Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 review: "I respect Treyarch's attempt to make the weirdest Call of Duty possible, but it results in a campaign misfire and multiplayer that's hardly revolutionary"

Key art of Kagan squatting with a gun in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

As someone who holds Black Ops 2 in the highest regard amongst the Call of Duty pantheon, Black Ops 7's return to the near future, this time in 2035, is an exciting prospect after a blast from the past with last year's Black Ops 6. Right from the first mission, gunfights feel as slick as ever as my co-op squad mates and I immediately disregard stealth and go loud.

But then, after a mishap with a mind-altering bioweapon, giant machetes suddenly start raining from the sky and I'm locked in an honest-to-goodness, health bar-chipping boss fight with David Mason's old nemesis Raul Menendez and his nightmarish minions – Black Ops has always been weird, but am I even playing a Call of Duty game anymore?