Hey all, I’m back playing and reviewing this year’s amazing new Call of Duty entry. It’s our Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 review. The latest entry is available for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X as well as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It’s ready to play for PC players too through the Steam platform.
Plot: The plot of this story picks up after Black Ops 2 in the year 2035. The player takes on the role of one of David Mason’s squad in the campaign. I say one of them because which of the four members you get to play depends on your luck when you go online, but I’ll get to that in a bit. The single player story itself is as chaotic and trippy as any of the other Black Ops titles and really does live up to the reputation of the series when it comes to messing with people’s heads in the single player campaigns.
Expect some really interesting surprises and plot twists. However, if you’re unfamiliar with the series, then some of the details that are revealed in Black Ops 7 might be a little bit confusing (not that it would prevent you from going through and engaging in any of the crazy, over-the-top missions). Some of the details just might go over your head.
The main focus of Black Ops 7 is something that’s not new, however, as it centers around the role of mechanized and automated warfare in the near future. It’s a topic that’s been covered countless times in media including novels, various anime such as Gundam Wing, and gaming in titles like Metal Gear Solid 4. Overall, the storyline is fine, but it’s nothing spectacular either. However, the intense gameplay makes up for it and helps to make this Call of Duty entry pretty amazing.
Campaign Gameplay: To start off with, I’ll cover the standalone campaign. This year, it’s designed to be done online with a group of people. There is no pausing and very, very few checkpoints. You can get matchmaking for it thankfully, and I did just that for my first run through. It was pretty fun and worked fairly well, although there were hiccups like the time when me and my squad were dodging incoming cars on a highway when getting hit even once meant going back to the beginning of that section. A majority of your team has to make it to the end, which can be tricky. And even then, it’ll take a few minutes to activate the catch-up function to bring the stragglers forward to the rest of the team.
Another odd issue is the hacking minigame where you direct data streams to reach certain ports. Those puzzles can take a while to solve. Most of them are fairly simple, but the very last one in the final big mission before Endgame is a doozy. It took me a while to get through it, and all the while my team was busy handling hordes of enemies trying to kill us.
Calling Black Ops 7 a hectic shooter is a perfect description. It felt very much like Zombies on occasion, and I even saw a Zombie mode’s elite enemy one time, although having it show up wasn’t too much of a surprise. Why that occurs is actually believable in the context of the story as the game ends up messing with the character’s head quite a lot. You will see falling giant machetes, giant flowers that are trying to eat you, and other odd things. While this is happening, you are tasked with lots of intense activities like platforming across abysses filled with destroyed vehicles, grappling, wall jumping, super jumping, and even using a wing suit to get around the various missions.
Honestly, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a ton of fun. But the online aspect for the standalone campaign might be an unwanted requirement for many players, and I do have to acknowledge that. Frankly, I just played it online with others to make it easier to deal with the large enemy counts and repeating objectives, especially with so few checkpoints. I even turned off my voice chat to save the other players I got grouped up with from hearing the fan I had going to keep me cool during tense moments. But I played on Day 1, so my experience is probably not going to be the same as other newcomer’s experiences a week or a month from now.
The final part of the campaign is a repeatable timed mission titled Endgame that is essentially a player versus enemy-only mode of Modern Warfare II’s DMZ mode or Modern Warfare III’s Zombies on the giant map of Avalon. Matches last about 45 minutes, and there is an additional roughly 15 minutes to exfil while dealing with the ever-expanding clouds of poison culminating in one giant chaotic mess at the end for a final exfil. I did that a grand total of once back in Zombies, and I didn’t really want to repeat that experience too much.
I enjoyed the overall campaign quite a bit. While I did complete it with a random group the first time, it’s also doable solo for the most part. You will just need to really prep to take on the bigger objectives and bosses, and it’ll likely take multiple runs to get through it on your lonesome. Meanwhile, a competent group of experienced players can probably get through the campaign in a single run.
Going on to Multiplayer for Black Ops 7: This, of course, includes a Zombies mode and really isn’t that different from last year’s Black Ops 6 version of round-based Zombies. The multiplayer is pretty much standard for Call of Duty these days. It’s a chaotic mess filled with players throwing various grenades, using pieces of tech, and shooting each other from all angles. Honestly, nothing has really changed this go around, although there was no version of Ground War or Invasion that I could find, which was a pity as it was one of my favored modes in Modern Warfare II. The Shipment mission was also missing and while some people might not miss it, I happened to enjoy the chaotic mess that was Hardcore Shipment 24/7 when I was grinding out various camo challenges along with masteries. Maybe it’ll return in a future season, but for now the new maps are still fun even if my favorite little map is missing.
Speaking of new maps, they look and play great. Plus, players have the ability to wall jump. As such, you can find new and interesting ways to get around the map and confuse opponents. One of my favorite new tricks is to jump over a player’s head by using the walls to stay completely out of their line of sight and get behind them in stairwells. Other changes include the lack of any form of mines or claymores, which is also a shame in my opinion.
Music: The music fits the game, and nothing really more needs to be said. The campaign included some awesome and epic tracks, but for the most part the action stole the show, which isn’t a bad thing for a Call of Duty title.
Art: The art generally is also spectacularly well done, and I really enjoyed all the various set pieces we get to see in the campaign. That said, there have been instances of AI used in generating various pieces of artwork like those used for calling cards, and that’s more than a bit of a pity as I’d expect a big-name title like Call of Duty to really allow their actual visual artists a chance to shine for the entire game.
Overall: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is mostly a pretty great title. It’s not really game changing from what we had before, but that is okay as people will get what they probably expect. Black Ops 7 basically feels like a core Call of Duty game with a bit more of a futuristic touch than what we normally see. It’s definitely worth playing.
For those who like: First person shooters, action, military gaming, dramatic plots, amazing voice acting, well-written characters, and really thrilling gameplay.
Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, cooperative campaigns, multiplayer maps, and missions that have not really evolved much from previous titles.
Developers: Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Treyarch Invention
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series X