Call of Duty: Vanguard releases November 5. The release brings with it the next iteration of the franchise’s ever-popular Zombies multiplayer mode. While the new game is coming too late for Halloween, publisher Activision is having a bit of fun already.
To celebrate the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Vanguard, Activision decorated a street corner in London with a row of zombie heads. These animatronic trophies look inert but spring to terrifying life at the perfect time to startle curious pedestrians.
“Hunting season is here,” says the video before treating viewers to a close-up of some of the zombie heads. “And nothing celebrates a kill,” the video continues, “like a trophy.” It then cuts to the five animatronic heads mounted on display at a street corner in London, England. Each head is unique in appearance, with one being able to spit variously colored fluids at onlookers who get too close. Activision naturally set up a camera to capture the reactions of people who stumble into its prank.
As the video shows, the heads would remain motionless until someone got into position. Several people tried to touch or even take a selfie with one of the heads, only to jump back when they suddenly sprang to life. One of the heads would spit a shower of artificial saliva at passersby, including one man who got sprayed in the face while trying to take a close-up photo. Another man was walking past with food when the spitting zombie took him by surprise. However, the unluckiest might be one man who got fake blood sprayed all over his white shirt.
Call of Duty: Vanguard returns the series to World War 2 after three games spent exploring other settings. The main campaign of Vanguard follows four different characters and takes place across the Eastern, Western, African, and Pacific theaters. Player characters include an American fighter pilot, a British-Cameroon paratrooper, a Soviet woman sniper, and an Australian infantryman. Together, they form a joint special-operations unit called Task Force One.
Meanwhile, the Zombies mode resumes the ongoing story that began in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and continued through Black Ops 4 and Cold War. Vanguard’s Zombies mode picks up where the Zombies story in Cold War left off. The activation of several supernatural artifacts has allowed powerful extradimensional entities to enter the world. One particularly malicious being, Kortifex the Deathless, makes a bargain with SS Oberfuhrer Wolfram Von List, granting him the power to raise the dead.
This mode sends Vanguard’s Task Force One to defeat Kortifex and Von List’s zombie army. They’ll have the aid of Demonologist Gabriel Krafft, who supplies the team with powerful artifacts. In addition, players will also have the assistance of various supernatural entities with their own reasons for wanting Kortifex stopped.
Call of Duty: Vanguard releases on November 5 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.