Call of Duty®: Vanguard Campaign Detailed — A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Single-Player Experience (2024)

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How does a top-secret international Special Forces team come together to stop a Nazi resurgence as World War II comes to an end? And what is happening at Sledgehammer Games to help tell that story? This is what you need to know about the Call of Duty: Vanguard Campaign.

October 11, 2021

by James Mattone and Daniel Noel

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Call of Duty: Vanguard is not just about World War II — it is how the world as we knew it could have been destroyed after it.

Call of Duty’s legacy, through several of its games, is entrenched in World War II. Sledgehammer Games, the lead studio for Vanguard, had its own perspective of the war through Call of Duty®: WWII in 2017.

In Vanguard, although most of the missions take place in a conflict whose story is told on multiple fronts, they reflect how five ordinary soldiers became heroes, ultimately resulting in what the game’s Campaign is all about — The origins of the original Special Forces — Task Force One — stopping what could have destroyed the world long after the war was over.

The Rise of Special Forces from Every Front

The game begins at its climax: as a newly recruited Operator within the budding Task Force One, you are en route to a heavily fortified U-boat facility. There, you must infiltrate the complex and obtain vital Axis military intelligence — stemming from something code-named Project Phoenix — before it is smuggled out of Germany.

Your squadmates are five soldiers whose individual actions helped turn the tide of World War II across four major fronts: Private Lucas Riggs in the North Africa Campaign, Lieutenant Wade Jackson from the Pacific, Lieutenant Polina Petrova who defended her home country on the Eastern Front, and your leader: Sergeant Arthur Kingsley of the British Army’s 9th Parachute Battalion.

ThroughVanguard’s Campaign, you will live out the moments that made them heroes and learn how they came together to spearhead Task Force One. You will also get to know the concept of international “Special Forces,” and ultimately, what brings them face-to-face with the man who is spearheading Project Phoenix: the ruthless Nazi Officer Hermann Wenzel Freisinger.

Behind the Scenes of Vanguard’s Campaign

In addition to Vanguard’s Campaign reveal today, Sledgehammer Games gave a glimpse into their studio — also on multiple fronts, with locations across the United States, Canada, and Australia — and what they are doing to tell this original story based in World War II.

After retelling some of the familiar moments of World War II — Normandy and the actions of the United States’ “fighting” 1st Infantry Division — in 2017, Sledgehammer was ready to return to this pivotal global conflict with a broader perspective. When speaking to their historical advisor about the Vanguard storyline, the concept of massive tide-turning battles took hold, battles that shifted the direction of the war and that took place around the globe.

“You had battles happening on the snowy landscapes of Stalingrad, over the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, and in North Africa,” said David Swenson,Vanguard’s Campaign Creative Director.

And though tens of millions were involved in the war effort, individual actions still accounted for major contributions. “We’ve got the backdrop of these epic battles in diverse locations,” Swenson said, “but we’re also focusing on the personal stories of those who fought in World War II. These are the stories we want to tell.”

Those individual stories are the Operators who ultimately make up Task Force One — and for one of them, Polina Petrova,we got a glimpse of it earlier in September at Gamescom.

She, like other characters in the game’s Campaign, drew inspiration from those who fought in World War II. Petrova is based on several female Soviet snipers whose confirmed kill count was in the hundreds. “Famous amongst her people and infamous amongst the Germans,” Swenson said, when speaking to one of Petrova’s inspirations, “she is to this day the most successful female sniper in history.”

In taking on the stories of these characters, Sledgehammer Games employed a diverse group of writers, each with their own skill set and perspective on the war.

“In doing a story on World War II,” Narrative Lead Stephen Rhodes said, “a place that’s been well trodden in video games, and using that history and that pivotal moment in time as a springboard to tell unique, interesting stories is one of the most excited parts of theVanguardcampaign.”

“In World War II,” Associate Narrative Designer Belinda Garcia said, “you assume that it’s always on the front lines and I think what our narrative does really well is show that the war was fought everywhere. It was fought in civilian places, and it affected people at home. It affected their loved ones, and it affected all these people that may not have wanted to play a part in the war but had to.”

Narrative Designer Alexa Ray Corriea also reflected on the team’s commitment to the game’s characters, citing a mission that wasn’t quite right until a rewrite session turned into a memorable moment during the game’s development:

“A bunch of us sat down to rewrite the mission, and over the development process, we all sort of ended up owning a character. We’re almost role playing the level as we’re going through it, and we came up with a much stronger script.”

“This team is really something special.”

More Campaign Intel to Come

As Vanguard approaches its worldwide release on November 5, the Call of Duty Blog is stockpiling all the intel you need to know about it.

Stay connected to the blog — via the @Activision, @CallofDuty, and @SHGames accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook — to get a closer look at Treyarch’s next chapter of Zombies, preload and PC specifications, and more intel on everything Vanguard.

That includes getting to know each of Vanguard’s five main characters in detail — later today, come back to the Call of Duty blog for what you need to know about Arthur Kingsley, Wade Jackson, Polina Petrova, Lucas Riggs, and more.

In addition to the Call of Duty Blog, follow Sledgehammer Games’ Blog for Call of Duty: Vanguard announcements and information straight from the lead development studio.

Preorders at participating retailers are available now, or at CallofDuty.com.

Rise on every front.

For more information on Call of Duty®: Vanguard, check out www.callofduty.com and www.youtube.com/callofduty and follow @SHGames, @Treyarch, @RavenSoftware, and @CallofDuty on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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