It gets harder and harder every year to effectively review the latest Call of Duty title. They’ve maintained a pretty consistent level of quality and content for a while now, and ironically it only seems to be when they try to do something different that the sheen rubs off a little and exposes the fairly worn-out chassis beneath. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 comes hot on the heels of last year’s mostly successful 6, skipping the usual pendulous swing to a Modern Warfare instalment but still skipping forward several decades in the timeline just to ensure we’re all a little confused as the campaign begins.
Actually, the campaign this year is a bit of an odd one. Designed to be played in multiplayer, it’s arguably way too tough to even attempt solo. While the meat and gravy of CoD has always been its multiplayer, I for one always enjoyed blasting through an over-the-top 6 or 7-hour single player campaign. It does attempt to capture some of the off-the-wall madcappery of last year’s story by introducing a Scarecrow-like fear toxin that forces your team, led by Black Ops 2’s David Mason, into bizarre group hallucinations as they attempt to take down a cartoonishly evil dictator and the head of a private military company with an annoyingly silly tattoo.
Because the last game took place in the 90s and this jumps forward with no apparent segue, it feels like it begins in medias res. But then in classic Call of Duty fashion you soon forget the need for any kind of context as it starts throwing set-pieces at you in quick succession. And like any good summer blockbuster movie, the spectacle does a good job of blinding you to the fact that it doesn’t make much sense. It’s bombastic, silly fun and really that’s all that matters. One downside of it not filling spots with bots in the campaign, though, besides the extra difficulty, is that your team will still all be there during cutscenes, and Mason remains the primary character even if you’re playing the others.
There are some cool moments though. In one hallucinatory boss fight you can drop giant machetes onto the battlefield, while some areas warp reality to make use of movement abilities like a super jump or the wall run. It’s just a shame that it takes itself so seriously while unfurling a story that’s about as high-stakes and emotionally mature as a Saturday morning cartoon. The Guild is a fairly rote group of faceless goons and robots to kill, while the semi-open nature of the world feels like it wants to do something new but never really does.
As for the multiplayer, well, CoD does what CoD does here, more or less. The standard modes don’t feel remarkably different, and if like me you’re the sort of player who dips in and out of the franchise now and then it’ll be hard to spot new maps among the old. But it’s still got that undeniable Call of Duty feel, the super fast TTK lending itself to a pure twitch-shooting experience, layering on care packages that once felt innovative and are now just something you expect, as comforting as a morning cuppa. This is not a negative, either: The CoD multiplayer is what it is because it is what it is, if that makes sense. There’s still not much out there that touches it in terms of pace and gunplay.
An effort has been made to shake up the formula though, by introducing the 20 vs 20 Skirmish mode, which seems like it might be making a play for Battlefield 6’s glory, taking place on a huge map into which players wingsuit like it’s Fortnite. You can land wherever you like, but as is often the case, a relatively low player count on such a large map leads to empty spaces and dead zones, which is counter to the lightning pace CoD usually maintains. More modes is more modes, though, and alongside the standard spread of Domination, Team Deathmatch, et al, and Warzone, you can’t accuse Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 of being lean.
Which brings us round to Endgame, which comes after the coop campaign is over and the map opens up fully. Here, Black Ops 7 becomes a PvE extraction shooter, allowing you to raid areas of the map for loot and get out while you’re still alive to enjoy it. This is by far the better addition to the package, as long as you go in ready to accept that it’s just as madcap as the actual campaign. There’s no rhyme or reason to the enemy mix (zombies and robots, anyone?), and it lacks the tension of PvPvE extraction shooters like Arc Raiders, but it is fun to jump in and tear up for a while.
And yeah, I mentioned zombies there, because, of course, Call of Duty: Zombies returns as well. I’ve shouted my throat dry asking for a standalone experience, and so I’ll settle for whatever they give me with each new instalment of the main series, and this year’s is no less fun than usual. It takes elements from the superb Transit mode of yesteryear, giving you a big map split into six areas which you can travel to via Ol’ Tessie, a creaky old pick-up truck.
There is a story of sorts to follow, but doing so with randoms is impossible. If you really care for the narrative, such as it is, you’ll want to play with people you know or at least coordinate your efforts. If you can’t be arsed with all that, though, you could play the other modes. Survival, for example, is a simple wave-based endurance mode that throws endless hordes at you until you die or exfil, allowing you to buy special weapons like turrets and OTT guns between waves. When you decide it’s time to get out and call for extraction, a boss will spawn and the zombies will go ape-shit, which is always a laugh.
Once again, as a package, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 provides plenty of throwaway fun and multilayer mayhem, but it lacks the creativity of last year’s campaign and doesn’t feel like it brings anything really new or innovative to the table. It’s packed with modes to hop between, delivers the usual high level of cinematic quality and tight multiplayer shooting, but it’s the first entry that has really made me think the franchise could do with a break for a year or two while they come up with something that feels a little fresher.
