What Makes This Campaign Different
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched on November 14, 2025, and it's not your typical COD campaign. Released across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, PS5, and PS4 for $69.99 (also available through Xbox Game Pass), this entry takes some serious departures from what fans expect from a Call of Duty single-player experience.
The main menu doesn't even call it a "Campaign" anymore. It's labeled "Co-op Campaign," and that tells you everything you need to know about where Treyarch's priorities lie. The game supports up to four players working through missions together, and this co-op focus has created multiple restrictions that make solo play particularly frustrating. We're talking about design decisions that have the community up in arms.
The Always-Online Requirement
How It Actually Works
Black Ops 7's campaign requires a constant internet connection. There's no offline mode, no workaround, and no exceptions.
Here's what that means for you:
- You can't start the campaign without an active internet connection
- If your connection drops at any point, the game shuts down immediately
- All your campaign progress depends on maintaining stable internet
This isn't new for COD. Recent entries have leaned into always-online systems, but it doesn't make it any less annoying. If you're dealing with an internet outage or have spotty WiFi, you're locked out of the campaign entirely.
Why This Matters
The always-online design affects more than just your ability to launch the game. Your entire campaign session can be killed at any moment by factors completely outside your control. Connection hiccup? Too bad. ISP maintenance? Sorry. Router acting up? Start over.
For players with data caps, unstable connections, or those who simply want to play during a flight or commute, this campaign isn't accessible. You're at the mercy of your internet service provider every single time you boot it up.
No Pause Function in Solo Play
The Core Problem
You can't pause Black Ops 7's campaign. Not even when you're playing solo. There's no pause button, no pause menu, and no way to stop the action without quitting the entire mission.
This stems directly from the always-online, co-op structure. Because the game treats solo play as just another online session, you get the same restrictions as multiplayer modes.
The AFK Kick Timer Makes It Worse
Even if you find a safe corner to hide in, the game won't let you stay there long. Black Ops 7 has an aggressive AFK kick timer that boots you to the main menu if you're idle too long. The exact time before you get kicked isn't specified, but players report it happens quickly enough to be a real problem.
Need to answer the door? Get kicked. Phone call? Get kicked. Kid needs attention? Get kicked. You have zero ability to safely step away from the game without losing your progress.
No Persistent Checkpoints
How Saves Work (Or Don't)
Checkpoints exist in Black Ops 7, but they only last during your current session. Once you leave the mission for any reason, those checkpoints vanish. You're back to square one.
Every mission restart scenario:
- Internet drops: Full restart
- AFK timer kicks you: Full restart
- Game update forces you out: Full restart
- You quit to handle real life: Full restart
There's no mid-mission save system. You can't pick up where you left off. If you don't finish a mission in one sitting, you're doing the whole thing over from the beginning.
The Time Investment Problem
For players with busy lives who can't dedicate uninterrupted hours to gaming, this system is a nightmare. Got through 80% of a mission but need to leave? Too bad. That progress is gone. You'll be replaying the same opening segments until you can carve out enough time to finish in one go.
Forced Updates During Gameplay
When Patches Hit
When Treyarch and Raven Software push updates to Black Ops 7, you get kicked immediately. No warning, no countdown, just a boot to the main menu to download the patch.
This happens even during cutscenes. You can be watching a story moment unfold and suddenly find yourself staring at a download bar.
Since checkpoints don't persist, getting kicked for an update means restarting your mission from the beginning once the download finishes. If an update drops near the end of a long mission, you're losing significant progress through no fault of your own.
Why These Restrictions Exist
The Co-op Design Philosophy
Black Ops 7's campaign was built for cooperative play first. The official marketing emphasizes squads and team play, with solo options mentioned almost as an afterthought.
Treyarch designed missions around four players working together. The problem? They made almost no accommodations for people playing alone.
What Solo Players Don't Get
If you're playing by yourself, you're on your own in the most literal sense:
- No AI companions to fill squad slots
- No computer-controlled teammates to help with objectives
- Objectives designed for four players have to be completed solo
- Mission structure doesn't change (though difficulty does scale based on squad size)
You're running through these missions completely alone, despite the game being built around squad gameplay.
