Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (Multiplayer / Zombies) review for PC, PlayStation, Xbox

Last year’s release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was a highly regarded entry in the Call of Duty franchise at launch. As time went on, admittedly, there was some wavering in the feeling of love I gave it at launch as some of the infamously wacky cosmetics were added; Beavis and Butthead being the most notable ones to grace our screens with their presence. The good news was that as we approached the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, there was what at least felt like an acknowledgement from Treyarch — no carryover of cosmetics from Black Ops 6. What on the surface can easily look like an anti-consumer practice was actually one of the first signs to me personally that maybe they were still listening to the community. No more cartoon characters running around. That was how I saw the light that maybe things could still be okay for Call of Duty as a series.

But the real elephant over the head of this game was never the debate about cosmetics — the real scary thing was this: Treyarch is the primary developer on two games in a row. This means that it’s a one year development cycle. We all witnessed what happened the last time this was allowed. When Call of Duty previously ventured into the territory of giving a studio only a single year to put a game out, we got Modern Warfare 3. Yikes. Not really a good precedent set, and from the outside, it seemed like it should’ve been a lesson to not allow that to happen again. So be surprised when two years later, it happens again. So did they learn their lesson? I’m afraid not, but somehow Treyarch managed to pull all the brakes out for this one because surprise, Black Ops 7 is even better than Black Ops 6!

What?! How did that happen? A one year development cycle in a series that traditionally gets 3 years for every release somehow manages to be better than the last game? I only have one venture at what happened here: Black Ops 7 was always the game they were working on really. Black Ops 6 released and felt great, but you know why? It’s because it was built on the bones of Black Ops 7. Black Ops 7 was always the puppeteer operating the body of Black Ops 6. No wonder 6 felt so good. This is exactly what I felt as I played through all of the various modes in Black Ops 7. This game feels… perfect. There’s so much. So many game modes, so many weapons, so many maps. Black Ops 7 is releasing with a total of 16 full sized maps and 2 Skirmish maps (the 20v20 game mode). Again proving the last time a one year cycle happened was a fluke, almost all of these maps are completely new.

Black Ops 7 comes sporting a plethora of options for how to play. Honestly, it’s almost overwhelming how much Treyarch managed to pack into this single package. You’d think that some part must be lacking, something is shoehorned in, some mode is underbaked, right? But no… everything I played was fully fleshed out. I struggled to find any lack of attention given to any one spot, and kept finding myself surprised by just how much there was going on here. Black Ops 7 is gearing itself up to be a long term entry. I could see this one getting away with a two year cycle, if the Activision machine were to ever allow any such thing to happen. The gunplay feels as good as a Treyarch release ever has, the aesthetic of the near future setting is better than Black Ops 2, 3, or 4 ever had, and the new systems for overclocking your equipment adds a new layer of depth to classes than has ever existed in Call of Duty before now.

Black Ops 7 comes with 6 ARs, 6 SMGs, 3 Marksman Rifles, 3 Snipers, 2 LMGs, 3 Shotguns, 3 Pistols, 2 Launchers, and 2 melee weapon options. That’s a grand total of 28 ranged weapons. Pretty good, and they hit all the typical expectations you would have for what sorts of guns to run into. If there was any one real standout of something I’ve never seen before, at least in a Call of Duty game, it’d probably be the Akita. This little shotgun comes in the shape and size of a typical SMG, firing small gauge shells at an unbelievable rate. It doesn’t do much damage, even at short range, but what it lacks in single damage, it makes up for in an absolute wall of pellets. With incendiary rounds, this thing shreds enemies. I didn’t use it much, but the people I played with showed me just how maniacal the Akita can be. Otherwise, you’ve got the standard lineup, but everything’s set in the near future, so you only see passing resemblance to anything in the real world aside from a few direct shoe-ins.

