I’ve played 150 Hours of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in its first month — here's why it's not the game social media says it is

The title of this article probably comes across as a little snarky. And it should. It's intentional because while Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is far from perfect, I'm not convinced all the negative discourse is from people who are actually playing the game.

We live in the social media generation, don't we? Clips of the campaign on TikTok without context, screaming how Black Ops 7 is the worst Call of Duty in history. Those people must have skipped Vanguard. But sure, the user ratings could back up this sentiment.

I've already written about how I feel like Call of Duty fatigue is setting in and that, in an ideal world, taking a break for a year might be a smart idea. Surprisingly, Activision has responded to some of the criticism, promising that the days of back-to-back releases of the Modern Warfare and Black Ops franchises will never happen again.

Coming straight after Black Ops 6 was, in hindsight, not the smartest move, especially when right before, we had two Modern Warfare titles in a row.

Black Ops 7 has been with us for a month, and I've been playing it a lot since November 14, to the tune of about 150 hours. Here's how it's been.

Let's talk about the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 campaign

I don't want to dwell on it too much, but obviously the campaign is one of the more contentious parts of the game. My colleague, Cole Martin, wrote our full review of Black Ops 7, and I'm not going to go over old ground.

Was the campaign good? I don't think it's as bad as the social media clips would have you believe. The story is wild. Personally, I think the mistake was trying to link Black Ops 7 to Black Ops 2. Aside from characters and the timeline, there's not much else linking the two.

The campaign follows the story started in Black Ops 6. It's set in Avalon, mostly, from Black Ops 6. The Guild, the protagonist organization, is from Black Ops 6. Optics matter. I'm not sure why, beyond hype, Black Ops 2 was ever brought into it. It's not a sequel.

The best part of the campaign is the Endgame mode, which you can now play without touching the story missions. Sure, it follows the same sort of weirdness the campaign delivers, but it's great fun to play.

It's an extraction sandbox, but a far more forgiving one than almost every other game out there of this type. If you die, you lose your Combat Rating and your gear, but it's also not amazingly difficult to stay alive.

It's set on the Avalon map, to be used in the upcoming Blackout revival, and if you played Black Ops 6 you'll recognize plenty of the POIs.

But compared to every other mode in Call of Duty, it's so chilled. I've played a ton of Endgame in pursuit of the Genesis Mastery Camo, and now the 100% completion. At times, it almost doesn't feel like Call of Duty.

There's so much camaraderie in the lobby, with players using game chat to organize and team up for a big push against the final boss or the World Event bosses.

That it's a pure PvE experience is its strength. Instead of competing against each other, everyone can work together. Share success. My only concern is how long it'll get new content. I want more. It's been my favorite Black Ops 7 experience overall.

Multiplayer is multiplayer

I refuse to get drawn into the debate on whether the "open" playlists really are as open as they were supposed to be. Or whether the "standard" SBMM playlist is being pushed. It's Call of Duty multiplayer, expect sweatiness. That's just how it is.

If you want a casual multiplayer shooter, you're in the wrong place. That's as true now as it's been going way back, SBMM or no SBMM.

However, ignoring this topic, the multiplayer is a big improvement over Black Ops 6. The addition of the wall jump has added just enough extra spice to Omnimovement without being overbearing, and the maps are significantly more fun to play on.

The first couple of weeks were hard work, I won't lie, as the more committed players were all racing to unlock the Singularity Camo (I still haven't decided if I'm bothering at all.)

There are some old maps brought back to life, too, such as Raid and now Standoff. I think they play pretty well with the Black Ops 7 movement and weapons, and as someone who never an affection for Raid, I've found it enjoyable this time around.

If I had to pick fault, though, it would be with the seemingly never-to-end meta of running an overclocked UAV, Looper, and constantly getting Scorestreaks. With the Overclock, you can't even down them with a single shot from a rocket launcher.

This is the type of play that makes players back out of lobbies. I'm not afraid to say I do, too. I'm too old for that crud. It's exhausting.

The overall feel of the multiplayer mode is good, though. It's fast and fluid, exciting, and on the occasions you get into a properly competitive match not marred by endless Scorestreak spam, it's rewarding. I've had some of my most fun Call of Duty matches in years on Black Ops 7, both as a winner and a loser.

