There’s no getting around the fact that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 feels like a rushed product this year. Between a badly designed co-op campaign and a multiplayer mode that plays it safe, this year’s entry in the series is a disappointment. Whenever a new Call of Duty game pops up at the end of the year, you can usually be assured of three things: a rock-solid campaign, riveting zombie-slaying action, and a multiplayer mode designed to keep you engaged with the game until the next Call of Duty arrives a year later.
This year, the franchise has its work cut out for it, as it’s headlined by what is easily the weakest campaign in years and a multiplayer mode that has one foot firmly in the past, thanks to a focus on remastered maps. Feeling less like a tightly choreographed selection of sequences featuring best-in-class gunplay, and more like an experiment to try out several new ideas, the Black Ops 7 campaign is occasionally weird and frequently boring. Positioned as a direct sequel to 2012’s Black Ops 2, Black Ops 7 still looks like an obscene amount of cash was poured into its development, thanks to flashy cinematics and the recruitment of actors likeMilo VentimigliaandMichael Rookerto the battlefields of tomorrow.
The big change this time is the focus on a co-op campaign that allows up to three other players to join you, and while it’s an interesting idea in theory, the always-online and raid-like structure of each mission feels directly at odds with the traditional Call of Duty campaign experience. Sure, you can solo it, but this quickly reveals just how outgunned you’ll constantly feel in any mission. With a co-op structure in mind, enemies in Black Ops 7 are more bullet-spongy than ever, sapping the joy from firefights as you burn through ammo.
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While the handful of missions inspired by bad acid trips are inventive – and include at least one encounter where you fight a giant plant monster – the bulk of the environments are bland and forgettable. Those are problems that could be forgiven if the story was at least decent, but the Black Ops 7 narrative is just an uncomfortable blend of barely disguised jingoism and hallucinogenic sequences. At least it’s a short trainwreck of a flavourless campaign and the overall gunplay feels like a top-class showcase of firepower, but don’t expect much from the replayable “Endgame” mode.
It’s not that this mode is bad, as co-developer Raven attempts to blend several modes within a battle royale-style map, but it pales in comparison to Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders, two games that launched ahead of Black Ops 7 and are clearly eating its lunch in the online multiplayer space right now. Some might argue that it’s too familiar, as many of the same maps, perks and guns have been retained for this year’s online offerings. The fantastic omnimovement system has also returned for multiplayer, giving matches a sense of agility and speed that helped revolutionise this space last year.
Treyarchhas built on this system even further, fine-tuning it and adding a new wall-jump gameplay mechanic to the mix. It might not sound like much, but once you learn to use these new tools in unexpected ways, multiplayer in Black Ops 7 becomes a fast and furious firefight involving pinpoint precision, tactical slides and exhilarating ambushes. Multiplayer places an emphasis on agility within vertical-focused maps that have a three-lane structure within their design, and to drive this point home, a few other changes have been made.
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