Black Ops 7 Campaign Review (March 2026) A Complete Disaster
I’ve been a Call of Duty fan for over two decades, playing every single campaign from the original World War II missions to the latest futuristic shooters. I’ve defended mediocre entries, praised hidden gems, and always found something to appreciate in even the weakest campaigns. But Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s campaign? This is the first time I genuinely struggle to find any redeeming qualities beyond raw performance metrics.
After spending multiple hours fighting through the always-online co-op structure, enduring bullet-sponge enemies with floating health bars, and witnessing some of the most bizarre boss fights in franchise history, I can confidently say this: Black Ops 7’s campaign represents everything wrong with modern Call of Duty design philosophy.
In this brutally honest review, I’ll break down exactly why Black Ops 7’s campaign fails on almost every level, from its convoluted story to its frustrating always-online requirement. Whether you’re a longtime fan wondering if the campaign is worth your time or a newcomer curious about the controversy, I’ll give you the unfiltered truth about what might be the worst Call of Duty campaign ever created.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Campaign Overview
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 14, 2026 |
| Developer | Treyarch & Raven Software |
| Campaign Length | 4-5 hours (painfully short) |
| Setting | 2035, Avalon City (10 years after Black Ops 2) |
| Playable Characters | David Mason (solo), 4-person squad (co-op) |
| Campaign Type | Always-online co-op focus |
| Main Villain | Emma Kagan / The Guild |
| Metacritic Score | 84 (Critics) / 2.1 (Users – Series Low) |
| Platforms | PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S |
| Notable Features | Fear toxin hallucinations, Endgame extraction mode |
| Major Issues | Can’t pause, bullet sponges, weak story, AI-generated art |
Why Black Ops 7 Campaign Is Getting Absolutely Roasted?
The Always-Online Nightmare
Let me start with the most infuriating design decision: you literally cannot pause the Black Ops 7 campaign, even when playing solo. This isn’t a bug or oversight – it’s intentional because the entire campaign is structured as an always-online co-op experience.
During my playthroughs, I had to strategically plan bathroom breaks, food runs, and any interruptions around mission completions. Got an emergency phone call? Too bad – find a safe corner and hope enemies don’t spawn. Need to step away for five minutes? You’re getting kicked back to the menu and replaying chunks of the mission.
The always-online structure creates additional problems:
- Connection drops mean progress loss – I lost 45 minutes of progress when my internet hiccupped
- No proper checkpoints – Missions are segmented into long chunks with minimal save points
- Forced matchmaking with randoms – Solo players are constantly prompted to enable squad fill
- Server dependency – Can’t play during maintenance windows or internet outages
This decision fundamentally breaks the single-player campaign experience. Call of Duty has traditionally offered strong campaigns, but Black Ops 7 throws that tradition out the window in favor of a hybrid model that satisfies nobody.
A Story That Makes Zero Sense
Black Ops campaigns have always been known for their conspiracy theories, plot twists, and mind-bending narratives. Black Ops 7 takes “mind-bending” literally with its fear toxin mechanic – and not in a good way.
The Plot (What Little There Is)
Set in 2035, a decade after Black Ops 2, you play as David Mason leading a squad called Specter One. The global tech corporation The Guild, led by CEO Emma Kagan, has weaponized a fear-inducing substance called “Cradle” that causes hallucinations. Your team investigates The Guild in the futuristic city of Avalon, only to be repeatedly dosed with fear gas that sends everyone into shared nightmare sequences.
That’s… pretty much it. There’s a “twist” involving a character you meet once, Raul Menendez appears as a hallucination (despite being canonically dead), and Emma Kagan might be the most boring villain in franchise history.
Why The Story Fails?
The fear toxin mechanic should enable creative storytelling, but instead it becomes an excuse for:
- Recycled nostalgia bait – Revisiting Black Ops 2 locations without adding anything meaningful
- Zero character development – New squad members have no personality beyond generic military banter
- No stakes or consequences – Everything feels hollow because you’re mostly fighting in Avalon (an empty city) with no civilians or meaningful objectives
- Predictable “twists” – The main betrayal is telegraphed hours in advance
I’ve defended convoluted Call of Duty plots before, but Black Ops 7 isn’t convoluted – it’s just empty. The 4-5 hour runtime doesn’t give any narrative thread time to develop, and the campaign ends with a whimper rather than the explosive finale we’ve come to expect.
