I made a return visit to Treyarch’s Los Angeles studio recently to learn all aboutCall of Duty: Black Ops 7ahead of its proper unveiling at Gamescom. It’s a game that could be described better as a comprehensive package of different offerings for different types of players, as you’ll see in this in-depth preview.
Treyarch is once again aiming to redefine what aBlack Opsgame can be. At least, that’s the bold pitch for 2025’sCall of Duty. The big obvious question I wanted to address first is the timing of this release, so soon afterBlack Ops 6. Back to back rushed releases don’t generally work well, butBlack Ops 7was developed in parallel withBlack Ops 6. Both projects, I’ve confirmed, were greenlit at the same time years ago, giving the studios a chance to plant narrative and gameplay seeds across both titles.
Unleashing the future of Black Ops for us is almost the mantra from the team
Now, those threads come together in a new installment built around four guiding marketing pillars and taglines:“Embrace the Madness, Cutting-Edge 2035 Combat, Experience Matters, and Zombies Unchained.”
Black Ops 7builds on last year’sBlack Ops 6, but in reality, it’s a sequel toBlack Ops 2. “We talk a lot about, ‘What’s the DNA of Black Ops?’… 2035 started to be an area where we were just landing,” Director of ProductionYale Millertold me in describing the creative spark that brought the team to this time period, a setting 10 years after the events ofBlack Ops 2:“We kept coming back to it and wondering what are the new stories that we could tell there.”
A World on the Brink
The Campaign Story of Black Ops 7 Explained
The year is 2035, and the scars ofRaul Menendez’swar still linger. Though believed dead, the infamous villain returns, as we’ve seen in the latestBlack Ops 7viral marketingand in-game if you’ve been looking closely at screens and monitors insideWarzone, armed with a weapon that turns fear itself into a weapon.
Jon Zuk, Creative Director at Raven Software, told us during the presentation,“Raul Menendez, thought dead, is back, vowing to imminently burn the world down.”
Nations scramble to respond, and a powerful tech conglomerate known asThe Guild(again, check out the viral marketing) positions itself as humanity’s last line of defense. Meanwhile, anew JSOC unit called Spectre One- under the command of Troy Marshall who returns fromBlack Ops 6- is deployed to Avalon to investigate this looming threat. What begins as a tactical mission soon descends into paranoia, as soldiers find themselves trapped in surreal hallucinations where memory and reality blur.
Zuk continues,“The ultimate battle isn’t just about survival, it’s about overcoming the enemy’s control over fear and our perception.”
A Call of Duty Campaign Reimagined
4-Player Co-op And a 32-Player Endgame
Black Ops 7delivers the first fully"connected"Call of Dutycampaign. For the first time in the franchise, every mission, whether played solo or in co-op with up to four players, contributes to your global progression. XP, camos, challenges, and Battle Pass rewards are all unlocked in campaign. And the best part is that the campaign has its own camos to unlock.
When I asked Yale Miller about why co-op became central to the design ofBlack Ops 7’sofferings - and the bigger question of whether we should expect co-op inCall of Dutygoing forward - he answered,“No, it’s just what’s right for the game. I think the big word is “connected” when we talk about the experience. When we were looking at things that make this game unique.”
“I think we started with that word. And when we talk about 2035, everything’s kind of connected,“he continues.“Then we started arguing about, ‘Well, if you’re going to have [it be] connected, then you should probably be able to play everything together.'”
And then there were conversations of, ‘Well, you could just do two-player.’ But then you can’t take your squad all the way through Zombies. But it’d be so much easier if we just did two-player because then you can this, this, and this.” And then it’s like, “Progression!” “Well, if it’s really a connected game, then you should be earning progression everywhere.” Then the Campaign team’s like, “We should really have a Camo track,” “Okay, yes, how do we do that?” There are a lot of tendrils on those things, but I think it was part of the pieces we had to put together. When we were thinking about the focus for the game, it was one of those buzzwords that we talked about in the guise of content - even connected perks, and even the HUD where you’re actually seeing what your squad is doing. You see that stuff already in military settings, where you actually have clear information about what other players are doing. Pushing forward those ideas and applying them to game systems was interesting for us.
