Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Review: PRESS F to pay respects

NFD NEWS
Nov 16
2 min read

A game that proves you can sprint-slide your way to greatness… just not through the campaign.

Campaign – A Cinematic Snoozefest

Let’s rip this Band-Aid off first: the Black Ops 7 campaign is rough. Not “forgettable” rough. More like “I can’t believe they shipped this” rough. It feels like the team duct-taped together leftover plot threads from three different writers’ rooms and prayed the explosions would distract everyone. Spoiler: they don’t.

The pacing is all over the place, the missions feel like diet versions of better Black Ops moments, and the story somehow manages to be both confusing and boring — an impressive combination, just not in a good way. Even the big set pieces come off like AI-generated Hollywood without the charm. At times it feels less like you’re playing a blockbuster and more like you’re watching a senior-year film project with a triple-A budget.

If you came for a gripping narrative, you’re better off watching someone else’s YouTube recap at 1.5x speed. It’s faster and probably makes more sense.

Multiplayer – The Saving Grace

Now here’s where BO7 remembers what franchise it’s in. The gunplay? Clean. The movement? Crisp. The weapon balance? Shockingly solid out of the gate. Multiplayer carries this game like a stressed-out dad carrying all the grocery bags in one trip.

The new perks and equipment flow nicely with the classic Black Ops tempo. TTK feels tuned, the modes are snappy, and the progression system rewards actual play instead of spreadsheet-style grinding. When you’re in a gunfight, the game feels phenomenal — like peak Treyarch muscle memory kicking back in.

…But These Maps? Oof.

It’s honestly wild how good the gameplay feels and how mid the maps are. Almost every arena feels like it was designed by someone who had only heard rumors of what “three-lane layout” means. You get awkward chokepoints, dead zones nobody visits, and “power positions” that feel less like strategy and more like geometry mistakes.

Some maps try to be experimental and end up looking like rejected Warzone POIs. Others feel like they were built by interns who were told, “Just make something square, it’ll be fine.” Spoiler: it’s not.

It’s a weird case where the multiplayer feels incredible once you’re actually in a fight — but half the time you’re just sprinting through empty hallways wondering who approved these layouts.

Final Verdict – 7/10

Black Ops 7 nails the core gunplay and multiplayer feel so well that it earns its score on the strength of its mechanics alone. But the campaign is a mess, a missed opportunity, and genuinely painful to sit through. Add in map design that ranges from bland to baffling, and you’ve got a game that’s carried to a 7/10 kicking and screaming by its multiplayer alone.