Bullet Sponge Enemies That Destroy Pacing
Traditional Call of Duty campaigns feature tactical, cover-based shootouts where enemies go down quickly but overwhelm you with numbers and positioning. Black Ops 7 abandons this formula entirely for Destiny-style bullet sponge enemies with floating health bars.
During my playthroughs, basic Guild soldiers required entire magazines to kill. Elite enemies became tedious shooting galleries where I’d empty gun after gun into the same target. This isn’t challenging – it’s boring.
The RPG-lite mechanics include:
- Weapon rarity tiers (common, rare, epic, legendary)
- Armor plating system borrowed from Warzone
- Loot boxes scattered throughout missions
- Upgrade stations for improving weapon tiers
- Health bars floating above every enemy
These systems work fine in Warzone or extraction shooters, but in a narrative campaign they completely kill pacing. Instead of moving from set piece to set piece, you’re grinding through HP bars like a bad MMO.
Boss Fights That Feel Like Fortnite Live Events
If bullet sponge regular enemies weren’t bad enough, Black Ops 7 turns beloved franchise characters into absurd boss encounters that genuinely embarrassed me to play.
The Boss Fight Disasters
Harper as a Kaiju: Michael Rooker’s character from Black Ops 2 transforms into a building-sized monster you fight while dodging attacks and shooting glowing weak points. It feels ripped straight from a Fortnite limited-time event.
Menendez with Phases: The iconic villain from Black Ops 2 becomes a multi-phase boss with telegraphed attack patterns. Instead of a meaningful confrontation, you shoot his weak spots until he groans and the phase resets.
Giant Woods Flower Monster: Frank Woods, another series legend, becomes a literal flower-like creature with blooming weak points while zombies swarm the arena. Yes, you read that correctly.
These encounters have zero emotional weight. They’re mechanically functional but completely miss what made these characters memorable. Instead of meaningful story beats, we get arcade-style boss rush content that belongs in Zombies mode, not the campaign.
The boss fights also highlight another problem: they’re designed for co-op. Solo players face the exact same difficulty as four-player squads, making these encounters needlessly frustrating when playing alone.
AI-Generated Art Scandal
Black Ops 7 has faced significant backlash for its blatant use of AI-generated art throughout the game. Multiple calling cards, challenge icons, and achievement artwork have that distinctive AI “look” – smooth, slightly off proportions, and eerily perfect in a synthetic way.
Activision has confirmed using AI tools for “production support,” but players rightfully feel disrespected. When you’re charging $70 for a game with a $300+ million budget, using AI-generated rewards for completing challenges feels cheap and lazy.
The AI discourse extends beyond just visuals. Players have noted that enemy behaviors feel copy-pasted, mission structures repeat endlessly, and even dialogue has that “focus-tested to death” quality that suggests heavy automation in the creative process.
What Black Ops 7 Campaign Actually Gets Right?
I’m not here to be completely negative – there are a few bright spots worth mentioning.
Performance Is Genuinely Excellent
Black Ops 7 runs incredibly well, even on modest hardware. Testing on a system with an RTX 5060 Ti, AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, and 32GB RAM, I consistently hit 100+ FPS at 1080p high settings with minimal frame drops.
The game features extensive upscaling support:
- DLSS (all variants including frame generation)
- FSR 1, 3, and 4
- AMD FSR Ray Regeneration (first game to feature it)
- Intel XeSS
- NVIDIA Image Scaling
- FidelityFX CAS
Loading times are fast, even on SATA SSDs. The game handles the large Avalon open-world sections smoothly. This is legitimately some of the best optimization we’ve seen in a recent Call of Duty title.
Gunplay Still Feels Like Call of Duty
Strip away all the RPG mechanics, bullet sponge health bars, and boss fights – the core shooting still feels satisfying. Weapon feedback is crisp, hit reactions look good, and the basic mechanical feel of Call of Duty gunplay remains intact.
Black Ops 7 weapons themselves are well-designed, even if the systems surrounding them are problematic. The futuristic arsenal fits the 2035 setting, and customization options are extensive.
