Vanguard’s Campaign Will Create New Franchise Icons
When many of us think about the Call of Duty franchise, our minds often head towards the iconic list of characters that have appeared in numerous single-player campaigns. The likes of Captain Price, Simon “Ghost” Riley, Frank Woods, and Alex Mason have managed to withstand the test of time, being the focal points of the Black Ops and Modern Warfare universes and while those characters still strike a chord with the community, the impending launch of Call of Duty: Vanguard has the potential to add to the long list of franchise icons that have been present in some capacity since 2007.
While the aforementioned characters still hold their place within the Call of Duty universe, there are many that have quickly come and have disappeared into obscurity. As the franchise enters into a new generation, the four protagonists in the Vanguard single-player story have been placed in the perfect position to join the likes of Price and Mason as the most recognisable faces associated with Activision’s flagship franchise.
A Long-Term Vision
Click to enlargeAt a recent panel at the New York Comic-Con, writers of the Vanguard campaign revealed that they’ve got enough material to create multiple sequels to Vanguard’s story, which is ideal to build the foundations of the characters that come complete with a rich backstory and unique personalities that are likely to shine through in certain scenarios throughout the campaign. If sequels to Vanguard get the green light, fans will be seeing a lot more of Kingsley, Petrova, Riggs, and Jackson in the next few years as Task Force One continues to prevent any kind of evil from threatening the world.
If we look back at Captain Price, the enigmatic SAS solider turned leader of Task Force 141, he’s appeared in a total of four Call of Duty titles as an integral part of the single-player story. Fans quickly cottoned on to his no-nonsense attitude and dry sense of humour and since his first appearance in Call of Duty 4, there have been very few characters that left such a lasting impression.
Each of the four characters making their debut in Vanguard has their own agenda and if it’s not achieved by the end of the story, players will be wanting to find out what happens next, setting the scene for the launch of a sequel in a few years’ time.
An All-New Universe
Click to enlargeBlack Ops and Modern Warfare have been the building blocks for Call of Duty over the past decade, with Sledgehammer Games often filling in the cracks with the releases of Advanced Warfare and World War 2. The launch of Vanguard feels like a big step for the franchise as a whole, and what better way to connect the community with the next branch of the tree than with an all-new group of characters that will likely intertwine with the next release being developed by Infinity Ward.
With a third building block joining the foundations of Call of Duty, the release of Vanguard is the perfect chance for the franchise to steer away from Modern Warfare and Black Ops for a couple of years at the very least, giving developers the perfect opportunity to explore other historical settings that have yet to be utilised by the franchise. Does anyone like the sound of a game set in Vietnam? Wherever the next steps will lead, having a core group of characters just like in Black Ops and Modern Warfare is going to play an instrumental role in whether Vanguard’s campaign is deemed a success or a failure.
Does Call Of Duty Need New Icons?
Even though the likes of Captain Price and Frank Woods still resonate within the community, it’s about time that the franchise adds some fresh faces into the equation. There will be some players that have never seen Captain Price in the original Modern Warfare trilogy, only as a character that was heavily involved in the downfall of the first iteration of Verdansk. The same can be said for Woods. Very few will have managed to rescue him from a prisoner of war camp deep in the jungle but will know him from assisting the hunt for the elusive Perseus. A clean slate featuring new personalities alongside a brand-new setting is the ideal scenario for Activision and Sledgehammer Games to build a new generation of icons to steer the franchise into a new era that is less reliant on characters of the past.
As much as I like Captain Price and Mason appearing in a campaign, it has ended up being rather repetitive despite their engaging personalities. With so much detail in the backstories of the Task Force One members, it’s hard not to think that they will be the focal point of the next decade of the franchise as Price, Ghost, and Mason slowly fades away into the background.
