Call of Duty: Vanguard review – nostalgic warfare that takes us back to the start

PC, PS4/5, Xbox; Activision
A band of inglorious stereotypes go on a covert mission to uncover a Nazi plan in a traditional instalment of the series

There is always a sense of deju vu with Call of Duty games. For almost 20 years, they have led us through so many bombed-out cities, treacherous canyon passes and collapsing multi-storey buildings, the whole run now merges into one apocalyptic mega battle. By taking us back to the origin of the series - the second world war - Vanguard hammers this sense of familiarity home. This is a very traditional, extremely familiar and almost nostalgic Call of Duty instalment.

For the entertaining Campaign mode, we're thrust into a covert mission involving an international task force of six differently skilled soldiers attempting to infiltrate a German submarine base to uncover a Nazi plan known as Operation Phoenix. As this is taking place in Germany in 1945 and features rogue SS officers (one brilliantly played by Dominic Monaghan, the nature of a plan named Phoenix should not be too hard to guess, but we still have to fight through around six hours of hectic, bullet-riddled missions to get there.