Though there was a good deal of hype following the announcement of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 at 2025’s Xbox Games Showcase, in the weeks since, more and more concerns have started to appear online. The leaked Black Ops 7 screenshots drew criticism due to their muted color palette, with the game’s aesthetic being a far cry from Black Ops 4 or even Black Ops 2, the latter of which BO7 is a direct successor to. The announcement of a co-op campaign has fans wary of another lackluster experience that resembles MW3’s open-combat missions, with leaks saying that players control nameless soldiers in multiple missions not inspiring confidence. Add on the usual SBMM fears and the worry that Treyarch is under too much pressure by having to release games twice in a row, and it’s clear that fans will need to see lots of gameplay to be assured that this is the BO2 follow-up that they’ve always wanted.
