Hi everyone! I’m Stephen Rhodes, narrative lead on Call of Duty: Vanguard. With me is Robert Lo, senior narrative designer at Sledgehammer Games. We’re excited to be able to give PlayStation players an even deeper look at the human element that makes up the heart of Call of Duty: Vanguard, especially as the game’s release quickly approaches on November 5.
Below we provide insight into a couple of the lead characters from Vanguard’s single-player Campaign, who will also be playable in Multiplayer: Arthur Kingsley and Polina Petrova. Then, we debut a couple of characters from Vanguard’s Multiplayer we have yet to detail anywhere else: Daniel Take Yatsu and Padmavati Balan. We will also be showcasing for the first time the Operator Bio videos for these four characters.
With that, let’s jump in.
The Humanity at the Heart of Call of Duty: Vanguard
Vanguard’s campaign is a story about a group of diverse soldiers who put aside their differences for a common cause: stopping a secret Nazi plot in the final days of WWII. Their mission also represents the origins of a new kind of combat unit that moved and fought unlike any one before it: the Special Forces.
Even though it’s a larger-than-life story, at Vanguard’s heart is a universal experience many of us have lived: finishing a tough job with a band of coworkers you didn’t choose and making true friendships and lasting bonds along the way.
Writing Vanguard’s campaign was a meaningful and rewarding experience for all of us on the narrative team. I’ve always had an interest in WWII, and it was exciting to do in-depth research with our fantastic historical consultant Marty Morgan. With his boundless knowledge, we were able to uncover many of the lesser-known stories and heroes to draw inspiration from.
As writers, we also had the opportunity to write the distinct voices of characters who came from very specific locales at a specific moment in history. For our British characters, that meant we had to delve into the Britishisms of the era, and for our Australian lead character, Lucas Riggs, it meant exploring the truly broad canvas of Aussie language. Each of our heroes has a singular way of talking that sounds uniquely like them, and that’s the result of some careful research and close listening.
Our goal was to tell a unique and refreshing story set within the conflict. While there might be elements of history you’re familiar with, this is a story that is unique to Call of Duty.
Today we’re extremely excited to share with you details about some of Vanguard’s characters, and provide insight into how we created their distinct personalities. We’ll discuss who these characters are, what they mean to us, and how they fit into Vanguard’s overall narrative.
We’re going to focus our time on four of our heroic operators. Two you will meet during Vanguard’s epic campaign, and the other two can be found only within our diverse Multiplayer roster. Let’s get started!
The Stories Behind Four Multiplayer Operators
Arthur
Arthur Kingsley is the leader of the Special Operations Task Force sent into Germany to uncover the truth surrounding Projekt Phoenix. What’s exceptional about Arthur as a leader is not his ability to comm