Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Review

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Fast Facts

Legacy

I have to say, 2025 has been a fantastic year for games, and we have the Game of The Year Awards just around the corner. There are always one or two statement games that launch in November that stand as the final chance for contenders to make their mark on the year, and drive the final push to the podium. What I can confidently tell you, is Black Ops 7 has absolutely zero chance of being considered by even the most loyal of Activision/Treyarch superfans for their GOTY. It’s not all bad though.

Now seven games into the series (eight if you include World at War), Black Ops 7 feels like an evolution of last year’s unsurprisingly named Black Ops 6. It builds on the foundations of a rather bloated attempt to be the endgame of Call of Duty, layering an almost recycled approach to game development. For me it kind of rings the bell of, “if you are required to turn out a new Call of Duty game every 12 months, what do you prioritise and what gets left behind?.

Pause For Thought

When it comes to the campaign which is the foundation of the game, it’s set in the year 2035. Cleverly just a little bit in the future so it makes you feel like the Tech Giant controlling dystopian future could actually happen. Story wise we see the return of Raul Menendez, and of course the weave of end of the world and danger to humanity plot lines. Enter our covert ops teams which meets with thin story elements and silliness, but as expected fantastic visuals and really refined gunplay.

Where things show up a little weird in the campaign, is the obvious leaning or desire by the game to have you play Co-op. Not to mention the incredibly odd decision to prohibit the pause button whilst playing. It feels like Treyarch have suddenly developed very little desire to allow you to have two seperate experiences for the campaign and multiplayer.

Whether You Like It Or Not

I actually think this may be a really conscious decision to further blend the campaign and online multiplayer aspects for Call of Duty. There are still some hold outs that buy these games after all for the campaign alone. It’s a step change to try and hook these players to continue their experience in the shared endgame. I have to say though, being booted from the campaign for inactivity is a very odd feeling.

The campaign itself is relatively short-lived, with 11 story missions. You’ll probably be done in less than 4 hours. So no pause button and you need to pop to the loo? You can probably hold it that long. What I can say is, graphically it’s superb. Black Ops 7 continues to run on the IW 9.0 engine which was utilised for Black Ops 6. It now has some cool AI enhancements and water features implemented. Utterly stunning, and sonically the best sounding Call of Duty game I’ve ever played.

Jump Around

When it comes to multiplayer, there is a lot on offer for fans new and old. With 13 new core maps for smaller 6 vs 6 gunfights and 2 larger Skirmish maps for 20 vs 20. These are full of futuristic touches and vantage points. They are also all curiously full of large ditches or well like areas that allow you to use the brand new strafing feature wall jump. You can chain up to 3 jumps together and it can be useful for both horizontal and vertical traversal. It is a big gimmicky, and to be honest I could do without it. It just feels a bit shoehorned in. Like it was a feature that needed to stand out as different from Black Ops 6.

Gimmicks aside, the multiplayer is solid. Servers feel responsive and matchmaking is now rapid with the latest PS5 Pro patch. There are 3 Maps that have made their way across from Black Ops 2, including my beloved Highjacked. That one in particular made me feel nostalgic for the Call of Duty experiences of the past. The late night lockdown Verdansk & Nuketown moments. The days before you were being assassinated by Beavis and Butthead skins. Luckily none of those skins or rewards that players have sunk their hard earned cash into get to make their way across from Black Ops 6. So if this is the reset moment, I’m absolutely here for it.

Cowboy Zombies

The Zombies mode is mindless fun as usual, with some neat additions this year. Cool round based maps have been added such as the reimagined Ashes of the Damned. There’s a menacing Cowboy Zombie who seems to draw inspiration from the Night King in Game of Thrones. Oh and if you play Zombies solo, you can nip out of the game and resume with the same progress a little later on. A pause button if you will. Bit of a revelation that, maybe it will catch on.

For all of its obvious flaws, there is a real sense of anger and rage for Black Ops 7 in the gaming community. This often comes part and parcel for newly released Call of Duty games.. I am enjoying the mechanics and the bones of what is a mostly good Call of Duty game. What I really don’t need are the return of the things that lessen the experience for me. If Treyarch can keep things immersive and focused on the maps and the gunplay, I’ll try and forget the list of very odd decisions that have led to this point and keep on playing.

3 out of 5

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Call of Duty Black Ops 7 is available to buy on the Playstation Store