The story spans diverse locales, from the streets of Tokyo to the frozen wilds of Alaska, with missions designed to disorient as much as they dazzle. After the credits roll, a twelfth mission unlocks:Endgame.
Everything Treyarch Told Us About Black Ops 7’s 32-Player Endgame Campaign Mission
Black Ops 7’s Endgame mission will completely change the way you think about campaigns in Call of Duty, and Treyarch gave Screen Rant all the details.
Design Director Kevin Drewtold us during the presentation:
“As the credits roll, we’re going to be unlocking a 12th mission that is very different, and we’re calling it Endgame, and it’s going to redefine what campaign can be in Call of Duty.”
Endgame transforms Avalon into a massive PvE space for up to 32 players, where squads take on escalating challenges, and can choose their operators and loadouts, levelling up their C.O.M.B.A.T. ratings (more on this later) by earning new abilities, and fight to survive in zones that demand coordination and persistence.
When discussing Black Ops 6’s story and mission variety, a visual listed Nicaragua, Angola, Tokyo, Alaska, Avalon Outskirts, Avalon City, and five redacted locations.
Black Ops 7’s Cast of Characters
At the heart of the story campaign are familiar and new faces:
The campaign also reintroducesTroy Marshall,BO6’s protagonist, as we saw from watching a trailer during the presentation where he’s seen older and setting up a meeting with David Mason at Frank Woods’ tombstone.
Black Ops 7’s Progression Systems Explained
BO7evolvesCall of Duty’s progression systems in unprecedented ways beyond just letting players progress across campaign as well as all of the game’s other modes (andWarzone, of course):
I asked Design Director Matt Scronce how progression ties the experience together, and if it’s possible to unlock everything across so many modes and unique tracks. He told us we"will absolutely miss out on things if you’re purely focused on one part of the game.”
“That said, we were just talking about this earlier, you can totally just go play Endgame, and you can reach Master Prestige, and you can earn all of your Co-op campaign Mastery camos just by playing that single mode. I’m sure there will be people who do that because it’s a very unique and new experience for Call of Duty… it was super exciting for us when we had that vision and came to the realization that you can play this entire game with your friends or by yourself.
And every time you go and play, whether it’s core multiplayer, it’s skirmish, it’s co-op, campaign ops, dead ops, it’s zombies… You’re always going to be earning progression. You’re always going to be earning towards a camo or Battle Pass. That’s the exciting bit; you can stick to one mode, but there’s a whole lot more game to see out there.”
The story campaign and its Endgame mode also feature a “power journey” where players build their arsenal with skills and abilities. This is ungated for Endgame where players can re-play to build up theirC.O.M.B.A.T. Ratingto a max level of 60, adding up that many Power Upgrades or Skills of your choice, to enter the most difficult zones of the map. Wiping during this mode results in a reset of this combat rating.
Finally, Call of Duty Adds Weapon Build Sharing
Directly Share Your Custom Meta Builds With Friends and the Community!
Perhaps the most notable, albeit so simple, feature thatBlack Ops 7adds to the franchise isweapon build sharing. I cannot stress enough how essential this feature is.
Lawrence Metten, Associate Director, Design at Treyarch, tells us that"this will make it very easy for you to send a weapon directly to a friend.“No more screenshot tracking or watching 10+ minute YouTube videos just to see a single still.
“Let’s say you’re in a party with somebody, and they’re like, Dude, you’re really frying with that eagle assault rifle. What build are you using? you’re able to just send that build directly to them, and in a couple clicks, they’ll have it in their loadout, and they’ll be using it in the next game. But what makes this feature really exciting is you can also share builds via a build code.”
