Call of Duty Vanguard Released; Five Outstanding CoD Mods From Across the Franchise feature

The next annual Call of Duty, Vanguard, has just been released, taking the franchise back into World War II with the same technology that powered Modern Warfare 2019 and Black Ops: Cold War’s outings. It’s always worth respecting the classics, though, so here’s five solid Call of Duty mods from its earliest days worth a go even now!

Fall of Berlin

By FeReise

World at War joins the trifecta of widely-loved Call of Duty campaigns (alongside Black Ops and Modern Warfare), standing out from the rest of its peers where the singleplayer offering often plays like an afterthought. Nevertheless, all these years later, there’s plenty of room to refine the already solid formula in those games, and this modder took to some of the most popular missions from World at War’s campaign to do just that. Featuring new weapons, weapon rebalancing, and models, as well as updated encounters and setpieces, Fall of Berlin raises the stakes of the action and gives veterans another reason to revisit the warfront.

Call of Duty 2: Frontline

By BrandonDR

Call of Duty was one of the more successful franchises to come out of the World War II shooter phase, with many other games and IPs cropping up only to release one or two entries before getting buried. Medal of Honour is another series that, whilst lacking the staying power of CoD, has a handful of quality titles to its name. This mod for Call of Duty’s second outing remakes a portion of Medal of Honour’s fourth release, Frontline, and brings with it new levels and secrets. If you’re a fan of both games, you’ll find a lot of entertainment in seeing how this modder does a great job remaking one of Call of Duty’s contemporaries in its own engine.

Rooftops Campaign

By Spi-Hamentsios10

CoD 4 Modern Warfare is an iconic shooter in the genre as a whole, a real heavy-hitter that was the culmination of Infinity Ward’s desire to make a modern shooter for years. It’s no surprise it remains a favourite for the community and stirs up nostalgia in anyone old enough to have played it on release. This mini campaign gives you ample reason to return to the game no matter how long its been since you last booted it up, bringing in four new missions full of greatly refined sequences, enhanced combat, and adjusted mechanics.

Black Ops 1 Zombies Reimagined

By Jbleezy

Beginning with World at War, Call of Duty’s zombie modes are almost as essential to the franchise as its multiplayer offering. Each new Zombies innovation from Treyarch is the subject of huge discourse in the community and even the other studios under the CoD brand have made their own takes on the concept (with mixed results). Black Ops 1’s additions to the formula and general design would quite firmly define what was to be expected from the next two entries in the series, and was not an afterthought like World at War’s initial releases. This mod pays homage to the huge leap forwards taken by Black Ops 1 and brings in new weapons, adjusted balance, and mechanics inspired by later installments in the Zombies continuity to entice even the most diehard veterans of CoD’s zombie modes.

Back2Fronts

By MCh2207Cz

One of the most impressive mods on this list, it deserves to be cut right to the chase - Back2Fronts overhauls CoD2 to previously unheard of heights, bringing in lots of custom weapons, new missions, new encounters, new enemies and tactics in gameplay, with revised vehicle mechanics and a particular emphasis on the singleplayer (though multiplayer is supported too). Call of Duty 2 already was a big step up from its predecessor, but this mod blows it out of the water altogether.

Solid Masonry

Vanguard is the next in the annual lineup of Call of Duty games, following on from Black Ops Cold War last year. It takes the franchise back into World War 2 in the twilight period of the conflict, placing emphasis on a secret project designed to rekindle the Nazi war effort. It utilises the same engine and broad set of mechanics introduced two years prior by Modern Warfare (2019), which is a big leap for the franchise as a whole that Activision seem committed to take advantage of.

The Price of War

Vanguard offers the usual spread of features from a modern CoD, including a battle pass, new features to the battle royale Warzone mode, and a campaign. One of the major differences is the addition of a zombie mode developed alongside Treyarch, which marks the first time Treyarch’s zombie formula has been directly adapted into a CoD game (it usually falls to the studio whose turn it is to whip up another entry in the Zombies lineup).

The More Things Change..

Vanguard continues the tradition established with Modern Warfare of more deeply interwoven games, with crossplay being supported across some modes and each game being used to help market the next. The game comes at a time when Activision is still subject to scrutiny regarding the Activision-Blizzard controversy, and many are waiting to see the impact this case has on the game’s performance.

Activision has been making moves to tackle some of the issues and allegations brought against Activision-Blizzard, but as the winds of change churn, some habits like the annual CoD are determined to die hard. Vanguard will have its time in the spotlight, but we’ll likely see teasing and rumours surrounding the next entry in the series by early 2022 as Activision gear up once more for a big release.