Call of Duty: Vanguard gets cute AF for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is Monday and that means love is in the air…and bullet casings if you play Call of Duty: Vanguard. I appreciate when a game that is just mostly shooting other players in their face can make the environments festive. During Halloween, pumpkins and spooks abound. During the holidays, the maps were filled with garland, lights and annoying little elves that you could beat to bloody pulps with the butt of your gun. Well, Valentine’s Day will be no exception. Let’s get festive and bust some heads!

I have been counting the days until the season 2 battle pass arrives on Call of Duty: Vanguard. Despite the hate the game has received, I truly believe that this installment in the franchise is a great balance between the heaviness of the gunplay of Modern Warfare and the bounciness of Cold War. For a WWII era FPS game, you don’t notice the technology restraints in this game as I did in say, Battlefield 1 or V.

All that being said, I have put a LOT of hours into this game. All operators are maxed out and the season 1 battle pass reached 100 a loooong time ago. When I saw that the icon for the game had changed on my PS5, I thought, “Could it be? Did they release the new season early?” They had not released the new season early but what I did find was almost as good…almost.

I think that Call of Duty has some of the most fun holiday themed events of any multiplayer game out there and I include that with Fortnite. When Call of Duty: Vanguard loaded up, my eyes were filled with visions of falling rose petals and a giant, glittering “LOVE” behind my operator. Vases of roses lined the pathway in the loading screen and I could choose between three playlists with themes of LoOoOvE. *Insert eyebrow wiggle* Would you like to be “Up Close and Personal”? How about a trip to “Lover’s Lane”? Or maybe you’ll get an arrow straight through your “Heartpoint”. Unfortunately, none of those are hardcore playlists but they are still a real treat.

In Hardpoint, the circle is all hearts when your team takes possession but those hearts break when the opposing team takes control.  The loading screens are covered in hearts. Flowers and balloons and love is everywhere, but that isn’t the best part about this update, nay nay. No, the best part about this event is what happened to the Flamenaut. Instead of a massive juggernaut suit, when you earn your 9-kill streak, you unlock a big, pink, furry bear suit. You get to walk around shooting flames as a big pink bear with a Rambo headband. Violence-loving furries are getting the shivers just thinking about it. Honestly, I wish it could be that way for all time but, alas, we only get the killer bear until February 17th, when the event ends.

I’m a little disappointed there are no Valentine’s themed challenges to unlock lovey-dovey cosmetic items or customizations but I suppose that’s the way the conversation hearts crumble. This Valentine’s event is just a fun way that Call of Duty: Vanguard can make sure not to take itself too seriously and let the player just be silly for a bit. Now, I am positive there will be some CoD dudebros that will be all made there are little pink hearts all over the place, but whatever. This event is fun and cute but severely lacking some challenges and unlockables like past holiday events.