Call of Duty: Vanguard recently launched and takes players back to World War 2 with a brand new campaign that sees the player take on the role of six Operatives as they fight to take down the enemy. Alongside the campaign is the popular multiplayer and zombies modes, and like many new games, Vanguard isn't without its fair share of issues.
While most of the current issues will be addressed in future patches, some of them right now are making items now work as intended and causing a lot of frustration within the Call of Duty community. The popular Combat Shield, formerly the Riot Shield, is currently at the center of many players' frustrations because it isn't working as intended.
Call of Duty: Vanguard's Combat Shield acts as a barricade for players and allows them to be protected from incoming gunfire and it forces the opponent to find another way to get the elimination. In previous titles, such as Modern Warfare, when the Combat Shield isn't active it gets put onto the player's back and blocks gunfire from behind.
However, this isn't the case with Call of Duty: Vanguard as players have discovered that the Combat Shield doesn't protect players from the back when unequipped. As seen in the above clip posted on Reddit, enemies are able to shoot through the Combat Shield, with it offering no protection to players. This gives the Combat Shield very little benefit as a secondary weapon unless it is equipped constantly, which also leaves the player exposed with them being unable to fight back.
It is almost a certainty that Sledgehammer Games will fix the issue in a future patch. The game has only been out a few days so it will have some kinks and issues that need to be ironed out over the coming weeks. But, at least as of right now, the Combat Shield isn't performing as intended and should probably be avoided and left out of player's loadouts in favor of other Call of Duty: Vanguard weapons and items.
There are many other issues that are currently plaguing the game, such as SBMM placing players in lobbies that are far beyond their skill level. Another major problem is with the spawn areas either favoring one team in modes such as Hardpoint, or leaving players exposed to spawn killing, which is when a player is eliminated shortly after respawning.
Typically, a game will move the spawn areas to be away from the active players on the map to allow the player some time to survey the area and begin playing before encountering an enemy. Right now the spawn locations are set and allow for enemies to camp at the areas and rack up dozens of kills without their opponents having the time to react and fight back.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.