Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a very, very weird video game. As many were quick to point out on release day, it features surreal boss fights, nonsensical powers such as calling in destructive, building-sized machetes from the sky, and zombie hordes you can control as minions. It’s all a far cry from what the series once represented, something the franchise has inched further and further away from over the last 10 years.
But while the series' most jilted diehard fans (and biggest haters) are harping on the dissonance between Black Ops 7’s co-op campaign and the series’ already flailing identity, I can’t help but appreciate that its developers tried to shake things up. It’s a campaign that swings hard, misses the mark in many ways, but still manages to deliver a mostly fun experience that at least tries to shake things up from the malaise of both its past and its biggest competitors.