The class system is what we’ve come to expect from a Call of Duty release these days. It’s gotten a lot more unified between the developers with the influence of Warzone hanging over all of the games being tied together. You get a primary and secondary, three perks, lethal and tactical, a wildcard, and melee weapon. Guns are allowed a flat 5 attachments unless you equip gunfighter, etc, etc. It’s everything that’s been the same way since 2019. The one new change, which we have yet to see how Warzone will be affected by, is that they’ve added in “overclocks” for equipment. This applies to all lethal and tacticals as well as your scorestreaks. For equipment you may get additional affects, larger blast radius, longer stun duration, that sort of thing. For score streaks, you may see additional bombardment, longer lifespans, or full adjustments to functionality offered as an option. These add a lot of variety to an otherwise run of the mill setup, and is a welcome change in my opinion. The only concern I have is how it increases the effectiveness of killstreaks, which are already questionably in “the rich get richer” category. But that’s what the cold blooded perk is for, right? Just forget enemy killstreaks exist and keep that on. It’s what I would do.

This year’s entry to multiplayer has a lot of upsides and not much I can think of to name for downsides. If there’s anything in particular I think is not quite right, it’d be that the snipers and marksman rifles are questionably balanced. The Warden .308 marksman rifle offers a one-shot kill to the upper chest with basically no recoil at all. During the preview event where I played most of my time in multiplayer, I was actually asked to stop using the gun as it was overpowered and unfair… but it remains exactly the same in the full release version of the game as of writing. The snipers are in a similar situation, having the default bolt action rifle offer a one-shot kill to as low as the hips! That is more generous than the snipers have ever been in a Call of Duty game and I am expecting to see this get some adjustment in the coming weeks. That’s not even to mention that the one semi-automatic sniper does exactly the same damage stats, meaning you can get a one-shot kill to the hips with a rifle that can be fired rapidly. I’m not sure if this will dominate the multiplayer space, but I’m feeling like it very well may.

Overall, Black Ops 7 is great in the multiplayer sphere, and if you’re a fan of Black Ops 2 or 3, you will feel right at home playing here. There’s a lot to love, and, so long as we don’t find ourselves back in the cartoon characters sphere, I’m hoping to see the future of Black Ops 7’s multiplayer additions.

Zombies

What is a Treyarch entry to the Call of Duty franchise without a zombies mode? Treyarch famously set the foundation for this mode all the way back in World at War. Try as they might, whenever Infinity Ward or Sledgehammer have tried their hand at a zombies mode, it never has hit quite the same. Treyarch has mastered the Zombies formula at this point and I’d be surprised if even in their worst of times should anything go downhill in the future to see Zombies suffer at all. It seems to almost be their hallmark, and is always given a ton of love.

Black Ops 7’s version of Zombies allows you to use any operator, but for the involved storyline, it’s considering the core characters to be all of the Dark Aether cast again (Dempsey, Takeo, Richtofen, Nikolai, Maya, Weaver, Carver, and Grey). This time the crew are mysteriously sucked into the world of Ashes of the Damned by a character that those who have been involved in Zombies for a while may be familiar with in name at least: The Warden. The Warden was a character who has existed in the background as mentions in Black Ops 6 and also made a momentary cameo in MWIII’s zombies mode.

Retaining the formula Treyarch has employed since Cold War, Black Ops 7’s Zombies mode allows you to bring any weapon you would like in with you to start. You can, as with all other modes, earn XP for both leveling up and for your guns, making it a great way to kick things off with guns you haven’t used much to unlock some attachments before dropping back into multiplayer. You can also work on progressing augments for each of the various perk-a-colas and field upgrades just as in Black Ops 6. Pretty neat and appreciated, Treyarch has allowed you to keep all progression from Black Ops 6 on your augments, to minimize additional grind for everyone who ever enjoyed the mode previously.

You will find that there is one new perk, though: Wisp Tea. Wisp tea offers you the ability to summon a companion wisp around you when you kill a zombie. The default style of this wisp is just a ball of energy that will attack enemies for you. The augments seem to allow this wisp to take on other forms, but I unfortunately did not get an opportunity to take advantage of the boosted account Treyarch gave me for this review to see this in action. I will say from what I read, the wisp can be quite versatile. It can heal you, fight for you, or even… hold the attention of the last zombie for you while you explore. Now that’s an interesting one to me and I kind of regret not getting to see that in action. Maybe once I get back to playing after this review.

