Although everyone and their mother is kicking Call of Duty these days, I don't want to pour dirt on Black Ops 7 at all. And not because we are lazy, but because it is an improved version of Black Ops 6 - which is what the fans demanded from the developers.
It has long been known that the biggest problem with the Call of Duty series is Activision itself. Driven by boundless greed, the company tramples the series into the mud with idiotic collaborations and a meaningless - at least for the players themselves - unwillingness to completely abandon the SBMM (Skill based matchmaking) system, which even streamers on Activision's payroll have begun to complain about.
And that's the saddest thing, because Black Ops 7 takes into account the numerous mistakes of previous installments and the feedback from still loyal fans, and the developers from Treyarch themselves are really trying to keep in touch with the community not only through the Trello board, where they report on patches unilaterally, but also on social networks.
The SBMM system mentioned above has also migrated to Black Ops 7, which makes every match a one-way game: either your team wipes the floor with the opponents, or the opponents wipe the floor with your team. There's no arguing that it's always nice when the system works in your favor, but it's just as frustrating when it turns its face to the opposing team.
What has changed is the number of matches needed for the system to decide that you're having too much fun. In Black Ops 6, the system could arrange for you to have 4-5 games in a row where you felt like a cyber athlete, while in Black Ops 7, SBMM brings you down to earth after just a couple of matches, pitting you against poor wretches with no personal life who have only seen grass through the window in their sweat-smelling room.
Fortunately, the developers took into account the beta experience and were clearly very scared of the popularity of Battlefield 6, which is why two lists with playlists appeared in the release version: the standard one, where the SBMM system works at full capacity, taking into account a whole bunch of parameters for forming a lobby (sometimes it seems that even height, weight and blood type are taken into account), and an open one, in which ping is mainly important.
It is clear that most of the players rushed into the new playlist, which is why even with a significantly weakened SBMM, most of the lobbies look like a real BDSM party, and you don't know the safe word.
Another problem that Call of Duty fans have been paying more and more attention to is lobbies that only gather for one match and then break up after it ends. From the outside, it may seem that there is nothing special about this, but in the old days, a group of players could play with each other for hours, match after match, map after map. You could play against a pro in one match, and then that pro could be on your team. You made friends, practiced tactics and team play together, and then you could even start communicating outside of Call of Duty. After years of arrogant ignoring of fans' requests, Activision has brought back this experience as well.
What's funny is that Activision at one time explained the temporary lobbies as a fight against the unhealthy atmosphere that can form during long sessions. Allegedly, the company had statistics showing that people did not leave the lobby if they were unlucky enough to play against toxic players, but abandoned the game altogether. Given how it all turned out in the end, Activision has been lying to us all these years. It's never happened before, and here we go again.
Although Call of Duty was actively criticized for its futuristic setting at one time - Infinite Warfare simply drowned in negativity even before its release - it was the futurism that was lacking in recent years. Modern conflicts, World War II and the Cold War are already tired, and I wouldn't want to let the series go too far into the future either. But Black Ops 7 offers exactly what many have been missing for so long: all these projection panels, screens, terminals, corridors of scientific complexes - the levels look futuristic, but not pretentious.
The standard level design, offering only three directions of movement at the beginning of the match - left, center, right - which has been used in Call of Duty for years, has not gone anywhere. It's just that the developers have learned to hide it more competently. However, in many locations there is only a semblance of freedom of movement, when in practice you often run into invisible walls or simply do not have time to jump to the top under a hail of bullets.
There are no positions on the locations that give any serious advantage, where you can sit quietly with a shotgun or sniper rifle, racking up frags. Treyarch tries to equalize the chances for everyone as much as possible and not offend anyone.
The developers also did not build locations around the new system that allows you to jump off walls. Parkour helps to shorten some routes and gain a certain advantage when opponents need to be bypassed from the flanks, but nothing radical. The developers clearly took into account the dissatisfaction with the jetpacks in Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare.
The players themselves do not often use the opportunities that the game gives them, preferring to move around the map with slides or small jumps. There is also not much use for acrobatics in firefights.
Special praise is deserved for the new scorestreaks and equipment. The same drone hive can create serious chaos, especially if you install it during the capture of a control point - it will be difficult for opponents to dodge bullets and drones at the same time. The active camouflage system clearly came to replace the double agent from Black Ops 6. After activation, the player becomes almost invisible even at close range until he starts shooting. Augmentation can not only increase the duration of the camouflage, but also make it reactivate even after shooting.
An interesting scorestreak is D.A.W.G. (Deployable Armored Weaponized Groundcraft) — a mechanical dog that moves slowly across the map, but carries a rapid-firing machine gun and is protected by thick armor. D.A.W.G., although clumsy, does an excellent job of bringing chaos to the battlefield.
I would also like to highlight the Gravemaker rifle, which allows you to see enemies through walls and shoot them across the entire map, killing them with one hit. The only downside was the relatively long charge before the shot. Although many beta participants called it unfair and complained, the developers did not change it in any way in the release version. What is noteworthy is that few people use Gravemaker in matches — apparently, almost everyone honors some unspoken code of honor.
One of the most interesting innovations in Black Ops 7 is augmentation. Leveling up equipment - whether it's grenades or speedsters - unlocks access to various improvements. Each scorestreak or piece of equipment has two augmentations, but only one can be active. For example, you can reduce the number of points needed to call a reconnaissance UAV or give the drone the ability to dodge one missile, as well as a more durable hull. A fragmentation grenade can be made more powerful or packed with explosives in a lighter body, which will allow you to throw it further.
A hybrid perk system has also been added. All perks are divided into categories - red, green, blue - and to get a specialization, you had to complete three perks of the same color. Even if one of them was completely unnecessary. In Black Ops 7, the system has been expanded by adding three hybrid perks, for the activation of which, say, two blue perks and one green perk must be added. Now players have much more options for customizing their operative.
Fans of the zombie mode will be pleased with various innovations and changes, such as the ability to exchange chewing gum for points and evacuate from the map alone, without dragging the entire team along — as well as a huge map where the quartet of heroes ends up after the events of Black Ops 6. Yes, most of the content here is from the sixth part, but given the development of the storyline and the format of the mode itself, this was expected. There are exactly as many innovations here as needed so that people don't complain too much, but at the same time everything remains familiar and balanced.
For longtime fans of the Call of Duty zombie mode and difficulties, the developers have returned its classic variation with a limited interface, fixed starting weapons and an old point generation system, forcing you to save ammo and try to aim exclusively at the head.
Diagnosis
An extensive arsenal, interesting scorestreaks, new leveling and good maps — a new year, a new CoD. However, the Black Ops 7 multiplayer offers everything that Call of Duty fans have been asking for so long and persistently. The only problem is that the fan base, for the most part, doesn't care anymore.
There are fierce disputes on the network every day about what is better: Black Ops 7 or Battlefield 6? This is a pointless comparison, because the only thing that unites both games is that you can shoot each other in them and terrible single-player campaigns. In all other respects, these are two completely different shooters in terms of dynamics, scale and sensations - which means there is nothing to argue about here.
