The highly anticipated unveiling of Black Ops 7 has officially commenced. The reveal began with last night’s showcase at Gamescom Opening Night Live. Accompanying the trailer was a wealth of fresh information, outlining various aspects of the game, with promises of even more details to come.
Several new and familiar features stand out and deserve closer examination.
Notably, Carry Forward, a popular feature enabling players to transfer content from the previous title, is making a return. Similar to its implementation between Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 in 2023, Black Ops 7 will allow players to use content from Black Ops 6.
This means weapons, operators, XP boosts, GobbleGums (for Zombies mode), character skins, and other cosmetic items obtained in last year’s game will be available for use in Black Ops 7’s multiplayer mode, as well as Warzone. This transfer will go live a few weeks after the game’s initial release, coinciding with the launch of Season One.
Of course, some limitations apply. Skins for equipment and Scorestreaks that don’t exist or function differently in the new game will not be usable. Weapon camos will transfer, but they will only be applicable to Black Ops 6 weapons, not those specific to Black Ops 7.
The Black Ops 7 campaign, featuring co-op gameplay for up to four players, also introduces innovative elements. One key feature is the campaign’s Endgame, an open-ended co-op mission designed for replayability, drawing inspiration from roguelite, RPG, and extraction game mechanics.
Furthermore, Treyarch is implementing a new system called Global Progression. Surprisingly, this feature has taken a while to reach Call of Duty. While cross-progression between multiplayer, co-op modes (like Zombies), and Warzone has been available for some time, the campaign has traditionally been excluded.
With Black Ops 7, playing the campaign will earn you XP. This translates to leveling up weapons (and unlocking camos), as well as unlocking other challenges that carry over to multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone.
According to a blog post, Treyarch specifically highlighted weapon Prestige (also returning in BO7), standard weapon progression, camos, Calling Cards, daily challenges, and other progression aspects as part of this system.
Extending the theme of connected progression, Black Ops 7 introduces the ability to share your Gunsmith weapon builds. You can save and directly send these builds to friends, or even generate a code allowing anyone to instantly use your configuration without needing to manually recreate it.
More details about the multiplayer aspect of the game will be revealed on September 30th at Call of Duty: Next. The game’s beta period will commence shortly thereafter, running from October 2nd to 8th. The full game is scheduled for release on November 14th on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.