Unlike past Call of Duty games, this year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will not allow players to choose a difficulty level for the campaign. Associate creative director Miles Leslie said that the difficulty scale for Black Ops 7 is “baked in” as opposed to being something a player can choose.
The reason for this comes down to how Black Ops 7’s campaign can be played in co-op.
“We’ve built it for solo or four-player squads as well. You cannot pick a difficulty like past games. We’ve baked it in because you have to approach a co-op campaign differently, and we wanted to make sure the missions felt right for solo players,” Leslie told IGN.
For players who enjoy a solo experience, Leslie said, “We’re not forgetting about you; we love you.” However, Black Ops 7’s campaign was designed to be a “social experience.”
“We want to make sure it’s fun, but the right amount of challenging for two, three, and four players as well,” Leslie said.
Call of Duty’s difficulty levels over the years have included things like Recruit, Regular, Hardened, and Veteran, along with a super-challenging Realism mode.
For Black Ops 7, the campaign difficulty will scale when playing co-op, meaning partying up with friends doesn’t necessarily make it easier, and teamwork is needed to get through missions.
Another thing that’s new for Black Ops 7’s campaign is how XP progression from the campaign is connected to multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone. Additionally, Black Ops 7’s campaign closes with a mission called “Avalon Endgame,” which is described as a “brand-new, replayable experience where you and your squad will need to survive overwhelming odds, adapt under pressure, and break the rules of what you thought a Black Ops campaign could be.”
Black Ops 7 launches on November 14, and a multiplayer beta will be held in October. The game is coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox, and PC, and it’ll be included with Xbox Game Pass.