Fast and familiar multiplayer is letdown by Call of Duty's worst campaign yet.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a tale of two halves. It returns with fast, frantic, and very familiar multiplayer modes which will continue to scratch the itch if you’re craving more after Black Ops 6 merely 12 months ago. But it also dishes up the worst Call of Duty campaign in the series’ history – or at least since it became the juggernaut it is today. It could make for a short and sweet co-op experience, with the right crew, but it’s not a Call of Duty campaign.
Having now had a double dose of direct sequels across the last four years – sacrificing the quality of Call of Duty’s two biggest sub-series in Modern Warfare and Black Ops in the process – the genuine question is now: when does this annual franchise get its much-needed break?
Multiplayer
Hot off the heels of Black Ops 6, you know what you’re getting with Black Ops 7’s multiplayer offerings. Go ahead and re-read our Black Ops 6 review for the full rundown. It feels very similar, reusing the Omni-movement system, but is a little bit faster and brings back wall-jumping. Black Ops 7 ramps things back up to the speeds of the Advanced Warfare through Infinite Warfare era, before COD returned to its boots-on-the-ground pacing.
The need for speed does complement Battlefield 6 nicely for those who want to invest serious time across both of 2025’s flagship shooters. Whereas EA’s return to a more grounded formula delivers a slower, objective-based experience, Black Ops 7 focuses its efforts on short rounds and extremely quick time to kill (and death) combat loops.
When all’s said and done, it’s very similar to last year’s instalment; the closest two consecutive Call of Duty multiplayer offerings have ever been. So I wonder if it’ll fizzle out sooner and struggle to last the year, like Modern Warfare 3 did.
For the Treyarch devotees committed to their style of Call of Duty, more may be a dream come true. What’s here is familiar and polished, with the standard suite of modes and a selection of fairly easy to learn new maps – they’re all pretty good, and are joined by some old favourites. These maps generally have three defined lanes with cut-throughs hidden behind doors that funnel players together, while still allowing the odd element of surprise.
Where Black Ops 7 tries to make the biggest leap is unifying all of its modes – multiplayer, zombies and the co-op campaign – into more of a single game with progression linked across everything.
Call of Duty has often felt like three related but distinct games. Talking to Treyarch developers as far back as Black Ops III a decade ago, I recall them remarking on how players often stayed in their lane. They either finish the campaign, or barely try it, or spend hours in multiplayer or zombies, but not often both. The third Black Ops game dabbled with bringing the modes closer together by introducing co-op into the campaign; although, multiplayer was clearly still the focus.
They’ve gone much further in Black Ops 7, which will surely be the fastest game to prestige now that playing all modes helps fuel your progression. It also allows you to carry weapons between modes more easily and even encourages experimenting with new loadouts or gunsmith tinkering, as the time invested pay dividends across all modes.
The other major change lies in the background, with the removal of skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) as the default option. It’s a change catering for long-term players, but it remains to be seen how the millions of casual players will react to this unseen new way to play.
I’m not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it removes the shackles of who you can play with and allows more variety in lobbies. It opens up the community and provides more opportunities for everyone to get better and test themselves against different styles of players.
But that’s going to mean some decidedly frustrating one-sided affairs.
For the average player, at least initially, it means bouncing between lobbies feeling like the world’s greatest Call of Duty player – then suddenly sucking at it. It reminds me of sitting atop the scoreboards in the good old days, when we used to review Call of Duty games at events a few weeks in advance, to then being put in my place upon the public launch.
The good news is Black Ops 7 makes it easier than ever to stick with your current lobby or leave and find a new one. And for those who prefer to be placed with peers of a similar skill level, there is a classic matchmaking option that uses SBMM. Unfortunately, it’s limited to a mosh pit and I can’t help but think those who would most prefer it are the least likely to find it buried in the bloated COD menus. Seriously, Activision, ditch the horrible COD launcher and give us proper new release games, not AUD $110 DLC for Modern Warfare II on PS5.
I can see the positives, but I suspect Call of Duty with SBMM is so addictive and successful because you’re always in contention to be named in the best players, while also being challenged in most matches. It keeps you coming back, whereas minimising skill in creating lobbies may turn away more casual players. That remains to be seen, but it seems like Activision is testing this with a filler instalment this year, so it can either go full steam ahead or promote classic matchmaking as a selling point of next year’s presumably largely scale COD release.
