| Call of Duty Black Ops 7 | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Review Overview
What is Call of Duty Black Ops 7?
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a first-person shooter developed by Treyarch and Raven Software and published by Activision. The game was officially revealed as the final announcement at the Xbox Games Showcase 2025 and is the twenty-second main installment in the Call of Duty franchise. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is set to release on November 14, 2025 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Battle.net.
Set in the year 2035, Black Ops 7 is positioned as a sequel to both Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The campaign features returning characters David Mason and Mike Harper, alongside a new character named Emma Kagan, as they navigate a global conflict on the brink of collapse. Players can experience the campaign solo or in cooperative mode.
The game will include standard multiplayer features typical of the series, offering near-future weaponry and new maps. It will also introduce a new installment of the series’ round-based Zombies mode, set within the ongoing Dark Aether storyline.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 features:
⚫︎ Sequel to the Story of Black Ops 2 and 6
⚫︎ Co-op Campaign and Endgame
⚫︎ New Mechanics: Omnimovement and Wall Jumping
⚫︎ New and Returning Multiplayer Maps
⚫︎ Seasonal Multiplayer Content
⚫︎ Zombies
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Call of Duty Black Ops 7’s gameplay and story.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
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 Steam |
 Battle.net |
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 PlayStation |
 Xbox |
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| $69.99 | |||||||
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Satisfying Gunplay Zombies and Multiplayer Are Still Fun Deep Customization Options |
Confusing Narrative Online-Only Campaign Multiplayer Respawn Issues Relies Mostly on Nostalgia |
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Story - 3/10
The narrative is a collective mess where Treyarch aimed to throw as much insanity as possible, resulting in a bizarre, confusing, and ultimately goofy trip down memory lane. It can definitely be considered as one of the lowest points of the franchise’s narrative. Most of the time, I found myself wondering what was even going on, as everything felt like an asset flip that had a cast of movie stars.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Gameplay - 9/10
Outside of the campaign's flaws, the gameplay remains the star of the show. The inclusion of new mechanics combined with its trademark gunplay makes for an amazing shooter experience. Additionally, the number of options that are given to the player for customization is staggering, allowing you to play the game your way.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Visuals - 7/10
The graphics of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 look decent, no more, no less. To be more specific, the game isn’t exactly an upgrade when it comes to looks, more so as it gives you more options to tweak it to run better. It’s what we’ve come to expect from a Call of Duty game, and it might be fair to say that we reached the point of diminishing returns in terms of visual fidelity years ago.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Audio - 8/10
The overall audio design is serviceable, but there’s also not much to praise, especially if you’ve come to expect more from the series. The sound effects are a little overbearing, as gunshots, explosions, and footsteps have been noticeably louder this time around. If there’s anything to highlight, the music is pretty good, and it might actually have one of the better music scores in the series.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Value for Money - 8/10
The progression systems of Call of Duty have always been the biggest reason why players return in the first place, especially since each game mode has its own set of challenges. Arguably, this release has the most to offer in terms of content when compared to the prior titles. However, the experience can turn stale and repetitive when you get down to the shared progression that each game mode offers.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Overall - 70/100
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 unapologetically embraces what it’s known for: solid gunplay and a fun game to play with friends. Outside of that, however, it falls short of delivering a complete experience with its reliance on nostalgia and multiplayer. The reused multiplayer assets and rehashed classic levels turn the campaign into an unintended comedy, making the game feel cheaper than it actually is.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Review: Shoot First, Don't Bother Asking Questions
There was once a time when I would spend every hour after school playing Call of Duty. Starting with Modern Warfare 2 and continuing through to Black Ops 2, I was an avid player who enjoyed shooting others in the hopes of obtaining the elusive Diamond camo. That being said, that was a long time ago, and I haven’t been playing the new ones in the series for longer than a week.
But when they announced that Black Ops 7 was going to be a sequel to Black Ops 2, it just reminded me of the good old days back when I was running around on Hijacked with my Peacekeeper in tow. I wanted, nay, needed, to see for myself if it was an experience that could pull me back into the grind.
Rock the Cradle Down Memory Lane
Set 10 years after the events of Black Ops 2, you play as the members of Specter One, led by David "Section" Mason, son of Alex Mason, who was the protagonist of the first Black Ops game. The other members consist of Eric Samuels, Leilani "50-50" Tupuola, and Mike Harper.
