Call of Duty: Black Ops 7: multiplayer (yay), campaign (nay)

Domagoj Belancic

21/11/2025

Translation: Katherine Martin

Pictures: Domagoj Belancic

With its empty promises and an identity crisis, the new Call of Duty has turned out to be a letdown. Multiplayer fans, however, will still get their money’s worth.

I spent a week blasting my way through every mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. As it turns out, this year’s instalment of Activision’s blockbuster series didn’t manage to impress me across the board.

While the multiplayer and Zombie modes provide typical Call of Duty fare, the game’s disappointing on account of one of the worst campaigns in a long time.

The campaign is a disaster

Last year’s Black Ops 6 espionage story is still one of the best single-player campaigns I’ve ever played in a shooter. But instead of building on those strengths, Activision’s decided to go in a totally different direction with Black Ops 7. To my dismay.

You can play this year’s campaign either alone or with up to three friends. Each player takes on the role of someone in the special unit around David Mason, a familiar face from Black Ops 2. In the run-up to the game’s release, Activision assured fans that Black Ops 7 would be fun to play regardless of the number of players.

That was, to put it mildly, an empty promise.

The campaign’s very obviously designed for four players. You don’t need to look much further than the excessively large levels, irritating bullet sponges and stupidly big hordes of enemies to see that. None of this is any fun if you’re playing alone. In fact, it’s exhausting. The really absurd thing? Although four members of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) appear in the cutscenes, single players are completely alone in the levels. No AI-controlled teammates in sight. It’s just you and hundreds of brainless enemies.

But it’s not just the campaign’s game mechanics that are a pain for solo players – it’s the tech too. Even if you want to play alone, you’re forced to play online. If you take too long a break (just over five minutes in my case), you’re kicked out of the match for inactivity. On top of that, there are no checkpoints between missions. Want to hit save and continue where you left off tomorrow? Forget it!

Oh, and don’t even bother trying to find a difficulty setting. That’s scaled automatically according to the number of players. Is the campaign too easy or too difficult for you? Tough luck, it’s do or die.

Fortunately, I managed to persuade two buddies to play most of the missions with me. Their marksmanship and silly banter made the generic campaign much more bearable. Frankly, it was even a little fun – especially during the linear sections of a level. During these moments, carefully orchestrated action scenes made the flow of the game feel most like a traditional Call of Duty campaign.

I also liked the countless futuristic gadgets we unlocked over the course of the game. The movement options are particularly cool. Take Kinetic Jump, for example, which allows you to jump extremely high. Or the wingsuits you can use to glide around like a flying squirrel. The offensive upgrades are impressive too. Personally, I loved firing grenades with the brutal War Machine and hacking robots with the Black Hat.

Unfortunately, the game repeatedly threw my buddies and me into open, often excessively large areas, forcing us to hold out against seemingly endless waves of dumb enemies. Moments like these made the whole thing feel like a generic multiplayer mode – a soulless shell of what makes Call of Duty solo campaigns special. It reminded me of the calamitous Modern Warfare 3 campaign with Warzone bot matches.

Every so often, inconsequential, shooting gallery-style passages were interrupted by gigantic bosses. We fought against mutated zombie plants, fire-breathing giant soldiers and overly powerful, hidden snipers.

With a few exceptions, the bosses are mostly one thing: annoying. It takes forever to drain their huge life bars. The principle’s always the same: find their weak point, shoot, wait for a counterattack, go on shooting. Over and over again.

The story feels like a fever dream

Now, you might be wondering what the hell mutant zombie plants and fire-breathing giant soldiers are doing in Call of Duty. Well, Activision’s opted for an experimental approach with the story. To my dismay.

Black Ops 7 is a direct continuation of Black Ops 2. David Mason (played by Milo Ventimiglia) and his JSOC unit are investigating a mysterious tech company known as The Guild in the year 2035. The corporation makes gaseous bioweapons that drive their victims mad with hallucinations. Of course, the JSOC comes into contact with the gas in their very first mission, then hallucinates happily away for the rest of the story.

In the run-up to the game, Activision announced that the plot would feel grounded and not too out-there, despite the crazy hallucinations. Again, that was an empty promise.

Over the course of the five-hour campaign, the story’s told at lightspeed. As a result of the fast pace, you don’t really manage to get to know David Mason’s team. The characters are about as flat as the line graph indicating the number of Call of Duty players on Steam right now.

