Vanguard had it’s alpha over the weekend and while I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time with it, I did have some thoughts and impressions on it. There’s a handful of things that I wanted to go through and some are, well, intersting. I’m trying not to be too harsh because it is an alpha build of the game and most likely things will change based on feedback and data derived from the event. I’m not going to say much for weapons as those will most likely be rebalanced and adjusted not just before launch but also for the upcoming beta weekends. Keep in mind I played on a PS4 Pro with a mouse and keyboard.

So let’s start with the settings screen. A few things of interest to note:

• It’s running on IW 8, the Modern Warfare 2019 Engine.

This is fantastic to see. One of Cold War’s biggest flaws and most glaring issues is that it’s running on the previous Treyarch version of the engine. That engine carries about as much technical debt as Windows. Sure the game does look nice but so much extra stuff has been bolted on (raytracing in this case) and removed coughjetpackscough that the optimization of that engine has kind of gone to shit. The lighting in IW8 is much better and while the alpha was a little dark, this most likely will be tweaked. It is also possible that’s just the way the map for Champion Hill looks and the multiplayer maps will be better lit.

• Multi factor authentication is suggested right off the bat.

This is a great start but I’d like for Activision to take it one step further and require it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people on reddit post in both the Cold War and Modern Warfare 2019 subreddits that they’ve suddenly been asked to log in to their Activision/Call of Duty account only to realize they’ve been hacked and lost their purchases. Maybe for me it didn’t require it because mine has been set up for a while now. Would love some clarification on this.

• There’s now a camera shake setting.

I know some people weren’t a fan of how much screen shake there was in MW2019 so adding this shows Sledgehammer Games is listening. It’s a nice to have and a quality of life addition for sure.

• Killstreak music

The only killstreak I used during the alpha was the UAV or whatever they called it and it had no music. Curious to see how this setting behaves outside of something like a Juggernaut.

• Location marker pings.

This was in the settings but I wonder if this is for markings as in Cold War’s multiplayer where they replaced mounting with this or if this is a Warzone specific setting that has to be baked into the base game. It didn’t even occur to me to try it in the alpha as the maps were so tiny they were’t needed. There were settings that could have been for Warzone specific things in the options menu. The multiplayer markings are one of Cold war’s better features and I wouldn’t mind them returning. It makes things way easier to point out.

• Movement felt good, but not great.

It felt much better than Cold War but it still had some stiffness to it. It didn’t feel anywhere near as fast and smooth as MW2019. Movement was one of MW2019’s best features and I feel like I can run and slide around the map quickly and smoothly and transition in and out of tac sprint and slides into regular movement with ease. That wasn’t the feeling I got here and that was one of the biggest disappointments for me. Sliding felt similar. It just felt slow and heavy and not quite as polished.

• There’s definitely some visibility issues but they aren’t what you think.

I know there was mention of draw distance issues over the weekend but I didn’t really experience them. For me it was more of clutter issue. Visibility on the map was generally fine except that I felt like there was just so much random stuff in the way it made it hard to find the enemy on what was supposed to be a small map. I would love to see Sledge maybe dial that back a little like Treyarch eventually dialed the bushes on Cartel back in Cold War. I feel like they were tying way too hard to show off the new map destruction and just over did it. That said, if I spotted a player in the open I had no issue seeing them at all.

• The destructible environments are kinda cool

Speaking of, that was probably the most interting thing in the alpha overall. It’s no where near the full blown “take the annoying sniper in the building out by bringing the building down on him” that Battlefield has but I can definitely see the impact this will have on traditional 6v6 multiplayer and Warzone. In one of the arenas it gave a nice bit of cover to get into a potentially better position at the match start and then let it get wrecked behind you, taking away cover from the opposing team. Holes in the wall gave me opportunities to spot opposing players before they even thought to look for me.

• Generally speaking, weapons felt good but they’ll definitely be tweaked.

I only really used a handful of weapons and didn’t use them upgraded too much but the MP-40 and the STG-44 felt good while the BAR felt more like an LMG, which isn’t to my taste. This is one of those things that I’m sure will change.

Otherwise it seems like Vanguard is off to a promising start and it seems like Sledgehammer is already adjusting things from the feedback over the weekend. I feel like they’re definitely trying to strike some kind of balance between Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Time to kill was fast but didn’t feel as fast as MW2019 yet no where near the bullet sponges of Cold War. Looking forward to the beta and seeing what traditional multiplayer is going to feel like in addition to their take on the Gunsmith and the rest of the new features IW 8 brings with it. I also can’t wait to try it out on a PC with native keyboard and mouse support. For some reason, even though it’s supported in game on the console, it always feels a little off on these alphas.

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