Call of Duty Black Ops 7 is a mess!

Lucas Everett

Hey folks, welcome to Respawn Rant—your weekly space for untangling the hot messes and surprise gems in videogames. I’m your host, Lucas Everett, and, uh, today… whew. We’re talking about a big one. Huge, actually. Is Black Ops 7—yep, CoD Black Ops 7—the breaking point for this legendary franchise? Seriously, is this the game where the wheels finally come off? Or are we still strapping in for one more hype cycle, bugs and all?

Lucas Everett

Real quick, in case you somehow dodged all ads, streamers, and… like, the entire gaming internet: BO7 just dropped, set in 2035. We’re talking global chaos, Raul Menendez is back—again, for reasons that honestly lost me mid-trailer—and you’ve got that classic Black Ops structure: campaign, zombies, and, obviously, multiplayer.

Lucas Everett

Here’s what we’re doing today—think of this as your critical hit list. I’m breaking down the campaign (is it really as weird and co-op dependent as the memes say?), zombies (nostalgic or tired?), the multiplayer chaos, and where the player base’s head is at. We’re going hard on what works, what flopped, and whether you should even bother booting this thing up.

Lucas Everett

So, before launch, the hype was… I mean, it was rampant. Trailers had all the big beats: global disaster, tech overlords, that trademark mysterious montage—ya know, the booms, the operatives, the nervous sweating on my end. Everyone was thinking, “Okay, maybe this is Black Ops going full weird in a good way.”

Lucas Everett

But then—reviews hit. And, man, this is one of those classic splits. Some official review scores landed right in that “decent, but not genre-defining” zone, while player reviews? Not kind. Like, Steam is sitting at “Mixed,” and people are saying stuff like “playable Skibidi Toilet video”—which, I gotta admit, is a new one for me.

Lucas Everett

Major complaints blew up quick: the campaign requires always-online, no checkpoints, and if you wanna play solo? Ugh. The levels are all designed for four players, meaning if you’re that lone wolf, get ready to repeat so many tasks it starts feeling like a chores simulator. And then there’s the bugs—crashes, weird performance drops, random hit-reg issues in MP, it’s all messy.

Lucas Everett

And compared to other recent CoD launches… well, there’s always some controversy, but this time it’s different. Usually it’s a day-one patch and you move on, right? Here, it feels like everything’s under a microscope because the design choices are so in your face. Even for Call of Duty, this one drew a deeper line between the “eh, it’s fine” crew and the “what the hell did you do to my series” crowd.

Lucas Everett

Okay, let’s dive into the campaign, because, oh boy, where do I start? So, you’re back in the future—2035 this time. Raul Menendez returns, which, I mean, I always mess up his lore, but he’s basically Black Ops’ favorite soap-opera villain at this point. You join David Mason and some JSOC squad in Avalon, trying to stop this doomsday device that, uh, weaponizes fear or something? The Guild, a big tech conglomerate, is on the scene, led by Emma Kagan, and—wait, honestly, I gotta stop myself. The story is bonkers, but not in an “I can’t put this down” way.

Lucas Everett

Here’s the kicker: design-wise, the campaign is all-in on four-player co-op. If you go solo, it’s punishing. Like, mission structure straight-up expects four bodies. No checkpoints. You die, you restart the whole level. And it’s always-online, so forget about offline chill sessions or pausing mid-mission if your pizza delivery arrives—speaking from recent, tragic experience.

Lucas Everett

Moment-to-moment gameplay swings between decent firefights and just these repetitive, multi-objective slogs. For every set-piece that kind of works there’s two “escort the drone while also hacking five servers in three minutes” things that make you wish you were back in Zombies instead.

Lucas Everett

The narrative tries for this psychological, twisty vibe—global paranoia, betrayal, tech horror. But it’s hard to get invested, with the way characters leap between cities and timelines faster than I can keep up—I kept losing track of what disaster I was supposed to be stopping. And when the endgame unlocks, you get these PvE sections with “power journey” mechanics, but honestly, it just felt tacked on.

Lucas Everett

So, my verdict? I wouldn’t play this one for the plot. If you’ve got a squad that insists on dragging you through every CoD, you’ll find a few highlights. But if you’re hunting a killer solo campaign like Black Ops 1 or even 2? This isn’t it. It’s a co-op fever dream, and not the good kind.

Lucas Everett

Shifting gears to Zombies—okay, this is where some of you perk up. Now, BO7 promises their “largest map ever,” dropping a crew into the Dark Aether, which, if you remember, has Weaver, Maya, Carver, and Grey stuck inside after BO6. They’re up against alternate-universe versions of Richtofen, Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo—yeah, they’re back, multiverse shenanigans and all.

