Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 Review (PC) – Trying Something New Doesn’t Always Work

It’s that time of year again! I’ve been playing Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 and after last years’ Black Ops 6, I was very interested to see where this long running franchise would go. Does it reinvent itself to combat the recent competition? or Is it stuck in the trenches of the series history? Let’s discuss that and more in this, The Outerhaven’s review of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Game Name: Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Publisher(s): Activision
Developer(s): Treyarch
Release Date: 13th November 2025

Is This Even Call Of Duty?

Just like I always do, I started my Black Ops 7 experience by immediately jumping into the campaign. What can I say, I’m a story first kind of gamer. There is of course, one major change this year with campaign, that’s because for the first time ever you can playthrough the entire thing in co-op (up to four players). This change is something that presents amazing gameplay opportunities but also comes with its share of challenges (more on those shortly).

In Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 campaign you play mainly as David Mason the son of Alex Mason the main protagonist of previous Call Of Duty: Black Ops games. In terms of the Black Ops timeline, this campaign is a sequel to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 and follows the events of the world after the death of Raul Menendez. So, there was so much potential in the story telling here.

What is going on?

Unfortunately, that potential is significantly hurt by the mission design and the gameplay situations that come with such design. Speaking of design, the issues begin with the co-op nature of this campaign, means you have to be connected online to play it, and you can’t pause at any point. That wouldn’t be the end of the world in co-op only, but even when you boot into solo without a squad, you still can’t pause the game.

The real issues, however, begin with the mission design itself. One minute, you’ll be doing a traditional corridor-style COD campaign mission. The next minute, you’ll be in a semi-open world that feels more like playing Warzone. Then you’ll start hallucinating and end up in a mission with superpowers and have a boss fight against a giant flower or something like that. While none of these designs are bad on their own. The mix of styles creates a lack of cohesion across the campaign. When you combine these styles, it leans too far into the weird. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7’s campaign just leaves me feeling like this isn’t a COD campaign and could have been its own game or separate mode.

I praise the team for trying something different here, after years of essentially doing the same action movie type of campaign we are used to. Unfortunately, leaning so far into the weird and varied mission design loses the essence of what Call Of Duty is. This is even more frustrating when you realise how much narrative potential this game had, especially for long-term fans like myself.

Feels The Same And That’s Great

When it comes to gameplay, it’s the same as last year. So if you enjoyed that, you’ll like this. I could honestly write word-for-word what I said about it in my Black Ops 6 review, but that would be wasting both my time and yours.

If you’ve played Call Of Duty in the last few years, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting here. Guns, grenades, and gadgets all function the same as they have done previously. Movement is taken from the upgraded system first introduced in Black Ops 6. What more can I say, the moment-to-moment gameplay of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 is the best the series has ever felt, but the same exact thing was true last year. Admittedly, it’s a nice touch that you can play the co-op campaign and zombie mode in 3rd person view, should you prefer. However, I stuck with 1st person as that is what Call Of Duty to me.

Multiplayer and Zombies, The Same Thing In A Different Location

When it comes to multiplayer, all the modes you’d expect are still present, from Team Death Match, Domination, and Hardpoint to Free For All and Gun Fight. There is something for everyone, but all of these modes play the same as they have for years now. And this is the crux of my frustrations with this game. This is, according to Activision, supposed to be its best version of Call of Duty yet, almost too big to fail, and yet, they continue to provide us with the same exact game modes that haven’t been touched in the prior releases of the title. As a fan of the series, this continues to frustrate me to the point where I don’t want to say that it’s not worth playing, but at the same time, if you played before, there’s no difference here. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, but maybe it might warrant holding out for a sale.

When it comes to maps, there is a good mix of new and old favourites returning, but ultimately, the same core three-lane map design still remains across the board. This means that in practice, these maps look nice and seem fresh at first, but in the en,d they feel the same to play.

On a more positive note, zombies this year provides a huge return to form for the franchise. Going back to round based Zombies is exactly what the community asked for and the developers delivered. The map in Zombies has several key locations that you get to via a pick truck or by using teleportation pads once the power is on. Throughout these locations, you’ll find all the perks you’d expect from speed cola to quick revive and more. While that is the standard mode, they also offer a survival mode, which is more like the original zombie,s confining you to one location on the map.

I’ve been playing it with friends, and we all said we haven’t had this much fun with zombies for over a decade. This mode is the only thing that will keep me playing this game for months to come. So, if you’re a Zombies fan, then I absolutely recommend Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 to you.

For zombies and multiplayer, one thing I’ll say is that sharing progression for guns and your own level across both modes, which they did previously, and then adding in campaign to the progression loop this year. Helps speed up progression to an excellent pace and gives everything you do more impact on the other modes.

Shiny Even If It Isn’t New

In terms of presentation, Black Ops 7 doesn’t look or sound all that different from previous entries. However, it doesn’t really need to when they have nailed it so well in the past. Gunshots and explosions pack a suitable punch, with the different sounds for each gun adding a feeling of weight to the impact of shots.

Visually, the game looks pretty much identical to Black Ops 6, but that’s absolutely not an issue. We still get those high-end cinematics in the campaign and crisp-looking environments across all modes.

For me, the only true disappointment with Black Ops 7’s audio presentation is the complete lack of any truly new music. The Call Of Duty series has a long history of iconic themes across both the campaign and multiplayer, but this year, everything seems to be a remix or reuse of previous tracks. It leaves a sour note on the otherwise great presentation of Black Ops 7, and it further highlights the lack of new elements in Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Solid PC Performance

When it comes to PC performance, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 is very solid and, on the technical bug front, even more polished than last year. I didn’t have a single issue! I was even able to actually play the campaign on PC this year, unlike with Black Ops 6.

When it comes to framerates at 4K resolution on the same graphical settings as last year (the highest available but no ray-tracing) I was seeing around a 20-30% improvement over the 80-90 FPS I was getting with Black Ops 6. However, it’s difficult without more precise testing to say whether that’s due to me switching PC hardware somewhat or if Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 is just better optimized.

Of course, your experience will vary depending on the hardware you have. However, due to the plethora of graphic settings Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 seems to continue the trend of being highly scalable across a variety of configurations.

Jordan’s PC Specs: AMD 9950X3D, RTX 5090 Founders Edition, 96GB DDR5 6000MHz Corsair RAM

Final Thoughts

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 is what we have come to expect from the franchise, for better and worse. On one hand, we have the return to round based Zombies, which provides arguably the best zombie mode experience we’ve seen for years. Then, on the other hand, we have a campaign that proves trying something different doesn’t always work. Ultimately, it leads to feeling like it lacks the soul of what a COD campaign should be.

Finally, somewhere in the middle, we have a multiplayer that doesn’t do enough to set itself apart from the previous offerings in the series. I’d even go as far as saying the most interesting parts of multiplayer are the maps that return from previous games. In the end, all this is wrapped up in a  package containing what I’d say is the most solid gameplay and presentation of the franchise (just like Black Ops 6).

It just doesn’t do enough to set itself apart and recommend at full price, unless you specifically want the game for zombie mode. Even then it’s probably best to wait for a sale or play on a subscription service if you have the option.

Review Disclosure Statement: A copy of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 was provided to us for review purposes by Activision. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

Affiliate Link Disclosure: One or more of the links above contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, we may receive a commission should you click through and purchase the item.