Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Gameplay Review for Multiplayer, Campaign and Zombies

Call of Duty Black Ops 7 from developers Treyarch and Raven Software is an odd entry in a storied franchise. 

The fact any franchise not named Need for Speed has a "7" in the title could serve as a red flag, though. A year ago, Black Ops 6 served up a nice little comeback for the series (Metacritic 82), so Call of Duty skirted the usual every-other-year-or-more convention and went right to a direct sequel. 

But Black Ops 7 makes some odd choices, rather than leaning into what worked. Some are good, such as expanding a classic-feeling prestige system. Others…very not so good. 

In an extremely crowded year for the FPS space, Call of Duty throws out the expected good stuff and a lot of randomness that doesn't appear to have much in the way of staying power. 

Graphics and Gameplay

Visually and from an overall presentation standpoint, COD is still a juggernaut. The massive budget backing realistic graphics, facial animations and shockingly good sound design behind the arsenal of weapons and voice acting remain highlights. 

That's not a shocker for COD this far into the annals of video games. Normally, though, COD also gets deserved high praise for variety of locations, memorable set pieces and an overall cohesiveness around a theme. 

Not here. It's hard to shake the vibe that some of these almost random locations (that conveniently fit the narrative) are just expanded Warzone maps or a smattering of reused Zombies assets. There are boss designs that seem Dark Souls-lite at best and a general lack of memorable areas. 

Visual clutter is at least dialed down across the 16 launch multiplayer maps, but not much. 

A year removed from introducing the fancy-named Omnimovement to describe the refined, fluid movement system, Black Ops 7 smooths over the experience here. 

One new tweak is a combat roll, which is exactly what it sounds like, while reducing fall damage. Note that it's not available in traditional 6v6 multiplayer, though. A new wall jump, though, is available across the board. 

COD isn't going to hit Titanfall 2 levels if FPS movement with this one, but it's a nice mix-up to the gameplay. And on the multiplayer side of things, movement feels slightly slower, which is a net gain. 

Otherwise, this is COD. The gunplay feels really good and those who love multiplayer will be right at home in terms of feel. Whether server tick rates, lag, the background matchmaking systems and other technical features stay strong beyond the first week or spiral into months of controversy like past years (especially on the matchmaking conversation side of things) remains to be seen. 

Story, Multiplayer and More

The Black Ops 7 campaign is a disaster set for earned online ridicule. 

Set in 2035 with names like David Mason and a decade after Black Ops 2 (released in 2012), it tries to go serious psychological sci-fi thriller at times and has plenty of big set pieces, but far too often comes off as background noise while the game poorly executes imitations of others. 

There's credit due for trying something new. And there's a shell of Call of Duty attempting to capture some of the co-op vibes players love so much in things like Zombies. It probably doesn't hurt in the budget department to scale back from Hollywood-level tales and all that entails, too. But the missions often feel like knockoff Destiny 2 strikes. 

Going the online-only route, though, is frankly a bonkers decision. All the pitfalls of online-only games are here. There's no AI to fill in and help if players are alone. Idling too long gets players kicked. There's no pausing, either. It's shortsighted. 

It's not scaled down for a solo player, either. Those who want to tackle it alone will need to re-do menial objective tasks multiple times, doing them over again for players who aren't even there. There are silly boss fights like something out of Borderlands that feel aged. 

There's a co-op "endgame," too. Up to four players fight through zones. Neat idea, but repetitive. It almost feels redundant. When sports games load up a ton of different modes in the package, there's usually new rules, player counts and smart iterations so that the game provides something for every type of possible player.  

There's a shell of something interesting with this endgame that can perhaps flirt with a Helldivers 2 sort of feeling in future games. But it won't be a shock if this endgame doesn't boast major player counts. It's left feeling more like a Destiny 2 patrol zone with near-harmless enemies that develop into bullet sponges and repeated objectives. 

Painting in broad strokes, this is very much Call of Duty multiplayer, at least. It's fast, polished, fun and the overall map design follows that tried-and-true three-lane approach that will simply never lose its appeal. 

Beyond the general 6v6 modes, Skirmish returns with 20v20, a Battlefield-like mode, that again, feels like a shell of the real thing. Still, players aren't grabbing COD for Skirmish.  

The systems backing the multiplayer feel great, too. Custom loadouts and upgrade nodes, even on things like equipment and scorestreaks, offer player a little more fine-tuning over their builds. 

As for Zombies, it doesn't take many risks. The Ashes of the Damned map feels like the biggest yet, size-wise. It's fun to progress through and provides more of that could have been its own game feel. 

Zombies: Survival is a smaller romp, refining the Zombies experience to a smaller room, which is really fun for quick-hitting action. Zombies: Cursed is more of a hardcore challenge, tasking players who start out with barebones loadouts and skills to hunt down relics that unlock more power, but escalating debuffs, too.

To its credit, Black Ops 7, in a series first, attempts unified progression. Following the decision from sports games in recent years, this lets players engage with the modes they really want to play, which is a huge, welcome development. 

After Black Ops 6 successfully reintroduced a classic prestige system, this sequel takes it a step further by bringing back prestige for all weapons, a first since Black Ops 4. 

Similarly, a new ability to share builds is a huge deal. Players can share their loadouts with others, or go online and find those from around the community. It's a fantastic little detail that is a modernized tweak that might go overlooked.

Generally speaking, this year's game runs well, pending server stability. It boasts a ton of quality options in the menus, including accessibility must-haves. But the UI and overall Call of Duty hub remains an unfettered, hard-to-navigate mess with some gaudy install sizes, to boot, literally. 

Conclusion 

Black Ops 7 throws a half-hearted effort of a campaign mode at the wall, dismissing solo players in the process and almost admitting that the days of interesting stories are gone in favor of Zombies-like engagement. 

Odd, considering last year's game seemed to put down such a great foundation. This year feels like a late submission after a late start. COD couldn't really afford it, either, not with Battlefield 6 enjoying a massive year, Arc Raiders starting to dominate the extraction shooter scene and Destiny 2, while on life support, still offering a unique blend of FPS and MMO-lite.

There are some very interesting shells of ideas explored here that could produce big things for future COD games. And it's COD, destined to probably do well regardless.

But while fun to pick up and play for its multiplayer and Zombies, Black Ops 7 won't be able to avoid being circled as one of those valleys that the COD series needs to rebound from yet again.