Four-Player Objectives in Solo
Some mission objectives were explicitly designed for four different players to handle simultaneously. When you're solo, you do these tasks four times in a row. It's tedious, repetitive, and feels like busywork. The game expects you to do the job of an entire squad without any support.
Story and Setting
The Narrative Setup
Black Ops 7 takes place in 2035, ten years after Black Ops 2's story. You play as one of four members of Specter One, a squad led by David Mason (the son of Alex Mason from the first Black Ops game, now played by Milo Ventimiglia).
The antagonist from Black Ops 2, Raul Menendez, appears to have returned from the dead. The central threat revolves around Cradle, a psychochemical weapon that was supposedly eradicated in Black Ops 6 (which was set in the early 1990s). Surprise: it's back and causing chaos.
The campaign has recast major characters with new voice actors, replacing previous performers. This includes a new actor for Menendez following the passing of Kamar de Los Reyes, who originally voiced the character.
Where You'll Fight
The campaign takes you across multiple global locations:
- Tokyo's neon-lit rooftops and urban environments
- Mediterranean coastal areas
- Angolan jungles
- Vorkuta (where Alex Mason was imprisoned in the original Black Ops)
- Avalon, a massive map that also serves as the Endgame mode location (and the game doesn't give you an in-game map for it despite its size)
Cradle's Hallucinogenic Effects
Throughout much of the campaign, characters experience the trippy, nightmarish effects of Cradle. This creates surreal gameplay with supernatural enemy types:
- Demon-like inmates
- Bipedal demons
- Giant spiders
- Enormous flying monsters that spit projectiles
Reviewers have compared these enemy designs to modern Doom. Visually, they look fantastic, but the inclusion of these fantastical elements in what's supposed to be a military shooter has been called nonsensical by critics.
Mission Structure and Gameplay
How Missions Flow
Black Ops 7's campaign structure feels like a wave-based mode more than a traditional story campaign. You move from location to location, shooting enemies continuously with minimal downtime. Reviewers describe the story connecting these combat scenarios as "very loose."
The pacing gives you barely any time to breathe between fights. It's constant combat from start to finish.
No Non-Hostile NPCs
The entire campaign lacks friendly or neutral characters. Every NPC you encounter is hostile. There are no civilians in Tokyo's urban settings, no allied soldiers, no bystanders to interact with.
This is a big departure from successful COD campaigns. Previous games punctuated their action with quieter moments where you interacted with non-hostile characters. Black Ops 6 had innovative levels set in political galas and military base camps. Modern Warfare (2019) had atmospheric moments that let you connect with the world and characters.
Black Ops 7 has none of that. When you're only shooting enemies with no context or human connection, reviewers say it all starts to feel fake and superficial. You're left wondering what all the shooting is actually for.
The Avalon Map Connection
Every other mission takes place on Avalon, which doubles as the map for Black Ops 7's Endgame mode.
Endgame combines elements of DMZ, Warzone, and Zombies. It supports up to 32 players completing endless objectives across the map. You can wingsuit between locations and sprint past most enemies if you don't feel like fighting them. Treyarch intends for Endgame to evolve as a live-service offering over time.
The problem with integrating Avalon into the campaign is that half your missions take place in this single location. Reviewers describe it as lacking soul or charm, and playing through it repeatedly in the campaign gets old fast.
Difficulty and Scaling
No Traditional Difficulty Settings
Black Ops 7 removes the standard difficulty selection you'd find in other COD games. There's no Easy, Normal, Hard, or Veteran to choose from.
Squad-Based Scaling
Instead of letting you pick your challenge level, the game adjusts difficulty based on your squad size:
- Solo: One difficulty level
- Two players: Adjusted challenge
- Three players: Further adjustments
- Four players: Full intended difficulty
This means solo players can't tune the experience to their skill level. The difficulty you get is determined by the fact that you're playing alone, period.
Notable Missions and Highlights
"Suppression": The One Good Mission
"Suppression" is the mission reviewers point to as an example of what Black Ops 7 could have been. It takes place in Vorkuta, where Alex Mason was imprisoned in the original Black Ops.
You're under Cradle's hallucinogenic effects, sneaking through environments filled with demon-like inmates. You only have a knife and decoy grenades. No guns. It's tense, atmospheric, and linear in the way that classic COD missions used to be.
