Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 review – A loaded box of content that’s mostly filled with goodies
Call of Duty has become such a well-oiled machine and massive undertaking across several of Activision's studios that each year's annual release can easily be considered as multiple games in one.
It's also a live-service title that evolves over many months, making its review a daunting task, especially around launch. But thanks to Activision and Treyarch's help, I've been playing the new Black Ops 7 for several days ahead of full release. This has notoriously been a feat quite difficult to set up in the era of Call of Duty HQ, where several titles are run out of the same app. But this year, the companies made it happen, allowing for extended play time ahead of launch day.
Black Ops 7 features a four-player co-op campaign with one huge new addition, a new multiplayer suite, and several different kinds of Zombies experiences, meaning any kind of FPS player can find something fun within. And while the results are mixed in different areas, especially in how the DNA of specific games and spinoff modes can be felt throughout, the majority of the experience feels very worthwhile.
Gym attire no longer required
Image via Activision
BO7 is lead studio Treyarch's second consecutive CoD launch, and its biggest strength lies in its multiplayer offering, which is robust on release day. There are 30 weapons and 19 maps, both of which contain remakes and callbacks to the franchise's past, namely Black Ops 2 . As a BO2 megafan, this feels right up my alley, especially when it comes to using weapons I used to dominate with in my (long-gone) competitive prime. These numbers will only grow with each month.
Whether it's camo unlocks, calling card challenges, or just plain stomping noobs with friends, this is the most fun I've had in CoD multiplayer in years. And that is absolutely a direct effect of Activision and Treyarch tuning down how much a player's skill is taken into account with matchmaking.
Players got a taste of the lower SBMM "Open Matchmaking" in the BO7 beta, and it's followed through to full launch. Games are now defined more by connection, so player skill on both teams feels more random than ever, which is a good thing. One game can be a sweatfest while the next may be a stomp in your favor, but it never feels like the deck is stacked against you just because you had a good K/D ratio in the match prior. This is how CoD should feel, and when it does, it's a total blast.
For now, skill is a major determining factor in just one multiplayer playlist, and this will also be the case with Ranked Play when that launches in early 2026. I hope that things stay this way, because while there's totally a place for SBMM, it shouldn't be the default.
Make no mistake, there will be times when you will still get absolutely chokeslammed by players who are better than you (especially with movement tech creating a new skill gap), but it won't be because the matchmaking algorithm said it needed to happen. It'll just be because that's who was in your lobby that game. The worry here, though, is that the lack of SBMM will end up scaring away the least-skilled players that it may have been meant to protect.
Elsewhere, BO7 tweaks Black Ops 6's omnimovement with a wall-jump ability, which makes for exciting and sometimes hilarious moments when you're able to dance around an opponent in close quarters, offering some variety in the year-to-year release model. Overclocks also allow you to rank up and improve items, equipment, and scorestreaks to further extend the grind.
Image via Activision
This year's MP offers a mix of new maps, many of which have very solid three-lane designs, and classic returning ones like Raid, Express, and Nuketown. There are also new modes like the silly 20-vs-20 Skirmish and Capture The Flag-like Overload in addition to classics like Domination or Search and Destroy.
With more of all of these content types promised every season, BO7 could easily have me and others coming back for the next year, so long as SBMM remains a lesser factor in the mix, making it feel like a true classic CoD multiplayer experience.
Still packs a punch
Image via Activision
Zombies mode is back yet again for the third year in a row, and while I'm a bit fatigued by it myself, the countless fans of the mode can't seem to get enough. This year's initial map and intro into the continuing story is called Ashes of the Damned, but that's just a part of what's available.
Ashes of the Damned is part of the overarching plot of Zombies that's been going for years, and its Easter Egg quest goes live in the afternoon on launch day. Players across the world will group up to chase down its secrets, but from what I've played of the new map so far, it seems to be a "greatest hits" of the franchise with several familiar locations spread across the biggest map in Zombies history. And it can all be traversed with the first-ever Wonder Vehicle, Ol' Tessie.
My grasp of the Zombies storyline is almost nonexistent these days, as it's gone from fun Easter Egg hunts in the original games to full-fledged convoluted multiversal-type exposition in recent games. But when it comes to equipping a weapon and using it to mow down zombies to unlock camos and earn XP, this is still as good as it gets. It will take some time to see how Ashes of the Damned is received once the Easter Egg quest is live, but for now, it's another serviceable adventure in the mode.
I will admit, Activision showed me a peek of Ashes of the Damned's Easter Egg quest and final boss, and I think a lot of Zombies fans will be excited by the gameplay that the map brings, especially when it comes to Ol' Tessie.
Beyond the base experience, there's also Survival mode, which is close to the classic round-based format from the mode's beginnings, where you're confined to a small area and just face endless waves of the undead. But for the true purists, there's the impending arrival of Damned mode, a nostalgic take that restricts the experience to no minimap, no loadout, the classic points system, and even difficulty modifiers to make things scarier.
