and two objective based experiences, there’s a fair argument this is even less content then **World at War** had.
It also had a piss poor launch, you being unable to pause the game in solo matches for an unreasonably long time. It also didn’t launch with any major EE’s, you can tell that Treyarch’s B Team was forced to work on this because Activision figured that we had to have Zombies that year. Hopefully MW3 Zombies won’t be like that. Gameplay wise, it’s using Cold War’s formula, so if you like that, you *might* enjoy this in 2023. As is, however, I wouldn’t buy it at all unless it’s on sale
Manuel_Torni01
bad gameplay
ThunderCheerio
At lunch is was outbreak lite. Do dumb objectives to progress the round. It wasn’t fun. Then they added Shi no Numa which was fine and the EE was fun but nothing special. When the next round based map dropped it was just the same map as previously released just with the classic round based setup as opposed to the outbreak setup.
So you got 2 new outbreak lite maps, 1 remake, and 1 round based on an outbreak lite map. It just wasn’t great. Functionally it was fine. But this game could have done without zombies. Vanguard as a whole is a wash.
EliteTanker
Basically think of everything you’ve grown to love about zombies. Now take it all away. Bang, you got Vanguard
roncopenhaver13
My two complaints are based in the way the game was coded maybe?
While the game made online connections before, it treats literally every game like a live online multiplayer game. This is why the pause was unavailable at the beginning and correct me if I’m wrong, but it has a cap on how long it can be paused on the server side even once they got it working.
Splitscreen is unavailable for reasons I’m not even clear on. It wasn’t available originally I’m guessing due to the whole multiplayer server aspect. Then it got working, but it was busted AF. You had to know the UI, because none of the text would show. Then they turned it off and it’s never returned. All the while you can splitscreen multiplayer to your heart’s content, and have a more competent menu experience than prior games.
MarioVX
Just talking zombies:
I initially liked the mode in this installment, the rogue-like elements where a nice new mechanic. However, two things started to annoy me quite early on and then more and more to the point of becoming insufferable:
1) All character dialogue is SUPER annoying. It’s extremely repetitive and often feels out of place. Nobody is taking the situation seriously, it’s just obnoxiously campy.
2) XP system is intransparent and seems to punish rather than reward you for surviving to higher rounds.
2 was also my main grudge in BOCW even though that’s overall my favourite zombies of all time, the core gameplay was just so freaking satisfying and crisp it didn’t matter to me if my XP gain was slow due to pushing unnecessarily high rounds and getting punished for that. But Vanguard feels more slow, unresponsive, sluggish. There wasn’t enough variety in locations and objectives at launch either, and barely a story. With no incentive for seeking and mastering the challenge, the game expects you to repeat short matches an absurd number of times to super slowly level your operators and weapons.
Played a lot for a few days then couldn’t stand the fucking dialogue anymore and quit, haven’t returned since.
MrPinkCuck
It fails at being a game on a fundamental level. Even when it does work, the content that’s there is fucking abysmal, hella boring, and not worth playing.
fyzorr
Not going into detail, but it was essentially a cash grab. They saw the popularity that cold war brought in and tried to replicate it, and in the process forgot what made zombies fun. It was boring and just like bo4 they tried too hard to reinvent zombies that it just sucked.
11 Comments
Lacking personality really, or thats at least the root of the rest of its problems
There’s a lot wrong with Vanguard zombies and to explain it all would take too long to fit in a reddit comment, but I’ll do my best to sum up some of the biggest complaints.
1. The launch, at launch Vanguard was nigh unplayable with game breaking bugs, a distinct lack of any familiar or staple features such as the ray gun, wonder weapons, round based zombies, the goddamn pause button, etc, and a single map that failed to be anything more than a massive disappointment and disaster.
2. Der Anfang and Terra Maledicta are both non traditional “objective based” maps. Der Anfang is literally just Stalingrad from the MP with an admittedly cool new skin over it. And features gameplay that would be best compared to Outbreak in that in order to advance through the rounds one must complete a series of objectives to open up the map and advance the round. It has no Easter Eggs, no wonder weapon other than the ray gun which was added I believe a month after launch, and no real innovation or unique qualities. And Terra Maledicta is just a bigger version of Der Anfang with a distinctly less cool looking backdrop, an actual wonder weapon and Easter Egg too.