“You’re going to have a build code printed right there in the gunsmith wherever you can see all the attachments equipped to the gun.“Metten explains. “And so whether you’ve come across that screenshot on socials or in a YouTube video, or maybe you’ve just screenshotted it yourself, you can enter that build code into your loadout and get that gun straight into your kit, making it really easy to get your hands on the top meta builds and the community’s builds as well as your friends built.”
Delta Force, as an example, makes great use of this feature and every shooter that has custom builds should have this quality of life and social element.
Movement and Combat in 2035
Black Ops 7 Tries to Find A Balance Between “The Future” and “Boots on the Ground”
Treyarch is refining the Omnimovement system introduced inBO6with new mechanics, while trying to bring back a version of some ofCall of Duty’s more future-oriented games, without going too far in that direction.
Combat pacing has also been fine-tuned:
As Scronce explained to us directly about this somewhat controversial topic of tac sprint: “We’re not going to have tac sprint by default… that is a pretty big difference between Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7.”
Black Ops 7’s Weapons and Gear (and New Overclocking Feature)
What Does The Arsenal of 2035 Look Like?
The 30-weapon launch roster includes 16 all-new firearms (Black Ops 6introduced only 12) and a mix of classics and futuristic tech:
At launch,Black Ops 7will include 6 ARs, 3 Marksman rifles, 6 SMGs, 3 Snipers, 2 LMGs, 3 Shotguns, 2 Launchers, 3 pistols, and 2 melee weapons.
Gadgets, field upgrades, and scorestreaks will all also benefit from the newOverclock system, which offers 2 overlock upgrades for everything, buffing their functionality. It’s meant to add depth while being super simple for players, adding a layer of progression to the main gameplay.
For example, the much-talked aboutactive camocan recharge faster with its first overlock and with its second can recloak after firing.
Black Ops 7’s Expanded Multiplayer Offering At Launch
Even thoughBlack Ops 7launches one short year afterBlack Ops 6, both games were in development concurrently for much longer, allowing this year’s entry to focus a little more on total content offerings and addressing feedback. That meansBO7has 16 full 6v6 maps instead of last year’s 12 that were meant for that number or fewer players.
In addition to core multiplayer, there’s the new 40-player Skirmish mode with two maps at launch. I asked Scronce about Skirmish’s player count, and he reflected:“It’s something that is not unfamiliar to us. We did Combined Arms in Cold War… 20v20 was what was the most fun when it came down to it.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Introduces 20v20 Skirmish Mode To Rival Battlefield 6
As a huge fan of Ground War throughout Call of Duty’s run, I’m glad that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is getting back into the fray with a hectic mode.
Yale Miller added perspective on how Skirmish connects to the broader ecosystem:“We think of it as part of our game, so it’s not about what we can’t do. It’s like, if it’s part of the big product, do you want to make modes that are doing the same thing? We’re trying to make something that has a clear purpose.”
Multiplayer balances the series’ competitive roots with new large-scale chaos. Key highlights include:
As for post-launch,Ben Lewis, Studio Comms at Treyarch, teased that “season one, yes, packed with maps post launch.” He also emphasized that the design around the “lane definition” was a big focus for the team in the large line-up of 6v6 core maps.
Black Ops 7 Zombies Modes Explained
Black Ops 7has a few offerings on the Zombies front, split across three modes. It’s set entirely within the Dark Aether and its main mode represents thelargest round-based Zombies map in the franchise, with a few notable new features to boot, and all featuring progression:
A full reveal forBO7’s Zombies is coming in September but details of the story and the three modes were revealed. “We are bringing back a new version of the original crew,” Kevin Drew tells us, emphasizing that this is a “version” of the original four. “Long-time players love these characters, and we saw the perfect opportunity to bring them here now in our Dark Aether timeline,” Drew adds.
Joining them are the four characters fromBlack Ops 6, so there are eight playable characters.
Black Ops 7 Has Call of Duty’s Largest Round-Based Zombies Map… And A Wonder Vehicle
Starting where the Dark Aether saga left off, Black Ops 7 brings the biggest Zombies map ever, explorable with the game mode’s first drivable vehicle.
