The Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 campaign has some ridiculous limitations — I can't believe the devs released it like this

The time for the annual Call of Duty release has come around once again, and sure enough, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is available now across Xbox, PC, and PlayStation. The new FPS is expected to stand tall as one of 2025's largest and most profitable games, and is also being marketed as the "biggest Black Ops ever" — largely because of the PvE extraction mode Endgame you get access to after beating the campaign, in addition to Zombies and traditional multiplayer.

But now that Black Ops 7 is actually out, players have discovered several noteworthy limitations with that campaign that are making it quite frustrating to play through. And honestly, the fact the game launched with them is truly baffling, and I'm shocked the developers released the single player in the state that it's in.

For starters, the campaign — like the rest of Black Ops 7 — is an entirely always-online experience, which means that you can't start it up if you're disconnected from the internet, and it will abruptly shut down if you experience a connection loss. This has become increasingly common in recent years, though it's no less frustrating for folks going through an outage or that have unstable connections.

Another vexing restriction of the Black Ops 7 campaign is that you're not able to pause it if you're playing solo, which prevents you from being able to stop the game without quitting out if real life commands your attention. And even if you do end up finding a safe spot in a level so you can go AFK, the game has a rather aggressive kick timer that will boot you to the main menu if you take too long.

Then there's the fact that whenever developers Treyarch and Raven Software push out updates to Black Ops 7, you'll be immediately kicked out of the campaign and to the main menu to download them, even if you're in a cutscene (the clip below shows an example of this). And to top it all off? If you ever get forcibly taken out of the game for any of the above reasons, you'll have to start the mission you were on from the beginning, as there are no checkpoints that persist beyond individual sessions.

These limitations and issues are, frankly, ridiculous for a story campaign. Though it's annoying, I could forgive an always-online requirement if that was all there was. But no option for pausing in solo play, the presence of an AFK kick timer, no persistent checkpoints, and updates yanking you right out of gameplay? That's simply unacceptable.

Perhaps I would be willing to deal with these irritations if the Black Ops 7 campaign was a good time, but the launch day sentiment from most of the community seems to be very negative. Players have been vocally critical of the confusing, hard-to-follow writing, as well as bizarre gameplay segments featuring gigantic Destiny-like bosses and other fantastical elements.

The strong emphasis on co-op play did actually draw my interest before launch, though it's worth noting the game makes no concessions for those taking on the campaign in single player. You don't get AI teammates in place of players if you're not playing in a four-man squad, and certain mission objectives designed for four players have to be tediously repeated four time over if you're alone, too.

Granted, there have also been plenty of fans saying they're having a great time with the game by simply turning their brain off and focusing on the fun of the gunplay. But that's also something I can get out of countless other shooters — ones with better writing, and far fewer inconveniences and poor design decisions to contend with.

I do hope that the developers make some adjustments to the campaign for solo players to make it more enjoyable alone, as not everyone has friends to co-op with or wants to play the story in co-op. Reworking it to allow for pausing, removing the AFK kick timer, allowing persistent checkpoints, and preventing updates from booting you would be great, too, though that may require a significant amount of technical work.

Overall, Black Ops 7's very underwhelming campaign, divisive aim assist changes (that I actually like), and a general community-wide fatigue for Call of Duty's annual releases have made the new title's launch quite controversial, though I'm sure this juggernaut of an FPS will sell well as it always does. As my colleague Cole Martin wrote in her review, it is, in some ways, "the freshest CoD in years."

Still, it's got incredibly stiff competition this year from Battlefield 6, which has been a major success story for Electronic Arts' beloved FPS franchise and arguably Call of Duty's largest rival. I do think Battlefield 6 has eaten Black Ops 7's lunch in some respects, especially now that it's competing with Call of Duty: Warzone with its new battle royale Battlefield REDSEC mode.

If you'd like to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 yourself and see what you think, you can get it on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, PS5, and PS4 for $69.99. Note that it's also playable through Xbox Game Pass, including PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 | $69.99 at Amazon (Xbox)

Experience the direct sequel to 2024's hit Black Ops 6, co-developed by Treyarch Studios and Raven Software. Black Ops 7 has launched on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation with a full campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies experience, along with the new Endgame PvE mode.

Also at: $69.99 (Xbox)| $69.99 (Best Buy)

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