A Multiplayer Masterclass Held Hostage by a Messy Campaign
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 arrives with the weight of expectation that only the Black Ops name can carry. As one of the most commercially powerful IP’s in gaming, Black Ops has built its reputation on slick action, stylish presentation and stories that flirt with psychological warfare.
This latest entry certainly…attempts, all those things and in some areas succeeds handsomely, but it feels oddly compromised, especially when tackling the campaign. The result is a game divided against itself: peerless in competitive play, surprisingly solid in its cooperative survival modes, but frustratingly inconsistent in its single-player ambitions.
As with every annual CoD, much depends on what kind of player you are. If you’re here for multiplayer, Black Ops 7 might be the strongest outing the Black Ops series has delivered in a few years. But if you favour a good campaign above all else, especially one you can sink into alone, the experience becomes far less agreeable. Don’t even get me started on the Zombies mode…
Campaign – An Interesting Idea Ruined By Mis-placed Ambition
The campaign is the most contentious element of Black Ops 7, and not without reason. Treyarch and Raven have opted for a fully cooperative structure, supporting up to four players. On paper, this shift sounds exciting: a globe-spanning Black Ops story shared with friends, complete with high-tech infiltration tools and fluid movement systems. In reality, the structure becomes a massive hindrance.
For one, the entire campaign requires an online connection, even for solo players. Should you lose connection or need to step away, there’s no comfort of a traditional pause function or mid-mission checkpoint. Missions must be completed in a single sitting, with progress lost if your connection drops or you’re removed for inactivity.
For a series that has historically offered tightly directed, cinematic campaigns, this is a jarring shift. It became difficult to want to finish ot for this review, as I had to ensure I had multiple hours free to go through the mess of the story.
Mission design, too, clearly assumes a full squad. Enemy density scales, but the pacing does not always feel balanced for a lone operative. Encounters that should feel tense and tactical can become tedious, as you slog through waves of opposition that seem tuned for the presence of additional bodies. Yes, bullet proof vests and riot gear exist, but it doesn’t mean you can withstand a full drum-mag of 7.62s to the plexi-glass of your riot helmet before finally going down.
Environmental objectives take longer to complete because they were clearly intended to be split across multiple players. Playing alone doesn’t make the campaign impossible, but it does make it feel like the wrong way to experience it, and that shouldn’t be the case.You don’t even get CPU’s following you around.
Narratively, the campaign leans heavily into psychological devices: hallucinations, split-memory sequences, identity manipulation and the type of dream-logic imagery that Black Ops is known for.
The trouble is that these elements never fully coalesce. Moments that should feel thrilling come across as incoherent. Major plot beats arrive abruptly and key characters struggle to earn emotional investment because the storytelling is constantly disrupted by mission structure and uncanny pacing. It took me until Fracture to realise that Samuels’ was the Presidential escort in Black Ops 2.
There are flashes of brilliance. A mid-game infiltration sequence that forces you to use stealth tools and improvised gadgets recalls the tone of earlier, better Black Ops campaigns. One late mission involving an underground data-vault is visually spectacular. And the performances from the key cast remain strong. Except for the *SPOILER ALERT!* Razor boss fight, which had a script like something out of an old, bad episode of Power Rangers.
It feels like a campaign torn between wanting to be a high-octane co-op adventure and wanting to deliver a psychological spy thriller in the series’ traditional style. In attempting both, it manages neither with full conviction, but rather with goofy animations and terrible platforming sections.
Also the Echo-12 is the stupidest gun they have ever put into one of these games. A slow reloading 2-shot, recharge mag shotgun with bad damage…really? There is another issue with the guns, and that is the tier system. This kind of thing kind of makes sense in multiplayer modes but in the campaign, means that you level up one gun and then use that, because you can’t do both. This can mean that your purple pistol has higher damage than a sniper…it’s dumb.
Endgame – A Mixed Co-op Offering
Upon finishing the campaign, players unlock Endgame, a PvE mode intended to provide repeatable squad-based content. Structurally, Endgame resembles a blend of survival arenas and objective-driven missions. There are moments of genuine fun, particularly when coordinating loadouts with a team and plenty of the environments are well-designed.
Unfortunately, enemy tuning can feel inconsistent. With top-tier gear the mode becomes manageable and occasionally thrilling, but with mid-tier equipment some encounters feel overly punishing. This imbalance makes early-to-mid progression a slog, which may discourage those not committed to the grind.
Still, Endgame is not without merit. It has solid variety, excellent visual design, and more tactical freedom than the main campaign. As a post-campaign activity, it works well enough, just not as the centrepiece it appears to want to be.
Multiplayer – The Game’s Salvation
Where Black Ops 7 shines brightest is in its multiplayer. This is, quite comfortably, the best competitive suite the franchise has offered in recent years.
Movement and Gunplay
The game builds upon the omnimovement introduced in the previous title, refining it rather than reinventing it. Traversal feels fluid without becoming chaotic. Wall-jumps, advanced mantling and chained slides provide freedom without sacrificing control. Veterans will feel immediately at home, while newcomers aren’t overwhelmed.
