What I want from Vanguard Zombies

I, previously, talked about Cold War and the reveal leading up to the game’s launch. Although the next game has not been officially confirmed, we do know a lot about it.

For those that aren’t in the know, the next Call of Duty is rumored to be named Call of Duty: Vanguard.

It has been up to debate whether Sledgehammer Games’ next entry will contain a zombies mode and that is still the case, sort of. You see, we know from confirmations and from the recent quarterly meeting that the next Call of Duty will include a cooperative experience.

Yes, that could mean something different than zombies. Perhaps it will just be survival or spec ops. However, it seems more likely that Sledgehammer and Activision would like to continue with the zombies mode because Cold War was well received even though it had a rough crunch time. This points us in the direction to believe that Sledgehammer, which have always had a zombies mode, will continue with their next zombies entry.

Now that I have done the background, let’s discus what I want to see in this next game.

Cold War Similarities

First off, I believe that the next mode in Vanguard will likely lean heavily into what Treyarch created with Cold War. Black Ops: Cold War made a lot of changes in zombies’ gameplay and with the time crunch that Sledgehammer is forced into, I believe they will use a similar gameplay loop.

Another piece of evidence that could reinforce this is a rumor, from two or three months ago, that a few of Treyarch’s developers are helping Sledgehammer with their next game. This is not uncommon. In fact, many different studios have been known to help out with whatever the next Call of Duty entry is. We know this with Sledgehammer and Raven Software’s involvement in Black Ops: Cold War from last year. (Another Side Note: I am impressed that we even got a proper Call of Duty game last year after the terrible time crunch that was thrown on all of the teams.)

Basically, this evidence doesn’t point to there being similarities between Cold War zombies and Vanguard’s next mode, but I believe that the popularity of the latest zombies gameplay loop would lean towards Sledgehammer wanting to replicate it.

Pack-A-Punch Changes

So, I just talked about how I believe we will see something similar to Cold War for Vanguard’s zombie mode. However, that does not mean that the mode could not be improved. Even though I highly support Cold War Zombies gameplay, I still think there are some improvements to be made.

First off, I would love from some more work to be done with Pack-a-Punch. I feel like Treyarch has still only tapped into the potential of making your gun stronger within the game. Some players may believe this to be too hand-holdy, but being able to find a gun and make any weapon stronger is a rush that fuels gamers.

However, I believe that there must always be a cap on how strong you can make your weapon because the game needs risk. Otherwise, you’ll lose interest.

Yet, I think that there should be more that you can do to make your weapon stronger. Perhaps after upgrading it to the max you unlock a secondary AAT (Alternate Ammo Type) or a special ability based on your weapon’s class. This would make players run to get the strongest weapon and have them trying out different weapon combinations.

Perk Changes

Next there is the perks. I love the perk system in Cold War, but again I think that we can go further!

What if, on top of your perk tiers that you upgrade, you could unlock specific tiers that mix two perks together.

Okay, that may sound confusing. What I am suggesting is that after upgrading two of your perks to a certain tier, perhaps even the highest tier, you are given the chance to try blending two perk-a-colas together to get a special affect. Maybe something like Quick Revive and Juggernog would give you and the person you revived armor after getting them up.

Naturally, this would need to be balanced as well and you would do that by forcing the player to make a choice and have them chose at that top tier which perks they would want to mix with their recently upgraded one. For example, you could choose Stamin-up and Juggernog, or you could choose Stamin-Up and Speed Cola. However, you can only chose one of those two from your Stamin-Up upgrade.

And you would only receive the ability of their mix when you have purchased both perks that game.

This is another gameplay addition that would make players think about their choices and how they want to prepare to enter the Outbreak Zone.

Armor and Weapon Rarity

I want to briefly touch on Armor and Weapon Rarity. I am a huge fan of this addition in Cold War and I want to see it added to Vanguard zombies. Personally, I don’t see how you could change this without breaking its balance. So, I would want Vanguard to have it implemented in the exact same system in their zombies entry.

Story Changes

So, we don’t know anything about the zombies story for Vanguard. This is obvious because we don’t know much about the mode entirely. However, there are some improvements I want for Vanguard to implement in order to distinguish itself from Cold War Zombies.

Firstly, I don’t want to play as operators. I understand that this is something that most people have an issue with in Cold War. However, I do think that the four characters of a map are important because they help create the atmosphere that you are trying to create and provide background to the story of a map.

Think about Five. The first thing that you probably thought about was JFK, Nixon, Castro, and McNamara. The characters are important for the team to help convey the team’s story for a map or their planned story arch.

Next, I do like the intel system. I hope that Vanguard can keep this in the game as well because it makes it so much easier to hear radios and it brings accessibility to the story. This is something you need if you plan on telling a successful plot to all players.

Overall, I am genuinely excited for this next zombies mode, if we get one. Although WW2 was not my favorite zombies game, I still want to see the mode continue forward in future Call of Duty titles. This is my own wish list of what I would like to see added or improved on within the mode. Perhaps you disagree and that is okay. It just shows that we are all passionate about the future of this mode. I hope that Vanguard is a well received zombies entry and helps us push the limits of the series.

What do you think? What do you want from Call of Duty: Vanguard?

Comment below!

~Seppin