Black Ops 7's Biggest Improvement Is Its Most Simple, Finally...

Black Ops 7 largely doesn't aim to reinvent the Call of Duty wheel. In many ways, it's bringing together the best of Black Ops 6, 3, and 2, and stirring it in one giant pot to produce yet another potent brew that'll have me grinding Mastery camos once again.

But in a year where Call of Duty hasn't been so challenged in arguably well over a decade, largely thanks to Battlefield 6, it's the small changes that matter just as much as sweeping ones.

That said, a co-op campaign, an SBMM-free playlist, more Mastery Camos, Hybrid Combat Specialities, and double jumps are a pretty good list of sizable changes, even if it's not a radical reinvention. That's cool and all, but I'm more hyped about Overclocks, one of the few major upgrades to scorestreaks since Modern Warfare 3 (the first one) introduced point streaks—and it's a callback to the maligned Advanced Warfare of all things.

For the uninitiated, Overclocks are an upgrade system to apply new effects to your scorestreaks, field upgrades, and equipment. Each item has two levels, and the more you use them, the more you progress with them and boost their power.

You can upgrade the Stim Shot to remove debuffs and boost your speed, increase the Point Turret's rate of fire and even let you place it on walls and ceilings. One of the most popular, I'm sure, will be Active Camo's Overclocks, which cause gunfire to temporarily reveal you rather than end it, as well as increase its duration and recharge speed. The barebones Scout Pulse can be made even cheaper and add directional arrows to pings.

The upgrades are simple, sure, as is how you progress each one (thankfully no long-winded challenges), but it's enough to encourage me to actually experiment with different equipment, field upgrades, and scorestreaks rather than stick with my old favourites—though the Drone Pod is dumb fun, and you can even cause it to leave a minimap icon when it explodes.

With how deeply ingrained progression is to every other aspect of your arsenal, from levelling up to unlock new equipment, then grinding guns for attachments, and of course, collecting all the Mastery camos, I'm surprised it's taken this long.

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The thing is, this isn't actually the first time we've had upgradeable equipment. Cast your mind back to 2014, and you might recall Modules from Advanced Warfare. Modules let you pick and choose upgrades for individual scorestreaks

Source: PC Gamer