Call of Duty: Vanguard brings back a powerful feature from Modern Warfare 2 with various perks and weapon upgrades. With the right options, you can bayonet anything and everything from absurd distances.
This is how close combat works: A law of nature in shooters says that close combat weapons should cause a lot more damage to compensate for their lack of range.
In CoD games it is usually the case that a single blow or stab with a melee weapon immediately knocks the opponent out of virtual life, while only the most powerful firearms allow such insta-kills from a distance.
Absurd melee capers like in Modern Warfare 2
What exactly is so awesome about the bayonets? This is not realistic, but in terms of gameplay balance. But in Vanguard’s multiplayer mode you can not only stab people with a knife, you also have the option of attaching a bayonet to various rifles.
This in turn increases your range with the melee attack. There is also a weapon upgrade called “Reach”, which increases your range again. This enables absurd attacks from a distance of tens of meters. Together with the “Lightweight” perk, you can dash across the map at lightning speed and stab enemies from far away.
What is the game like? YouTuber Drift0r tried it all once and the result is downright ridiculously absurd. So he stands at the edge of the well in the Stalingrad map Red Star and roughly stabs the bayonet in the direction of an enemy who is sitting several meters away on the well in the middle. The result: the enemy falls dead, although the bayonet could not actually have reached him. Even more absurd is a scene in which the opponent is even a whole floor above the player and is still simply stabbed.
The whole thing is taken to extremes when you use the special ability “Bayonet Charge”. Then your operator just runs wildly roaring with the bayonet and whoever gets in his way just dies automatically.
What does this have to do with Modern Warfare 2? Drift0r compares this completely overpowering thing with the perk “Commando Pro” from the old Modern Warfare 2 from 2009. In this game similar absurd melee maneuvers were possible and this thing still exists today as a joke and meme among the CoD veterans.
In one thing, however, the absurd side-trip goes well with the game: The campaign is also full of exaggerated pathos, wacky brawl scenes and crazy opponents who bayonet into the harshest hail of bullets: And that’s exactly what players like about the campaign very much. However, if you want to take a break from CoD Vanguard, you can check out the following games: Division 2 and Outriders.