Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

All of this adds up to a great multiplayer that will no doubt keep players hooked for months to come. But while it’s a lot of fun to play, there’s nothing new here to get excited about. [Review in Progress]

Overall the campaign is a massive letdown. It still manages to include some fun boss fights and cool level design in an undoubtedly pretty package. The bones of a good game are here, and it makes me wish Treyarch had gone an entirely different direction, while still keeping cool ideas like crossover progression with multiplayer. [Campaign Review]

The campaign and endgame content in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is another great addition to the franchise’s lineup, and, while it was slightly lacking in some aspects with the storytelling itself, the set design and experience of the whole campaign more than made up for it. Do yourself a favor and turn off social media for a day while you play, to avoid letting people get in your head about why you shouldn’t like it, and just give it a fair shot. If you like Black Ops, you will like this. [Campaign Review score = 85]

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s campaign is a wild one thanks to the scope of its ambition. Not every roll of the dice pays off, but there’s enough enjoyment to be found across its 11 missions to not feel like a dud, at least when played in its desired co-op fashion. Beyond that, its endgame has the seed of a good idea that could be nurtured with future efforts, but it comes across as a little repetitive and supplementary to the story Black Ops 7 is trying to tell. With satisfying gunplay and very fun movement abilities providing solid foundations, there’s a reasonable mix of styles on show here, even if it doesn’t fire on all cylinders 100% of the time. Despite being a step down from last year’s exhilarating Black Ops 6 campaign, it certainly takes some big swings – they just don’t always land. It’s not bad. It’s not good. It’s simply okay. [Campaign Review score = 60]

In a vacuum, this year’s Call of Duty is a weird, really big, and mostly bad misfire that I doubt hurts the franchise all that much in the long run. But if we look beyond Black Ops 7 and consider the larger context, this might be the worst version of Call of Duty for Activision to have launched in 2025, as it’s going up against the super popular, grounded, and back-to-basics Battlefield 6.

There's no curation here. The whole campaign mode feels like an afterthought. There are likely many reasons for it: Treyarch had a number of years to develop Black Ops 6, but with this coming just 12 months later, time must've been short. Maybe more focus went on multiplayer and zombies this year, as those modes are replayable and, frankly, the reason most players buy a Call of Duty game in the first place. Whatever the reason, Black Ops 7 is a serious low point for Call of Duty campaigns.

I wish I could say I was surprised by the sloppiness of Black Ops 7's campaign, but the sad reality is it's part of a long-running pattern with Call of Duty's annualised releases that has only exacerbated in recent years, with direct sequels to the series' various offshoots feeling like warmed up leftovers from a twelve-month old meal. That said, it is still disappointing considering the comparative quality of the last two Black Ops campaigns, and at a time when old-fashioned linear shooters are extremely scarce, Black Ops 7's failure to offer up something even modestly enjoyable is keenly felt. [Campaign Review]