Co-op campaign
While Treyarch regaled me with their desires to get more players into the campaign all those years ago, they were preaching to the converted. I’m a Call of Duty player who always starts with the campaign on veteran – a guilty pleasure of late has been doing it across both PlayStation and Xbox. The campaigns are an equally important part of the package to me. They’re polished, action-packed, well-paced, slick and highly engaging first-person shooters – unfortunately, Black Ops 7 is none of that.
Black Ops 7 is undoubtedly the worst Call of Duty campaign in the series history; well, at least since Black Ops 4 when Treyarch did us dirty by not bothering to include one at all. This is better than no campaign, I suppose.
I’ll give it props for at least trying something different, but it doesn’t land any of it well. It’s a dedicated co-op campaign, and while you can attempt it alone, I’m not convinced Treyarch tested that at all, as there aren’t any real concessions made. You’ll still need to play online, there are no proper checkpoints, you can’t pause, there’s no difficulty to choose and, strangest of all, there are no CPU companions but there’s still banter between them.
The Microsoft influence is heavy, with Black Ops 7 borrowing from several of the publisher’s ever-growing stable of franchises. Its online structure tries to be a Destiny-lite, with massive levels full of bullet sponge enemies for you and the crew to dispatch. It focuses more on loot, XP and unlocks than narrative or the objectives you’re expected to replay several times; but I can’t imagine anyone will play this trainwreck more than once.
Black Ops campaigns have always dabbled with sci-fi, horror and the supernatural, but Black Ops 7 takes it way too far, diving headfirst into a story — and boss battles with giants heads — more akin to a Gears of War imitator; I don’t want to be battling hordes of spider enemies in a Call of Duty campaign. There isn’t a single mission that feels like COD.
The mix of monsters, zombies and mechs in the campaign is jarring, but its biggest failing is that it’s lost the rewarding combat and flow of Call of Duty in search of ripping off everything else. There are no satisfying headshots, no well-crafted corridors and certainly no sense of progression when you take down these bullet sponges. They also just keep on spawning, and with no real purpose, most of the time you’re best off running past them.
The missions themselves are equally lacklustre. There are a couple of more tightly controlled traditional Call of Duty layouts, but these are the exception, and they still feel cold and generic. Most of the 11 core missions are expansive open worlds designed for co-op wandering. But much like Halo Infinite, more space doesn’t translate to better gameplay – but at least this co-op game actually launched with co-op. The open levels are riddled with filler enemies not worth stopping for, but they still feel lifeless. This design, coupled with boring combat and an incoherent narrative, loses everything that makes a Call of Duty campaign so compelling.
With a design reliant on four players, you’re somewhat at the mercy of matchmaking, and the Call of Duty community isn’t known for collaborating and playing the objective. Although, to be fair, I did find most players I connected with pushed forward to the waypoint.
Black Ops 7 is best played with four mates, catching up with a beer over party chat while playing a generic mindless shooter – it’s about as mindless as a shooter can be. But that’s not Call of Duty, and not what campaign players deserve. I’m also struggling to convince my regular gaming friends to waste their limited time on such a poor campaign, and that’s fair enough.
The final and 12th mission, Endgame, brings 32 players together in a blending of campaign, the zombies horde mode and Warzone. This makes more sense for the bullet sponge style enemies and aligns with the desire to bring all modes closer together. But after a boring campaign, that’s really just zombies gameplay anyway, I couldn’t find any appeal in hanging around in Endgame – I just wanted the game to end.
After the excellent espionage Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War campaign, and its follow up with Black Ops 6, it’s hard to believe Black Ops 7 is part of the same series. I really hope they take a few years off and pretend this whole thing never happened, if Black Ops’ proper campaign ever returns.
The final verdict
If you’re ready for more so soon, Black Ops 7’s multiplayer modes deliver what you’re looking for. It’s the most familiar Call of Duty year-on-year yet – perhaps it should have been an expansion for Black Ops 6 – but you know what you’re in for with more fast and frantic Black Ops action. If you’re ready for something different from COD, you won’t find it here.
Meanwhile, the Black Ops 7 campaign completely loses its way and is the series’ worst since Treyarch didn’t bother to include one at all with Black Ops 4. It tries to borrow from elsewhere to do things differently, but doesn’t do a good job and loses what makes Call of Duty campaigns great in the process.
If Modern Warfare 3 fumbled its campaign directly after Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops 7 completely drops the ball following Black Ops 6. This tactic of rushing out direct sequels isn’t working for Call of Duty. Now all that’s left to ponder is where the franchise goes next after wearing out and devaluing its flagship Modern Warfare and Black Ops series this generation, like Marge Simpson’s tattered Chanel suit.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 was reviewed using a promotional code on PS5 provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.
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