Black Ops 7 largely doesn’t aim to reinvent the Call of Duty wheel. In many ways, it’s bringing together the best of Black Ops 6, 3, and 2, and stirring it in one giant pot to produce yet another potent brew that’ll have me grinding Mastery camos once again.
But in a year where Call of Duty hasn’t been so challenged in arguably well over a decade, largely thanks to Battlefield 6, it’s the small changes that matter just as much as sweeping ones.
That said, a co-op campaign, an SBMM-free playlist, more Mastery Camos, Hybrid Combat Specialities, and double jumps are a pretty good list of sizable changes, even if it’s not a radical reinvention. That’s cool and all, but I’m more hyped about Overclocks, one of the few major upgrades to scorestreaks since Modern Warfare 3 (the first one) introduced point streaks—and it’s a callback to the maligned Advanced Warfare of all things.
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The upgrades are simple, sure, as is how you progress each one (thankfully no long-winded challenges), but it’s enough to encourage me to actually experiment with different equipment, field upgrades, and scorestreaks rather than stick with my old favourites—though the Drone Pod is dumb fun, and you can even cause it to leave a minimap icon when it explodes.
With how deeply ingrained progression is to every other aspect of your arsenal, from levelling up to unlock new equipment, then grinding guns for attachments, and of course, collecting all the Mastery camos, I’m surprised it’s taken this long.
The thing is, this isn’t actually the first time we’ve had upgradeable equipment. Cast your mind back to 2014, and you might recall Modules from Advanced Warfare. Modules let you pick and choose upgrades for individual scorestreaks that would increase their cost, like faster UAV scans for +50 points cost or moving the UAV into orbit for +300 points so it couldn’t be shot down. Importantly, Modules weren’t earned through a distinct progression system, and only applied to scorestreaks (field upgrades didn’t even exist).
That said, there is one aspect I wish Black Ops 7 would have stolen from its decade-old predecessor when it came to reviving and improving this long-dead feature: choice. As much as I love the brain-pleasing ‘ding’ of unlocking something for my hard work, there’s a lack of agency and control over the Overclock upgrades in Black Ops 7 that made the original incarnation tick—you just pick one upgrade or the other.
Even better, combine both games’ spins on the system and let me pick from two different upgrade paths, letting me personalise my gear from other players and weigh up the power of one upgrade against the higher cost of earning it in battle. We’ve got the satisfying progression; now we just need more impactful ultimatums.
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