Gunplay remains as sharp as ever. Weapons sound weighty and hit with satisfying impact. Recoil patterns feel fair, and tuning appears better balanced at launch than the series has historically managed. Time-to-kill sits in that sweet spot between fast and readable, ensuring matches have pace without devolving into twitch-fest unpredictability.
Map Design
Multiplayer maps are outstanding. A neon-lit Japanese district offers tight lanes and multi-level vantage points; a vast coastal overlook blends sniper lines with tight interiors; a desert research facility offers both indoor cat-and-mouse battles and bold open-area pushes. The range encourages experimentation with different playstyles.
Flow feels deliberate, and spawn logic, often a sticking point in Call of Duty, is noticeably improved during standard-scale matches.
The Overclock System
A major addition is the Overclock system, which allows players to modify field upgrades and scorestreak performance. Rather than overwhelming the loadout screen, these additions provide meaningful personalisation without bloating the interface. It encourages tinkering and can subtly change the dynamic of a match without becoming a crutch for power players.
Combat Specialities
Perks have been reworked into hybrid “Combat Specialities” that mix categories more freely. This brings additional build variety, allowing for creative combinations that suit aggressive pushers, stealth-focused infiltrators, objective-runners, or support players.
20v20 Skirmish Mode
Large-scale Skirmish battles introduce grappling hooks, wingsuits, vehicles, and destructible cover. The chaos can be intense, but the mode is refreshingly different without feeling like an imitation of other shooters. It’s still CoD at heart, but grander.
The Multiplayer Verdict
This is the heart of Black Ops 7, and it’s where the game earns its strongest praise. It captures the sensation long-time fans crave: the flow, the momentum, the push-and-pull of strategic pressure. Matches feel alive, rewarding, and skilfully designed.
If multiplayer is why you buy Call of Duty, this is absolutely a high point for the franchise. It is well-known that multiplayer is their focus now, but they used to be able to give an excellent multiplayer experience and a great campaign, those days are long gone.
Zombies: New fans yay – Old fans nay
Zombies mode is dependable, well-rounded and surprisingly generous at launch. The team has offered several variations to cater for all experience levels:
- Classic round-based mode
- Directed mode with guided progression
- Survival mode, offering pure endurance play
- Cursed mode, a challenging twist intended for veteran squads
The main map is impressively large, layered and atmospheric. It blends nostalgic nods with fresh mechanical twists, including an upgradeable vehicle reminiscent of earlier Zombies experiments. The inclusion of multiple difficulty paths helps the mode remain accessible while still potentially giving veterans something meaty to chew on.
Dead Ops Arcade also returns, as gleefully chaotic as ever. As a palette-cleanser between longer Zombies sessions, it remains a welcome diversion.
Zombies does feel fairly robust and is a fair bit of fun. But in comparison to how it used to be at its height, it’s not even half as good as World at War zombies. That shouldn’t be the case, Black Ops 3 had the winning formula, which they have ruined beyond all belief. Even the reintroduction of Gobblegums feels cheap.
Presentation and Audio
Set in 2035, Black Ops 7 commits fully to its slick near-future aesthetic. Interfaces are clean and angular, gadgets glow with minimalist neon accents and scorestreaks have a satisfying high-tech finish without drifting into sci-fi excess.
Environments are detailed and vibrant. Campaign hubs buzz with technological clutter; multiplayer maps brim with life, lights and verticality; Zombies environments drip with personality.
Sound design remains one of the series’ unsung strengths. Weapons bark with sharp clarity. Explosions thrum with bass. Voice performances are consistent and engaging. The soundtrack moves confidently between shadowy synths, orchestral punches, and tense ambient stings.
Final Verdict: Contrast and Compromise
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 ends up being a game of contrasting identities. When it focuses on its strengths, competitive multiplayer, refined movement and its sturdy Zombies offering, it’s an absolute joy, easily one of the franchise’s most enjoyable entries of the past decade. There is a confidence to the gunplay, a swagger to the movement and a carefulness to the map design that prove Treyarch still understands what makes Call of Duty thrilling.
The campaign, traditionally a hallmark of the Black Ops line, is its weakest element. It may be the worst ever made, up there with Black Ops 3, Call of Duty: Ghosts and the new Modern Warfare III. The forced cooperative structure, always-online restriction and poorly balanced solo experience mean it cannot stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any of its predecessors. It’s a bold experiment that falls short of its ambitions, and feels like a top-quality mobile game…which with the money and reputation they have, just isn’t good enough.
Those coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 primarily for multiplayer will find a polished, thrilling package that will last all year. Those seeking a memorable solo campaign will leave disappointed.
Important Links
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Storms Xbox & Game Pass – Here’s Why You Need to Play It – https://www.thexboxhub.com/call-of-duty-black-ops-7-storms-xbox-game-pass/
Download from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/call-of-duty-black-ops-7-cross-gen-bundle/9N8KMNW6942X/0010
Enjoy the Vault Edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/call-of-duty-black-ops-7-vault-edition/9PBDS7DPPXM5/0010