This is the kind of innovative level design that made previous Call of Duty campaigns memorable. Unfortunately, it's the only mission like this in the entire game. The rest of the campaign doesn't even try to capture this quality.
Boss Fights
Black Ops 7 includes multiple boss fights, which is unusual for the series. Cradle's effects provide narrative justification for these encounters.
Two notable bosses:
- "The Nightmare": A tree-like, multi-headed creature in an Angolan jungle
- Titan-sized squadmate: A drug-fueled, giant version of one of your teammates who pounds the ground and spews toxic gas
The boss fights look visually impressive and are described as fascinating. The downside? They're reportedly too easy. Reviewers specifically mention missing the ability to adjust difficulty settings, which would have made these encounters more engaging.
These fights represent a much more gamified approach than typical COD campaigns use. They're spectacle over substance.
What's Missing: Iconic COD Moments
Previous Call of Duty campaigns are remembered for specific, powerful moments:
- "All Ghillied Up" from COD 4, where you assassinate Zakhaev
- "Clean House" from Modern Warfare (2019), methodically clearing Camden townhouses
- Black Ops 6's safehouse with the piano puzzle and basement investigation
Black Ops 7 has nothing comparable. The campaign throws endless enemies at you without building memorable set pieces or emotional beats. There's no character development for David Mason despite his history in the series. No time for quiet moments that let the story breathe.
Community and Critical Response
Player Reactions
Launch day sentiment has been overwhelmingly negative. Players are criticizing the campaign hard.
Common complaints:
- Confusing, hard-to-follow writing
- Forgettable characters (even returning ones like David Mason and Raul Menendez)
- Too many fantastical elements that don't fit a military shooter
- The gameplay restrictions (no pausing, always-online, no checkpoints) are infuriating
- Solo play feels incomplete and poorly supported
Some players are having fun by turning their brains off and enjoying the gunplay, which remains solid. But as critics point out, you can get good gunplay in countless other shooters that don't come with all these frustrating design decisions.
Critical Reviews
Review scores are mixed:
- IGN gave it 6/10
- Metacritic shows an average of 84 across 14 critic reviews (suggesting other modes scored better than the campaign)
Reviewers describe the campaign as one of the biggest steps backward in Call of Duty history. It feels like an afterthought, a slapdash attempt that fails at almost every level. Multiple outlets call it a serious low point for COD campaigns.
One review characterizes the game as "the freshest CoD in years" in certain respects, but that's clearly referring to the multiplayer and other modes rather than the campaign.
Reddit Community Feedback
The Games subreddit has been brutal. Players there describe the game as "slop" and compare it unfavorably to classic Modern Warfare campaigns.
One player couldn't be drawn in even by nostalgia for Mason and Menendez, partly due to the new voice actors. Another said the campaign looks like it was made by AI, describing it as "tacked on slop to inflate the value proposition."
The inability to skip cutscenes, pause, or avoid AFK kicks is repeatedly cited as evidence of poor design. Multiple comments express disbelief that the game launched in this state.
Battlefield 6 Competition
The Rivalry Heats Up
Black Ops 7 faces stiff competition from Battlefield 6, which has been a major success for EA. Battlefield is COD's biggest rival, and this year they're seriously competing.
Battlefield 6 introduced Battlefield REDSEC, a battle royale mode that directly challenges Call of Duty: Warzone. Some analysts believe Battlefield 6 has "eaten Black Ops 7's lunch" in certain areas.
Sales Expectations
Despite the criticism, Black Ops 7 will probably sell well. Call of Duty is a juggernaut franchise that consistently posts strong numbers. The game's inclusion in Xbox Game Pass also gives it broad accessibility.
But the launch has been controversial. Community fatigue with annual COD releases is real. Divisive changes to aim assist (which some reviewers actually like) add to the mixed reception.
Development Context
Timeline and Priorities
Treyarch had multiple years to develop Black Ops 6. Black Ops 7 came out just 12 months later. That shortened development window likely explains many of the campaign's problems.
Development priorities probably shifted too. Multiplayer and Zombies are replayable modes that keep players engaged long-term. They're why most people buy Call of Duty in the first place. The campaign may have received fewer resources and less attention as a result.
