New Black Ops 7 PvE mode Endgame is a wild mashup of Zombies and DMZ, but you won't be able to jump in straight away

It could not be a better time to be a fan of shooters. Battlefield 6 has managed to recapture the essence of what made the iconic series so good in the first place, while the lure of one more Spaceport run in Arc Raiders has kept me up well beyond my usual bedtime; real degen hours. For the first time in a long time, Call of Duty's status as the go-to shooter for most may have begun to diminish, but the FPS juggernaut won't go down that easily. CoD HQ has quietly been putting together a brand new, PvE game mode called Endgame that draws on elements from its fan-favorite Zombies mode and the canned DMZ. There's one catch though: you'll have to clear the first 11 Black Ops 7 co-op campaign missions to access it, or have a pal that's done the legwork invite you into their lobby.

The premise of Black Ops 7 Endgame is simple. Squads of up to four players drop into Avalon, a sprawling campaign mission map that serves up POIs inspired by previous Black Ops games. You can also queue solo if you really want to challenge yourself. Before heading out into the field, you'll first choose one of the 24 available operators. Each operator brings something different to the table. You'll then get to customize your loadout, locking in not only your weapons and consumable of choice, but major and minor abilities. In the accompanying dev talk video, we see players utilize anti-gravity fields and force field domes to great effect, so pick your poison based on your playstyle.

Once you've dropped in, you'll have to accrue combat power (up to level 60) through defeating AI combatants, as well as clearing activities and assignments. Doing so progressively grants you access to each of Endgame's four difficulty zones. Borrowing from some of the best roguelike games, completing tasks in each zone also yields skill and loadout rewards, as well as power upgrades that modify how your operator plays. In the video, a player is provided the option to add either a self-revive kit or C4 to their arsenal.

Of course, you can't just clear out a couple of zones and call it a day. As with DMZ and other extraction shooters, you'll have to call in a VTOL and bunker down an exfil zone in order to get out. If you manage to make it, your loadout and power level will carry over into the next match, allowing you to push into harder zones. Should you die or fail to extract by the time the match timer ends, your progress will be wiped clean, and you'll have to begin your Endgame journey anew.

Honestly, Endgame looks to be the perfect synthesis of CoD's greatest hits. From what I've seen so far, it seemingly retains the breakneck freneticism of its multiplayer and Zombies modes, while providing the tension of DMZ. Its roguelike beats provide variety from run to run, which is a good thing considering you'll need to play a lot of it if you want to scoop up all of the Black Ops 7 camos it's set to provide. Endgame's not reinventing the wheel by any means, but I'm nonetheless excited to give it a crack when BO7 arrives later this week. To learn more about Endgame ahead of time, check out the full intel blast the team has cooked up.