As for the giant map, it’s inspired byTranZitfromBlack Ops 2. The visuals we saw for this map illustrated 6 distinct areas, each stuck in a different period in time, with paths connecting them. There’sFarm- which we played in the basic Survival mode and is nearly identical toBlack Ops 2’sFarm - and the other 5 locations were redacted.
“We did look at TranZit, and we were absolutely inspired by the ideas that were at play there so long ago, and we really wanted to modernize that and bring that to a new generation.”
UnlockBlack Ops 2’sTranZit map which had a bus moving around the map on loop, inBlack Ops 7, you control the vehicle, aWonder Vehicle! It’s a souped-up, armored, deadly truck which the devs refer to as a “fifth character,” one you’ll need to move between the passages. You donotwant to be stranded in between the zones…
Black Ops 7 Community Updates and Carry Forward
Towards the end of our 90-minute presentation, theCall of DutyComms team provided some notes and updates as well.
“Carry forward is coming to Black Ops 7,“Stephanie Snowden, senior director of communications for Call of Duty Studios, confirmed to us. “A wide variety of content from Black Ops 6 will carry forward to Black Ops 7, your XP tokens and your gobble gums will carry forward on day one.“Black Ops 6Weapons, Operators, and Operator Skins will carry forward at the start of Season 1 with some exceptions.Black Ops 6weapon camos will not work onBlack Ops 7weapons and some scorestreaks won’t carry forward, for instance.
Read Our Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a worthy inheritor of the series’ success, and while flush with content, there’s not enough innovation to be found.
I later asked for more specifics on Carry Forward when it came toBO6gear to Yale Miller:
Yeah, you will be able to bring that stuff there - if it makes sense. But some of that stuff, from 1990s to 2025, you’d never bring forward in that way just because it doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t be using a ’90s X in 2025. But some of the ideas of gear and stuff, everything has a 2035 pass.
And then, obviously, we’re adding the Overclock system to that. We talked about how in 2035, there’s tech conditions and everyone’s got different things, like cars, where a new software upgrade makes it do this now. Even though nothing has actually physically changed with the car, the works underneath has allowed it to do something else. Those ideas, leading to Overclocks and stuff like that, made a lot of sense for the era. That wouldn’t have made sense in Black Ops 6.
We’ve since confirmed that with Warzone will include weapons, operators, skins, blueprints, etc. fromBlack Ops 7alongsideBlack Ops 6,Modern Warfare II, andModern Warfare III.
A few other highlights emphasized to us on the expanded rewardsBO7offers and the next stage of anti-cheat:
Upcoming Dates for Black Ops 7
Black Ops 7is getting its full proper reveal atGamescomand there are additional key milestones leading to launch:
By weaving the legacy ofBlack Ops 2and the largerBlack Opslore into a futuristic setting brimming with chaos, Treyarch is teasing its most ambitious project yet, built alongside - and on top of -Black Ops 6(the game with the franchise’s longest development investment).
With a co-op campaign that extends into a replayable, all-new Endgame mode, the biggest core Zombies map ever supported by additional Zombies modes, and systems that reward play across every mode,Black Ops 7isn’t just another sequel, it’s meant to build out this sub-franchise and lay groundwork for the future of the franchise by seemingly testing and catering to every audience possible. Can it deliver on all of these fronts?
We have no details onBlack Ops 7’sWarzone integration yet and how meaningful this will be given that the current state ofWarzonehas reverted to a state similar to whereWarzone 1was years ago (even with the the same two maps). This information will come next month at theCall of Duty Nextevent. I’m also curious how replayable Endgame really is, how popular Skirmish will be versus the core multiplayer suite, and how post-launch content can support what’s essentially 7 pillars of content within theBO7ecoystem. If anything,Black Ops 7promises an impressive quantity of content.
Later I’ll be able to share my thoughts on my hands-on experience.
