Call of Duty campaigns have been released annually (except for one brief gap in 2018) for over two decades now. In that time, there have been some truly exceptional offerings. Call of Duty 4’s standout moments, like a nuke being detonated and the "All Ghillied Up" mission, won it several game of the year awards, while Modern Warfare 2 took the experience to new heights through its set pieces and the infamous "No Russian" sequence. The Black Ops series is my personal cup of tea, with the historical elements and numerous twists of the first two games’ stories making them some of my favorite shooters of all time. As the years have gone on, though, Black Ops has been a consistent source of innovation via its campaigns, and it seems like Black Ops 7 is aiming to take things even further.
While Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Call of Duty campaigns tend to take a traditional approach to mission structure (with MW3’s hated open-combat missions bein the only real attempt to shake things up), Treyarch and Raven consistently deliver something new. Black Ops 2 offered choices and multiple endings, BO3 featured skill trees alongside co-op, Black Ops Cold War featured side quests and optional dialogue, and Black Ops 6 offered an upgradeable safe house packed with small puzzles alongside a trippy mission full of CoD Zombies tributes. This time around, the campaign will reportedly end in an extraction shooter experience, and I’m not sure if I like the idea or hate it.
Intriguingly, this feels like Treyarch making good on an idea it had for Black Ops 4’s scrapped campaign. While the beloved Blackout battle royale mode was marketed as the stand-in for campaign, originally BO4 was meant to have four pillars, offering a campaign alongside Zombies, multiplayer, and battle royale - albeit a very different one. Internally dubbed career, this mode would have merged multiplayer and singleplayer into one, as it would have been a replayable 2v2 experience where the story changed depending on which side was winning, and different missions were seen depending on who won each battle. Unfortunately, this ambitious idea was abandoned due to a tight schedule and technical challenges behind the scenes. For better or worse, BO7’s campaign sounds like a spiritual successor to this idea, even if the scale has drastically increased.
BO7’s Extraction Shooter Finale Could Be The Gift That Keeps Giving…
According to Insider Gaming, which has proven hugely reputable when it comes to leaks and reports, Black Ops 7’s final mission will be a significant change in format from the rest of the campaign. While the other 11 missions will be four-player co-op and are likely to resemble the Call of Duty content players are used to, the 12th and final level will come in the form of a 32-player extraction shooter. It will supposedly be replayable in a separate multiplayer playlist not tied to the campaign, with the goal being to fully connect all three modes of BO7 so that players are leveling weapons, ranking up, and so on no matter what they are doing.
Admittedly, extraction shooters are a genre I’m not super experienced with - I’ve tried Battlefield 2042’s ill-fated Hazard Zone, experienced The Division’s Dark Zone, and kept an eye on Bungie’s upcoming game Marathon, but that’s about it. I’m open to giving them a deeper try with Black Ops 7, and given Call of Duty’s cutting-edge gunplay and smooth omnimovement, I could see an extraction shooter doing quite well. Plus, while there are people who adore Call of Duty’s campaigns like myself, the reality is that a majority of the player base doesn’t bother with them. Making the campaign more interesting to the larger multiplayer crowd does make sense, then, and an extraction shooter could offer hours of joy, whereas a normal campaign is played once or twice at best and never touched again. Still, I’m worried this approach will have a cost.
Black Ops 7’s campaign will apparently use the (potentially) scrapped Avalon Warzone map, with parts of Avalon being featured across the 11 other missions before the entirety of the map is opened up for the campaign's extraction shooter finale.
…But I’m Concerned About It Losing What Makes Call of Duty Campaigns Special
When it comes to Black Ops 7’s rumored extraction shooter, I’m worried that:
- The campaign’s storyline may suffer. Though Warzone has been teasing Raul Menendez and building hype for his role in BO7, it’s hard to imagine him having a proper place in an extraction shooter, meaning the iconic villain could be MIA during the final mission. Additionally, a lack of dialogue could also be an issue if the campaign version of the extraction shooter is not markedly different from the multiplayer one (and vice versa, as hearing the same lines in the MP variant would get tiring). Other issues, like multiple squads encompassed by the same characters, could hurt immersion.
- The campaign’s finale could feel anticlimactic. By being an extraction shooter, Treyarch and Raven are essentially boxing themselves into a corner where players know what will happen in the story's final moments. The heroes will secure whatever item they need (probably a virus or bomb of some kind) before hopping on a helicopter and escaping. There’s little room for surprises or big character moments/sacrifices with this approach, as the ending is essentially set in stone.
- The campaign’s last mission won’t have CoD’s trademark setpieces. For me, the thing that has always set CoD campaigns apart is their setpiece moments. Whether it’s the EMP being detonated in MW2 or David Mason sliding down to stab Menendez in BO2, these flashy animations and epic moments help make the series what it is. A big reason MW3’s open-combat missions didn’t work is because they largely lacked setpieces, and with this last mission doubling as multiplayer content, it’s all-but-guaranteed to lack them too.
Ultimately, there’s a fair bit to be concerned about in regard to Black Ops 7’s unexpected campaign closer. While it is nice that Treyarch is getting the chance to make good on a hybrid idea, something Black Ops 4 attempted but wasn’t able to make a reality, hopefully this approach doesn’t damage what comes before. Black Ops 6 had a good campaign damaged by an unfinished story that Warzone fumbled, and there’s a reality where Black Ops 7 throws away a solid BO2 sequel just to give multiplayer enjoyers more content. For now, myself and other Call of Duty fans will have to hope for the best, as I’m a bit concerned that the extraction shooter approach will harm storytelling, remove setpieces, and feel like a largely unsatisfying payoff for David Mason’s latest adventure.
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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
