Less than a year after its predecessor, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is ready to go. And our gameplay conclusion shows that this is exactly the problem.
The new Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a lot of fun. During the beta, I spent the entire weekend shooting away, extensively testing the five new beta maps, unlocking all kinds of goodies – and if, like me, you were groaning beforehand that CoD is now returning to all the sci-fi stuff with wall runs and the like, then I can give you the all-clear: The new wall jumps are a great addition that further refine the already outstanding movement in Black Ops 6 without changing the feel of the game.
When I sprint through the multiplayer corridors, I now have to dynamically decide whether to jump against the wall and push off it to reach high ledges and balconies, for example, and surprise campers. Wall jumps are also great for disrupting the rhythm of opponents who don’t expect such abrupt movements, throwing them off balance and promptly taking them down.
Apart from that, CoD remains… well, CoD. And that’s the problem.
What does Black Ops 7 offer?
Unlike its direct predecessor, Black Ops 7 is set in the near future again. As in Black Ops 2, you step into the shoes of David Mason (the son of Alex Mason from the very first game), and in multiplayer, this is particularly noticeable in the maps and guns.
The current beta alone already features 15 weapons, which for me are among the biggest highlights of the new CoD. Sure, in the end, we’re just talking about slightly sci-fi-inspired variations of assault rifles, shotguns, and the like, but after so many modern military CoDs and endless camo grinding with M4s, MP5s, and the like, I’m just happy to see a little variety again.
In addition, there are new gadgets that are now being heavily promoted in advance, but will probably make no difference in the actual game. For example, a deployable drone launcher that sends explosive drones across the map.
And the internet is currently getting worked up about the new sniper killstreak, which puts such a powerful weapon in my hands that I can shoot people through walls. But hey, overpowered killstreaks have always been a thing in CoD.
In addition, certain streaks can now be overclocked
and… oh, it’s tedious to list everything, because at the end of the day, the new gadgets and systems feel like that nuclear power plant Homer Simpson wins with in the legendary Frank Grimes episode of The Simpsons. It looks exactly like the old one, but with stripes:
But at least there’s a scorestreak that lets you summon a robot dog onto the map, which the game unironically calls D.A.W.G. – so any GameStar rating below the Gold Award is pretty much out of the question.
Weak point: map design
The five current maps look a bit bleak, because I’m already sick of them after just one weekend. This is not only due to the sterile cyberpunk aesthetic without any charm, but above all to the lame map design.
The developers have already stated in advance that they are sticking particularly strictly to the three-lane principle this time around, and you can tell: every map feels the same, with vertical space almost completely absent, as in the previous games.
Sure, from a balancing perspective, three lanes work as well as ever, but the maps in Black Ops 7 feel a bit like the $2 cheeseburger at McDonald’s at night. It fills you up, it tastes okay, but you know that even by McDonald’s standards, you’re eating cheap fast food.
So you keep running down the same corridors, varying between left, right, and center, hoping to take out your opponent before they take you out. As I said, the new wall jumps at least provide a little variety, because I can keep reaching small ledges or jumping over gaps between the lanes, but the Black Ops 7 maps need a lot more gameplay variety.
And that’s fun?
And after all these explanations, you may rightly ask yourself: Why does Kevin write in the introduction that he has a lot of fun with a CoD that has so much to criticize?
The answer is simple: because the actual gameplay loop of Call of Duty still works brilliantly. If I’m looking for a fast-paced shooter to switch off my brain and serve me a few cool action sequences in 10 minutes per round, then Black Ops 7 offers exactly that. The fights are intense and fast-paced, the weapons pack a punch, headshots feel like headshots should feel, and so on.
But slowly, that’s just not enough anymore. I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into Call of Duty over the last few years, grinding every camo and feeling my age in ranked multiplayer. And as old as the joke about “Haha, CoD is the same every year” may be, it has never felt more true than it does now.
Call of Duty vs. Battlefield
In 2022, we had Modern Warfare 2, followed by the quasi-add-on Modern Warfare 3 the next year, then Black Ops 6, now another quasi-add-on with Black Ops 7 – and in each of these new CoDs, you could search for the incremental changes with a magnifying glass.
Sure, we’re seeing big leaps in the skin shop and in the price development of microtransactions… unfortunately… but aside from that, CoD matches have felt absolutely uniform for at least three years now.
If you compare that to current multiplayer leaders like Marvel Rivals or, very likely, Battlefield 6, it explains why so many people are leaving. That’s where the real match dynamics are, that’s where the multiplayer stories are that you’ll remember years later, that’s where I find innovations and in-game monetization that respects my wallet. I’ll play the new Call of Duty after release because I generally have a lot of fun with Black Ops 7. Just like with the CoDs of recent years.
However, I remain very skeptical as to whether it will be able to prevail over Battlefield and others, both for me and for others.
According to all the rumors, 2027 will see the next really big step forward with Modern Warfare 4. And Call of Duty urgently needs it.
