5 reasons why single-player gamers are going to be disappointed with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7https://authenticflirtatious.com/q7p1jn72f?key=da5d5896246ede99cb9f4ebba2a40050
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2026 is a major year for the first-person shooter genre, because the two most titanic names in the space, Call of Dutyand Battlefield, are both coming out in the holiday season. Call of Duty is continuing after last year's Black Ops 6, while Battlefield, having learnt from everything that went wrong with 2042, is back in stride with Battlefield 6.
Now, let's be honest — both these games are majorly co-op games, and the multiplayer grind and dogfights are what we buy them for. However, they are both coming with campaigns as well, where Battlefield 6 will be set in 2027 and feature a NATO-centric plot, and Black Ops 7 will be set in 2035 and bring back David Mason.
Here's where things get... interesting, for Call of Duty, though. We may not know too much about Battlefield 6's campaign yet, but from what we do know about Black Ops 7's campaign, players who like single-player campaigns might really want to skip this one, if that's what you're going to be buying it for. Here's why.
5Black Ops 7's campaign will have no difficulty settings
5 reasons why single-player gamers are going to be disappointed with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
2026 is a major year for the first-person shooter genre, because the two most titanic names in the space, Call of Duty and Battlefield, are both coming out in the holiday season. Call of Duty is continuing after last year's Black Ops 6, while Battlefield, having learnt from everything that went wrong with 2042, is back in stride with Battlefield 6.
Now, let's be honest — both these games are majorly co-op games, and the multiplayer grind and dogfights are what we buy them for. However, they are both coming with campaigns as well, where Battlefield 6 will be set in 2027 and feature a NATO-centric plot, and Black Ops 7 will be set in 2035 and bring back David Mason.
Here's where things get... interesting, for Call of Duty, though. We may not know too much about Battlefield 6's campaign yet, but from what we do know about Black Ops 7's campaign, players who like single-player campaigns might really want to skip this one, if that's what you're going to be buying it for. Here's why.
5Black Ops 7's campaign will have no difficulty settings
Removing difficulty settings from the campaign of Black Ops 7 is certainly... a decision. One of the strangest possible moves by Treyarch has been scrapping difficulty settings, because why wouldn't I want the fun of cranking things up to Veteran taken away from me? The fight to somehow make it to the next checkpoint as the bullets rained down, or to simply breeze through the story to enjoy it on Recruit — that's the freedom that matters, and for Black Ops 7, that isn't going to be the case.
Treyarch, in their explanation for this move, stated that the game would dynamically adjust the difficulty depending on whether you're playing solo or with friends. Sure, it sounds like a good idea on paper, but it does end up robbing the player of agency in the campaign when put to practice. The reasoning behind this decision is to make sure that the baked-in difficulty and missions 'feel right' for all sizes of parties. However, even the campaign this time around is a 'social experience', which is what Treyarch is stating to justify removing any difficulty settings from the campaign.
4Solo experience is taking a backseat, even in the campaign
Black Ops 7's campaign is going to be a 'social experience'
Source: Call of Duty
Source: Call of Duty
Source: Call of Duty
Source: Call of Duty
Source: Call of Duty
Source: Call of Duty
Building off of that 'social experience' comment, it's clear that Black Ops 7 is being pitched as a four-player co-op campaign first and foremost. If you've got three buddies ready to dive in on day one, that's great for you. However, for those of us who treat the campaign as a single-player tradition, it feels like an afterthought. Call of Duty campaigns have always been meant to be cinematic, tightly-choreographed rollercoasters, and sure, we still have the ability to play them alone, but with lesser agency than ever before. The campaign has always been tailored to the solo experience, while the multiplayer lobbies are for friends, strangers, and cussing people's entire bloodlines. With those lines blurring in Black Ops 7, it's the campaign enjoyers who will suffer first.
When a campaign and its story get built around co-op first, something inevitably gets lost. Levels are structured around accommodating multiple players rather than heightening solo intensity — something they've already confirmed to be true for Black Ops 7. Sure, Treyarch is promising that the experience just scales down fine, but when you call it a social campaign, the solo players are going to happily spend their $70 on Battlefield 6 instead.
3Black Ops 7's Endgame blurs the line between campaign and live-service
The Endgame mode is ann MMO-lite side mode designed for replayability
Sadly, the bad news for solo players doesn't end there. The Black Ops 7 campaign is also borrowing a page from its own live-service design, with the new open-world "Endgame" mode. It's set in a city called Avalon, and this part of the campaign drops you into a sandbox where you and up to 31 other players can run missions, progress characters, and there's even the risk of losing progress if you die. To me, that's where Call of Duty starts losing whatever it's got left of its soul. I come to the campaign for pacing, direction, and crafted setpieces, Treyarch — not an MMO-lite side mode.
Experimentation is the key to staying afloat and relevant, and I totally understand that. However, when you blur the lines between campaign and live service, what you get instead is a watered-down single-player experience. Instead of something like Black Ops 1's numbers station or Cold War's paranoia-fueled hallucinations, I'm going to be left with a space designed to be replayed endlessly, and that's the key difference. A goodCall of Duty campaign will stick with you long after it's over. Avalon, on the other hand, sounds like busywork.
2Leaks suggest a nameless, silent protagonist in the camapign
You might be taking on Mason's role less than you thought
A major rumor floating around that has made fans uneasy this time around is the suggestion that you might not be actually playing as David Mason most of the time. Instead, in the co-op campaign, you might be mostly controlling a nameless, customizable soldier, only occasionally jumping into Mason's shoes for certain missions. If true, that would be a huge blow to immersion, because Black Ops, of all the sub-series under Call of Duty, has always thrived on its characters. Mason, Woods, Hudson, Menendez.
These aren't faceless avatars, and a huge part of why we remember the series and its big moments. If they aren't nameless, why should my character be? The emotional stakes here would plummet hard if I were to play as, say, a generic soldier. Co-op design might demand that compromise, but for single-player fans, this is nothing but a straight-up downgrade, and there's just no sugarcoating it.
At the end of the day, Black Ops 7 is increasingly feeling like Treyarch's attempt to quietly repeat the Black Ops 4 playbook. Back then, they simply skipped a campaign altogether, banking on the fact that most people were here for multiplayer anyway (which, now, is truer than ever before). Players still called them out, but this time around, instead of dropping the campaign altogether, Treyarch seems to be slotting in something that looks like a campaign but clearly isn't the priority.
This campaign, with its co-op focus, a focus on being a 'social experience', and no difficulty tweaks, feels like a distraction or pacifier to stop us from asking where the campaign is, all while the real resources funnel into multiplayer. And that's the whole problem — they know exactly where the money flows. Warzone, multiplayer, seasonal passes, and live-service hooks are where the money is, while the campaign is just the side salad to keep us quiet. It happened with 2023's Modern Warfare 3, and it seems to be happening again.
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