Specter One is after the mysterious return of Raul Menendez, the leader of the terrorist group Cordis Die, who was already supposed to be dead by Mason’s hands. Coincidentally, his return is also seemingly linked to another criminal faction, The Guild, which was the primary antagonistic faction in Black Ops 6.
The team then infiltrates a laboratory owned by The Guild with the intent to gather intel on Menendez’ return and sabotage whatever it is they can find. They are then trapped by the CEO of The Guild, Emma Kragan. There, she exposes the team to The Cradle, a hallucinogenic toxin that digitizes your past traumas and fears. In retaliation, Mason detonated the explosive charges that were planted before getting trapped, meaning the toxin is now airborne outside of the laboratory.
Can’t Lose the Plot If It Was Never There
Without spoiling too much of the campaign, the narrative then revisits past events that traumatized the members of Specter One, with a particular focus on David Mason’s past and traumas related to what happened in Black Ops 2. To be brutally honest, the writing and narrative have so far declined that it definitely seems like the plot was just lost.
Despite the seemingly high budget of the cast, the overall narrative and dialogue of the characters is a serious low point. The Cradle is pretty much like the Fear Gas from DC’s Scarecrow, and the worst of it all is that it functions close to what it does in the Arkham games. Emma Kragan, the main antagonist, is an incompetent villain, since her plans never materialize or even get past step one outside of poisoning Spectre One.
The story is just a very far cry from the first two Black Ops games, where it has definitely veered off into a technical fantasy. It’s not as if it was doomed to begin with, but it was clear that the direction of the story was to show something so outlandish and so bizarre that it would make you wonder what was going on in the first place.
It’s gotten to the point that they’d use nostalgia to try and entice players to try it out. The whole experience just seemed unintentionally comedic, set with boring characters, uninteresting dialogue, and the power of friendship (I’m not kidding).
And then, there are the boss fights. They’ve somehow turned the campaign into a weird amalgamation of Destiny’s Strike Raids and Borderlands boss fights, where there would be certain segments of missions where you fight against a ghost of Raul Menendez. To damage him, you would need to call down a killstreak of a flying machete to drop onto him.
Honestly, it’s hilarious to see how far the story has changed since then, with iconic missions like Cliffhanger from Modern Warfare 2 and Victor Charlie in Black Ops 1. Now, we have Fear Gas spreading all over the world and somehow changing the landscape to a weird rendition of Doom with all the supernatural things chasing you.
It’s quite obvious that the campaign isn’t a focal point in this release, as it's more of a way to double down on the multiplayer experience by making it a full-on co-op thing. But that presents some problems on its own.
For context, the campaign is online only, so there’s absolutely no way for you to pause the game. Additionally, there are no mid-mission checkpoints, so if you’re unlucky enough to get disconnected from the mission midway, then you’re back to the start.
This is also a massive downgrade since the campaign essentially forces you to play it with other people. If you opt to play solo, you won’t have any AI companions helping you out, and the missions aren’t balanced for a solo instance.
Overall, the campaign feels tacked on, and the reward for finishing it doesn’t even play all that great either. The only commendable thing I can think of is the way they were able to use the maps in Multiplayer as set pieces for the campaign, and that's not saying much.
At the end of the campaign, Spectre One goes back to Avalon to clean up the remnants of The Guild, transforming it into a PvE version of Warzone called Endgame. While I can’t say that it isn’t unique for doing this, it becomes a repetitive slog of just heading towards the glowing point on the map and killing waves of enemies.
For specific examples, half of the players were camped in a building to defend ourselves from waves of enemies while waiting for a safe to open. Another example is an elite enemy that looked like a demon spawned on a particular point in the map, and all the players were basically surrounding it in a circle and gunning it down.
As of writing, the content still feels extremely lacking, and at the moment, there isn’t much to do other than to unlock things for your weapons. As much as I don’t like the campaign and the Endgame, the meat of the series is still as satisfying as I remember it, namely the gunplay.
Gunplay is Still Satisfying
There’s still no other shooter that does it like Call of Duty, where the gunplay is still as slick, crisp, and satisfying. I found myself in a situation where my muscle memory of playing the older games kicked in, and I was doing drop shots and turning on enemies at a moment’s notice.
With the new mechanics like Omnimovement and Wall Jumping, it felt surprisingly natural. In my case, I was never overwhelmed by learning the new tricks and was already executing them after a few matches.
