This Black Ops 7 Campaign Is an Online-Only, Unpausable Insult
You can't pause the campaign.
I had to write and then read that sentence three times in a row before my brain would accept it. I just... I can't. The new Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 campaign, the single-player story mode, cannot be paused.
It's not a bug. It's a "feature." A feature born from the single most anti-player design decision I've seen in a decade: the entire campaign is online-only.
It's a surreal, next-level layer of corporate disrespect.
'Pause' Is a Four-Letter Word
What in the absolute hell is Activision thinking? Someone on X (formerly Twitter) said it best: "It's like not being able to pause the movie you are watching." It's a basic, fundamental function of a single-player experience.
What happens if my doorbell rings? What if the dog starts throwing up? What if I, god forbid, have to pee?
In Black Ops 7, the answer is simple: you get fucked. You can't pause. And if you dare to go AFK for more than a few minutes, the game will kick you for being idle.
From your own campaign.
The 'Solo Player' Is a Penalty
So why do this? It's simple. They built a four-player co-op campaign and, to save time and money (and probably to enforce DRM), they just shoved everyone onto that online infrastructure.
They didn't just forget the solo player; they are actively punishing them.
If you jump in alone, the game offers no AI companions to fill out your squad. Fine, whatever. I like a challenge. But it keeps the objectives designed for four people.
One review mentioned a mission where you have to plant C4 on a building four times... by yourself. This isn't "hard." This is "borderline tedious." It's lazy, disrespectful padding, turning the solo experience into a chore.
And the real kicker? No checkpoints.
Let that sink in. You can't pause. You get kicked for being idle. And there are no checkpoints. Your internet blips? Your kid unplugs the router? You get kicked for AFK? Back to the start of the mission, asshole.
All This For... What, Exactly?
This is the first time in history the franchise has pumped out two Black Ops games in a row, and the tight turnaround screams in the design.
Sure, they spent a fortune on celebrity-filled cutscenes with Milo Ventimiglia and Michael Rooker. Sure, they have some "trippy" Christopher Nolan-esque set pieces, like dodging giant falling machetes or ramming a luxury boat into a building.
They had the budget for all that. They had the time to animate giant Looney Tunes machetes.
They just couldn't be bothered to implement a pause function. Or checkpoints. Or AI bots. Or an offline mode.
The €80 Insult
This is the game we're being charged €80 for.
A game that treats its campaign—its story, its big cinematic centerpiece—like a throwaway, always-online lobby. A game that, as we've already seen, is stuffed with lazy, AI-generated slop instead of human-made art.
This isn't a game anymore. It's a product designed to hold you hostage, and it has zero respect for your time, your money, or your basic intelligence. This is a new low.