Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Review

I really enjoyed last year’s Black Ops 6. Having not played a Call of Duty game for some time prior, I was a bit hesitant going in but came away really enjoying the campaign, and spending multiple months playing the multiplayer – even managing to prestige four times, something I’d never done before. So when it was announced that this year’s game would be a direct sequel, I was pretty optimistic. Unfortunately it’s been far more underwhelming than I anticipated.

Now look, if you’ve enjoyed the multiplayer of previous games, then Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is going to fit the bill as it ever has done. I’ve found myself doing a lot worse than last year, but the actual feel of the gameplay is still some of the best out there. The omnimovement gets a slight buff in action, and the wall jump manoeuvre means maps can be a bit more vertical and intricate. Running and gunning is solid, with a good time to kill keeping the action flowing nicely. All the fan favourite modes return – I still love playing Domination and Kill Confirmed – and jumping in with a few buddies is almost a guarantee of a good time. 

New mode Overload is quickly becoming a firm favourite too. Here, we must grab the device and get it into one of two points on the enemies side of the map. It’s an instant point score game, so no planting or holding for a few seconds and this makes the games frenetic as players dive to get into the area even as they die in the process. I’ve had plenty of tight exchanges with players here, trading blows and inching the device closer and closer before they manage a counter attack. 

The unlocks are doled out at a fair clip, and making use of some of the newer score streaks – as well as some old favourites – remains as satisfying as ever (when you’re not on the receiving end, of course). New map Express is a firm early favourite, set in a near future Japanese metro station, while the yacht-based HIjacked provides tight, close quarters combat. I’ve not found a map I dislike so far, though I’m sure once players get the hang of some of them that might change. 

I’ve focused on the good MP so far for good reason – the campaign in Black Ops 7 is, quite frankly, dreadful. As I said, I really enjoyed last years campaign and hearing this time it was a co-op campaign had me hopeful it’d be a fun time with mates. 

Unfortunately, it is a mismatch of confusing plot points, frustrating combat scenarios and lacks too much in the way of quality of life to make it worth a recommendation. There’s very little engaging story to hook us in, and once the cradle bioweapon begins to make our crew start to hallucinate, things go off the wall completely. 

Perhaps long time Black Ops players will get something more out of it, but we spent our whole time playing it wondering what the fuck was going on, why we should care, and why we’re fighting zombie/alien/robotic enemies in one form or another. There are a lot of open areas where we’re clearly encouraged to explore and tackle multiple objectives much like last year’s Hunting Season, but to be frank it is not engaging enough to make us want to do so.

Hell, even the act of playing feels more like a paired down Warzone, down to the coloured loot and armour plates, and glowing pick ups that enemies drop or are found in crates. Boss fights also feature and are frustrating to play, and at no point can I say I was ever really enjoying the process. It feels like the Zombies mode has bled into the campaign, and I will say that if this is the way Call of Duty is going to go, then I’m going to be disappointed at the very least.

It’s also incredibly unbalanced when playing with less than four players, especially so for solo gamers. There are four members of the unit we play as (could I tell you any of their names other than one is played by Michael Rooker? Nope.) as with other players we can be revived, enemies don’t all gang up on one player, and it feels like half-assed Left 4 Dead at times. 

Playing solo, we still get ‘treated’ to the same wonderfully ‘hoorah’ chatter of the team, but there are no AI bots to fill in, meaning if we’re downed we have one shot at self reviving before we’re out. And again, the sheer swarms of enemies at times means we will be going down a lot. There are soft checkpoints here, but we can’t leave a mission and resume later without having to start from scratch. We also can’t pause mid game as it is treated as an online lobby even solo, which is a small but pointlessly annoying thing. 

However, it all becomes clear once you complete the campaign (or as of a week after launch, go to the mission select menu). A new mode appears called End Game, and here we see what the real meat of Black Ops 7 was aiming for. 

Something…something…Avalon is under threat, and so we can load back into a huge open world map to complete objectives, collect loot, and extract in order to save this loot as well as any upgrades or experience we’ve gained. Yes, Black Ops 7 has its own extraction shooter.

Now, to be fair, I’ve found much more enjoyment in this than any of the campaign. To me, it feels like the campaign is more of an extended tutorial to set players up for End Game, and why it was initially locked behind the campaign completion is beyond me if this wasn’t the reason.

Dropping into Avalon we can see the map is split into several zones, each harder than the last. There are dozens and dozens of mini objectives to complete, from collecting downed supply drops to clearing checkpoints of troops or clearing nests of fear monsters and much more. Success brings new guns and perks called skill tracks – a choice of two options that lets us build a character in our own way. 

Levelling up grants us more perks, and eventually we’ll be powerful enough to go into the higher tier zones for even better loot and upgrades. Getting to an extraction point is easy enough, but surviving while we wait for the vehicle is easier said than done in harder zones. With up to 32 players in each map, we can enlist help from others or go out of our way to lend a hand if we see someone struggling. There is no PvP here, so gun-ho players can’t ruin our fun, but there’s a strange feeling of camaraderie in hooking up with a player or four, looting the rewards and then going on our way. 

Is it going to truly challenge the likes of Arc Raiders for players’ time? I can’t say as I’m yet to play that personally, but I do know that after several rounds of End Game we decided as a group to pick up Arc Raiders and try that instead. There is something here though, and I think I’d personally have felt more positive about the game if this was presented as the main attraction rather than the subpar campaign. As it is, it’s a meaty mode that is far more worth checking out, but at the same time I think failing to focus on End Game as the main attraction means it might not have as much longevity as it could have.

Conclusion

Strong multiplayer props up an otherwise poor showing from Call of Duty this year. The combat and movement is a good as ever, but a woefully dire co-op campaign drags the experience to one of the lowest points in years, and is only mildly mitigated by the End Game extraction mode that has some good to it, albeit marred by not being the main focus of the release of Black Ops 7.