Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's new Endgame mode "is the final proving ground" that could be so challenging you need other co-op teams to help you out

Four characters in military gear stand next to one another with guns at the ready as they move through a maze of cargo containers and overgrown plants in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 - with the GamesRadar+ Big Preview orange frame — (Image credit: Activision)

Treyarch wants Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 to be a more "social" game than anything it's made before. Some of that's achieved by the return of the series' co-op campaign, but this time around there's another weapon in Black Ops 7's arsenal. The core campaign is made up of 11 missions with a clear narrative arc, but once the credits roll, a 12th will unlock – Endgame, a vast PvE experience that's a true first for Call of Duty.

"We wanted to break the rules of what a campaign in Call of Duty could be," says associate creative director Miles Leslie. Endgame, he says, is "the final proving ground for everything that you've earned and learned" in the rest of the campaign. It's a bold new move for Call of Duty, but could provide a vital link between this year's epic story and the multiplayer action that'll keep pulling us back for the months to come.

We're in the endgame now

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 — (Image credit: Activision)

Out of darkness

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"We wanted to bring replayability to campaign in the way that we did with Zombies," adds design director Kevin Drew, who explains that Endgame partly grew out of the decision to connect the campaign with wider progression systems. This new mode sees 32 players, grouped into squads of four, entering the city of Avalon with ungated loadouts and a suite of powerful combat abilities at your disposal. Mega Jump, which allows you to cover vast distances in an instant, and Drone Charmer, which deploys an army of quadrotor-drones to the battlefield, are two early examples.

As you explore the open world of Avalon in Endgame, your squad will encounter waves of increasingly powerful enemies to combat – but they won't be the only threat. Leslie tells me that there are "really chunky objectives" available for pickup. Dubbed 'Assignments' too, these missions, tied to the story, are designed to be a significant challenge. "You might stumble upon another squad doing one. This is how we're building fun, social moments – where both squads can team up to take on a hallucination monstrosity together."

Treyarch is keen to stress that Endgame is a strictly PvE experience. While there may be some shared DNA with Modern Warfare 2's ill-fated DMZ extraction mode, there is no player vs. player conflict here. The studio has instead taken a different route to generating friction.

"With everything you're doing in Endgame, you're earning experience and leveling up your Combat Rating. Every time you level up, you get to make unique choices about your operator," says Drew, citing everything from upgrades to your health pool and mobility to the unlocking of powerful skill specializations.

You have to make sure you escape every time, otherwise you're going to lose all of it.

"What you're really trying to do is push yourself all the way up to Combat Rating 60 so that you can access a final, more difficult area of Avalon." The catch? "If you wipe, you lose all that progress and have to restart the journey. There's a lot more weight to everything that you're doing in Endgame as a result. You have to make sure you escape every time, otherwise you're going to lose all of it," says Drew.

With the potential of Endgame and the campaign finally feeding into the wider progression ecosystem, I'd say that Treyarch is on track to deliver something players have never seen before in Call of Duty. The question now, of course, is what impact this propulsive desire to redefine what a Call of Duty game can be will have on Multiplayer and Zombies? In this all-important arena, Treyarch's focus is on refining and refocusing efforts that were established in Black Ops 6.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is out November 14, 2025 across PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One, and will be available day one through Game Pass Ultimate. Call of Duty Black Ops 7 beta access also begins soon.

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