Out of the three main modes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, the Co-Op Campaign is by far its least impactful, with less content for an appealing experience. In many ways, the Campaign feels like a precursor to its Endgame mode, lacking many stand-alone features. While the Campaign does earn you XP quickly, many players are starting to find it as the most frustrating aspect of the game.
One big complaint about the Campaign is how it is marketed as “Co-Op,” but it fails to supply you with AI companions if you’re playing solo. While you can play Endgame solo in Black Ops 7, there was never a promise that its game mode required other players. Given the strange difficulty spikes in the Campaign, it feels like it demands multiple players, making this confusing co-op system even stranger.
Black Ops 7’s Campaign Is Mostly Disappointing Compared To Other Modes
Lack Of Polish Leads To Repetitive Missions And A Lackluster Plot
While the Multiplayer and Zombies mode of Black Ops 7 is about what players might expect, the Campaign offers far less than past Call of Duty games have. In this title, you follow the story of squad group Specter One, led by David Mason, the son of the protagonist Alex Mason from the first Black Ops game. This character and his team are tasked with tracking down former villain Raul Menendez, who has seemed to return from the dead.
While a decent enough premise, the Campaign mostly consists of fighting wave after wave of enemies in fixed locations, rather than a linear, cinematic structure from past games. This minimizes the actual conflicts present in the Campaign, making them largely uninteresting to get invested in.
Due to its emphasis as a “Co-Op” Campaign, you can only play the story of this game while online. This means you can’t pause during a mission, there are no level checkpoints, and you have to start over from the beginning of a mission if you are kicked for inactivity.
There are little to no moments of peace in the Campaign, either to learn about the larger story or connect with any character from the Specter One squad. It feels like you are running from place to place, taking out enemies, then moving on without a moment’s rest. The Campaign levels have no depth to them, with objectives being to go either from point A to point B or mow down enemies until the game tells you to stop.
Former Call of Duty games had incredibly inspired missions, such as “Project Nova” in the original Black Ops. That mission sets up much of the conflict in the original game, featuring tragic character deaths and intense WW2 combat in a truly chaotic setting. By comparison, Black Ops 7 missions just lack substance, offering meaningless action within set pieces that you forget about as you move on to the next level.
The saving grace of Black Ops 7‘s campaign is also its greatest curse — The Cradle. This psychological weapon turns many missions into trippy hallucinations, forcing players to fight demonic enemies that look like they came from Zombies instead. However, The Cradle is often overused to inject tonally inconsistent fantasy into a story trying to take itself seriously, making it almost ridiculous, especially in the game’s final mission.
Open World Elements Feel Out Of Place For A Call Of Duty Story
Endgame And Warzone Mode Maps Are Used Often In The Campaign
Many of the missions in the Campaign take you to Avalon, the primary map where Black Ops 7‘s Endgame mode takes place. This location is pretty much like CoD: Warzone‘s DMZ (De-Militarized Zone), creating a pseudo-open world for you to explore with whoever is in the Campaign with you. This map is filled with enemies much like the normal DMZ, but they mainly serve as obstacles instead of foes who serve the story.
Compared to linear missions with purpose from previous Call of Duty campaigns, Avalon is utterly devoid of any charm, with nothing memorable to experience. Whenever a location in Avalon must be reached, you and your squad sprint, wingsuit, or drive over there, and that’s that. Technically, you don’t even have to fight enemies along the way, making the open world feel like a chore to get through rather than something that changes your approach to objectives.
Most open worlds also have interesting NPCs to flesh it out, but Black Ops 7‘s Campaign barely allows for any interactions within its environment that isn’t running or gunning. The lack of detail makes the landscape feel empty, despite its size. It feels like the open world was designed for other modes, and added to the Campaign to reduce any focus to storytelling rather than being a unique part of its design.
Co-Op Features Fall Flat When Trying To Create An Interesting Setting
No Characters Means No Personality In An Already Bland Story
When you think of some Call of Duty campaigns, you think of Simon “Ghost” Riley, John “Soap” MacTavish, or other elite soldiers as important characters you meet along your journey. Due to the nature of Black Ops 7‘s multiplayer focus, players don’t get a chance to interact with any character that isn’t another human, preventing anyone in the story from feeling like a well-crafted individual.
Even the main villain of Black Ops 7 is a reused antagonist from another title, showing another sign of the Campaign’s lackluster content. Some games in the series would take bold steps with its characters, even killing some off, but you won’t see that in this new entry.
Since every ally in your squad is controlled by another human, they don’t make actions that serve to deepen their authenticity, at least until the next cutscene plays. If you play the Campaign solo, this is even more apparent, as none of your squadmates show up at all until those cutscenes appear.
The co-op systems being highlighted so much also makes the Campaign feel far more like multiplayer rather than an actual story experience. While many games, such as Destiny 2 or Halo 3 blend these aspects together well, there isn’t enough diversity in the level or mission design to support a pure co-op vision. Teammates all do the same thing, without there ever being a need for multiple people to work with each other to accomplish important goals.
All of this culminates in a long, tedious, and flat story that long overstays its welcome compared to legendary tales of the past. Among any other Call of Duty game, Black Ops 7 has one of the worst Campaign modes in the series by a wide margin, even if Endgame tries to fix its problems with future content drops.
- Released
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November 14, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
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Treyarch, Raven Software
- Engine
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IW Engine
