Story-driven campaigns in multiplayer shooters have had an identity crisis for some time. It has felt like Call of Duty and Battlefield haven't known what to do with this aspect of the game for years. Just last month, Battlefield 6's campaign came out boring, underdeveloped, and generally disconnected from the rest of the game. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 doesn't have that problem.

This game's campaign is different from any in a Call of Duty game before it, touting itself as a "Co-Op Campaign" and going fully outlandish and sci-fi with some of its set pieces. From mechanics to progression to narrative, it feels fully integrated with the rest of Black Ops 7. It also sets up an Endgame mode that feels like a more natural fit for Call of Duty.

While this approach is hard to accept, it actually makes more sense as a part of the broader experience this game is offering. Black Ops 7 is a multiplayer shooter where the campaign doesn't feel tacked on because it left behind any effort to be a short, offline, and single-player alternative to the base. Black Ops 7's campaign makes some core game design changes to reflect the reality of what Call of Duty is as a franchise today. If you aren't on board with that, you probably aren't going to like this game as a whole.

Black Ops 7 ties the whole Black Ops series together

Its campaign is a fun one for fans invested in this sub-series' lore

Narratively, Black Ops 7 is a direct sequel to Black Ops 2, although at times it can feel like an Avengers: Endgame-like culmination moment for the Black Ops sub-series as a whole. It follows the Spectre One JSOC strike unit led by David Mason as they take on The Guild, an evil megacorporation led by Emma Kagan, in the city of Avalon. Occasionally, the squad is doused with a chemical that makes them hallucinate fantastical sci-fi levels that you'll also have to fight and shoot through.

The campaign feels like a summer blockbuster movie in tone, going as far as to star Hollywood talent like the poised Kiernan Shipka and the ever-enigmatic Michael Rooker. For the most part, the story revels in fan service, so don't expect a thoughtful breakdown of its main characters' motivations, the evils of capitalism, or even a good war story. Do expect otherworldly level design and callbacks to previous Black Ops games and levels, though.

This game is so far removed from the grounded military roots Call of Duty started with that I hesitate to call this a military shooter. This is certainly the only Call of Duty game with boss fights against an acid-spitting plant creature and a gigantic Michael Rooker. At times, it feels even more fantastical than Infinite Warfare, so if you like your Call of Duty games grounded, be warned.

While it didn't exactly offer what I expected out of a Black Ops story, I can admit I still had a good time playing it. If I didn't think too hard about it, Black Ops 7 was as enjoyable as a popcorn-munching blockbuster. I may have been more disappointed in that reality if the campaign felt like a one-and-done mode disconnected from the rest of the experience. Thankfully, it isn't.

Black Ops 7 really puts the "co-op" in "Co-Op Campaign"

That makes more sense for a modern Call of Duty game.

Black Ops 7 promotes its story mode as a "Co-Op Campaign," not just "Campaign." I was unsure whether that was necessary when I first booted up the game, as Call of Duty titles like World at War had included this feature before. It quickly made sense why co-op would be baked right into the title, though, as Black Ops 7's campaign is clearly designed to be co-op first.

Every mission follows a squad of four characters, and you can group up and load into each mission like you would a multiplayer or zombies match. Many levels are open-ended, using part of a bigger map used for an "Endgame" co-op mode once you beat the campaign. Completing missions earns you co-op and weapon experience that carries over to the Multiplayer and Zombies segments of the game. It feels fully integrated into the game.

This approach comes with downsides. The campaign is now always online, even for solo play. A lot of its levels reuse assets from multiplayer maps or that endgame mode, albeit cleverly. The majority of storytelling is done over intercoms or in cinematic cutscenes, so no specific level matches the narrative poignancy of Aftermath or the subversive game design of No Russian. If you're looking for more than a co-op shooting gallery, you're not getting that here.

That said, Black Ops 7's campaign is exactly what I think a campaign in a modern Call of Duty game should be. At this point, Call of Duty is a multiplayer-first franchise. Having a campaign that serves as a tutorial for Multiplayer and a co-op alternative to Zombies makes a lot of sense. It's definitely a change of pace for us with nostalgia for the series' golden age, and frustrating to those who don't always want to feel like they are on the live service progression treadmill. Still, it's the first time in years that the campaign in a Call of Duty game does not feel like an afterthought to me.

Black Ops 7's campaign is different, more fitting for modern Call of Duty

I'm expecting this to be what Call of Duty campaigns are like going forward

Ultimately, I have conflicted feelings about Black Ops 7's campaign. It's far removed from the classic campaigns Call of Duty was previously known, but has also taken a form that I think makes sense within the broader franchise ethos nowadays. If you follow Black Ops lore, this game does feature the callbacks and payoffs you're hoping for. It's more sci-fi shooter than military shooter than its predecessors, but that shift works. Concurrently, it also understands that a completely disconnected single-player experience no longer makes sense for Call of Duty, as much as that pains me to say.

It goes all in on co-op as a result, essentially using the campaign to tee up the new Endgame mode. The fact that playing through the campaign unlocks Endgame and earns you experience that carries over elsewhere makes playing through it feel worthwhile. Activision always wants you to be grinding toward that next prestige, don't they? Black Ops 7's Co-Op Campaign is an indication that Activision has fully accepted that Call of Duty games are multiplayer experiences, and that every part of the game should reflect that.

So far, I've mostly spent my time on Black Ops 7's campaign, I will continue to play Multiplayer, Zombies, and Endgame in the coming days. You should keep an eye out for my full review of Black Ops 7 next week.