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Why Call of Duty: Vanguard Failed: Vanguard's Low Sales and Poor Performance Explained


Vanguard Bugs, Glitches, and Issues 6
Credit: Activision

Call of Duty" Vanguard didn't have much hype leading up to its release, and in the months since the game came out, fewer and fewer players boot up the game. The situation is not getting better with Activision rumored to launch the next Call of Duty in October because of how poorly Vanguard performed. In this article, we'll let you know why Call of Duty: Vanguard failed: Vanguard's low sales and poor performance explained.

Vanguard Bugs, Glitches, and Issues

Vanguard Bugs, Glitches, and Issues
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Credit: Activision

The last few Call of Duty games have launched in rocky states, and Warzone seems to be in a perpetual state of disrepair. Call of Duty games weren't always like this. This isn't to say older games were perfect, they weren't, but Call of Duty games in the past while they may have had rockier netcode and less stable connections, generally the games worked outside of the very occasional strange issue that might crop out.

Vanguard has been rocked by aim assist issues, interface and menu bugs, broken attachments, weapons, and guns, tons of audio glitches, and what feels like a perpetual and fundamental problem with spawns. These are only a few of the issues that have cropped up over the course of Vanguard's lifetime.

Related: Top Changes Fans Want in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)

Things are better than they once were for Vanguard, but the problems are not gone, and the constant buggy issues with modern Call of Duty games continue to frustrate players.

Vanguard's Lackluster New Features

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Credit: Activision

Vanguard hasn't introduced major changes, and the new things it does bring often come with major issues themselves. For example, destruction. Destructible objects on maps are often glitchy, not breaking reliably or messing with aim assist or displaying enemy names through destroyable objects.

Then, there's Combat Pacing, which sounds like a cool way to set the pace of gameplay for yourself depending on your preferences. Sometimes, it works like that, but often you'll queue for a certain pacing and get placed into a different pacing, and many maps and modes break under the weight of so many players and problems with spawn logic.

Related: SBMM Will Change in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)

More customization when it comes to weapons and operators sounds great, but what it meant was a ton of grinding, and camo challenges to this day still have issues being properly counted, which is perpetually frustrating.

Not only are the new features of Vanguard usually iterative and not very exciting, they still have serious issues that can impact the overall gameplay experience.

Spawns in Vanguard

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Credit: Activision

We've mentioned the above problems with spawning in Vanguard, and these problems are serious, but it's unclear exactly why spawns are so broken, to what extent there are bugs and the spawns need tuning and to what extent the fundamental spawn logic is flawed.

The problem, though, is that spawns in Vanguard regularly place you in front of enemies or in front of incoming bullets such that spawn traps can feel inevitable, and on small maps, regularly the entire match can break down as spawns bug out and your entire team continually spawns in front of enemies shooting at them.

Related: Treyarch's Free-to-Play Call of Duty 2023 Could Be an Esports Valorant/CS:GO Competitor

The theory is that like Modern Warfare (2019), Vanguard opts to spawn players in close proximity to teammates, even if enemies are nearby, rather than spawning in players based off of how close enemies are, which is how traditional spawns work in Call of Duty.

Spawns that work in the context of squads don't work in Call of Duty, and they aren't working in Vanguard.

Vanguard Zombies

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Credit: Activision

Fans do not like Zombies in Vanguard. The main problem is that Treyarch launched Vanguard with a new spin on the Zombies formula akin to the open-world Zombies modes of Black Ops Cold War. This is an issue because, like with Cold War, fans want the bread and butter of a Zombies mode to be traditional, round-based content.

Related: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)'s New Open-World Spec Ops Replacement DMZ Mode Explained

People generally agree new modes and spins on the Zombies formula are cool and worth having in Call of Duty games, but this content needs to be supported by a foundation of the classic content people boot up Zombies to actually enjoy.

Vanguard doesn't have much of that content, and people haven't fallen in love with the new content. Accordingly, Zombies in Vanguard is mostly written off by fans as a curiosity to mess around with when bored or something to grind for camos, not a mode to play seriously or for much fun.

Audio and Visual Problems in Vanguard

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Credit: Activision

Footsteps in Vanguard aren't too loud, no, they're often too quiet, or they're difficult to make out through all the noise, making Vanguard's audio mix a lot less clear and detailed than Black ops Cold War's mix.

Related: Call of Duty: Warzone 2 Everything You Need to Know: Release Date, Gameplay Details, Maps, and More

Plus, unfortunately, guns in Vanguard sound thin and hollow, high-pitched like toys or arcade guns. They completely lack the devastating realism of Modern Warfare (2019) weapons and the bassy heft of Cold War's guns. Unfortunately, they just don't sound very good.

Visually, sometimes it can be hard to stay on target. There's lots of smoke and muzzle flash, and maps oftentimes are hazy, smoky, or otherwise have an environment where players blend into the scenery, so it can be hard to keep your shots on your target when otherwise it might be easy.

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