The rest of this review, then, will mostly focus on multiplayer and Zombies, with a little bit of 'End Game' talk too. Multiplayer this year takes plenty of learnings from Black Ops 6 and its post-launch support cycle, to produce something that certainly caters more for the hardcore Call of Duty player. Skill-based matchmaking has been tweaked, map design has been tightened up, and there's even the promise of no completely ridiculous skins and crossover content in Black Ops 7. Yeah, we'll have to wait and see how that last point goes, but the outlook is good at least.
More good news comes with the fact that the core gameplay within multiplayer is really good this year. Personally, I'm quite enjoying the switch to a near future setting after so many modern military shooters as of late (including recent COD games), and the weapons and gadgets that switch brings with it are super fun to use. You won't be surprised to hear that gunplay is incredibly tight, and the game's futuristic setting allows developer Treyarch to flex its muscle a little bit in that regard as well.
That tightened up map design is felt almost instantly too, and generally speaking, I'm digging this game's set of launch maps a little more than last year's game. There's more visual variety for one, and despite the maps being a little tighter this time around, there's still enough to differentiate most of them and provide enough space to use most weapon types and deploy different tactics. One complaint I do have is that due to their intricate design and the fast-paced nature of gameplay, I have found sniping to be almost impossible on most of the game's 6v6 maps. You have to head over to Black Ops 7's 20v20 Skirmish mode to really do any effective sniping in multiplayer.
You've got a deep progression system to work with here in Black Ops 7 multiplayer too, and it's one sure to keep the COD faithful hooked into for a good few months yet. Classic Prestige returns from last year with 55 levels per prestige, and there's your usual slew of weapons, attachments, skins, perks and so on to unlock. There really is a treasure trove of goodies to keep working towards and tweaking your loadouts with, and I can certainly see why folks just keep playing these games for months on end. I've been there myself with certain Call of Duty titles - the grind can get addictive!
In Black Ops 7 multiplayer though, I do have a few issues. One slight complaint in regards to that progression I just spoke about, is that certain weapon attachments require you to use another weapon to unlock them, and I'm just not quite sure why this is a thing. I quickly took to the MXR-17 assault rifle here only for the game to want me to get level 22 with the burst-fire X9 Maverick to unlock a 3x scope, and I just don't think it's a great system to force folks into using equipment they don't want to mess with. I get that the team is probably trying to encourage loadout variety here, but for the love of my unlock-OCD please let me simply progress with one weapon before moving on. Please.
The other issues I have with multiplayer are from a technical standpoint, at least here on release in mid-November 2025. I'm suffering quite severe lag spikes and teleporting issues in a way that I haven't with a Call of Duty game for years , and then there's another 120Hz-specific issue that's been widely reported in the community too. On Xbox Series X and S, the 120FPS mode is rife with stuttering, and VRR doesn't fix the issue at all. After a lot of messing, the only solution I found was to switch back to 60Hz playback and get used to the increased controller latency there - I really hope the team sniffs out and fixes this issue soon, which I'm sure they will.
My multiplayer experience right now is being dampened somewhat by these technical issues, then, but what about Zombies? Well, I'm pleased to report that Treyarch's signature undead mode is in a much better state - and is easily the most complete, polished part of Black Ops 7 at launch. The massive new Ashes of the Damned map is a real blast (especially with a team in co-op), and although the whole thing does sort-of feel like another map release for Black Ops 6 Zombies , I have no real complaints with it to be honest. This new style of COD Zombies introduced in Black Ops Cold War has been refined and tuned to a nice degree at this stage, and I'm really enjoying this part of the game right now.
There's also the return of Survival mode — which I tested out in the beta — and that gives you a nice alternate way to tackle Zombies here as well. A much better option for solo players, Survival basically takes a chunk of the larger Ashes of the Damned map and turns it into an tighter, more classic style Zombies arena that simply tasks players with surviving as long as possible. All of your COD Zombies staples are here like the mystery box, perks and Pack-a-Punch, but it just shrinks it down into a more digestible experience for some more laid-back Zombies matches. Kudos to them for adding this in; it's a much welcome addition to Black Ops 7.
I don't want to have to think about the Black Ops 7 campaign again, to be honest, but before I wrap up here, I will just touch on 'End Game' for a moment. This is a PvE, extraction-style mode that unlocks after wrapping up the main story campaign - and while it's an okay addition to the overall experience, it does feel like a bit of an afterthought. It's not too dissimilar to how some of the campaign's more open levels are set up, mixed with DMZ mode from 2022's Modern Warfare 2 . End Game is alright for a quick mess about but I just think that Zombies is a far more cohesive co-op experience in Black Ops 7. I'll be curious to see if the team expands on this mode after launch, and whether they drop the campaign completion requirement because that does make accessing End Game a little awkward right now.
Conclusion
Treyarch and its development partners have done their best to cobble something together with Black Ops 7, but you just can't get around the rushed nature of this back-to-back Black Ops release. The game's campaign is almost an insult to Call of Duty single player offerings of the past, and while the core of multiplayer is solid, technical issues are dragging that experience down on Xbox at launch as well. Zombies is the highlight for me and I can see myself dipping back into this mode a fair bit - in fact, it's probably the only bit of Black Ops 7 that feels truly finished on day one. It's probably worth checking back on multiplayer down the line when the issues I've mentioned inevitably get ironed out, but campaign can't be saved - and overall, Black Ops 7 just feels undercooked after the care and attention that was put into last year's release.
Zombies mode is great and offers multiple ways to play this year Core gunplay is solid as per usual, with snappy controls Multiplayer has been nicely refined in Black Ops 7, technical issues aside The campaign is poor, perhaps the worst COD campaign yet End Game feels like an afterthought at launch Multiplayer has some technical issues that need addressing The overall game lacks vision and identity
