Weird and Wild Black Ops
Black Ops 7 surprised with co-op chaos, but tripped over its own menus.
I’m not your typical “boots-on-the-ground” shooter person. Give me a strong story arc, a clear sense of why I’m doing what I’m doing, and a progression loop that feels like a reward — not a second job. So yes, I came into Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 slightly suspicious, because “army-themed” games usually lose me the moment they start sounding like a recruitment video.
And then Black Ops 7 opens in 2035 with David Mason back in the picture, and leans hard into psychological warfare as its core flavour — a manipulative enemy that weaponises fear, trippy set pieces, and a tone that’s intentionally a little unhinged. It’s still very much Call of Duty, but it’s Call of Duty wearing a strange, glossy sci-fi mask. Weirdly? That helped. It gave me a narrative hook beyond “go here, shoot there.”
The campaign is the headline swing: it’s built as a co-op campaign (up to four players), and it shows. Playing with friends turns the whole thing into a loud, chaotic action movie night — the kind where someone yells “this is so dumb” while smiling. TechRadar basically nails the vibe: the writing can get rough, but co-op makes it hilarious in the best way.
But here’s the catch: when you’re like me — someone who sparsely plays online and prefers a tight, authored single-player ride — Black Ops 7 can feel oddly hostile. The always-online requirement for campaign is real, and it brings baggage: you can’t pause, and you’re often playing missions that feel designed for a squad even when you’re alone. The lack of checkpoints (and the “restart the whole thing if you wipe” feel) is the kind of design decision that doesn’t make the game “hardcore,” it just makes it exhausting.
Now, if you’re the type who likes unlocking things (hi, it’s me), Black Ops 7 is dangerously effective. There’s a unified progression push across modes, and Treyarch leans into Weapon Prestige and camo journeys as a proper long-term grind. You can even earn campaign-related cosmetics and keep progressing globally, which is a smart way to make story play feel “worth it” in a live-service era. I found myself doing “one more run” not because the plot demanded it, but because the game kept dangling another unlock in front of me.
That said, I don’t love the interface around it. The progression systems are deep, but the way they’re surfaced feels like a maze of submenus — Career, Challenges, Camos, Weapons, Loadouts, Gunsmith, Customise, Prestige… all technically logical, but not emotionally friendly. If you’re coming from “I play story games and occasionally dabble online,” the UI can feel like you’ve walked into a control room mid-shift change. I want progression to feel clean and motivating, not like I’m filing paperwork.
Multiplayer is the other big win, and the movement updates are genuinely fun once your brain rewires. Wall jumps are in, and Omnimovement has evolved — plus things like Tactical Sprint being perk-dependent changes the rhythm in a way that feels more tactical than the usual crackhead sprinting. I’m not the person who lives for KD ratios, but I’ll admit: hopping between cover, chaining movement, and surviving a messy firefight by the skin of your teeth is very “one more match” energy.
Then there’s Endgame — a new 32-player PvE mode on the Avalon map that’s basically Black Ops doing an extraction-flavoured, DMZ-like thing, and it’s one of the most interesting ideas in the package. You drop in, complete objectives, fight AI enemies (including robots), extract to keep your gains, and risk losing your operator progress if you wipe. It’s not a pure story, but it scratches that “I want progress that matters” itch far better than I expected.
Now, about destructible environments — because I’m a sucker for games that let the world react. Black Ops 7 has plenty of spectacle, and you’ll see things break, blow apart, and collapse in set pieces, but it’s not a “sandbox destruction” game. If you’re hoping for Battlefield-style building shredding, this isn’t that. (And honestly, with Battlefield 6 looming in the same season, you’ll feel that comparison fast.) The destruction here is more “cinematic moments” than “systemic gameplay.”
And vehicles? This is where I’m picky. Black Ops 7 gives you mobility toys — wingsuits get name-checked for modes like Skirmish, and the game leans into traversal as part of its near-future identity. But I still don’t love how Call of Duty handles vehicle-like control moments in general: it can feel twitchy and floaty when I want precision. When I’m trying to thread a landing or keep control mid-chaos, I don’t want to fight the inputs.
We say:
Black Ops 7 is messy, ambitious fun — brilliant with friends and progression lovers, but frustrating solo thanks to always-online campaign quirks, checkpoint drama, and a UI that loves overcomplicating itself.
Rating: 4/5
Platforms:
PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
www.callofduty.com