Endgame Mode Shows Promise (For What It Is)
After completing the campaign, you unlock Endgame – an extraction-style PvE mode set in Avalon with up to 32 players. While it’s not what campaign fans wanted, Endgame actually offers more compelling gameplay than the campaign itself.
Endgame features:
- Open-world exploration of the full Avalon map
- Dynamic missions with varying objectives
- Character progression that persists across attempts
- High-risk, high-reward extraction mechanics
- Shared progression with multiplayer and Zombies
The catch? If you die or disconnect, you lose all your character’s progress. My friend got disconnected twice in one weekend, losing hours of grinding each time. The mode has potential if Treyarch commits to meaningful seasonal updates, but right now it feels like setup for future content rather than a complete experience.
Movement Mechanics Are Fun
The campaign includes several movement upgrades that feel genuinely enjoyable to use:
- Grappling hook for quick traversal
- Wingsuit for gliding across Avalon
- Tactical sprint and advanced mobility options
- Wall-running sections in specific missions
Navigating Avalon with these tools is legitimately fun. The problem is that 80% of your time is spent shooting bullet sponge enemies rather than enjoying the movement systems.
The Co-Op Problem: Designed for Nobody
Black Ops 7’s campaign sits in a frustrating middle ground – it’s not a good single-player experience and it’s not a compelling co-op game either.
Solo Players Get Screwed
Playing solo means:
- You’re the only character visible, even though three teammates still talk over radio
- No AI companions to help, despite the game clearly being designed for four players
- Full difficulty scaling as if you had a squad
- Constant prompts to enable matchmaking
- Can’t pause (the biggest offense)
Co-Op Players Face Different Issues
Playing with friends or randoms creates new problems:
- Unskippable cutscenes force everyone to watch together
- Puzzle segments often only require one player while others stand around
- Pacing becomes chaotic with multiple people rushing objectives
- Disconnection issues ruin the experience for everyone
The campaign needed to pick a lane: either make a proper single-player experience with an optional co-op mode, or fully commit to co-op design with mechanics that actually require teamwork. Instead, we got this awkward hybrid that disappoints both audiences.
Black Ops 7 Campaign vs. Previous Entries
How It Compares to Black Ops 2?
Black Ops 7 is supposedly a direct sequel to Black Ops 2, set 10 years later. The comparison is brutal:
| Aspect | Black Ops 2 | Black Ops 7 |
|---|---|---|
| Story Quality | Branching narrative with meaningful choices | Linear, predictable, boring |
| Villain | Menendez (iconic, complex, memorable) | Emma Kagan (bland, forgettable) |
| Mission Variety | Strike Force missions, multiple paths | Repetitive shooting galleries |
| Length | 7-8 hours | 4-5 hours |
| Innovation | RTS elements, player choice impact | RPG-lite mechanics, extraction mode |
| Reception | Widely praised | Series low user score |
Black Ops 6 Campaign Was Better
Last year’s Black Ops 6 had a campaign that was “mostly average” but still felt like Call of Duty. It understood pacing, had memorable set pieces, and respected players’ time. Black Ops 7 abandons all of that.
Where Black Ops 7 Ranks Among Worst Campaigns
In my opinion, Black Ops 7’s campaign joins the bottom tier:
- Call of Duty: Vanguard – Scattered, inconsistent, forgettable
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 – Identity crisis, co-op disaster
- Call of Duty: Ghosts – Bland but functional
- Modern Warfare 3 (2023) – Open-world mess but at least had ideas
Should You Play Black Ops 7 Campaign?
If You’re a Campaign Fan: Hard No
If you buy Call of Duty primarily for the single-player experience, skip Black Ops 7 entirely. The campaign is:
- Too short (4-5 hours)
- Poorly paced
- Narratively empty
- Frustratingly always-online
- Not worth $70
Watch a story compilation on YouTube if you’re curious about the plot. You’ll save yourself $70 and several hours of frustration.
If You’re Here for Multiplayer/Zombies: Maybe
Black Ops 7’s multiplayer is reportedly solid (though not revolutionary), and the Zombies mode is getting strong praise. The full $70 package might be worth it for those modes, but the campaign actively detracts from the overall value.
If You Love Co-Op Games: Wait for Sales
The Endgame mode might evolve into something worthwhile with post-launch support, similar to how DMZ started rough but improved over time. However, at launch, it’s barebones and plagued with disconnection issues.
