It seems like an anachronism now, in this age of live service “forever games”, that the annual release of a new Call of Duty title is still considered a major event. But here is Black Ops 7, a year after its direct predecessor, and another breathless bombard of military shooting action. This time it is set in a dystopian 2035 where a global arms manufacturer named the Guild claims to be the only answer to an apocalyptic new terrorist threat – but are things as clearcut as they seem?
The answer, of course, is a loudly yelled “noooo!” Black Ops is the paranoid, conspiracy-obsessed cousin to the Modern Warfare strand of Call of Duty games, a series inspired by 70s thrillers such as The Parallax View and The China Syndrome, and infused with ’Nam era concerns about rogue CIA agents and bizarre psy-ops. The campaign mode, which represents just a quarter of the offering this year, is a hallucinogenic romp through socio-political talking points such as psychopathic corporations, hybrid warfare, robotics and tech oligarchies. The result is a deafening onslaught of massive shootout set-pieces in exotic locations, as the four lead characters – members of a supercharged spec-ops outfit – are exposed to a psychotropic drug that makes them relive their worst nightmares. Luckily, they do so with advanced weaponry, cool gadgets and enough buddy banter to destabilise a medium-sized rogue nation. It is chaotic, relentless and stupidly pleasurable, especially if you play in co-operative mode with three equally irresponsible pals.
In an interesting move, the campaign closes with a new mode, Endgame. It’s a co-op PVE (player v environment) offering inspired by the endgame content of MMO (massively multiplayer online) games such as World of Warcraft, where it’s usually designed to keep people playing even after they’ve levelled up to the max. In the Call of Duty version, groups of players touch down in the fictitious city of Avalon and undertake missions and objectives, such as taking down high value enemies or safely escorting expensive military tech, all within a vast open environment. Along the way, you upgrade your characters and weapons, and publisher Activision says new missions and objectives will be added, likely including public events where different teams can combine forces to take on mega bosses. Time will tell, but for now, it’s a nice way to extend the campaign and prepare us for online play.
Because make no mistake, the heart of the game is the traditional multiplayer, which brings fresh modes, guns and gadgets to the standard Call of Duty experience: 12 players in a small location pulverising each other in operettas of mechanised slaughter. New maps such as those set in a Tokyo-inspired shopping district and a deep sea rig are efficiently designed chambers of death, with alleyways, high-up windows and open squares to direct players towards one another with vicious style and intent. My favourite is the Alaska base map Imprint, where a moving platform makes taking objective points in the Domination and Hardpoint modes incredibly messy and disorientating. A new wall jumping ability has opened up the verticality of the locations, allowing players to find new routes around the complex architecture. If you’ve never been into the turbocharged twitchcore savagery of the Call of Duty online experience, this isn’t going to change your mind, but there’s a lot here to enjoy for perennial conscripts of carnage.
Then you have the Zombies mode, another online co-op offering, taking place in a vast nightmarish hellzone of abandoned frontier towns and irradiated wastelands. Here, players take on wave after wave of zombie monsters while upgrading their weapons and abilities in order to hold out as long as possible. It’s a return to the round-based structure of previous Zombies entries, with lots of new weapons and features, including the ability to drive from area to area in a pickup truck while blasting rampaging monsters off the bonnet. It feels like taking part in some sort of crazed theme park ride, and again, a real hoot with a bunch of likeminded pals.
Additionally, there’s Dead Ops Arcade 4, a self-contained top down twin-stick shooter for up to four players. This extra was born as a side project by members of the original Black Ops team, and hidden within the main game. Now it’s back and it’s a blast in its own right, reminding old school fans of multi-directional shooters such as Smash TV and Geometry Wars; there are even little playable mini-games between stages which take in genres such as top down racers and horizontal scrolling shoot-’em-ups – so grandad can play too!
Add in the usual refresh to battle royale mode Warzone and you have an exhaustive package for Call of Duty fans. Whatever you think about the series and its problematic role in how the mainstream games industry works, how it is perceived and the types of communities it engenders, this is slick, thrilling entertainment. Nowhere else will you be blasting a giant robot in a corporate science lab one minute, and then playing a modern take on Atari’s Super Sprint the next. Value matters right now, and in this as in almost everything else, Call of Duty does not hold back. It is a maximalist paean to the ultimate, troubling truth of video game design – shooting stuff on a TV screen is a hell of a lot of fun.
