In a lot of ways, following up Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 with another entry in the sub-series is risky. Following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, all eyes were on BO6, and it delivered on many fronts. Mainly, a stellar campaign and omnimovement system showed fans that a series well into its run could still pack a punch. Black Ops 7, rather than build directly on what worked in its predecessor, looks to diversify what fans expect from the Black Ops sub-series. Here’s my review specifically for the campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, reviewed on Xbox Series X.

In the campaign for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, you’re immediately going to notice something unique. This is designed from the ground up to be played in four-player co-op. You can enter matchmaking to join with folks online, play with your own party, or go it alone. Although I did try co-op for this review, I played through the campaign solo from start to finish. To stay fair to the design of the campaign, I’m not going to complain that this made the experience feel off, when in reality, I’m the one not doing what it’s encouraging me to do. That said, it feels like a solo experience that leaves you well aware this was not designed to be played alone.

If you’ve paid attention to discourse about the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 campaign online, you’ll know a lot of people seem to really dislike it. Most of the negative comments about the campaign center on a specific choice they’ve made here regarding plot and gameplay. Rather than stay rooted in realism, which the Black Ops sub-series isn’t necessarily pristine about, you are experiencing much of the game with hallucinations from a toxin created by The Guild, the game’s main enemy force. Along with the hallucinations is the return of Black Ops 2‘s enemy, Raul Menendez. It’s all very out of nowhere, somewhat disarming, and not what many expected.

Let’s at least stick with the concept for a moment and say that this is either going to work for you or it isn’t. Giant machetes falling out of the sky, zombie-like enemies running at you from every angle, and more absurd happenings accompany this toxin’s release. You’re going to be along for the ride or miserable at every step. For me, I’m not above suspending my disbelief. That said, many moments in Black Ops 7 that were meant to be “WTF” moments just don’t do anything for me. I wasn’t feeling shock and awe; I was mostly shrugging and wanting to keep the campaign going. For such an outlandish setup, nothing here is executed in a way that builds toward a fun factor for me.

In terms of how it feels to play, the movement and gunplay are stellar. It’s a shame that the story gets in the way of how you can immerse yourself in how fast and precise the gameplay feels. There are open-world elements to how you tackle each mission, and when the game feels open and alive, the campaign is at its strongest. Especially as a solo playthrough, it’s massively open-ended how you move from one objective to the next. Cutscenes that add little thrill to the narrative, unfortunately, cut into your open-world experience. If the game dropped you into this world, cut back on a bit of the nightmare hallucinating, and let you move from objective to objective, it’d feel a world’s better.

For Xbox Game Pass subscribers, a playthrough of Call of Duty Black Ops 6‘s campaign was easy to recommend if you can access it for free. I don’t feel, however, that even a subscribing Game Pass member should feel driven to check out this year’s campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The multiplayer element of the game, which I’ll review separately, feels much better, and might be worth making room on your hard drive. That said, it’s also still the same Call of Duty online experience you likely know well. With little innovation in this year’s campaign, I can’t imagine many will check it out with mild intrigue and feel like their time was well spent.

At the end of the campaign, there is a great PvE extraction-like shooter that is much more fun than the main campaign. It originally unlocked after completing the main 11-mission campaign. Since its release, Activision has released the game mode, called Endgame, as its own mode. I’ll be reviewing that separately as well. Similar to the multiplayer elements of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, it plays much better than the campaign.

An Xbox Series X Review Copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was provided by Xbox Game Studios for the purposes of this review.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

$69.99

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• It feels fun to play, albeit not very Call of Duty-like
• Good open-world systems at play

Cons

• Surrealism feels forced and disorienting
• Unclear plot progression leaves the player lost
• Not as tight and well-rounded as Black Ops 6