Wait for deep sales if you’re curious about the co-op elements. Don’t pay full price.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the Black Ops 7 campaign?
The Black Ops 7 campaign is approximately 4-5 hours long, making it one of the shortest Call of Duty campaigns ever released. This doesn’t include the Endgame epilogue content, which is separate and extraction-based rather than traditional story missions.
Can you play Black Ops 7 campaign solo?
Yes, you can play the campaign solo, but it’s designed for co-op. When playing alone, you’re the only visible character (your three squadmates exist only as radio voices), you face the same difficulty as four-player squads, and most frustratingly, you cannot pause the game even when playing completely alone.
Why can’t you pause in Black Ops 7 campaign?
You cannot pause because the campaign is always-online and structured as a co-op matchmaking experience, similar to how you can’t pause Warzone matches. Even solo players are treated as being in a “live” match, preventing any form of pausing. This is one of the most criticized design decisions in the game.
Is Black Ops 7 campaign worth playing?
For most players, no. The campaign suffers from weak storytelling, bullet-sponge enemies, always-online requirements, and a confusing identity crisis between solo and co-op design. If you’re primarily interested in Call of Duty campaigns, this is one of the weakest entries in franchise history. The multiplayer and Zombies modes are reportedly better investments of your time.
How does progression work in Black Ops 7 campaign?
Black Ops 7 features shared progression across all modes. Playing the campaign levels up your account, unlocks weapons, progresses battle pass tiers (in season), and earns cosmetics that carry into multiplayer and Zombies. This is the first Call of Duty where you can fully level up and prestige without ever touching competitive modes.
What is the Endgame mode in Black Ops 7?
Endgame is a post-campaign extraction PvE mode set in the open-world Avalon map. Up to 32 players complete missions, gather loot, and must successfully extract to keep their character progression. If you die or disconnect, you lose all progress. It’s inspired by DMZ and Modern Warfare 3 Zombies but currently lacks the content depth of those modes.
Can you skip cutscenes in Black Ops 7 co-op?
No, cutscenes are unskippable in co-op, forcing all players to watch them together. This becomes extremely frustrating during repeat playthroughs or when playing with people who want to rush through the campaign. It’s one of many design decisions that makes the co-op experience more tedious than enjoyable.
Is Black Ops 7 campaign better than Black Ops 6?
No, Black Ops 6’s campaign was significantly better. While BO6 wasn’t perfect, it understood pacing, had memorable missions, and respected the single-player experience. Black Ops 7 abandons traditional campaign design for a co-op hybrid that fails to satisfy either solo or co-op players effectively.
My Final Verdict on Black Ops 7 Campaign
Rating: 3/10
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s campaign represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes these stories work. The developers tried to innovate with co-op design and extraction elements, but in doing so, they created an experience that satisfies nobody.
The Good
- Excellent technical performance and optimization
- Core gunplay still feels satisfying
- Movement mechanics are enjoyable
- Endgame mode has potential (if updated regularly)
The Bad
- Cannot pause even in solo (dealbreaker for many)
- Weak, predictable story with no meaningful twists
- Bullet-sponge enemies kill pacing
- Absurd boss fights that disrespect franchise legacy
- Only 4-5 hours long
- Always-online requirement creates frustration
- Series-low user scores reflect community disappointment
The Ugly
- Blatant AI-generated art throughout
- Lowest-stakes campaign in franchise history
- Co-op design that works for neither solo nor multiplayer audiences
- $70 price tag for what feels like glorified Warzone content
As someone who has played and enjoyed every previous Call of Duty campaign, Black Ops 7 is the first one I genuinely cannot recommend. The technical achievements and solid Zombies mode don’t compensate for a campaign that feels like an afterthought – a checkbox to tick before players move on to the “real” content.
If you’re curious about the story, watch a YouTube compilation. If you want co-op PvE, play literally any other extraction shooter. If you love Call of Duty campaigns, replay Black Ops 2 instead – it’s still better over a decade later.
Call of Duty campaigns need a serious rethink moving forward. Either commit to making proper single-player experiences again, or stop pretending these campaigns are anything more than tutorial modes for multiplayer. Black Ops 7 tried to have it both ways and failed spectacularly at both.
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