Hands On: Black Ops 7 Is Amazing On The ROG Xbox Ally X, As Long As You're Not Offline

I mentioned last week how I've spent the past month barely turning on my Xbox Series X at all because of the ROG Xbox Ally X, and therefore all of my time with Black Ops 7 has been spent on the new premium handheld device so far.

It was revealed ahead of launch how Call of Duty: BO7 was being optimised for handheld devices including the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, and you definitely notice that right away when launching into the game. This is the kind of experience Xbox is aiming for - you boot it up, you jump into a match and everything just works fine.

By default, the visual settings are set to "Recommended - Graphics" when playing on the ROG Xbox Ally X, and this contains a mostly "High" preset but with a couple of "Ultra" and "Low" settings here and there. Alternatively, you can go for "Recommended - Performance" which certainly looks softer but can increase the frame rate by around 20FPS.

AMD FSR is also turned on by default to ensure you're getting the best performance possible out of these settings.

Here are some comparison images from the game running at Turbo (30w) and a 1080p resolution:

Of course, keep in mind that the game looks even better than these screenshots when you're running it on a small screen, and most importantly it feels smooth to play across Co-Op Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies.

There's a lot of scope for tweaking, too. I've been playing Black Ops 7 on the 17w mode as it brings the ROG Xbox Ally X's temperature down and saves battery in the process, and I'm still getting 45FPS at worst with the "Recommended - Graphics" setting. I can bring that up to a consistent 60FPS by choosing "Recommended - Performance", dropping certain visual settings, turning on AMD FSR 3 Frame Generation or going up to "Turbo" (30w), but honestly I don't even need to — minor drops below 60FPS aren't felt very much on the Ally because of its awesome VRR-enabled screen.

All in all, I'm having a great time with Black Ops 7 on the ROG Xbox Ally X right now. I'm personally not a big Call of Duty fan by any means, but it feels so good to play on this device that I can see myself sticking around for a while.

Hands On: Black Ops 7 Is Amazing On The ROG Xbox Ally X, As Long As You're Not Offline 7

There's one thing that does really put me off though - Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is an online-only game. If you switch this thing to airplane mode for a flight, or take it on a long road trip, it's completely pointless booting up BO7 for any reason whatsoever. If you do, it just tells you that you need to be online and you'll have to quit to desktop.

So while it's great that Treyarch and Activision have put in the work to optimise Black Ops 7 for the ROG Xbox Ally and it makes a difference without a doubt, it's then also baffling that you can't even play the campaign on the go without some kind of internet connection.

I don't suppose many people bought one of these handhelds just to play Call of Duty in an offline setting, but it certainly doesn't endear itself to someone who might have picked up a ROG Xbox Ally for primarily travelling purposes. The more games do this, the more I think PC handheld owners are going to consider avoiding them altogether.

Hands On: Black Ops 7 Is Amazing On The ROG Xbox Ally X, As Long As You're Not Offline 6

Those are my "Hands On" thoughts, then - a game that works brilliantly on the ROG Xbox Ally but unfortunately requires an internet connection at all times. What do you think of this? Let us know down in the comments below.