Saying what’s the “worst” Call of Duty multiplayer can be tricky, because different people have different opinions. But here, we will try to go by not just how gamers feel. Instead, we will look into real patterns, things like low critic and player scores on review sites like Metacritic, complaints that come up again and again on forums and social media, and issues in gameplay design that truly messed with the fun.
The Worst Call of Duty Multiplayer of All Time
So, with all things considered, most people across the board agree that Call of Duty: Vanguard comes up as the one people were most let down by. It’s not just one part of it either—it’s how all the parts kind of failed together. Bad design choices, tech issues that kept showing up, and nothing really new to make it stand out. It didn’t feel finished or fresh. Let’s take a look at the main issues one by one.
1. The Theme Wasn’t Clear Enough
Despite Vanguard being designed to be a WWII shooter, the aesthetic and feel of the game never quite jived with that concept. There was all modern equipment everywhere, gaudy skins, and bizarre voice lines that don’t fit in that era. It didn’t feel real, and it didn’t feel stylized either. It sort of attempted both and ended up being neither.
Image Credits: Activision
2. Bad Map Flow and Unusual Spawns
One of the most common complaints that everyone was mentioning was that the maps just did not play well at all. Some of them were too small, others were poorly set up, and the movement never felt quite fluid. But the spawns—now that’s where things took a turn for the worse. You’d often start the match just to be thrown right into a gunfight, or even worse, into an airstrike or killstreak. It’s not that every spawn system in COD was perfect, but this one really made matches feel chaotic for the wrong reasons.
3. Performance Problems All Around
Add to all that, Vanguard did not run well either. There was a lag spike and connection problems, and the infamous “packet burst” that constantly reappeared for most players. It didn’t feel stable at all. Even when things were running alright, the hit detection was not always great. These may sound like little things individually, but combined, they really ruined the experience. A multiplayer game needs to feel smooth, and this one just did not.
4. Progression Was Working Too Hard
Advancing in Vanguard was also something that deterred a lot of players. The number of levels you had to use to completely upgrade a gun was too much. Certain guns required 70 levels. And camo challenges were not enjoyable either, a great deal of it was longshots or other uncomfortable activities, which nudged people into playing in methods they didn’t want to play in. Rather than feel rewarding, it felt like a chore.
Image Credits: Activision
5. Short on New Ideas
Other than its issues, Vanguard did not actually have much new to offer. A lot of it was just a rehashed version of Modern Warfare 2019, but less detailed and with poorer sound design. That’s not really enough for a large franchise like this, though. New ideas or at least some level of polish is what people are expecting, and Vanguard didn’t deliver either.
6. Repeating Past Mistakes
It’s not as if Vanguard is the first Call of Duty to receive criticism. Games such as Ghosts and Cold War struggled as well—maps that were too large, dragging pacing, lag on servers. But what set Vanguard apart is that it repeated those issues and then multiplied them. It didn’t feel like an advancement. It felt like a hasty repeat.
Conclusion
Over the years, Call of Duty has built up a serious reputation for its multiplayer. Players come in expecting tight gunplay, polished maps, and something worth grinding. Vanguard attempted to build on the success of previous entries but failed where it mattered. Multiplayer wasn’t refined or streamlined, and it failed to bring people back. Today, it’s remembered not for what it got correct, but for how wrong it did so.
