Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

With Treyarch at the helm and eight studios collaborating on development, Activision clearly spared no expense on Black Ops 7. The all-hands-on-deck approach shows, with production values soaring. Despite a few technical hiccups, this is one of the most content-rich Call of Duty games ever released…Treyarch has crafted something special: a sprawling, ambitious, and endlessly replayable shooter that caters to nearly every corner of the Call of Duty fandom. It’s not flawless, and some may scoff at the lack of innovation, but it stands as a staggering achievement in both scale and ambition. Massive and occasionally messy, it’s nonetheless a thrilling ride. Black Ops 7 delivers everything fans could hope for and then some.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is arguably the richest Call of Duty ever in terms of content, delivering an incredibly fun and robust multiplayer experience from day one. However, it falls short of excellence due to a mediocre, disjointed campaign and some noticeable technical compromises stemming from its cross-gen development. A great package, but held back by its flaws.

The sheer amount of content Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 brings to the table is impressive, even if some of it doesn't live up to expectations. The co-op campaign is a mixed bag, Endgame is a bust, and the game is largely derivative of what came before, but it's a comprehensive, feature-rich package that will keep fans busy until the 2026 Call of Duty game. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a no-brainer for longtime Call of Duty fans, though it won't win over any haters.

CoD: Black Ops 7 is particularly enjoyable in multiplayer mode – the story campaign, on the other hand, lags behind.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 feels like a rushed and half-hearted sequel. It doesn't measure up, with the worst campaign and the worst gunplay. The multiplayer is fun, but it's not enough to make up for the other shortcomings.

Those coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 primarily for multiplayer will find a polished, thrilling package that will last all year. Those seeking a memorable solo campaign will leave disappointed.

Strong multiplayer props up an otherwise poor showing from Call of Duty this year. The combat and movement is a good as ever, but a woefully dire co-op campaign drags the experience to one of the lowest points in years, and is only mildly mitigated by the End Game extraction mode that has some good to it, albeit marred by not being the main focus of the release of Black Ops 7.

Black Ops 7 has the worst Call of Duty campaign of all time, but another solid multiplayer with great maps and an addictive Zombies mode means there's still plenty of fun to be had.

At the top of this I posed a question, does all this content equate to a better Call of Duty game, and I think the truthful answer is no. No doubt the team took some really big swings this year with the campaign, but I feel like they missed more than they hit with it. The lack of checkpoints and being always online is rough, especially when there are tons of fans who only play single-player and loves these games. If you are returning to Black Ops for the multiplayer or zombies then you are in for a great time, of course mileage may vary depending on which mode and if players vibe with it or not. But ultimately this year’s Call of Duty just feels like a big bag of melted candy, sure it will taste good but is the mess you got to work through to enjoy it worth it in the end?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a contradictory title, caught between the need to evolve the series and the fear of leaving behind what defines it. Its gunplay is still superb and the Zombies mode shines brightly, but the campaign is a huge drag and Endgame fails to deliver the excitement and clarity needed to become a new benchmark. When everything clicks, you have fun. When it fails, it's all too noticeable. It's an enjoyable COD, yes, but far from the level expected of a numbered Black Ops. A hard blow to the series that may set the course from now on.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a real mishmash. After several fairly successful entries in the series, we’re getting a mix of styles and ideas that don’t mesh well and fail to work as a whole. This year’s story campaign is one of the weakest in the series, and even the callbacks to older installments can’t save it. The Zombies mode also comes off as rather mediocre, and only die-hard multiplayer fans will find anything truly good and engaging here.

Treyarch and its development partners have done their best to cobble something together with Black Ops 7, but you just can't get around the rushed nature of this back-to-back Black Ops release. The game's campaign is almost an insult to Call of Duty single player offerings of the past, and while the core of multiplayer is solid, technical issues are dragging that experience down on Xbox at launch as well. Zombies is the highlight for me and I can see myself dipping back into this mode a fair bit - in fact, it's probably the only bit of Black Ops 7 that feels truly finished on day one. It's probably worth checking back on multiplayer down the line when the issues I've mentioned inevitably get ironed out, but campaign can't be saved - and overall, Black Ops 7 just feels undercooked after the care and attention that was put into last year's release.

A messy and rather poor campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies modes that fail to offer anything new, and a general dearth of innovation means this year's COD instalment is a bit of a damp squib. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 still has plenty to offer, but, quite honestly, we've seen it all countless times before.

This game’s strangeness scarcely counts as a unique spin on a familiar gameplay loop.