Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has some of the best multiplayer and zombies in the series, but also one of the worst campaigns

Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2025 01:00:00 +0000

Playing the co-op campaign of first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 feels like diving into season 13, episode 21 of a low-budget network TV show with no prior context.

Review info
Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
Release date: November 14, 2025

Set ten years after the events of 2012s Black Ops 2 , it opens with returning hero David Mason heading to the coastal city-state of Avalon with his squad
to track down the source of a sinister broadcast purportedly from deceased terrorist Raul Menendez.

Your first mission involves infiltrating the high-tech headquarters of The Guild, a futuristic tech company thats the apparent source of the video, and right from the get-go, its obvious that corners have been cut.

Cutscenes seem a little cheaper than usual, with awkward animations and juvenile, stilted dialogue thats nowhere near the cinematic espionage excellence of last years Black Ops 6 .

The pacing is also far too abrupt, front-loaded with big exposition dumps
that propel the plot forward at a frankly overwhelming clip.

Early on, the team is exposed to a hallucinogenic red gas, with most
sequences taking place inside a dream-like haze. There are some striking visuals, like a fractured memory of Menendezs Nicaraguan compound or an impossibly twisted L.A. Highway, though they mostly boil down to mowing down waves of reskinned enemies from the Zombies mode and then taking on overly tanky boss fights.

Each mission is structured like a raid from an MMO (massively multiplayer online game), a la Destiny 2 ; the antithesis of the highly scripted,
set-piece driven action that has made previous campaigns so great. In the
real world, a handful of missions take place in Avalon with a semi-open-world structure reminiscent of the widely disliked open combat missions of 2023s Modern Warfare 3 .

The map, originally designed for Warzone , is far too large, so you end up having to trudge your way between different objectives.

A few special abilities, like a super jump or a grapple hook that allow you
to quickly gain momentum and deploy a wingsuit, provide a welcome, faster method of traversal, but are ultimately a solution to a problem that a Call
of Duty campaign should have never suffered from in the first place.

Its also hard to shake the fact that most of Avalon doesn't really fit in
with the rest of the 2035 setting. This is most apparent when you reach an
area that first appeared in Black Ops 6 as the Skyline multiplayer map. The rooftop apartment is entirely unchanged from its depiction in that game,
which was set more than four decades prior in 1991.

The only real setting that seems suitably futuristic is a segment in the neon-lit streets of Tokyo, in which you play as an entirely different team of characters for no apparent reason, jumping between rooftops using your wall-jump - a new move for Black Ops 7 . Its a clear highlight despite the jarring new faces, and its sad that there aren't more moments with tightly designed parkour like this throughout.

As with the setting of Avalon, a significant number of mechanics in the co-op campaign feel ripped right out of Warzone .

There are weapon boxes littered around the world so that you can gear up, replenishable armour plates protect you from hits, and weapons have different rarity levels that you can upgrade as you go at designated stations. The user interface is indistinguishable too; there are no checkpoints to save your progress within missions, and you cant even pause the game if you want to
take a break.

Despite all of this, I certainly didnt hate playing through the campaign. Its nowhere near as boring as the sloppy story in the aforementioned Modern
Warfare 3 , namely as a result of its co-op. With a friend or three in tow,
it all becomes absolutely hilarious.

The writing is rough across the board, so ripe for moments of inadvertent comedy like a ludicrous dream sequence in which you fight a giant version of Harper - one of the playable characters and returning face from Black Ops 2 - or when the main baddie is defeated by an anti-tank missile to the face, only to reappear completely fine mere seconds later.

After you finish the campaign, youre unleashed into the
extraction-shooter-like Endgame, and its surprisingly quite a lot of fun.

Dropping into a gas-filled Avalon with countless other players, it has you completing mini-challenges to level up your Combat Rating and unlock special perks that do everything from massively boost your firing speed to causing a burst of electricity that stuns enemies every time you reload. Youre working
on a strict time limit, and if youre killed before you can reach an
extraction point, you lose all of your progress, so its inherently very high stakes and reminiscent of a roguelike in the best of ways.

The map is split into multiple difficulty areas, and progressing through each one is very satisfying. It all culminates in a very challenging boss fight
that requires you to team up with other players on the server, an enjoyable moment of collaboration thats a great little send-off.

In addition to quickly levelling up your weapons and gear for use in other modes, beating the boss with multiple characters rewards you with some great-looking skins, giving you a genuine reason to come back and replay it.

The format is also clearly ripe for expansion, and Im intrigued to see what kind of additions will come to the Endgame throughout the year.

On the multiplayer front, Black Ops 7 fares much better. Building on the incredibly strong foundations laid with Black Ops 6, this is comfortably one
of the most engaging multiplayer offerings yet. The maps, a bit of a weak
point last year, are all absolutely fantastic, and there are loads of them to master. The ones set in Japan in particular look simply stunning, with
gorgeous details and impressive lighting that conveys a brilliant atmosphere.

Best bit

Black Ops 7 offers a new multiplayer
Skirmish mode that features 40 players on massive maps. Its a pleasant change of pace compared to the usual small-scale environments in the Black Ops
series and channels some of what makes Battlefield 6 great.

