The full global reveal of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is drawing closer and closer, with the upcoming title being under a lot of pressure due to its status as the second consecutive Black Ops release for the franchise. Akin to what was seen in recent back-to-back games like Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3, there is a worry that the core identity and overall experience of Black Ops 7 might be too similar to its predecessor.
Despite this, the semi-futuristic setting of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been known for some time now. This should provide a lot of gameplay opportunities that seem completely distinct from the 1990s setting of Black Ops 6, though this is not the only way that the upcoming project is aiming to differentiate itself. Interestingly, it is confirmed that Black Ops 7 will feature full co-operative support for its campaign. With it recently being revealed that Black Ops 7 will feature mind-bending hallucination sequences, there will be some great opportunities to make the absolute most of co-operative gameplay.
August 19 Will Be a Big Day for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Call of Duty fans eager to know more about the next installment in the series, Black Ops 7, will want to circle August 19 on their calendars.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Has a Chance to Make Co-Operative Campaign Experiences Really Stand Out
It was rumored and largely assumed that Black Ops 7 was a direct narrative sequel to 2012's Black Ops 2 long before the upcoming game was officially announced. With the game being confirmed to take place around a decade after Black Ops 2's story, a lot of the game mechanics and featured characters of the game seemed quite obvious to some fans. Of course, there is always a thirst for finer details and official confirmations, with Black Ops 7's recent ESRB rating coming with a description of the game that is filled with narrative details.
The ESRB rating for Black Ops 7 detailed the game's story premise as a fight against a tech giant that is aiming to take control of the world, while also detailing that enemies will come in the form of hostile soldiers, robots, and monsters. Players will be able to take on these threats alone or with a friend via BO7's co-operative campaign mode, with the ESRB description also talking about psychologically-charged hallucination sequences for the game.
Of course, mind-bending psychological themes have always been at the heart of the Black Ops sub-franchise, with the recent Black Ops 6 producing its own memorable hallucination-based mission. In Black Ops 6's Emergence mission, players navigate a complex filled with hallucinatory zombies and monster mini-bosses, providing one of the most memorable and unique CoD campaign missions that fans have seen for some time. The potential of how a mission like this could be altered from a co-operative perspective is absolutely immense.
Black Ops 7's Co-Op Campaign Could Take an Emergence-Like Mission to the Next Level
Judging from the first trailer for Black Ops 7, psychological and hallucinatory sequences are likely to play quite a consistent role within the game's story. Call of Duty's previous experiences with co-op campaigns have been quite forgettable, yet Black Ops 7's outlandish sequences could have unique mechanics directly tied to co-op. Hallucinatory missions could see players briefly disappear from each other's games during intense moments, or even appear as enemies to create friendly fire chaos.
With Black Ops 7's campaign potentially featuring monsters, non-host players could even briefly take control of enemy combatants to attack their friends in gameplay akin to Black Ops 2 Zombies' Turned game mode. It is clear that Black Ops 7 needs to stand out from the crowd as much as possible amid the criticisms of CoD relying on similar annual experiences, and its co-op capabilities could be its best bet at achieving this. Unique sequences that fully lean into the confusion and unease of Black Ops' mind-bending storylines would be an excellent way to capitalize on this, with BO7's hallucination sequences being perfect for chaotic co-operative experiences.
Black Ops 2's Grief mode recently returned to the franchise with BO6, and BO7's co-op campaign hallucinations could be a great way to test the waters of introducing more unique PvP experiences like Turned.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 66 /100 Critics Rec: 34%
- Released
- November 14, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Treyarch, Raven Software
- Publisher(s)
- Activision
