Preview: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is not the Call of Duty for me, but that's okay

The first beta weekend for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has concluded. Fans have been able to hop into the next chapter of the shooter series to gauge whether they're a fan of the direction that Treyarch has taken with the instalment. That might seem like a weird way to phrase things for the irregular-to-abstaining Call of Duty player who sees these games as regurgitated goop, but for those who check out the series every year, it very much applies.

Over the years, the Activision developers have flirted with different gameplay styles, pacing, settings, and more, and building on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the theme for Black Ops 7 is speed and raw reactive responses. Some fans of the series will hear that and weep with joy but others, like myself, find that a tad off-putting...

When Call of Duty was effectively rebooted back in 2019 with the exceptional Modern Warfare, I fell back in love with the series thanks to its more tactical and slower-paced gameplay. Call of Duty goes through these cycles where it's rebooted at a slow-pace and then steadily gets faster and faster until it's blisteringly quick and comes across as a game with absolutely no space or room whatsoever for those looking for a more casual experience. Then it's rebooted. Black Ops 7 is the next stage of this cycle, it's an overwhelmingly snappy and almost suffocating shooter that anyone who doesn't dedicate their entire free time to Call of Duty will find alienating and punishing. It's a Call of Duty instalment that once again embodies the survival of the fittest mantra.

This is because the movement has once again reached that stage where boots-on-the-ground action is a thing of the past. Wall jumps are back, enemies rarely spend time actually on the floor, the time-to-kill (TTK) values are immensely low, and all of this means that you have to approach every single Black Ops 7 play session at full mental capacity and strength as though it's a competitive league appearance on a LAN stage. You're going to war in this game and if you're not 100% committed, you will be left behind to die in the dirt.

But again, this is actually fine in my eyes because Call of Duty ebbs and flows with these varied creative directions. One man's trash is another man's treasure as they say, and that applies here, as while Black Ops 7 is perhaps the polar opposite of what I want from a Call of Duty game, many others will go weak at the knees with this chapter.

This being said, there are still various parts of the Call of Duty experience that I wish was addressed, and maybe it will be by the time the game actually launches in mid-November. Still, things like menus being overwhelmingly complex and throwing way too much information at you is an area of necessary improvement and has been for a long while. Spawn points barely functioning in a 6v6 climate is another area that drastically needs changes because while the code may work in a tight 4v4 competitive format, for the majority of the player base in regular online, there's next to no consistency right now. Also, if enemies aren't going to be fighting on the ground much, a better audio solution so that you can tell when someone is leaping through a window or wall running along a corridor like the Prince of Persia would be nothing but a boon. Oh and skill-based matchmaking. It still really sucks to go into every game like every player in the lobby's life depends on it, and when combined with the speed of this chapter, it makes the overall whole rather hard to stomach at times.

Keeping all of this in mind, Black Ops 7 still screams premium quality and finish. The gunplay is tight and responsive, the map design is easy to learn and navigate and memorable, the available options when it comes to weapons, perks, throwables, and so forth, it's so broad that you will never run out of options. While I always encourage players to branch out and try new things to broaden their horizons, you can see why Call of Duty players don't feel the need to migrate away from the shooter series with such a wealth of content offered every single year.

So make of these ramblings what you will. I think the key thing to note is that you will either love or hate this chapter in the series, and whatever your stance on it, it's also important to remember that it's fine to have that impression. Despite how it may seem, not every Call of Duty game is made for every Call of Duty player, and while I still wish the series stuck to its standards from around five-to-six years ago, I can see many falling back in love with the franchise with this chapter, especially if you loved the Advanced Warfare and Infinite Warfare eras where this game will no doubt resonate with you deeply.