3. Round based zombies in this game released in season 5 of the 6 season cycle of this game with a stunningly brilliant and innovative new map called Shi no Numa /s. Jokes aside Shi no Numa is just a remake of the old Shi no Numa that fans are familiar with and imo is an improvement on the original that gave us hope for what would come next. Unfortunately what came next was The Archeon, a no shit 1 for 1 copy paste of Terra Maledicta with round based gameplay, a different EE (that has no actual ending btw), and a green filter over top of it. It was lazy, unfinished, and unsatisfying in the eyes of most of the community. And that was the end.
4. The mechanics of Vanguard are rather similar to that of Cold War, you can spawn with any gun you want, there’s no perk limit, there’s a tiered pack a punch system, and operators and field upgrades make a return. But they made some key important changes that I feel drug the mechanics down. First they removed weapon rarity tiers, meaning base guns become obsoletscent faster than an old IPhone. Second there’s a grand total of 5 perks in the game, the OG 4 plus Stamina Up that require 5 upgrade tiers at increasing price points that total up to a bit over 20K to upgrade a perk to max level providing nothing but static number buffs. And third they forgot to actually make it a challenge or a process at all to unlock pack a punch with it often being in the spawn or just a few doors away from it. And finally they took away all the fun killstreaks of CW and just put in the war and death machine and that’s it.
It tried to cater completely to the audience that only liked Cold War Zombies for Outbreak, while also being *worse* then Outbreak in more ways then it was better. We would have to wait for half the games entire life cycle to get a proper round based map/good content in general, and while it was good, it was also just Shi No Numa (The Archon was… eh). With only two round based maps and two objective based experiences, there’s a fair argument this is even less content then **World at War** had.
It also had a piss poor launch, you being unable to pause the game in solo matches for an unreasonably long time. It also didn’t launch with any major EE’s, you can tell that Treyarch’s B Team was forced to work on this because Activision figured that we had to have Zombies that year. Hopefully MW3 Zombies won’t be like that. Gameplay wise, it’s using Cold War’s formula, so if you like that, you *might* enjoy this in 2023. As is, however, I wouldn’t buy it at all unless it’s on sale
bad gameplay
At lunch is was outbreak lite. Do dumb objectives to progress the round. It wasn’t fun. Then they added Shi no Numa which was fine and the EE was fun but nothing special. When the next round based map dropped it was just the same map as previously released just with the classic round based setup as opposed to the outbreak setup.
So you got 2 new outbreak lite maps, 1 remake, and 1 round based on an outbreak lite map. It just wasn’t great. Functionally it was fine. But this game could have done without zombies. Vanguard as a whole is a wash.
Basically think of everything you’ve grown to love about zombies. Now take it all away. Bang, you got Vanguard
My two complaints are based in the way the game was coded maybe?
While the game made online connections before, it treats literally every game like a live online multiplayer game. This is why the pause was unavailable at the beginning and correct me if I’m wrong, but it has a cap on how long it can be paused on the server side even once they got it working.
Splitscreen is unavailable for reasons I’m not even clear on. It wasn’t available originally I’m guessing due to the whole multiplayer server aspect. Then it got working, but it was busted AF. You had to know the UI, because none of the text would show. Then they turned it off and it’s never returned. All the while you can splitscreen multiplayer to your heart’s content, and have a more competent menu experience than prior games.
Just talking zombies:
I initially liked the mode in this installment, the rogue-like elements where a nice new mechanic. However, two things started to annoy me quite early on and then more and more to the point of becoming insufferable:
1) All character dialogue is SUPER annoying. It’s extremely repetitive and often feels out of place. Nobody is taking the situation seriously, it’s just obnoxiously campy.
2) XP system is intransparent and seems to punish rather than reward you for surviving to higher rounds.
2 was also my main grudge in BOCW even though that’s overall my favourite zombies of all time, the core gameplay was just so freaking satisfying and crisp it didn’t matter to me if my XP gain was slow due to pushing unnecessarily high rounds and getting punished for that. But Vanguard feels more slow, unresponsive, sluggish. There wasn’t enough variety in locations and objectives at launch either, and barely a story. With no incentive for seeking and mastering the challenge, the game expects you to repeat short matches an absurd number of times to super slowly level your operators and weapons.
Played a lot for a few days then couldn’t stand the fucking dialogue anymore and quit, haven’t returned since.
It fails at being a game on a fundamental level. Even when it does work, the content that’s there is fucking abysmal, hella boring, and not worth playing.
Not going into detail, but it was essentially a cash grab. They saw the popularity that cold war brought in and tried to replicate it, and in the process forgot what made zombies fun. It was boring and just like bo4 they tried too hard to reinvent zombies that it just sucked.
Does this even need to be asked?