Since its debut on personal computers more than a whopping twenty-two years ago, Call of Duty has become one of, if not, the most successful and talked-about franchises in gaming. Even after two decades of bullets, grenades, tanks, mines, perks and kill-streaks, there are many who buy and obsessively play each year’s installment. As such, these games are not just interactive media anymore — they’ve become pop culture, and an iconic part of it too. That’s why a movie is in development, along with more games and continued support for the spin-off that is the battle royale, Warzone.
I still remember buying the first game for our old PC, which was surprisingly able to run it at okay settings. I played it a lot, enjoyed it quite a bit, and can say that I’ve been playing this series since day one or thereabouts. Call of Duty 2, then, was a big reason as to why I got an Xbox 360, although Condemned: Criminal Origins, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Dead Rising were also big contributors. In the time since, I’ve played countless hours of online multiplayer with friends, and by my lonesome, and have completed almost all of the campaigns. However, that time investment still pales in comparison to a lot of others who play these titles every day. Hell, I was impressed with myself when I got back into playing regularly over the last couple of years, and put about 100 hours into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s online combat.
Following a maligned re-imagining of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which was shat on for having a half-assed campaign, but had pretty great multiplayer thanks to some fantastic returning maps from yesteryear, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 brought us back into its narrative’s darker world in 2024. Now, near the end of the year that is 2025, Treyarch’s baby has continued with a second consecutive release; that being Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. It’ll seemingly be the last back-t0-back release, though, because they recently stated that they won’t do so again.
We’re admittedly a little late posting our thoughts on Black Ops 7, due to family events, health procedures and just a lot going on in general, but we wanted to do so. After all, we were provided a review code at launch, and have spent a decent amount of time with it since it dropped not too long ago.
Here goes it.
Although the Black Ops narrative originally began in the past, its newest iteration takes us about a decade into the future. It’s sometime in 2035, and it’s been ten years since JSOC Commander, David “Section” Mason stopped a plot by the terrorist group, Cordis Die. In the process, he took out its leader, Raul Menendez, but maybe not? A video surfaces, and it appears to feature the deceased terrorist, himself, sparking worry about his status and the threats that are uttered within.
Unsurprisingly, things are not as they seem, and deepfake technology was used to artificially resurrect the asshole. Mason and his team discover this after venturing inside a facility owned by a tech giant called ‘The Guild,’ where they’re subjected to a familiar chemical weapon and face unnerving and dangerous nightmares, leading them to wonder about what is and isn’t real. Through this plot mechanic, Black Ops 7‘s campaign is able to go into some weird territory, including making players collect massive machetes that fall out of the sky in order to attack a familiar foe, pitting them against a giant plant and sending them to places from their past. These hallucinations play a large role in the story, the stages and what occurs.
Of course, some will find the above-mentioned hallucinations and stages silly, but others will enjoy the less serious take on a rather staunch and stoic genre. Things do get weird, though, and it leads to some strange boss battles, like the ones mentioned in the last paragraph.
The game’s new villain is the unfortunately under-used and ultimately forgettable Emma Kagan, who is played by actress Kiernan Shipka from Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. She’s joined by a cast that includes two pretty familiar faces; those being This is Us and The Art of Racing in the Rain star, Milo Ventimiglia, as well as The Walking Dead‘s Michael Rooker. They’re also accompanied by Ted Mosby’s sister’s actress, Erin Cahill, and others like Frankie Adams and Y’lan Noel. Overall, it’s an OK cast, but not one that’s given enough to work with.
I must admit that I was surprised to see Milo Ventimiglia when I booted up the game and began its campaign. Despite sharing its trailers and news, I wasn’t aware that he was going to be portraying its main character, and I’m a big fan of both of the aforementioned projects he was in. In fact, This is Us is one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen. It was great to see him in a large role within such a big video game, even if the story and writing left me wishing he’d had more to work with. Neither one are close to the best this series has ever featured, but they drive the action and get the job done. Be prepared for some pretty bad one-liners, though, including one where Michael Rooker takes out his frustration on all of the plants.
Looking back, I must have been on autopilot, because Milo is featured pretty heavily in some pre-release screens. I need to take more time to look at what I share, but it’s hard when you have a lot to post and want to get it up as quickly and as polished as possible.
The campaign took me quite a bit longer than others said it was, and I found that its stages were surprisingly lengthy given the brief runtime I had read online. It’s still not the longest first-person shooter ever made, but I didn’t complete it in one session as I’d thought I might. It took maybe 8 hours overall.
