I was invited to Treyarch Studios in Los Angeles to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and it surprised the hell out of me. I was a fan of Black Ops 6’s campaign, though I fell off the multiplayer and zombies modes rather quickly. Black Ops 7 feels like a culmination of everything that BO6 started, refined down into something tighter, even better looking, and full of smart ideas.
Progress Through Everything
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 takes the series’ recent approach to progression and brings it to the campaign. Now, when you and up to three of your friends play through the 11-level campaign, you can progress through everything. Weapon masteries, your battle pass, all of it can see the numbers go up, no matter which mode you are playing. The campaign is set 10 years after Black Ops 2, in 2035. The team wanted to “Embrace the Madness” as this “world of fear” dominates the campaign. Your team of four stars Milo Ventimiglia as David “Section” Mason, Michael Rooker returns from BO2 as Mike Harper. New to the game are John Eric Bentley’s Eric Samuels and Frankie Adams as Leilani “50/50” Tupuola.
The team decided on four-player co-op from the start. Crafting a narrative built on chaos and fear, it sees the crew trot across the globe from Nicaragua to Tokyo, Alaska, and more. Characters return from Black Ops 6, and the initial teaser we saw in June hinted at the odd, almost zombie-like situations you’ll face in the story. Kiernan Shipka’s character runs an operation called The Guild, which is attempting to fight a returning Black Ops villain’s Global Threat. It is extremely Call of Duty, while feeling fresh in the almost supernatural-like situations you’ll find yourself in.
There is a 12th mission that opens up once you’ve completed the campaign. It takes place in an enormous map called Avalon. This open-world, 32-player experience is extraction-like. You will dive in, complete objectives, and escape. Seeing a squad wipe means all progression for that character is lost. An entirely new “Rise of Power” system is the only way to be strong enough to get through each new area. We didn’t get to see or play the campaign at all during our time with the game. It’s one we’ll make sure to cover day one at launch to get you a review as quickly as possible. If you don’t have a group to play with, the team assured us that all of the content can be played solo, though I’d imagine the Campaign Endgame is going to be a lot trickier without a least one friend.
In multiplayer and the campaign endgame, you will have access to five abilities. Mega Jump sees you fly 20 to 30 feet up in the air. A Grapple Hook does exactly what you’d hope, letting you get your inner Batman on. Active Camo feels straight out of Halo, and in practice, it can be extremely difficult to see people when it is active. Deployable Shield, also right out of Halo Reach, as a huge bubble dome protects you and your friends. Finally, the Drone Charmer, which sends out an army of drones to deal explosive damage against your enemy.
The multiplayer has seen some balance changes, moving Tactical Sprint and ADS while using Omnimovement to perks. They have even added in a Faster Reload perk for the first time that I can remember. Each perk can see upgrades mid-match through the overclocking system. There are two levels to the overclock, and as you do better and better, they can do things like upgrade your camo to refresh more quickly and bring you back into stealth after you shoot.
Hybrid Perks were shown off, letting you mix and match the colors of the perk system while still getting that “completed set” bonus, though to a lesser degree. The few maps we got to play on had clearly defined lanes, which had been a constant complaint in BO6. Three BO2 maps return as well: Raid, Hijacked, and Express. One change afforded to the team with the near-future setting was how the UI looks. Instead of trying to match the 80s, it’s futuristic, sleek, and incredibly clean. It’s easy to know what is happening, when, where, and what your cooldowns/health are. Even in Zombies, everything felt marked and easy to read in a way it never did in BO6 for me. The in-game term for the UI stuff is C-Link, which is a story element on how you and your squad are interconnected.
Graphically, the game looked stunning. We played on PCs with the options of Xbox controllers or Mouse & Keyboard. We can’t give our gameplay impressions just yet, sadly. There is a wall jump that lets you quickly bounce off of walls to either gain more height or reach different lanes. Much like the rest of the Omnimovement system, it is fluid and easy to use.
From the facial animations in cutscenes to the texture work everywhere, Black Ops 7 is stupidly pretty. Which is good, because the story felt a bit much in what we were shown. It is extremely sci-fi, despite how boots-on-the-ground the actual gameplay is. After being hit with the Mr. Fuji red mist weapon, the tone shifted into a surreal dreamscape that, while pretty to look at, featured some insanely over-the-top moments. Gigantic machetes falling out of the sky, instantly killing anything they hit, though a giant red marker on the ground made it clear where they were going. Enemies teleported into existence and back out again after being slain.