To top it off, there's the twin-stick shooter mode, Dead Ops Arcade 4, which even has its own unique unlocks, like a specific weapon camo at launch. This can be played in the classic top-down perspective, or fully in first-person, like other modes, further adding to the variety.
Zombies are now as synonymous with the franchise as anything else, and it's well represented at launch with more content planned throughout seasonal updates. With all of these different options included, BO7 could end up being the most comprehensive Zombies offering CoD has had yet.
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
Image via Activision
BO7's co-op campaign is a bit of a mixed bag, and it ends up as the weakest mode in the game this year despite having some fun moments. The few-hour story is built upon a handful of classic, on-rails cinematic missions with explosive set pieces like CoD is known for, but there are also some open-world-type endeavors reminiscent of Modern Warfare III's much-maligned Open Combat missions. Again, they leave a lot to be desired.
These missions take place in Avalon, a map that seems built or destined for the Warzone battle royale experience (which may still happen). You're tasked with various objectives (go here, shoot enemies, defend an objective, etc.) and can move around it like you would Verdansk or any of the other large-scale maps, and traversal with movement abilities like the wingsuit or grapple hook makes it quite enjoyable.
The action is interspersed with dialogue and cutscenes to break up the Warzone -like exploration and so unfortunately, this style of mission seems disjointed, less polished, and less CoD -like in design than the rest. To me, Avalon feels like a BR map that got scrapped in favor of Verdansk's return and repurposed for the bulk of BO7's campaign.
Plot-wise, BO7's story events are a direct sequel to BO2 , and they revolve around David Mason and co. fighting a conglomerate and their hallucinogenic chemical weapon that brings the past back to haunt them. This allows for some fun sci-fi elements, like epic boss battles against huge foes and tons of encounters with spooky "Fear" enemies. Coupled with the backdrop of 2035, where AI and robot enemies have taken over, and how you can equip yourself with high-tech gadgets like a super jump or grappling hook, it creates a very un- CoD -like feel in the main missions. And they're the best the campaign has to offer in comparison with the Avalon stuff.
Many multiplayer-centric gamers may say they don't care about the campaign in a CoD game, but I definitely do. The series is full of iconic moments and memories from its single-player portion, but I feel as though this latest entry is heavily lacking in that department.
Image via Activision
This campaign is definitely built to be played in co-op, and I think there's some fun to be had while playing the story's base missions with friends (or randomly matched teammates in matchmaking), especially with some light puzzle solving and bombastic boss fights. Disappointingly, playing the campaign solo is also a nightmarish experience, because there are several encounters meant to be done with multiple players, and it shows. There's no stand-in for teammates, so thankfully there's matchmaking, but it still feels like a misfire. Thankfully, once you finish the 10 main campaign missions, the new Endgame mode opens up, and that's where BO7 greatly differs from past titles.
Endgame is a 32-player co-op experience that's part roguelike and part extraction shooter, and an evolving final piece of the campaign puzzle. In it, you deploy into Avalon with a persistent operator that resets upon death, so every match can be a perilous endeavor. It didn't take long to spot the DNA of both MWIII's MWZ and MWII's DMZ mode within, but it's different enough as a purely PvE experience that I think it's quite interesting.
Completing objectives around the sprawling map and killing a variety of PvE enemies levels up your Combat Rating, unlocks new skills and abilities, and allows you to tackle high-level areas to find whatever lies within. Usually, they are very spongy bad guys that take teamwork to eliminate. I got a taste of what end-level Endgame feels like, and it's intense and challenging, but the rest is shrouded in secrecy for now.
There's a lot of risk/reward to be taken into account in Endgame, similarly to extraction shooters like ARC Raiders, where you need to make the decision to get out of dodge and exfil while you can before getting overwhelmed and losing all of your operator's progress and having to start from scratch. Thankfully, you can field up to four operators, all with different individual levels (similarly to how DMZ's inventory system worked), so you can play as whichever one you please, depending on how hard you want to grind.
Out of the box, Endgame feels like a promising co-op PvE romp full of challenges for players who wish to seek them out, even if it's just been built from the remnants of previous third CoD modes. At first, I wasn't sure of its longevity, although Activision confirmed to me that there will be time-limited modes and new content added to Endgame over time, as well as the game's other modes.
Screenshot by Destructoid
I was shown a peek at what's to come in season one, and I won't spoil anything too bad, but some limited time events include encounters with some classic, iconic Zombies baddies that should please players who are looking for more out of what's an already pretty cool new endeavor.
Either way, I appreciate Endgame as a new risk and unique experience for the series, and I think the mode may end up surprising people in a positive way.
The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 review – A loaded box of content that’s mostly filled with goodies appeared first on Destructoid .
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