I'm looking forward to ranked play this year for sure. The anti-cheat seems to be holding up, which deserves a shoutout because lord knows we've been crying for it.

With a much-reduced weapon list and no streak spam, I'm hopeful of a strong competitive experience. The map pool is solid, too, based on what I've seen in the early Call of Duty League matches.

I need to spend more time on Zombies

As someone who traditionally steers more towards PvE over PvP, I never spend enough time on Call of Duty: Zombies. What I have seen firsthand and through consuming a ton of Zombies content, though, is generally positive.

It plays a lot like Black Ops 6 Zombies, which I think is fine, though I appreciate that old hands may not be a fan of the mechanics. Armor plating is still awful, though. It feels like you spend too much time applying plates. A Warzone mechanic we could do without.

The two maps so far are good, Ashes of the Damned especially. Zombies launched much stronger this year, I feel, purely down to the quality of the maps. Liberty Falls in Black Ops 6 was pretty average, but both Ashes and the newest arrival, Astra Malorum, are far better.

While I haven't any time to speak of playing Cursed, its addition this year is a definite win. Even now, the ninth relic still hasn't been found on Ashes of the Damned. Given the tradition of Zombies puzzle-solving, it adds some welcome depth. And difficulty.

A ridiculous amount of things to do in Black Ops 7

Four sets of Mastery Camos, Dark Ops, and Calling Card challenges to 100%, as well as 35 weapons and counting to level up to Prestige Master 250. The regular Prestige grind, the Prestige Master grind, weekly challenges, and limited-time events.

All things that you can do right now in Black Ops 7. Will every player want to try to unlock everything? Absolutely not. For those who enjoy doing that? You can't deny the amount of content.

A lot of it is also fairly easy to accomplish, even as a more casual player. The Mastery Camos this year are more straightforward, and you have one tier less to complete on every weapon to use it.

There's a decent mix of straightforward challenges and the ludicrous, though. If you want every Zombies Dark Ops, for example, you have to go to Round 999. A 100+ hour time investment.

How have I progressed over the past month? I've done the Genesis Camo, progressing with two of the others, hit Prestige with a bunch of weapons, close to the Campaign/Endgame 100 percenter, and got up to Prestige 9.

But I'm not getting bored yet, and that's the most important thing. And there's still so much more to chase.

There are still some frustrations

Content-wise, I'm personally really happy with Black Ops 7. But I'm less happy with annoying bugs that were around in Black Ops 6 and still haven't been fixed. I'm not talking about game breakers, though there have been a few crashes.

Little things like player levels not showing correctly, Calling Card challenges not tracking properly, and likewise issues with Camo challenges tracking.

While working towards Genesis, I counted at least eight weapons where the challenge would not track unless I went back to the loadout screen and either removed the camo or deleted the weapon build and started again.

Calling Card challenges also still seem to experience bugs in tracking properly. There has been swearing.

I also really, REALLY, am tired of my profile just resetting to something I had it set to previously. Yes, I do want to use the Christmas calling cards and emblems while it's the right season for them. Black Ops 7 loves to say "nah, you're just going to have something else."

When little bugs like these are still a thing in Black Ops 7, having existed throughout Black Ops 6, it doesn't fill you with confidence.

Don't buy into the negativity if you haven't tried it, Black Ops 7 isn't a bad game

As much as I've enjoyed Black Ops 7 so far, it's clear it hasn't been the sort of success that Activision and Microsoft had hoped for. It's still sold well, and there's still a huge number of players, but when you're at the level this franchise usually is, every percentage drop is exaggerated.

But the truth is that it's not a bad game. You don't have to like all of it, but if you haven't played it, don't just blindly follow the social media trend.

It's better than Black Ops 6, and it's definitely better than the last two Modern Warfare titles and Vanguard. There's a lot going on around the franchise, a heck of a lot of noise, but try it. You might find you're surprised. I'm having a blast, and long may it continue.

Are you already playing Black Ops 7, or are you waiting for a bigger discount? Let me know in the comments and vote in the poll!

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