By now you’ve likely heard about the major change that came into play with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7′s campaign. That is, the fact that it’s now described as being a ‘co-op campaign,’ and most definitely is. It’s described as being a step forward for the series, and has even been called ‘groundbreaking,’ but it’s not. It’s something I disliked from the start through to the finish. Hopefully the next game in this series will not feature a similar styled story mode.
While I’m not against the idea of playing through a Call of Duty game with a friend or three, it’s not something that I particularly want to do. I’m happy that the option is there for others who would, but I do not want to deal with getting friends together and everything else involved. I’m more of a solo gamer, and I want to play through games alone — especially first-person shooters; a genre I’ve been playing since its early days. It honestly wouldn’t be such an issue if the other characters weren’t always talking, or if the game wasn’t focused on co-op in terms of design. However, this is the type of first-person shooter campaign where you can tell it’s made for more than one person, and the focus on changing weapons and loadouts is a big giveaway. The difficulty is tailored to the amount of players, too, so you can’t choose it yourself anymore. That said, it still felt a bit uneven.
Since this is an always online experience, it’s now possible to be kicked for inactivity during the campaign, even if you’re playing alone. Yes, you read that right. I took a pee break, and was kicked during it, losing several minutes of progress in one of the the missions. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed.
Despite hearing from the others characters, you don’t actually see them or get their assistance when you’re playing solo. Add onto that some boring maps (some parts of which are recycled from the last game), repetitive engagements and bullet sponge enemies, and you have a campaign that just isn’t as fun or as frustration free as most that predated it. The nostalgia-fuelled storyline can also be confusing and messy, as can the writing.
Another downside to this mediocre story mode is the fact that it continues the recent trend of including open missions set in Avalon, which just isn’t that interesting. Although they aren’t nearly as bad as the open map missions in Modern Warfare III, I feel like they’re overlong, dated, tedious, and wholly forgettable. It feels like they’re thrown together because they’re easier to make than the more scripted and linear missions that filled the Call of Duty games of yesteryear, which teen and young adult me loved. Yes, I was one of those weirdos who looked forward to each Call of Duty game’s campaign, even more than the multiplayer. I grew up playing through first-person shooters, like Goldeneye and Medal of Honor, and I love beating games.
Honestly, this is one of the weakest campaigns the series has ever offered. It just isn’t that good, memorable, unique or interesting. It’s also a bit of a pain at times. I don’t want to have to worry about load-outs, co-op, finding self revive kits, using different gear and kill-streaks, or having to put pieces of armour into my vest for added health. Bring back the fun, campy, scripted campaigns of yesteryear, please.
When this title first launched, the only way to access its near-surprise Endgame mode was to complete the Co-Op Campaign. However, thanks to a recent update, that is not the case anymore. It’s now available for everyone, regardless of whether they’ve played through the story or not.
New to the series, Endgame is a PVE extraction mode wherein players complete contracts, fight escalating groups of enemies, earn combat ratings and must exfiltrate to save progress. It’s a risk/reward multiplayer mode, and one that takes place on the Avalon map. It’s a nice addition, but not something I can see myself playing regularly.
Of course, most people don’t buy these titles for the single player (well, now co-op) campaigns. They do so for the multiplayer, which offers unlimited replay value if you’re into such things. I’ve always enjoyed it myself, but dealt with burnout for a while.
The massive multiplayer suite within Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is most definitely ‘sweatier’ and more challenging than its predecessors, because it returns to open matchmaking as opposed to skill-based. As such, you can expect a tougher battle from the start. I’ve continued to have good games and really bad ones, like usual, but can definitely attest to the fact that I’ve been matched with a lot of players who are better than me and noticeably so. A number of the rounds I entered were very ‘sweaty,’ and there were some where I struggled to get anything going.
Black Ops 7 is also a bit slower than its most recent predecessor, because tactical sprint has been removed as a default. Instead, those who wish for more speed must rely on a specific perk. That’s not to say that this game is slow, though, because it’s not. It’s relatively fast, it’s frenetic and it’s action-packed.
The well received omnimovement mechanics that factored into the last game have been refined, and are still quite fluid. However, this particular instalment has opted for more verticality and maps that support it. You can now wall jump, as well.