Lucas Everett

The core loop is… classic, and honestly, that’s not a complaint. It’s round-based. Push into the hellscape, unearth secrets, survive waves, find power-ups, repeat. If you love Zombies, it delivers that snug, late-night “just one more round” groove. They’ve also tossed in survival maps and Dead Ops Arcade 4, so if you like the top-down chaos with a crew, this is a blast.

Lucas Everett

Systems-wise, there’s weapon sharing, importing builds with codes, and the “deepest Weapon Prestige system yet”—so a lot of meta to chew on. Leveling and weapon skins carry between modes this year, which is actually rad. I’ve always thought more games should do shared progression.

Lucas Everett

The nostalgia factor, though, is kind of on a leash. It’s fun seeing the old cast, but there’s this sense that Treyarch keeps dangling the fan favorites just to keep us invested—even if the story’s kinda thin. But hey, nostalgia’s a hell of a drug.

Lucas Everett

So where does Zombies land? If I had to pick, it’s the “least broken” mode of the three. Not revolutionary, but way more compelling than this year’s campaign, and for die-hard fans, it’s still worth a run.

Lucas Everett

Let’s talk MP—multiplayer’s always the meat and potatoes, right? BO7 dishes out 16 core 6v6 maps, mostly brand new but with three remixed Black Ops 2 classics, plus a couple of big 20v20 skirmish maps. You’re jetting from Japan to a dude’s old cabin in Alaska and—uh, somewhere in the outback? There’s lots of variety, that’s what matters.

Lucas Everett

Weapons are actually in a good place. There’s 30 at launch, some straight-up new, some famous returns. Scorestreaks, field upgrades, all that jazz, piled into a new “Overclock System” for more build options. Oh, and wingsuits and grappling hooks make for some wild moments if, like me, you grew up thinking GoldenEye’s “big head mode” was peak gaming chaos.

Lucas Everett

Gameplay feel is fast, tactile, and yeah—fun when it clicks. But—and here’s the rub—performance is messy. Early matches saw spikes of lag, a few crashes, and hit regs that made me question my decades of shooter aim.

Lucas Everett

Then, there’s progression and monetization. Global progression is here; your XP, camos, all that, transfer between campaign, zombies, and even Warzone soon. Weapon prestige gets you exclusive attachments and camos, which is… honestly, pretty slick. But, it’s still packed with the usual live-service trappings and battle pass FOMO. If you’re exhausted by the grind, it’s honestly more of the same.

Lucas Everett

The million-dollar question: would people be happier with MP if it wasn’t attached to such a divisive campaign and launch? Probably. As a standalone, MP is solid—if rough around the edges. But yeah, the package sours the experience for a lot of players, myself included.

Lucas Everett

So where does the game sit right now? Let’s pull up the player base—uh, not literal numbers, because Activision never tells us, but… snapshot: the people sticking around are mostly franchise faithfuls, the Zombies community (they’re unshakeable), and competitive grinders who’ll play a CoD even if it runs on, I dunno, refrigerator software.

Lucas Everett

Community mood is… it’s rough. There’s a decent crowd just trying to have fun, but forums are awash with performance complaints, disappointment about the always-online campaign, and plenty of memes dunking on those design choices. If you’re lurking Discords, there’s a lot of “wait for updates” or “why did I pre-order again?” energy right now.

Lucas Everett

What does this mean for the future? Well, honestly, I think the next couple months will be key. If patches tighten things up and maybe—big if—there’s campaign tweaks, you’ll see more people give it another shot. But for now, the mood is “skeptical resilience,” if that makes sense. I’ve been there. It’s a CoD thing.

Lucas Everett

Alright, quick recap for the folks in the back. Black Ops 7 delivers a muddled, co-op obsessed campaign with baffling single-player decisions. Zombies is the comfort food, humming along, throwback cast and all. Multiplayer, when it works, is solid… but the launch is shaky, and the progression system feels like, well, every live-service game in 2025.

Lucas Everett

If you’re waiting on my call—here it is: if you’re a hardcore Zombies player or you always grab every annual CoD, you’ll probably find something to like, even love, eventually. Otherwise… this is a “wait for a sale” for me. I can’t recommend it full price with the current state of things.

Lucas Everett

That’s it for this week’s Respawn Rant. If you’ve got spicy takes, bug stories, or want me to deep-dive something specific next time, shoot them my way—links are in the show notes. Thanks for listening, don’t forget to click whatever button keeps you subbed, and I’ll be back next time for something a little less likely to crash my console. Peace!