The co-op focus might have been chosen partly to create content that feeds into Endgame, the live-service mode. Instead of building a traditional single-player campaign, Treyarch built something that transitions players into their ongoing content model.
What You Need to Know Before Playing
For Solo Players
If you're planning to tackle this campaign alone, here's what you're signing up for:
Time Requirements: You need to complete missions in single sittings. Any interruption means starting over from the beginning. Plan for uninterrupted play sessions or prepare to replay the same content multiple times.
Gameplay Expectations: You'll face objectives designed for four players, all by yourself. No AI teammates will help you. The difficulty scales for solo play, but missions weren't redesigned around single-player. Expect a lonely experience with no friendly NPCs. Reviewers describe it as mowing down room after room of enemies with no variety.
Technical Requirements: Stable internet is mandatory. You can't pause for any reason. The AFK timer will kick you if you step away. Updates can interrupt you at any moment, even during cutscenes. If any of these happen, you're restarting the mission.
For Co-op Groups
Playing with friends? Here's what to expect:
Squad Setup: Four players is the intended experience. Fewer than four means some players will repeat objectives multiple times. Difficulty scales based on how many people you have.
Technical Stuff: Everyone needs stable internet. Nobody can pause. Group coordination is required to avoid AFK kicks. When an update drops, it kicks the entire squad simultaneously.
Who Should Play This Campaign
Best for:
- Players who prioritize co-op over solo experiences
- Groups of four friends who can coordinate long play sessions
- People who enjoy wave-based, combat-heavy gameplay
- Players interested in Endgame mode and wanting context for that map
- Anyone who can overlook story and writing problems for solid gunplay
Avoid if:
- You prefer traditional COD campaign experiences
- You have unstable internet
- You need the ability to pause for real-life interruptions
- You're looking for memorable story moments and character development
- You want curated, linear mission design like classic COD campaigns offered
Other Modes in Black Ops 7
Beyond the Campaign
Black Ops 7 includes the standard COD package alongside its troubled campaign:
Traditional Multiplayer: Competitive multiplayer with the controversial aim assist changes mentioned in reviews.
Zombies Mode: The classic Zombies experience returns. This is one of the replayable modes expected to keep the player base engaged.
Endgame Mode: The extraction-based mode using the Avalon map. Designed as a live-service offering that evolves over time, combining DMZ, Warzone, and Zombies elements. You unlock it after beating the campaign.
These modes operate separately from the campaign and don't share its restrictions.
Platform and Pricing
How to Get Black Ops 7
Direct Purchase: $69.99 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4
Game Pass: Included with Xbox Game Pass (console), PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This gives you access without buying it separately.
Final Thoughts
What You're Really Getting
Black Ops 7's campaign asks you to accept major restrictions for a co-op experience that reviewers describe as lacking soul and proper curation.
You get solid COD gunplay, visually impressive boss fights, and hallucinogenic sequences that look fantastic. The integration with Endgame gives you a transition into live-service content.
You don't get the ability to pause or save mid-mission. You don't get AI companions when playing solo. You don't get memorable story moments or character development. You don't get the innovative mission variety that made previous COD campaigns stand out. You don't get non-hostile NPCs or atmospheric world-building. You don't get protection from internet issues or forced updates.
Potential Changes
Some players hope Treyarch will adjust the campaign to improve solo play. Requested features include:
- Allowing pausing in solo mode
- Removing or disabling the AFK kick timer for solo
- Implementing persistent checkpoints
- Preventing updates from kicking players during missions
- Reworking missions to be more solo-friendly
- Adding AI squadmates
These changes would require significant technical work and may not align with Treyarch's co-op vision. Whether they'll happen is anyone's guess.
The Bigger Picture
Black Ops 7's campaign represents a clear shift in how Treyarch thinks about single-player content. Whether this is the future of COD campaigns or a one-off experiment remains to be seen.
For players who value traditional single-player experiences, this campaign serves as a warning about what happens when developers prioritize live-service integration and co-op over solo accessibility.
Critics call it a serious low point for Call of Duty campaigns. But the overall Black Ops 7 package includes multiplayer and Zombies modes that might justify the purchase if you rarely touch campaigns anyway. Going in with appropriate expectations can help you avoid the worst frustrations.