The Ashes of the Damned map is, to my understanding, now the largest sized map to date that has been offered in any Call of Duty zombies game. This is somewhat debatable to me because it is clearly largest by area, but… it’s not all survivable land. Let me explain: there are 6 areas within Ashes of the Damned that are all connected by transitways. You get a pickup truck (codenamed ol’ Tessie) that acts as your pack-a-punch machine which is pretty neat, but, this truck is required to get from one area to the other. The throughways that connect each proper are are not area that you are allowed to exist within, getting constantly pummeled by an onslaught of shadow enemies that are not actually part of the wave. You must keep moving in these areas in order to survive, so it sort of negates the “big” part to me when you’re not allowed to fight within half of the land space. It’s fine though, the 6 locations are sizable on their own and the map feels great.

Of course there is a new easter egg within this map, which Treyarch was kind enough to show the journalists clips of up to the end, but didn’t show much in the way of the path, so don’t come asking me for answers! They didn’t tell me either, I swear! I just saw what the final boss was and random snippets of things along the way! They did tell us in speaking with some of the devs that they aim to make these intentionally as obtuse as possible, because they enjoy the game with the Zombies community who go through the effort of hunting the easter eggs down as fast as possible. They said they always expect it to take longer but are always surprised that someone manages to solve it in 24 hours.

Like I mentioned, this easter egg, like usual, is crazy complex in ways that only the most insane of those among us could ever manage to actually solve, so… for those of you like me, here’s waiting for the guided method to come once they release the next map. Which, oh yeah – if you’re not familiar with that change, Black Ops 6 did add a guided tour through the easter egg that they add once a new map comes into rotation. This is extremely helpful for the sane players who couldn’t dream of ever solving these. Thank you so much for this, Treyarch.

Overall the Zombies mode in Black Ops 7 is more of what you’ve come to expect from Black Ops 6, and really just as far back as you can remember. It’s a formula perfected and aside from little additions, don’t go expecting to see this change any time soon. You’re getting more high-quality content with secrets galore for the community to hunt, and more round-based survival for nothing more than the fun of blowing zombies away and screaming as you dodge death with friends. If you’ve been a fan of Zombies in the past, Black Ops 7 is going to continue offering you more of exactly that thing you love.

Dead Ops 4 Arcade

I would be remiss to not give Dead Ops 4 Arcade a mention here, too. During my early preview of Black Ops 7, I actually got to sit and talk with David King, CTO at Treyarch, who says he considers Dead Ops Arcade to be his own passion project within the series. I got to play through to the final wave in my time with the game, and with a little conversation from David as I paused the game, he told me a lot about the things he was excited about with additions in the 4th iteration of Dead Ops Arcade.

Making its original debut in Black Ops 1, Dead Ops Arcade is a throwback to the top-down twin stick shooters of the 80s and 90s. Think Smash TV but with a layer of Call of Duty paint. Dead Ops Arcade 4 offers two difficulty options, being “casual” or “normal”. The primary difference between these two is that Casual is, as I was told, approximately a 75 minute, 40 round experience, while normal mode is expected to take several hours alone. I played through the casual mode, but unfortunately died on the very last wave. It was a ton of fun though, and I love to see this mode continuing to get love and attention in newer releases. Your gobblegums from standard zombies can even be used here, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I feel like this is a bit of a waste. They have adjusted effects in the mode, but with the balancing built into the game, it feels more like throwing them away by using them here than anything else. If you’ve got a lot though, I guess go for it.

Sporting 20 unique arenas, 11 Bonus rooms, 6 challenge maps, and 3 slayer arenas, Dead Ops Arcade is at its best within Black Ops 7. There is a lot of fun to be had, and you would be missing out to not give it at least a couple of runs to see the fun minigames between the regular action rooms. From dirt bike races to hardcore arenas, there’s a lot going on in this little package. Give it a shot.

Conclusion

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s multiplayer offerings offer a lot of content and replayability, and with camos being offered in three different formats (campaign/endgame, Multiplayer, and Zombies), there’s more options to grind for unlocks for players of any interest than ever before. I considered Black Ops 6 to be among the best releases of the franchise, which I talked very highly of last year. I feel like Black Ops 7 is noticeably better than 6, which is impressive considering Treyarch is launching two games back to back. If you’re interested in more Call of Duty, here’s your answer. Turns out the one year timetable really does work sometimes, but… let’s hope Activision doesn’t take the wrong lesson from this one. Treyarch did an incredible job, but the developers deserve more time than a one year crunch!

Note: Activision provided us with a Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 code for review purposes.
See our detailed Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 campaign review here.