'Call of Duty: Black Ops 7' Is Weird, For Better Or Worse

"Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a very, very weird video game. As many were quick to point out on release day, it features surreal boss fights, nonsensical powers such as calling in destructive, building-sized machetes from the sky, and zombie hordes you can control as minions. It's all a far cry from what the series once represented, something the franchise has inched further and further away from over the last 10 years."

"But while the series' most jilted diehard fans (and biggest haters) are harping on the dissonance between Black Ops 7 's co-op campaign and the series' already flailing identity, I can't help but appreciate that its developers tried to shake things up. It's a campaign that swings hard, misses the mark in many ways, but still manages to deliver a mostly fun experience that at least tries to shake things up from the malaise of both its past and its biggest competitors."

"As someone who only returned to the Call of Duty bubble last year, these characters mean nothing to me. And based on my four hours with the game so far, I imagine even long-time fans will be a little disappointed with how this tale unravels. There is little humanity to how these characters are portrayed, their personal problems, or the world-ending stakes at hand. They're all ushered from one mission scenario to the next, with constant, contextless references to events from past games."

Black Ops 7 delivers wildly surreal set pieces, including boss fights, sky-falling building-sized machetes, and controllable zombie hordes, moving far from the series' grounded roots. The game is a direct sequel to Black Ops 2 and follows David Mason and his squad hunting presumed-dead Raul Menendez. The campaign is designed chiefly for co-op and moves at a breakneck pace, prioritizing spectacle over character development. Characters lack humanity and clear stakes, scenes often reference past games without context, and major twists are predictable. Despite narrative flaws, the campaign attempts bold experimentation and offers mostly fun, if uneven, gameplay moments.

Read at Inverse