Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 review - the good, the bad and the ugly

It's never ideal to start with a cliche - but the phrase 'the good, the bad and the ugly' springs to mind when looking back at my time with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 at launch.

There's been a lot riding on Black Ops 7 to do well - not just because of the release of Battlefield 6 but also with the feeling among some players that Black Ops 6 started to feel like Fortnite with its skins and approach.

Black Ops 6 started off so strongly - I was a huge fan when it released but admittedly I dropped off as the months went by.

EA has successfully revived its Battlefield franchise by going back to the series' roots and while Black Ops 7 goes further away from the origins of Call of Duty than ever before, its multiplayer component does feel a lot more like it did when Black Ops 6 launched with key progression and improvements, with zombies as decent as ever.

But as for the campaign... What a missed opportunity for a Black Ops 2 sequel.

David Mason leads the JSOC team once more in Black Ops 7 / Treyarch, Activision

What is the campaign like in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 ? (Spoiler-free)

Let's start with the 'bad'. That might be a little harsh but this is the least I've enjoyed a Call of Duty campaign in a long time.

Let's set the scene - Black Ops 7 is set in 2035 and sees the return of infamous villain Raul Menendez and players take him on as well as The Guild which is a global tech giant born out of Menendez's chaos and his populist movement. David Mason returns as the main character, leading JSOC and the investigation into The Guild.

A brilliant chance to create a deep and meaningful sequel to Black Ops 2 has sadly turned into something that feels like a hugely missed opportunity.

Some key story moments and twists are just told to you over comms instead of you seeing the character finding out what's happening or figuring things out in a meaningful way for yourself. There was only one time I truly felt any sort of connection to Mason but it was fleeting before I was thrust into taking out bullet sponges again.

As it's a Black Ops game, there are mind bending missions and different enemy types, including opposition soldiers, mech and zombies, as you fight your way to complete different objectives.

But these missions feel very repetitive quite quickly as usually, you fight your way to an objective, take out waves of enemies as you hold it down and then progress. There's nothing like a dedicated sniper mission, no vehicle mission and there's one boss fight that feels like a straight rip from Melta Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater but nowhere near as good or satisfying.

Speaking of bosses, there are some very strange ones in this that did not make me feel like I was playing a Call of Duty game at all - I felt like I was playing a zombies campaign at times, taking out enemies that wouldn't look out of place in Stranger Things or 100 feet tall bullet sponges from shared hallucinations.

I wasn't the biggest fan of these hallucinations in Black Ops 6 and having these kinds of experiences take up what must be half of the campaign failed to appeal to me.

Campaign works differently this time as your progress is tied to global progression, meaning you can gain XP and weapon XP by playing through campaign missions as if you were playing multiplayer or Zombies. It's a co-op campaign, meaning you can play with up to four others to fill the squad or you can still play solo if you'd prefer.

I can see why this approach has been taken, as some players ignore the campaign altogether just to jump into multiplayer, but breaking up missions in this way made me feel a bit of that campaign cohesion was lost and it failed to make it feel distinctive to multiplayer modes.

And with it being co-op campaign, if you play solo, you'll still hear comms from teammates - but it's like you're speaking to yourself as they're not with you physically unless they're being played by another player online.

With Black Ops 7 being a direct sequel to Black Ops 2, the campaign feels like such a huge missed opportunity / Treyarch, Activision

During the campaign, and elsewhere in Black Ops 7 which I'll come onto later, I did experience some jank.

When trying to revive a teammate, they rocked back and forth statically if they were not trying to take out enemies with a pistol. I had instances of zombies just running at me and not doing anything, waiting for me to just mow them down. And there was the occasional very noticeable stutter and tearing experienced in cutscenes.

Endgame is the big new addition here and it acts as a PvE (player versus environment) extraction shooter. Again, you can play solo or team up with others to complete objectives which earns rewards such as levelling up characters and gaining better equipment.

These objectives include finding and taking out heavy enemies, fighting through outposts or taking down drones which all yield rewards such as better equipment. Each character you play with has a combat level and every time you level up, you can choose a different skill track or enhance it, such as better health regeneration or higher penetration of bullets with certain guns for example.

Each game has a 50 minute timer across a sprawling Avalon map where there are four different zones which increase in difficulty. You start at the bottom and have to work your way up to become strong enough to tackle new objectives in each zone and have to extract within the time limit.

Your progress is carried over after every match you complete - but only if you can successfully exfil. If you die, you will lose progress from that session however you will still get XP and weapon XP.

This gives that feeling of how much will you risk to get better rewards and to complete more objectives? You start with one self-revive but after that, unless you come across another one or your squad can't revive you, that's it.

On my very first run, I got into a groove with everything but accidentally entered a higher levelled area about 30 minutes in and got taken out. I lost everything. That gave me a wake up call and caused be to be much more considerate when playing through my next runs.

The map is great and varied in its locations but some of the early missions can feel a little repetitive. It's much better to play if you're in a squad and it's clearly been designed for that. I've played a number of rounds to it but it's not going to be taking much more time away from multiplayer for me.

To note, campaign is online only, there are no checkpoints, you can't pause and you can get kicked for being inactive.

Multiplayer in Black Ops 7 feels like what you come to expect from a Call of Duty game / Treyarch, Activision

What is multiplayer like in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7?

