In one of the wildest missions in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's campaign, a level delving into the past of your JSOC squad member's history culminates in a fight against a giant, angry version of Michael Rooker's Harper. While previous Black Ops games might have kept things more grounded, this level is made up of highways that twist like a rollercoaster. It's a fantastical, fake-feeling reinterpretation of what was once a futuristic but grounded experience.

Ultimately, that odd feeling permeates the entirety of Black Ops 7. The Co-Op Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies modes all feel well thought-out and focus-tested to maximize fun in the wake of Black Ops 6 revitalizing the franchise. That said, a total disconnection from Call of Duty's military roots, a prominence of generative AI art in the game, and a lack of compelling reasons to move on from Black Ops 6 ultimately make Black Ops 7 feel like a trippy, artistically contradictory experience rather than the next great Call of Duty.

Black Ops 7 adheres to the modern Call of Duty formula

It doesn't deviate from a formula that works

The Call of Duty games follow a pretty set formula at this point. There's a story-driven campaign, competitive multiplayer, and a round-based zombies mode that you shoot your way through to level up your accounts and weapons, partaking in an endless grind to unlock new things to equip and go into your next battle with. It's three different games in one, all built into the same subset of the Call of Duty launcher on PC and consoles.

Black Ops 7 retains the excellent Omnimovement game feel from Black Ops 6, adding onto it with a couple of new moves that make hopping and sliding around the game's levels even more fun. It's not innovative in that regard, but I wouldn't mind if every Call of Duty game going forward had omnimovement.

More importantly, progression is tied between all three modes. That includes the Co-Op Campaign, which is a great place to get your first 30-or-so level-ups when you first boot up Black Ops 7. Everything from the Calling Card challenges to weapon mastery to the daily and weekly challenges all progress, no matter what mode you play.

This can create an esoteric feeling that Black Ops 7 is a constant grind, as you're always going to have some challenge or progression goal in the back of your mind as you play. That said, this approach works because it makes every mode feel like it's part of one cohesive package.

Black Ops 7 is not a military shooter

Leaving Black Ops' grounded roots behind

Call of Duty has long since abandoned realism, but no game has felt quite as fantastical as Black Ops 7. In hopes of completely avoiding any chance of being called political or risque like the earliest Black Ops games, it fully drops the pretense of the series' wartime storytelling. Instead, it follows a feud between the black ops group JSOC and the megacorporation The Guild, as The Guild tries to take control of the world through a bioweapon that causes people to hallucinate.

That hallucinatory drug is Black Ops 7's excuse to let things get weird in the campaign and its subsequent Endgame extraction mode. During the story-driven missions of Black Ops 7, I hopped between islands with a powerful jump, summoned machetes from the sky, and fought everything from zombies to a giant Michael Rooker. There's creativity on display, although it feels like creative choices were made for entertainment value rather than artistic intent.

It's lighthearted fun, but makes this game lose the edge Black Ops games typically have. These aren't soldiers at war; they're superheroes playing soldier against each other. Thankfully, you don't actually need to think about the lackluster narrative much anymore when you're playing Endgame, the extraction shooter mode set on the upcoming Call of Duty: Warzone map.

Endgame has actually been some of the most fun I've had with an extraction shooter because it isn't as punishing as Arc Raiders. It keeps progression simple, and it's actually quite thrilling to grapple and glide around its open world like this is Marvel's Spider-Man 2, not a military shooter. Still, it's not a mode I plan on returning to long-term.

Black Ops 7 delivers on what Call of Duty does best

The main reason people buy Call of Duty games is on point here

Black Ops 7 delivers all the multiplayer modes you'd expect in top form. No series does modes like Team Deathmatch or Domination better than Call of Duty, and that's still the case. There are tons of weapon loadout, Perk, and Wildcard options to choose from to customize your build, with Black Ops 7 going as far as to let you share builds with others. It features a solid set of launch maps, though some are better suited to certain modes than others.

Black Ops 7 introduces two new modes: Skirmish and Overload. I'm not particularly fond of either. Overload is an attack-and-defend style mode where you have to obtain an enemy device and bring it to your opponent's zone. Many of the maps feel too small to be compelling, as it's usually pretty easy to b-line it from a device spawn location to an enemy zone.