The hallucinations are based on traumatic things the JSOC members have experienced during their military careers. In theory, anyway. In practice, the sequences feel like the fever dreams of a degenerate AI, completely detached from both reality and the characters’ psyche. The story catapults you into confrontations with zombies, ghosts, giant spiders and strange monsters resembling the Demogorgon from Stranger Things.

The Black Ops 6 campaign also involved levels featuring hallucinations, but they were executed in a thoughtful way. In Black Ops 7, you’re constantly confronted with monstrosities to the point that they lose all meaning.

Combined with the futuristic setting and string of humanoid robot enemies, the campaign feels like a hodgepodge of clichéd video game baddies that have been randomly thrown together.

Endgame reveals what the campaign truly is

Once you’ve completed the campaign, the game «rewards» you with a final section you could, in theory, play indefinitely: Endgame.

In this PvE mode, you and 32 other players are let loose on Avalon, an open world around The Guild’s headquarters. You’re tasked with taking out the last remaining tech villains, their killer robots and, of course, a whole host of zombies, ghosts and other members of the game’s bog-standard parade of monstrosities.

After recognising numerous places from the story in the open world, it dawned on me why many sequences from the campaign felt like generic multiplayer fare. It’s because they’re actually part of a larger multiplayer map. Endgame reveals the campaign’s true colours.

To my surprise, the whole thing works much better without the unnecessary trappings of a story. You can run, fly and drive around the map, complete missions, gain XP, level up your character and unlock new abilities. The area’s divided into four zones, with each one containing increasingly strong enemies and challenges.

One Endgame session lasts 50 minutes. Before time runs out, you have to escape the area by helicopter from designated evacuation zones. If you die on a jaunt to Avalon, you lose everything you’ve collected.

I can certainly imagine there’ll be people who’ll love this mode. As for me, I got bored of the repetitive missions after just a few sessions.

AI rubbish as a reward

Before I get into the multiplayer modes, I have to mention Activision’s blatant use of AI content in the campaign and Endgame – most notably with the unlockable calling cards. These look like AI-generated versions of the drawings done by animation legends, Studio Ghibli, which were extremely popular on social media a long time ago. There are also illustrations with a hint of the Fallout comic style.

Activision has now published an official statement confirming that it uses AI. However, the statement made no mention of whether AI was used in this specific case.

Aside from the fact that having AI content in a billion-dollar franchise like Call of Duty feels fundamentally icky, there’s another question I have to ask. How on earth could someone relate Studio Ghibli’s drawing style to the Black Ops 7 campaign? Didn’t anyone put any thought and effort into making sure the finished product looked reasonably coherent?

Multiplayer and zombies: Call of Duty at its best

After all that negativity, I’m happy to give the multiplayer modes my seal of approval. Like in previous games, they’re really well done in Black Ops 7. Which is unsurprising, seeing as nothing fundamental has changed since Black Ops 6. Instead, Activision’s tried – and succeeded – to score points on quantity.

There are plenty of maps already available at launch – 19 at the time of writing. And most of them are seriously good. Multiplayer studio Treyarch has stuck to old strengths, while also focusing on the tried-and-tested three-lane design for new maps. As the name suggests, players’ paths are routed along three lanes, where they meet and shoot each other. The maps are just the right size, the designs are varied and I don’t feel like skipping any levels. All in all, it’s a successful start.

I loved the fast controls on any map I played. This year, wall jumping has been added to the fluid omnimovement game mechanics, allowing you to take advantage of any vertical surface as a leap-off point. The gunplay feels excellent as always, regardless of whether you’re using a shotgun, SMG or sniper. It’s also fun to experiment with the game’s new, futuristic weapons.

Some high-tech new additions have also been made to scorestreaks. I was particularly taken with D.A.W.G., the dog robot. When the opposing team activated that infernal machine and I heard its menacing noises, it sent shivers down my spine.

It’s commendable that there’s a global progression system this year, meaning that no matter what you play, your character and weapons always get XP. As a result, any time spent on the disastrous campaign doesn’t feel completely wasted, as you at least benefit from the XP gained in multiplayer.

Speaking of progress, I also like the fact that upgrades aren’t limited to weapons in Black Ops 7. You can also use overclocks on grenades, scorestreaks and field upgrades, allowing you to adapt the game mechanics to your gaming style even more. For example, if you often use the remote-controlled car to blow up enemies, you can kit it out with extra armour.