Small maps like Blackheart, Homestead, and Cortex flow wonderfully and dont suffer from awkward spawn locations. The work especially well with the hectic new Overload game mode, which has two teams clashing for possession of a bomb-like device that needs to be placed in specific locations to score.

The map themes themselves are brilliantly varied, too, with some evocative concepts that I wish had been explored in the campaign. Scar, for example, is set in a distant Alaskan village thats being torn apart by attacking robots, while Colossus has you exploring the rusted wreckage of the once beautiful resort that was memorably destroyed in Black Ops 2 .

The wall jump adds another dimension to traversal, augmenting the existing Omnimovement system (which allows you to sprint in any direction) by giving more skilled players the opportunity to hop above the heads of enemies on vertical routes that require multiple tricky jumps to cross.

Gear Overclocking from Advanced Warfare is back, too, meaning that your most used equipment can be upgraded with new abilities to increase its effectiveness. This pairs nicely with Weapon Prestige, where you can reset
your weapon level in exchange for special attachments and exclusive camos,
and ensures that, unlike past releases, youre not going to run out of levels
to grind any time soon.

The guns themselves are all very satisfying to use and well-balanced. Assault rifles and SMGs are definitely the most versatile and popular options, though sniper rifles and marksman rifles are still very viable given their
incredible damage output, and shotguns such as the fully automatic Akita absolutely dominate at close range.

With a deluge of new maps set to arrive in Season One and the imminent
addition of the classic Nuketown, this is shaping up to be one of the
greatest years of multiplayer Call of Duty yet.

Like multiplayer, Zombies builds on everything that worked in its Black Ops 6 iteration.

Theres one Round-Based map at launch, and its absolutely massive, featuring
an upgradeable truck to help you get around. There are heavy references to
the legendary TranZit map from Black Ops 2 , including some returning areas that have been lovingly recreated and incorporated seamlessly.

It continues the long-running and nigh-impenetrable storyline thats been
going all the way since World at War , with a brand new main quest that requires multiple hidden steps to complete. Long-time Zombies fans will absolutely love it, but if chasing esoteric easter eggs isnt your speed,
theres a more basic Survival mode thats perfect for unwinding with friends as you mow down waves of the undead.

This is in addition to Dead Ops Arcade 4 , a light-hearted top-down challenge mode that has you running through small combat arenas with retro twin-stick controls, trying to last for as long as possible. This isnt the deepest mode
by any means, but its an enjoyable diversion and well worth trying for a handful of runs.

With all of this said, it should be obvious whether Black Ops 7 is for you.

If youre primarily invested in the multiplayer or Zombies, then youre going
to have a fantastic time - the maps are great and its hard to overstate just how refined and polished the minute-to-minute action here feels. The co-op campaign is a very different story, though, and a big miss despite the strong Endgame.

Should I play Call of Duty: Black Ops 7? Play it if

Youre after some fantastic multiplayer
The multiplayer is fantastic in Black Ops 7 . Its fast-paced, and new
mechanics like wall jumping work well. The lineup of maps is also great this year.

Youre a big Zombies fan
The first Zombies map is a hit too. Its huge scale is impressive, and
die-hard fans will love working their way through the challenging main quest. For everyone else, the Survival mode and Dead Ops Arcade 4 are a blast.

You live for a good grind
In addition to the usual overall Prestige grind, Black Ops 7 has Gear Overclocking with new upgrades to unlock and Weapon Prestige, ensuring that
you wont run out of things to level any time soon.

Dont play it if

Youre expecting a proper Black Ops 2 follow up
The campaign here can be funny, but it's ultimately a mess and not the sequel that Black Ops 2 deserved. If you really care about that games story, then
you should give this sequel a miss.

Accessibility features

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has a good number of accessibility features.

The UI features a number of reliability options, including the ability to increase subtitle size, adjust background color, adjust the size of text in menus, and fully customize the colors of important information. The
multiplayer HUD can also be edited to your liking and made significantly
larger if required.

There are multiple control layouts to choose from, with presets for
simplified controls on controller and settings to reduce the need for lots of motion. On both console and PC, you can choose to play the game with either a controller or keyboard and mouse.

How I reviewed Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

I played more than 30 hours of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 for this review, including roughly 12 hours in both the campaign and Endgame in solo and co-op and the rest of that time in the other modes.

I played on PC using a 5070 Ti-powered model from retailer Scan . It features
a compact Corsair 2000d RGB Airflow case, Asus ROG Strix B860-I Gaming Wifi motherboard, Intel Core Ultra 7 265K CPU, a 2TB WD Black SN770 SSD, 32GB of DDR5 Corsair Vengeance RAM, and an Nvidia 5070 Ti manufactured by Asus.

This setup allowed me to play the game smoothly on custom graphics settings
at 1080p with everything set to either Ultra or High. For peripherals, I
relied on a Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro mouse and Cherry XTRFY K5V2 keyboard in addition to an Astro A20 X PC gaming headset for audio.

In addition to playing a lot after its public launch, my time with the game included roughly a day of early access. I evaluated the game against previous Call of Duty releases, namely Black Ops 6 and other recent entries like
Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2, and Black Ops Cold War .

First reviewed October-November 2024 ======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/gaming/call-of-duty-black-ops-7-review
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