Call of Duty Black Ops 7 just dropped on the 14th of November, and let me tell you, I’m glad the full game released simultaneously everywhere. Unlike the beta, where people were actually desperate to get in early that they teleported their regions to New Zealand. 

Now, the Call of Duty franchise has mostly been known for tight, linear missions with barely any room to explore. Corridors with explosions, hallways with enemies, sometimes a window you can peek out of if you feel adventurous.

But recently the series has been testing the waters with open world elements. Modern Warfare 3 had a few open combat missions. Black Ops 6 had a whole bunch more, and players could roam around, plan their attacks, and approach missions from different angles. Black Ops 7 brings that system back. Kind of. But here is the twist. The franchise actually takes a big step backwards, which is exactly what we are covering today.

What Open World Features does the game actually have?

What percentage of the campaign is open world?

The whole campaign in BO7 leans toward an open world feel, or what they call open combat missions. The campaign actually drops you into a campaign with coop in mind, even though you can solo it. Every mission gives you a full area you can explore at your own pace. So there aren’t any more of the usual linear design where you only move from one subarea of the mission to another. In terms of quantity of open combat missions, BO7 actually beats BO6. Black Ops 6 had a lot of open combat missions, even amounting to a majority of the campaign. And even before that, MW3 only had a handful. BO7 gives you even more of them, so in that sense, quantity has taken a solid step forward.

How big and varied are the maps?

Now here is where things start to slide downhill. Black Ops 7 repeats Modern Warfare 3’s biggest shortcut. They slapped the campaign right onto their battle royale map. Instead of designing fresh spaces, the game drops you into Avalon or a few other repurposed zones and calls it a day.

During missions you are basically playing through little pockets of Avalon with a few exceptions. Try to wander too far and you get that classic countdown warning. So even though the missions are placed on a giant map, the areas you can actually explore are not that big.

Compare that to Black Ops 6, where different missions took place on different maps with vastly different landscapes. You had central hubs like the Rook and even that desert base in Iraq. You could roam outside the hub and visit new areas across the campaign. BO6 gave players more variety in its scenery and much larger spaces to explore overall. BO7 feels tighter and more restricted.

Is the story actually linear?

Yes, the story is fully linear. No choosing paths. No different outcomes. No meaningful choices. This is normal for COD, but it still feels like a missed opportunity. On top of that, the campaign itself is weaker compared to recent entries. Missions often feel like you are just playing Warzone against bots. And the cutscenes feel like they last just as long as the missions themselves.

Meanwhile, BO6 let you pick the direction you wanted to approach a mission from. You could gather intel from non hostile NPCs. You could skip that if you wanted to. You could plan your route. There was freedom. And that kind of player choice would have worked perfectly in BO7. But it is simply not there. BO6 is not even the first time COD experimented with alternate routes in a mission. But if you haven’t tried BO6, I suggest you give it a shot and tell us how you feel about this kind of approach in a COD campaign.

NPCs in the open combat missions

This is one of the biggest cutbacks from BO6. BO7 removes every non hostile NPC from its missions. No wandering squadmates, no wandering civilians, not even one friendly squadmate who gives optional dialogue. Every body you find in the world is someone you are supposed to shoot.

In BO6, talking to neutral NPCs added personality to the campaign. Some gave small lore drops about the region. Some provided intel that helped shape how you approached the mission. Others triggered optional objectives or hinted at side quests. These characters made open combat missions feel like little ecosystems. Removing them makes BO7’s missions feel static. Without conversations or social interactions. If you have played most COD campaigns, you know how much squad interactions can elevate the action and make the story feel more intense. Since BO7 is built as a coop campaign, all of that squad chemistry only exists in CG cutscenes, leaving the gameplay itself feeling flat and lacking energy.

Activities in the game

Activities are basically stripped down to looting. BO7 gives you crates scattered across the map where you can find gear. Well more like only skills and weapons. It functions, but it feels bare. BO6 offered side quests that rewarded players with tools like mortars, air support, or special gear that genuinely helped you tackle missions in creative ways. These rewards felt tied to your effort.

In BO7, weapon drops follow a fixed rarity pattern. If a mission only spawns rare weapons, then everything you pick up will be stuck at that rarity. So exploration does not feel very dynamic. You know exactly what tier of gear you will find before you even start. MW3 had a more exciting system where high tier weapon drops could appear in unexpected corners of the map, making exploration worthwhile.

On top of that, BO7 removes the secret puzzles from BO6, which were some of the most memorable optional activities. In BO6, you could solve puzzles to unlock lore entries or earn extra cash for upgrades. They added mystery and gave players something to hunt for. BO7 does not replace them, leaving the world with fewer hooks to draw you in.

Skills, perks, and upgrades

BO6 set a strong foundation for progression. You could upgrade perks using money and improve your base to unlock new utilities and better gear. All of this created a steady sense of growth as you moved through the campaign.

In BO7 you only get skills by looting crates, just like weapons, and let me just tell you that you can only carry 1 skill at a time. Not to mention, there are no perks to upgrade. No progression to invest in. 

BO7 only lets you upgrade weapons. And even then, the next mission simply hands you the same rarity weapons again. So upgrades barely matter. There is no sense of long-term growth.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Black Ops 7 feels like a major step backward. A lot of the features that made BO6 stand out have been stripped away. It is no surprise that the general consensus has landed in the mixed to negative range. Players expected BO7 to build on the momentum of BO6, not scale it back. The neutral NPCs, the side quests, the hub upgrades, the secrets, and even the mission variety have all been reduced or removed. The quantity of open combat missions in the campaign is definitely an improvement over its predecessors, but beyond that, the lack of innovation and the reliance on recycled map design left many feeling underwhelmed.

But that’s just our take. What about you? Are you still excited to dive into the BO7 campaign and see it for yourself, or do you think BO6 delivered a stronger and more complete open world experience?