Alongside familiar multiplayer modes such as Hardpoint, Domination and Kill Confirmed, there are two new additions this year. Overload immediately became one of my favourites. In this game, two teams fight over an Overload device, then transport it to one of two opposing zones. You’ll constantly battle for the device, including repeated role changes. One moment, your team’s defending your own zones. The next, you’re transporting the device to one of the enemy zones in an attack formation.

The second new mode, Skirmish, is unfortunately a total fail. Two teams of 20 players fight each other on a map section of Avalon. There, you have to complete various missions, including capturing territory and planting bombs. To be honest, after the campaign and Endgame, I’d lost interest in these open areas. The mode’s too slow, too unspectacular and, compared to other classic modes, just… boring.

And then, of course, there’s the obligatory Zombie mode, which I have a similar problem with. After a campaign filled with zombies and other monsters, I didn’t feel like spending any more hours with the undead. This review already involves enough self-sacrifice (I hope you appreciate that).

If you’re a fan of Zombie mode, you’ll find plenty of rotten, living-dead meat on the bone in this year’s version. Ashes of the Damned is the biggest Zombies map ever. So big that you get a car to drive yourself around the nightmarish, undead-infested world.

Despite the new vehicle, the concept underpinning the game is the same. Along with up to three other players, your aim is to survive the zombie onslaught, upgrade weapons and gear, unlock new paths and discover secrets. If the large map’s too much for you, there’s also a mode that allows you to stay confined to a smaller area of it. This leads to a more intense experience.

Call of Duty zombies never manage to keep me glued to the controller for long. So after a few sessions, I packed in my career as slayer of the undead and went looking for action in the other multiplayer modes.

Does Activision listen to fans?

It seems like Activision actually listened to fan feedback when it came to this year’s multiplayer. For instance, Black Ops 7 has playlists without skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) – and with persistent lobbies. Two features that many players have wanted for a long time. Instead of being packed into a lobby with opponents who’re about as good as you, you’re pitted against people with completely different skill levels. If you like the lobby, you can play with the same people again in the next match.

When it comes down to it, I don’t like this open method of matchmaking. In many games, there are two or three absolute psychos who mow everyone down and dominate the rest of the lobby. I’d rather stick with traditional SBMM, as it tends to give me a more consistent gaming experience, and cause me less frustration. It’s just a shame that the SBMM playlist selection is very limited at the moment.

Another point of criticism that’s been hotly debated in the community is the ridiculous multiplayer skins. In Black Ops 6, players were running around as shark-human hybrids, Nicki Minaj and Beavis and Butthead.

Activision vowed to do better for Black Ops 7, stating that skins from the previous game wouldn’t be transferable and any new ones would feel «authentic».

It was an admirable, sensible decision. Considering the rest of its empty pre-launch promises, however, I wonder how long Activision will stick to this course. After all, skins generate a lot of revenue.

It also feels really weird that the company’s focusing on «authenticity» in the multiplayer. At the end of the day, there are monsters, zombies, ghosts and cheap Demogorgon copies running around in the campaign. Not to mention the gross, AI-generated Ghibli imitations used in the calling cards.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Game Pass. I tested the PS5 Pro version provided to me by Microsoft.

In a nutshell

Muddled package with a lousy campaign and a successful multiplayer

Activision claims Black Ops 7 is the «biggest Black Ops of all time». That might well be true. But unfortunately, this monstrous package feels like a soulless patchwork quilt of a game, cobbled together without direction or identity.

Considering the fierce competition from within the genre at the moment – particularly from the likes of Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders – this misstep feels much more significant than it would’ve back in the days when Activision’s military shooter was dominating a market that lacked any serious rivals.

The campaign, with its repetitive gameplay and unnecessary technical hurdles for solo players, is a disappointment. What’s more, the confused story feels like an AI fever dream that tosses all kinds of generic monsters into an incoherent mess. Endgame, the final chapter, struggles to keep me glued to the controller on account of its dull missions.

Thankfully, the multiplayer and Zombie mode have been well executed, saving the muddled Black Ops 7 package from a lower rating. It’s huge selection of maps, excellent controls, new upgrades, cool gadgets and wealth of content are impressive.

Pro

• Loads of content, especially in multiplayer
• Global progress system
• Excellent, fluid controls
• Overload, one of the new multiplayer modes, is brilliant
• Well-executed selection of excellent maps

Contra

• Disastrous campaign with a ridiculous story
• Boring Endgame mode
• New multiplayer mode, Skirmish, is unimpressive
• Selection of monsters feels randomly thrown together
• Gross AI content

Video games

EUR89,90

Activision Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

PS5, DE

11

Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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