Call of Duty: Black Ops 7released last week, begins its life cycle with a brutal double reading. On the one hand, the game receives a score of 84/100 on Metacritic based on 16 professional reviews, making it an opus praised for its production quality, particularly for its modes multiplayer And zombies.
On the other hand, the reaction of the players is clear: 1.6/10 user average from more than 540 reviews, a record historic low for the franchise. For comparison, Modern Warfare 3 (2023)already much criticized, still peaked at 2.3/10 public side.
Why is Black Ops 7 so poorly received by players?
Several reasons fuel this massive rejection, which is also reflected in attendance figures : the game didn’t even reach 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, while Battlefield Or ARC Raiders regularly exceed 200,000.
Among the most frequent criticisms:
- The use of artificial intelligence to generate certain visual elements of the game (business cards, decorative objects), perceived as a lack of creative involvement.
- A fully cooperative campaignconsidered incoherent, “absurd” and very far from the tactical atmosphere expected in a Black Ops.
- A feeling of stagnation despite Activision’s promises, and an absence of notable new features in terms of single-player gameplay.
Faced with discontent, Activision tried to respond to the accusations about AI, without succeeding in calming the surge of criticism on forums and social networks.
A lasting divide between the franchise and its community?
Black Ops 7 was supposed to revive interest in Call of Duty with a more cooperative orientation. But the feedback confirms a loss of community trustespecially on PC. And even if user ratings can still evolve (especially after deleting possible spam), the damage is done for the launch.
Time will tell if the next updates or post-launch content will be able to raise the bar. In the meantime, this score of 1.6 on Metacritic remains a red alert for a license which, until now, had never experienced such a frosty public reception.