Gameplay
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7—like its predecessor, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2024)—will be a first-person shooter. [2] Depending on the game mode selected, players use near-future military equipment, such as weapons, "field upgrades", and "scorestreaks", to combat AI opponents, other human players, or undead creatures. [1] Players can traverse a level/map omnidirectionally, and can perform "wall jumps" off of select walls; [3] in a change from Black Ops 6, the "Tactical Sprint" movement option—a limited-duration boost of speed allowing faster movement than the standard sprint—has been removed from the core movement, but is accessible as an optional in-game perk. [1]
Black Ops 7 features three primary game modes: a single-player/co-op campaign, a multiplayer component and the cooperative round-based Zombies mode. [3] Playable with up to four players, the campaign sees players take control of a JSOC unit led by David "Section" Mason. [1] The campaign features 11 total missions; [4] completing all missions unlocks access to the "Endgame" activity, which puts up to 32 players in the city of Avalon and tasks them with completing a series of objectives within a strict time limit. Players can bring a customized loadout with them into Endgame, but if they die, they lose access to their gear. [5] In addition, for the first time in the franchise, the campaign features shared progression with the multiplayer and Zombies modes, allowing players to gain experience points (XP) and level up their global ranks, weapons, and seasonal battle passes. [1]
The multiplayer component puts two teams of six (6v6)—"JSOC" and "The Guild"—against each other across a wide selection of game modes, such as "Team Deathmatch", "Domination", "Hardpoint", and "Overload"; [6] an exception to this is "Skirmish", an objective-based mode that allows for 20v20 combat on two dedicated maps. [1] As players level up, they gain access to various loadout items, including new weapons, pieces of equipment, and perks, [6] the latter of which are split into three "combat specialties"—"Enforcer", "Recon", and "Strategist"—that are activated when selecting three perks of the same specialty; new to Black Ops 7 are "hybrid combat specialties", which grant buffs when mixing perks from two different combat specialties. [7] Players can also apply additional abilities to their selection of lethal and tactical equipment, scorestreaks, and field upgrades via the "Overclock" upgrade system. [3] Once players reach level 55, they can choose to enter the "Prestige" ranking system, which resets their progress back to level 1 but grants a set of additional rewards; this process can be done up to ten times. [8] Fully leveled up weapons can also be Prestiged, which unlocks a series of cosmetic items, such as weapon camos and charms, but re-locks all available attachments. [9]
In Zombies, players fight endless hordes of the undead, which increase in both number and difficulty with every completed round, [10] on a large-scale map, "Ashes of the Damned"; [11] an additional map, "Astra Malorum", is expected to be released with the game's first post-launch season. [12] The standard Zombies experience shares several gameplay features with Black Ops 6's Zombies mode: players manage two primary currencies, "Essence" and "Salvage", which are used to unlock access to new parts of the maps, acquire weapon upgrades and ammo modifications, craft various pieces of lethal and tactical equipment, and to purchase additional player upgrades, including "Perk-a-Cola" cans and armor vests; players can also apply minor and major enhancements to perks, field upgrades and ammo mods via the "Augments" system and consume "GobbleGums"—single-use items that grant various in-game effects. [10] Black Ops 6's "Directed" mode also returns, allowing players to complete a map's main quest with in-game assistance. [11] Supplementing Black Ops 7's standard and Directed modes are three new game modes: "Survival", "Dead Ops Arcade 4", and "Cursed". [10] Survival tasks players with surviving for as long as possible on a small section of "Ashes of the Damned". [11] Dead Ops Arcade 4 is a new iteration of the standalone top-down shooter included in several previous Black Ops titles. [10] Cursed is an advanced version of Zombies, [13] featuring additional difficulty modifiers called "Relics" and some legacy elements from older Call of Duty games, such as the absence of loadout weapons and the player's mini-map, and a "classic point system" inspired by Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015). [10]
Marketing
Activision and Microsoft released a cinematic trailer for Black Ops 7 during the 2025 Xbox Games Showcase event on June 8, and revealed the game's title and story premise; [20] [2] On the same day, Variety shared initial details about the game's cast, including the respective casting of Milo Ventimiglia and Kiernan Shipka as David Mason and Emma Kagan, as well as Michael Rooker's reprisal of his Black Ops II role as Mike Harper. [21] Later in the same month, a teaser was uploaded to the "Cordis Die" YouTube channel, which was used in 2012 to promote Black Ops II. [22] In August, Activision unveiled several live-action teaser trailers featuring the Guild, as well as a viral website for the company. In addition, sponsored articles covering the Guild were published by Forbes and Wired . [23] [24]
The first full reveal for Black Ops 7 took place on August 19, at Gamescom, where developers from Treyarch and Raven shared details on the campaign, narrative, and the "Endgame" activity; [25] a 17-minute "Direct" presentation—containing information about the multiplayer and Zombies modes, as well as additional details on the game's campaign and progression systems—was released alongside the reveal. [26] An accompanying blog post by Activision also stated that select Black Ops 6 content, such as weapons and character skins, would "carry forward" to Black Ops 7. [27] These plans were canceled on August 26 due to community sentiment that Black Ops 6's skin selection, which features crossovers with several media franchises, including Squid Game , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , and Beavis and Butt-Head , had drifted from Call of Duty's visual identity; [28] this was amended on September 10, when Treyarch revealed that a set of four Zombies-specific character skins—unlocked via completing Black Ops 6's main quests—as well as a skin for the operator Samuels, unlocked by reaching Prestige rank 1000 in Black Ops 6, will be available to use in Black Ops 7. [29]
Live gameplay footage of Black Ops 7's multiplayer and Zombies modes was presented at the 2025 Call of Duty: Next event on September 30; [30] ahead of the event, Activision and Treyarch released trailers and blog posts for both modes on September 22 and September 24, respectively. [31] [32]
Release
Black Ops 7 is scheduled for release on November 14, 2025, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. [3] The title will be made available to subscribers of select Xbox Game Pass plans on release day, including Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. [33] It will also be available on select cloud gaming platforms, including GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming. [34] [25] The Windows version of Black Ops 7 requires players to enable TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot on their system in order to play; Activision stated that the requirement is in place to "provide the strongest safeguard possible" against cheaters in multiplayer matches. [35]
Open beta
Those who pre-ordered Black Ops 7 or had an active subscription to Xbox Game Pass received early access to an open beta test for the game's multiplayer and the Zombies survival map "Vandorn Farm". Early access to the beta was made available on October 2, with all players gaining access on October 5; [36] the beta concluded on October 9. [37] Throughout the beta, Treyarch made several new multiplayer maps, modes, and playlists available for testing, [38] [37] including an "Open Moshpit" playlist, which featured a revised matchmaking system with "drastically reduced" skill consideration when searching for matches; [39] due to positive player reception to the playlist, Treyarch and Activision announced that it will become the default matchmaking system for Black Ops 7's full release. [40]
