2/5 ★ – FoofDeckman's review of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

My god, where do I even begin with this one? I normally love going through the yearly Call of Duty just to see what's happening, It's like visiting an old friend that you don't really talk to all too much anymore, but you finally get that opportunity to see one another. However these past few years have felt different, it's like if that friend slowly got introduced to heroine and became a completely different person as they became more addicted. Black Ops 7 is the worst Call of Duty game by far and it's not even close. Did they even try and make something interesting this time? Or did they realize no matter what they do the general public will just continue buying this series every year. I know I shouldn't have expected much with a game that should have been DLC for Black Ops 6, but even then Call of Duty hasn't really felt like it's tried since maybe Modern Warfare 2019 and even then that's being generous, but Black Ops 7 is a whole new low for the franchise. The biggest compliment I can give this is that It can be kind of fun sometimes, in the same way McDonalds can kind of give you real food. Sure it resembles actual food, It's edible, but you know deep down that it is nothing but junk. Black Ops 7 is nothing but junk, it resembles a video game, but it's like looking at a mangled corpse of something that was once great and seeing nothing but the worst aspects of itself. To start with, no I haven't played the campaign. I've seen enough footage of it, including the ending, where I know for a fact I would just be wasting my time for an answer I already know: ITS BAD. Instead of a normal linear corridor shooter Call of Duty campaign, Black Ops 7 just takes the Warzone map and puts different objectives on it and calls it a day. You can really tell this was a last minute decision too because the only other game that went for a cooperative open world game like this was also rushed (Cough) Modern Warfare III. Black Ops 7's campaign feels AI generated to the point where almost nothing makes sense and ideas are forgotten immediately in favor of other ideas. Now I can't prove this was AI, but I wouldn't be surprised if it later came out that it was, especially with how much AI has been used in other parts of the game. I can't even blame them for wanting to rehash characters from Black Ops 2, there's only so many times you can bring back these beloved characters without making it feel trivial. Their best idea being "hey lets make Woods over 100 years old just so we can bring him back yet again". This campaign has nothing of substance and only exists to jingle keys in your face because you recognize what they're showing you. I know people were really harsh on Black Ops 4 having no campaign, but honestly, this game would be better off without one. At least then the developers would be able to focus their energy over to Multiplayer and Zombies without feeling like they're wasting their time on something 5% of Call of Duty players experience anyway. Maybe in a perfect world they'd be able to slash the price of the game down from $70 too with the removal of a campaign, but everyone knows that'll never happen. Multiplayer is fine, It's exactly what you expect from a Treyarch game. Extremely safe three lane maps that don't reinvent the wheel. Usually Call of Duty games will have their gimmick, and here it's a wall jump which barely comes into play most of the time, but the real kicker is the "removal" of Skill Based Matchmaking. I know people are celebrating in the streets because they finally got rid of forced Skill Based Matchmaking, which has always been a really contentious thing in the community for what feels like forever now. I'm glad that portion of the community is happy that they finally got what they wanted, but to me this just feels like Activision at their most desperate. Why should we be celebrating something that should have never been there to begin with? And what, they're just going to keep it this way forever? I bet you they're just going to go back to the way it was with Infinity Ward's new game when it turns out that Black Ops 7 hasn't sold well. Zombies has always been the main reason I stick around for these games and luckily here It's still pretty good. If anything if you're a zombies player, this truly feels like Zombies is going back to the good old days. Sure, it makes no sense for the original characters to come back, but screw it, just like with Woods being over 100 years old there's only so many shits I can give before I just have to go with the flow of what I'm given. It's also just genuinely nice to hear most of these characters be voiced by their original voice actors even if Tom Kane wasn't able to return. That's probably the biggest compliment I can give this game is that the Zombies is still good. The use of generative AI here is by far this game's biggest sin. Now I'm not here to debate the ethics of using AI, but Black Ops 7's usage of it makes me want to throw up just thinking about it. Do we really have to go through all of these other avenues just to avoid paying artists? Like I mentioned earlier, I'm pretty sure this game's usage of AI goes well beyond a few AI Calling Cards or Voices and it genuinely scares me to think of a future where more and more hard working developers are laid off in favor of AI slop. They don't even try to hide the fact that it's AI either anymore, It's blatant and it's disgusting. Do not support Black Ops 7, this is one of those cynical cash grabs that just makes you feel gross after playing. I know I'm a hypocrite because I played it through Gamepass, but please don't give Microsoft your time. It can be fun at points, especially the zombies mode, but there are way more cons to this package than there are pros and that alone should put you far away from Black Ops 7.