Black Ops 7 campaign takes co-op to the extreme with rumored 32-player finale

Treyarch has already started teeing up the narrative stakes for Call of Duty Black Ops 7. Between its initial reveal trailer and some recent paid ads for fictional corporation, The Guild, we know that some wild, dystopian shit is going to go down. Activision has been pushing its studios to experiment with the structure of its CoD campaigns in recent years, and there's been speculation that Black Ops 7's will be fully playable in four-person co-op. But a new report claims that it could be pushing the experimentation to a whole new level, with its final mission allegedly being a 32-player experience with a similar, hardcore vibe to games like Escape From Tarkov.

While I'm always excited for a new CoD game (especially one in the Black Ops subseries) there's no escaping the fact that Battlefield 6 has been turning heads. We haven't had a Battlefield versus Call of Duty showdown since 2021, and while BF 2042 and CoD Vanguard were both pretty underwhelming, the disastrous launch of the former meant it was never a close fight. This year, though, the war between Battlefield 6 and Black Ops 7 looks set to be much more evenly matched. While official details about Black Ops 7 are few and far between right now, all of the leaked info I've seen has filled me with confidence that it'll be one of the best FPS games in the series' recent history. Well, that was until today's report from Insider Gaming.

It claims that the final mission of the Black Ops 7 campaign will be a huge multiplayer event that'll see 32 players drop into Avalon, the location that played host to several Black Ops 6 maps and is widely tipped to be the next battle royale map for Call of Duty Warzone.

"It's said that although some [points of interest] in Avalon will be present as a part of the game's campaign (which can be played in up to 4-player co-op), the fully fledged map will be the game's 'final mission,'" Insider Gaming claims after speaking with sources.

When I first read this, my mind instantly thought of Destiny 2's grand finale to its The Final Shape campaign - it concluded with a 12-player activity that saw you face off against The Witness. However, this reportedly won't be some crescendo moment you can share with 31 other people. It sounds like it'll be an actual multiplayer experience with extraction elements. This final mission will apparently be "hardcore" and "if you're killed and your squad is wiped, you will lose all your character's progress."

If these claims are accurate, then this could be hugely divisive. Not only is it forcing a "hardcore," extraction style mode onto everyone that wants to experience Black Ops 7's story, this is also allegedly the conclusion of the campaign. I'm struggling to see how Treyarch can make an impactful, narrative-driven finale in this way, but I'm willing to be proven wrong.

Perhaps we'll get more details about this experimental, potentially controversial approach next week when Black Ops 7 appears at Gamescom Opening Night Live.

Ahead of the Black Ops 7 release date (which we should also get confirmation of at ONL) why not try out some of the best multiplayer games for some competitive thrills?

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