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Although Call of Duty: Vanguard is yet another World War II-set Call of Duty, its ending probably has one of the most important revelations in the history of the series, as it features direct connections to Call of Duty: Black Ops. Call of Duty: Vanguard follows a group of special-ops soldiers who end up being captured by a group of Nazis after invading a sub pen. The group was attempting to learn more about a project known as Project Phoenix but was caught as they were about to uncover more information.
[Major spoilers for Call of Duty: Vanguard follow below.]
Call of Duty: Vanguard is an alternate history WWII story, but it doesn't dramatically change the course of history. Most of the game's missions are flashbacks to major WWII battles like Midway, D-Day, and Stalingrad, as the group is held in captivity for much of the game's story. The structure of the game revolves around flashback missions where the player learns about the origins of each playable character, including British paratrooper Arthur Kinglsey, ANZAC soldier Lucas Riggs, and the Soviet sniper, Polina Petrova. These actual missions don't advance the plot that much, and are instead present to flesh out the characters featured in Vanguard's spec-ops group.
Just as players are about to beat Call of Duty: Vanguard's campaign, there's a cutscene that continues the story that's ongoing in the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. The group is being interrogated by Jannick Richter, a Nazi officer who reports directly to Hermann Freisinger, who is in charge of Project Phoenix. Freisinger makes it clear that if Richter doesn't succeed in prying any useful information out of Vanguard, he will kill the officer. This makes it pretty easy for Vanguard to manipulate Richter with misinformation and lets them stall for time.
Ultimately, in between the interrogations, both Richter and Freisinger receive news that Hitler has taken his own life. Freisinger seems to take it in stride and begins executing Nazis out of the Gestapo headquarters, but he doesn't elaborate as to why. Richter eventually finds a room of dead bodies, leading him to realize Freisinger is staging some sort of a coup.
By the end of the Call of Duty: Vanguard campaign, as the Third Reich collapses, Freisinger becomes the new Führer of its successor, the aptly titled Fourth Reich. He notes to a number of close allies that the group has found safe passage out of Berlin and will be able to escape from the city unscathed. Freisinger speaks poorly of Hitler, but it's not clear if Project Phoenix would've been executed had he not killed himself.
As this is happening, Vanguard escapes from the Gestapo HQ and Arthur kills Richter. Knowing Freisinger is looking to escape, they chase him throughout the city both via car and on foot. The final level of the game allows the player to play as all four protagonists, resulting in a number of stylish moments of unity between the squad. Freisinger eventually makes it to an airstrip, but isn't able to board the plane before Arthur tackles him to the ground.
As Riggs notes, CoD: Vanguard's Freisinger has valuable intel and could prove valuable to the Allies, but the Führer talks himself into his own grave. Freisinger notes that if he is taken in, he can strike a deal with the allies in exchange for his information. It'll allow him to walk free and maybe start a new life in the USA. Responding to this, Polina throws him against some barrels and stabs them, causing gasoline to cascade over Freisinger. She hands Arthur a lighter that she took off of Richter's body, allowing him to set the slimy Nazi leader ablaze.
Vanguard then boards Freisinger's would-be escape plane. They find a box that they had found on the submarine at the start of the game and find that it contains files on covert Nazi operations in Antarctica and South America. In real life, hundreds of Nazis are said to have fled Europe following the end of the War, and the idea that they may have continued their work in secret has regularly featured in WWII fiction.
The group also discovers documents that could set up the next Call of Duty after Vanguard. Lucas finds a document mentioning Project Nova, one of the most infamous plot devices in Call of Duty history. Project Nova was introduced in 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops and was a toxic gas that violently killed anyone who came in contact with it. Sleeper agents were put inside each US state capital and programmed to release Nova 6 gas once they heard a series of numbers, but Alex Mason and Jason Hudson managed to stop it.
Polina also finds a file regarding Project Aether, noting it mentions something about "reviving the dead". Anyone who played the zombies mode in Black Ops Cold War knows that Aether and the Nazis are at the core of the undead outbreak. Although the new game is developed by Sledgehammer Games, the CoD: Vanguard zombies mode is being developed by Treyarch as a continuation of the Black Ops Cold War zombies story.
Lastly, Arthur finds a file called Project Aggregat which is a secret V-2 rocket facility. In Black Ops, it was revealed that Nazis originally intended to use V-2 rockets armed with Nova 6 gas against major capital cities. This never came to fruition and it seems this may be partially thanks to Vanguard.
Although neither Activision nor Sledgehammer Games have officially announced a Call of Duty: Vanguard sequel, it seems like there are plans for more games. Arthur asks Wade if they can go and find this rocket facility, which seems like it may tie in heavily with the Nova 6 storyline. It seems like Sledgehammer is trying to help tie the Call of Duty games together in a cohesive way. Treyarch already did something similar by introducing Modern Warfare characters in Black Ops Cold War.
Whether or not this will result in more characters crossing over remains to be seen, but it seems as if Call of Duty is developing one shared universe for all of its games. Some of this has also been seen in Warzone, as the core Black Ops Cold War crew ended up coming across SOE leader Captain Butcher in a bunker underneath Verdansk. That said, Warzone also has Ghostface and Bruce Willis running around, so it's unclear just how canonical it actually is in relation to the story modes in each Call of Duty game.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is out now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC.
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