Now for the 'good' - and this is where Black Ops 7 becomes the Call of Duty we need on the whole.

That's because multiplayer is what you'd come to expect from Call of Duty really - fast paced and frantic on the whole offering the ability to create unforgettable individual moments with some successful refining.

All the modes you've come to expect, such as Team Deathmatch, Hardpoint, Domination, Kill Confirmed and more, return across new maps and brilliantly remastered returning ones.

Open playlists where skill based matchmaking (SBMM) is barely considered successfully keep games feeling fresh as the hours and hours go on - in one lobby, you will be the undisputed top dog and in the next, you'll have to adapt your approach to take on others who can easily take advantage of your usual approach. It kept me on my toes throughout without ever feeling frustrating. Games load much more quickly this way too. And if you want matches where SBMM is considered, there is a closed playlist option too.

The ability to double jump adds an interesting element as it's easier to flank enemies and get around than ever before, opening up so many different fun avenues to try and explore.

Assault rifles and SMGs still feel king through the majority of modes with marksman and sniper rifles holding their own too if you level up the right one. Both you and your weapons level up more quickly than in previous Call of Duty titles.

When choosing perks, whereas you previously had to choose three perks from the same combat specialty category, this time you can pick three from across two different ones for hybrid roles, offering more strength in flexibility.

Fluorescent skins and animated characters have been ditched totally at launch which is so incredibly welcome with the most outlandish ones being jazzy zombie skins - and that's fine by me. As long as it stays that way and makes it feel like I'm playing Call of Duty multiplayer and not Fortnite.

Of the new maps, for me Den is a standout as it has a mix of close quarters combat and more open areas that are primed for longer range attacks. It felt like it kept offering different challenges across different modes depending on what lobby I was in.

Of the returning, it's amazing to have Express back - yes the Black Ops 2 map had already been remastered in Black Ops: Cold War but it's just so fun, especially with the new double jump that lets you get up and over trains and structures much more easily.

A new addition for multiplayer is 20v20 Skirmish, where two teams battle it out on larger maps to complete objectives such as holding areas or hacking.

You don't instantly respawn in this mode; there is an eight second timer, making your actions and approach key. There's again a mix of close quarter combat when holding down objectives in buildings or smaller areas but you have to cross open areas to get to them, making you vulnerable to snipers or marksman rifles.

For me, this is okay - I've enjoyed the games I've played on it as it offers something a bit larger scale and different from the typical Call of Duty experience but it's not enticed me away from playing the modes I usually default to.

Performance ran much more smoothly in multiplayer than campaign for me - however I did have one instance where Den did not load properly for me at all. I could just see lanterns, my teammates and nothing else. That was all that rendered visually - even though I clearly kept running into walls.

Zombies takes place in the Dark Aether in Black Ops 7 / Treyarch, Activision

What is Zombies like in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7?

And to finish with, the 'ugly' - although that's more in reference to the growingly horrific and terrifying zombies you'll take down in this mode than anything else.

Zombies is set entirely in the Dark Aether and the big new map, Ashes of the Damned, is the largest yet with loads of different areas players can unlock along the way. There are six points of interest and you can travel around them using a vehicle on what's basically a figure-of-eight track.

Similarly with multiplayer, zombies is what you'd expect in a Call of Duty: Black Ops game - fast, frantic, fearsome and fun. You upgrade weapons, gear and gobble gobblegums for stat boosts to power up and battle through increasingly difficult waves of enemies and take on more dastardly foes.

I'm not the biggest zombies fan but I had a good time checking it out here, it felt like the zombies formula I've come to know in a bigger and better setting.

But it never failed to annoy me when 'teammates' can't wait more than two seconds and they tear off in Ol Tessie without you, leaving you to either run after them while zombies do their best to clobber you out of consciousness or leaving you stranded in an area to take out hordes on your own.

There's a new Cursed mode which introduces classic zombies elements and challenges and this is a thrill for veterans of the mode. Dead Ops Arcade returns too and you can play in first-person for the first time ever. This was a fun and unique experience playing this mode in this way and is something that will draw me back to zombies going forward.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 feels frustratingly conflicting with a pretty poor campaign but great multiplayer / Treyarch, Activision

What is the verdict on Call of Duty: Black Ops 7?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a little bit all over the place for me.

With multiplayer, Treyarch has taken some welcome steps in the right direction, binning the abhorrent skins that were more frequently creeping into Black Ops 6 and developers should be commended for reversing Call of Duty from the Fortnite direction.

This mode is the standout with open SBMM being standard and both new and returning maps keeping games feel fresh as the hours go on and you progress.

Zombies is fun on the biggest map to date even though some gripes remain about how easy it is for impatient teammates to cut you off and ruin the round for everyone.

But the campaign is a huge miss... It's not the most engaging, it doesn't tell a compelling story and it feels more like completing Warzone missions with zombies thrown in for some spice instead of being a genuine Black Ops 2 sequel.

And that's a huge shame given what Treyarch could have done with it. For me, it's incorrect to say the campaign completely overshadows the game, as multiplayer and zombies are typical Call of Duty - but it does diminish the overall experience. Unexpected jank doesn't help either.

6.5/10

For this review, I played Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on a base PS5. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is out now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC.

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• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 'Endgame' has gamers asking 'is ARC Raiders in danger?'
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 devs reveal key Japan maps details - including cat cafe and karaoke bar

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