Meanwhile, Skirmish is a 20v20 mode where the two teams fight over multiple objectives at once. It's clearly Call of Duty's response to Battlefield 6's All-Out Warfare modes. But just as Battlefield 6's weakest modes are the ones that feel like Call of Duty, Skirmish doesn't quite fit the snappy movement and gunplay of Call of Duty and feels better suited for a game like Battlefield. Thankfully, Call of Duty's traditional modes and maps are otherwise in top form here.

If you're the kind of gamer who's content with just picking up Call of Duty every year and chipping away at the same old multiplayer modes, you will still have a good time with Black Ops 7. You will have to reset all progress from Black Ops 6 to do so, though, which is a more challenging ask in a year when the multiplayer shooter competition is much more intense than it typically is.

Zombies is enjoyable, but it's where the cracks start to show

Dead Ops Arcade drags down the most ambitious Zombies map yet

Treyarch invented Call of Duty's Zombies mode, so it's always something that I look forward to in the new Call of Duty games that they spearhead. Guided Mode has yet to be released, so easter eggs are still being uncovered. That said, from what's here, it's clear that Black Ops 7's Zombies mode is already quite enjoyable. Narratively, it is a crossover between Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 6.

Interestingly, there's only one Zombies map right now, but it's a big one called Ashes of the Damned. It's made up of six objective-filled locations connected by very dangerous pathways your crew can drive through. The fun from playing this map comes from staying on the move, not just circling around zombies, but cycling from location to location as well.

I like Zombies more when it has fewer frills, so I think modern interpretations of the formula have gotten bogged down in mechanics like personalized loadouts and more of an objective focus rather than a survival one. As such, I enjoy playing Zombies' Cursed and Survival modes, respectively, rather than the Standard one.

I was also excited by the return of Dead Ops Arcade, but unfortunately, it's much too janky for my liking. Rather than feeling like an arcade tribute, it feels like a low-budget offshoot that lacks the visual polish of the other Zombies modes and has suspiciously AI-generated-looking art and dialogue. Dead Ops Arcade's pitfalls speak to a bigger issue Black Ops 7 faces.

The worst implementation of generative AI into a AAA game yet

Its inclusion truly drags down Black Ops 7 as a whole

Black Ops 7 has a visual identity crisis I did not expect going in. It's so obviously a AAA title in the truest sense, with unreal visuals and a level of polish that should leave other studios envious. More developers have worked on this one game than have worked on other well-known franchises in their lifetimes. Still, no matter how good the Co-Op Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies experiences look, there's an underlying feeling of cheapness.

That deep level of polish is juxtaposed with a reliance on generative AI. The aforementioned Calling Cards are the most egregious example of its use, resulting in some terrible-looking images that ape the look of art from companies like Studio Ghibli, to no avail. During parts of the Co-Op Campaign and Dead Ops Arcade, I also found some art that seemed suspicious. That's what's terrible about the use of generative AI: I have to question everything.

When the art or rewards of Black Ops 7 feel like they lack effort, why should I put effort into playing to engage with that AI-generated content? I don't blame the rank-and-file developers making the game; this is likely the result of an AI mandate. Still, it's utterly baffling to me that a game made by this many developers in a series that consistently tops the sales charts feels the need to use generative AI like this.

Black Ops 7 should feel like the most expensive-looking game of the year. Instead, the appearance of AI-generated content at times makes it feel like slop meant to satiate a release calendar. The use of generative AI is already bothering me a ton in Black Ops 7, and I'm afraid this issue is only going to get worse year-over-year for the series.

Black Ops 7 is an underwhelming follow-up to the amazing Black Ops 6

There's fun to be had, but this isn't a must-play like last year's Call of Duty

Ultimately, the use of AI content and the push away from any military roots the Black Ops series has does give Black Ops 7 a conflicted vibe that makes it tough to recommend over the likes of Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders, or even Black Ops 6. That said, if you check it out via Xbox Game Pass or buy Call of Duty every year, you won't be in for an outright bad time

Those looking for a polished, frantic multiplayer shooter or thrilling cooperative zombie shooter will find that few series do those things better than Call of Duty. That's still the case, so I wish Activision would let its developers utilize their talents a little more rather than rely on AI to make a game built around an arduous grind feel even more soulless. Hopefully, Black Ops 7 can be a solid but flawed wake-up call for Call of Duty, rather than a sign of things to come.