Call of Duty: Vanguard shows the Stalingrad Summer mission in first gameplay

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Numbers first: one mission, one protagonist, 1942. On August 25, 2021, during Gamescom, Sledgehammer Games showed the first long demo of the Call of Duty: Vanguard campaign. The mission is called Stalingrad Summer and takes place on the Eastern Front, during the German invasion of Stalingrad.

The protagonist of the segment is Polina Petrova, played by Laura Bailey. In the game, she is a Red Army nurse who witnesses the Wehrmacht’s arrival in the city. After an air raid, Polina tries to get home while using her sniper rifle to take out the German patrols combing through the ruins.

Translating the jargon: Vanguard tells the birth of special forces at the end of World War II, with a team assembled from several fronts. The campaign inherits mechanics from Modern Warfare (2019), such as resting the weapon on surfaces, interacting with doors and performing stealth takedowns, and adds blind-fire from behind cover, plus destructible elements that open new paths. It is Sledgehammer’s third Call of Duty, after Advanced Warfare (2014) and WWII (2017).

The reveal had a curious path. Before the official announcement, Polina appeared inside Call of Duty: Warzone, picking off match winners from a distance in the extraction scene. Then came an event in Warzone itself, The Battle of Verdansk, which ended with the reveal trailer being shown.

Launch was set for November 5, 2021, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC. An alpha test would happen that same week, for PlayStation players only, and the beta was set for September.

What came next

The open multiplayer beta reached all platforms in September, with five maps and the new Patrol and Champion Hill modes. Vanguard came out on the planned date and was integrated into Warzone, sharing weapons and operators. Reception, however, was lukewarm: critics praised the fun of the campaign, the multiplayer and the graphics, but criticized the story, the Zombies mode and the lack of new ideas, and sales fell below Activision’s expectations.

Source: Sledgehammer Games.