These, in combination with the shooting mechanics, resulted in an experience that I would shamelessly admit to be fun and satisfying. The only thing that really bothered me was that certain weapons had an inconsistent time-to-kill ratio, but that could easily just be my mechanics being suspect.
In terms of building loadouts, the amount of freedom that you get is enormous. It’s reached a level where even I would question if the loadouts are a little too unfair with the amount of customization you can do.
Outside of the usual things that you can bring, the Wildcard returns as a unique way to "overload" your loadout. These can give you an extra lethal throwable on spawn, an additional primary weapon as your secondary, or even add three additional attachments to your gun.
Alongside this, Combat Specialties also make a return as a way to create a unique way to play by combining certain perk trees. If you equip perks with either the same color or two unique colored perks, you will gain access to an additional passive bonus.
Maps, however, are a different story. For comparison, I know the layouts of Hijacked and Raid like the back of my hand due to the hours I put in Black Ops 2. When I played in the new maps like Toshin, Imprint, Scar, and Homestead, I felt lost and was surprised at the angles I was shot from. It’s most probably a skill issue on my part, but it did feel like I was vulnerable from many angles.
I won’t discount map design completely, though, as it could also be because of the game’s spawn logic. For the uninitiated, Call of Duty has a formulaic three-lane map layout for many of its maps. Even with the new maps having a similar take of this layout, there were countless times where enemies or even I would spawn behind an opposing team, resulting in free kills and points.
Zombies Remains a Highlight
Outside of Multiplayer, Zombies is one of Call of Duty’s main draws. I’m actually happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed my experience of it. Keep in mind that my actual last foray in Zombies was back in Black Ops 2, so this was also my first time getting exposed to the new mechanics.
In essence, it takes most, if not all, of the mechanics of Black Ops 6’s Zombies mode. Points, essences, Gobblegum, Perk-a-Colas, Augments, Ammo Mods, and more are still there. While I was able to grasp each of the mechanics quickly, it did overwhelm me because there’s so much more to keep track of. However, while the mechanics and currencies are easy to understand, I found myself having a hard time getting the lay of the land in the new map, Ashes of the Damned.
This is mainly because of the sheer size of the map, which is clearly inspired by Black Ops 2’s TranZit and turned it into a massive playground of the dead. So while I knew what I should be looking for, it took me a considerable amount of time to find them.
The Zombies experience has changed much from its first iteration back in World at War, especially with the popularity of a narrative perspective combined with the round-based gameplay. Of course, the existence of the classic round-based gameplay and the Dead Ops Arcade is still there, but it’s not the main idea of the game mode anymore.
In my opinion, it’s very far off from the original design, but it’s not a bad take on innovating the game mode. I would probably still have fun in Kino Der Toten or Nacht der Untoten, but I won’t lie that the new direction of having a narrative for the characters isn’t entertaining. After all, the reason why I got addicted to Zombies in the first place was because of the Easter eggs.
Is Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Worth It?
Play Only For the Multiplayer and Zombies
In all honesty, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is undoubtedly fun, with its satisfying gunplay, massive customization options, and long progression systems. However, if you don’t find enjoyment in playing a multiplayer shooter against other players or in its Zombies game mode, then it’s probably not for you.
Games like Call of Duty are best with friends or people you can constantly play with, so it might be better if you could coax someone to buy it with you, or you can wait until someone else buys it before you pull the trigger. Alternatively, you can just opt to wait for a sale or free weekends to get an idea of what you’re getting into, especially since its price tag is definitely on the more expensive end and that you’ll need to clear up around 200 GB worth of memory.
I would say skip the campaign or just run through it once if you really want to. It’s just an abysmal experience altogether, and I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy. If they decide to add more content to Endgame, then maybe you can run through the campaign quickly just so you can gain access to it.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
Battle.net |
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| PlayStation |
Xbox |
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| $69.99 | |||||||
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 FAQ
Does Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 have AI Art?
Activision has already admitted that they use generative AI to develop in-game assets. Earlier this year, they were under fire for "AI slop" for the previous iteration in the series and have since added a disclosure that reads:
"Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets."
Will Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Be on Xbox Game Pass?
Yes. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will be available on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
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Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Product Information
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| Title | CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 7 |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 14, 2025 |
| Developer | Treyarch, Raven Software |
| Publisher | Activision |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam, BattleNet), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Action, Shooter, Multiplayer |
| Number of Players | 1-40 (Online Lobby), 1-4 (Online Campaign) |
| ESRB Rating | M18+ |
| Official Website | Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Official Website |