Of course, given the nature of the narrative found within the story mode, it’s unsurprising that this competitive mode features futuristic maps. There are familiar locations, though, like a ship, alongside one featuring Japanese themed buildings. Other maps include a large cabin on an island, which is flanked by smaller cabins, ice and tunnels; a crash site located in frozen tundra; a strange hospital; the underside of a gigantic aircraft carrier; a floating futuristic resort; a neon hued shopping district; a frigid robotics complex; the Guild’s Forge factory; a solar array located in the Australian outback and a cliffside compound that houses a billion dollar factory. Overall, it’s a good assortment of interesting locales to shoot, snipe, melee and blow up fellow players in. That said, I still haven’t really clicked with these maps like I did with those in the last two, and I find myself missing theirs. That said, I do love the Homestead map, with its ice floes and Northern Lights, as well as the icy Retrieval map.
For the first time within this sub-series, players can upgrade their score-streaks, field upgrades and equipment alongside their weapons. They’ll also earn experience points from playing the Co-Op Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies. Weapon prestige also returns for the first time since Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which stands as my least favourite game in the series. Of course, certain weapons and score-streaks are different, including robotic ‘dogs’ and drones. They also seem to have gotten rid of the landmines, which I loved so much.
Alongside the popular and familiar modes, like Team Deathmatch, Domination, Search & Destroy, Skirmish, Gunfight, Kill Confirmed and Free-For-All (which is what I mostly stick with and like best, by far), there’s also a new mode. They call it Overload, and it’s a contest where two teams try to fight for possession of the Overload Device. They do this by grabbing the device when it spawns, and then trying to overload the other team’s control points.
Lastly, there’s the popular Zombies mode, which I’ve never been able to get into, since trying from day one with World at War, which was otherwise great. Despite loving zombies and first-person shooters, and being an obvious fan of this series for a large part of my life, I just can’t get into this mode. I get bored by it quickly, and don’t have the patience to stick with it. In the past, I had issues with the hit detection being poor, but the truth is that it just never clicked with me for whatever reason.
Black Ops 7 marks the return of classic, round-based, Zombies. This takes place on its Ashes of the Damned map, wherein players continue the fight against the undead and discover more about the Dark Aether storyline. Therein, they’ll play as deceased-looking familiar faces.
Meanwhile, new players can opt into a streamlined experience that’s referred to as Directed. Inside of its trappings, they’ll receive a streamlined path through a Zombies map, where the objectives are clearly marked, and guided progression keeps them focused on the main quest. It’s good for newbies and those who are more story oriented, and is part of the game’s Season 01 content.
There are also Cursed and Survival options, which change things up for those who want it. These are included alongside a new weapon, a new perk and a rusted old vehicle that helps you travel through a rather large map. Survival maps are mostly just condensed normal maps, though.
Season 01, which began on December 4th, also introduced new map(s) and content, for both Zombies and multiplayer.
If you’re a fan of Call of Duty‘s Zombies mode, then you should like this one; especially since it has something for pretty much everyone with interest. Although I’ve stated that I’m not a big fan of the mode, and have never really enjoyed it, it’s definitely one of the better ones and an improvement on what came before it.
Before I forget, it’s also important to mention that Dead Ops: Arcade — the top-down, twin-stick shooter variant of Zombies — has returned here. This, I’ve always enjoyed, and it stands as one of my favourite things about the game as a whole. It offers more than 80 stages, four player co-op (for those with interest), ammo mods, field upgrades and the ability to switch to first-person view.
Presentation-wise, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is more of what you’d expect, except futuristic. It’s a rather good-looking game that is chock full of content, and features a notable Hollywood actor as its lead, and another notable actress as its villain, alongside some middling performances from others. The writing and dialogue aren’t always the best, but the game plays well and sounds good, for the most part. There will always be the odd technical issues, though; from time to time. The open map stages in Avalon also tend to look dated, unlike the more scripted ones, so there’s that too.
I played the campaign close to launch, and noticed slight lag during it, even though I played solo. There wasn’t much, so don’t get too worried. It was just odd, given that I was playing alone. However, this is an always connected, co-op, experience now. I doubt it was my Internet, because I’ve recently upgraded to 3gbps fiber.
When I returned to it recently, I didn’t notice any lag, but did get kicked for taking a pee break.
With all of that having been said, it’s time to conclude this review by saying that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is another solid entry in gaming’s biggest franchise, but it lacks in quality and originality. It’s definitely not as good as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which I really liked, and is far from one of the best overall. There’s a lot of content, but very little of it is the best it’s ever been, and that’s especially true of the co-op campaign. Still, the complete product is a fun, incredibly replayable, experience for those who like this type of game.
This review is based on the PlayStation 5 version of the game, which we were provided with.