It’s the type of story and setting that should do well in co-op, as you and your friends marvel at how pretty it is, and talking over the dialogue shouldn’t be too frustrating. Granted, we didn’t get to play it ourselves, and maybe it was just the short snippets we did see that made me weary. After seeing how jingoistic Battlefield 6’s campaign appears to be, I hope this one focuses more on the characters and less on the nationalistic hoorahs.
What we did get to play were three multiplayer modes, including Kill Confirmed and the new Skirmish mode. Again, no impressions until closer to launch. That is the 20v20 giant map conquest style one that leaked a few months back. Skirmish holds the most interest for me in the pure PVP side of COD. I tend to prefer the larger map style modes, especially in games like Battlefield. Skirmish sounds like it may scratch that itch.
Zombies is back with three modes. The classic progress when you choose to cross an enormous map, round-based survival, and Dead Ops Arcade returning for a 4th iteration. Survival is what you expect, with progressively tougher waves requiring solid teamwork and constant upgrades. The RBZ map introduces a new mechanic, called the Wonder Vehicle. Instead of taking a bus to move between zones, you now need to drive yourself and your teammates there. They showed us six total zones, though only the Farm was named on the map. There are six traversal zones as well, which you’ll need to survive to get from one main area to the next.
For all of my multiplayer and Zombies impressions, keep an eye on the site closer to launch, maybe I’ll get to go to COD Next whenever that happens and tell you exactly how I feel about what I played. I can let you know any and everything I saw in their theatre presentation, which includes all the maps and guns I wrote down. Here are a large number of my notes, since I can’t give any direct impressions of the game just yet.
Story & Mission Variety – Linear Story Campaign of 1 to 4 Player Co-Op
- Nicaragua
- ???
- Angola
- Avalon Outskirts
- Tokyo
- ???
- ???
- Avalon City
- Alaska
- ???
- ???
- Endgame Avalon Zone
New Perks
- Networked – shared buffs with teammate
- Looper – loop score streaks
- Tactical Sprint
- Agility – increased move speed and recovery time
- Gung Ho – fire while sprinting
Hybrid Perks
- Support Slayer – earn a bonus score from bullet kills after assists
- Scout – Stealth slayer – hidden from minimap and compass after bullet kills
- Captain – Stealth Support – Field upgrade charge from stealth kills
Specialist Bonus – Loadouts – Specialist Wildcard
- Earn additional perks instead of scorestreaks
- Perk earned at 200, 400, 600 score
- All perks earned at 1200 score
Gear and Gadgets
- D.A.W.G. – little robo-dog tank Deployable Autonomized Weapon Groundcraft – Overclock = sentry mode and lets you mount on it
- RC-XD – little explody car
- Gravemaker Sniper – it is an extremely powerful railgun that can see through walls (does warn people being targeted)
- Field Upgrade – Squad Link – buffs everyone’s equipment for your team
- Skewer – precise missile attack
- Rhino – large remote mech juggernaut-type. Powerful, agile, and plays in third person.
- H.K.D. – Hunter Killer Drones – attack dog archetype (float down in capsules)
- VTOL Warship – exactly what you think, a remote-controlled warship with enormous guns and missiles
- Interceptors – take out enemy air support
- Hellstorm Drone – 2035 variant
- Counter UAV and UAV
New 20v20 Mode: Skirmish
- 4 player squads on each team of 20 vs 20
- Variety of objectives (capture, destroy, and escort)
- High energy pace of play
- Wingsuit, grapple, and vehicle provide options for traversing and combat
Maps
- The forge, Toshin, Exposure, Context, Scar, Den, Homestead, Colossus, Imprint, Drydock, Retrieval, Paranoia, Express, Raid, Hijacked, Blackheight, Mission Edge, Mission Tide
- Mission: Edge – Industrial urban environment, elevation for wingsuit/grapple opportunities
- Mission: Tide – Military Island complex, head-on tactical battles
UI/UX
- Connected Experience – C-link technology connects operators and provides more intel than ever before
- Immersive Scorestreaks & Gear – A deep chest of scorestreaks and gadgets gives operators the edge.
- High impact visuals – Using all our tools to make content shine
C-Link
- It is the main part of your UI, finally seeing what it looks like. Clean UI, gun/ammo on bottom right, hp on bottom left. Scorestreaks mid right, mini-map top left, score under minimap
Immersive Scorestreaks & gear
- C-link is what unifies the remote control gear, and each has its UI that follows a similar design feel
Wrapping Things Up
That’s everything I saw that I can directly talk about. COD Black Ops 7 seems poised to be even bigger and maybe better than last year’s title. Keep an eye on Xbox Era as we approach the game’s release date of November 14th, 2025, to get our full impressions throughout Treyarch’s various marketing beats.
