Call of Duty: Vanguard appears to be a high-octane new installment in the long-running FPS franchise. Aside from the PlayStation-exclusive content, gamers wanting to play Call of Duty: Vanguard on PS5 may look forward to several new DualSense capabilities.
For nearly two decades, Call of Duty has dominated the console FPS industry, attracting millions of gamers annually with its precise gunplay and military look. In Call of Duty, the speed with which someone can pull the trigger can spell the difference between success and failure, and with last year’s Black Ops Cold War on PS5, this took on a whole new meaning.
The pioneering DualSense controller transformed the simple act of playing into an experience in and of itself, as the controller’s rumble effects matched what was happening in-game, and different weapons required varying degrees of pressure to pull the trigger.
Sledgehammer Games explains how Call of Duty: Vanguard will utilize the DualSense controller on PS5 in a new PlayStation Blog post. The paper is written by Chris Fowler, Principal Engineer at Sledgehammer Games, and it focuses on “the art of the trigger pull” and “battle experiences.”
Sledgehammer Games used the DualSense’s adaptable triggers to adjust the amount of pressure required during the “break” of the trigger pull, as well as imitate the weight of lifting a weapon while aiming-down-sights. However, the DualSense’s adaptive trigger settings can be disabled in the settings if desired.
In terms of “fighting feelings,” Sledgehammer Games has made the DualSense a vital aspect of the game’s immersion. “The player will feel the action happening around them pulse through their hands and traverse up their arms with the help of haptic feedback in the DualSense controller,” Fowler writes.
They give some examples, such as experiencing the cracking of debris surrounding the player when shooting from cover, or powerful and pinpoint rumbles coursing through the controller while the Luftwaffe guns down on the player as in the Stalingrad Call of Duty: Vanguard clip.
These DualSense features should be familiar to PS5 players who played Black Ops Cold War, as they were available in identical versions there. Returnal and Astro’s Playroom have demonstrated the DualSense’s rumbling capabilities, such as the light, snappy taps of sprinting on metal, or feeling the wind in the controller with directionality; it appears that Vanguard will continue to develop these concepts.
Vanguard’s decision to make its trigger effects optional is also a wise one, as some players may not value the immersive features of the game, and this has had a negative effect on how some players perform.
