Call Of Duty Black Ops 7 Gets Called Out By Gamers For Pushing AI Slop

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has officially launched, and early impressions are mixed. Two almost universally maligned parts of the latest COD game can be seen in blatantly AI-generated art and what looks to be one of the worst campaigns yet seen in the series. This isn't to say there aren't positive aspects of the Black Ops 7 experience—the series' core multiplayer gameplay, PC performance, and the Zombies aspects are being praised—but the questionable campaign and AI use seem to have been almost universally panned.

The generative AI claims have been definitively proven, since Activision admits on the Steam page for the game that it uses generative AI. But unlike something like ARC Raiders, which at least uses the technology within the constraints of a specific art style and tone (similar to that studios' prior hit, The Finals), Black Ops 7 is blatantly piggybacking on last years' in-game "calling card" banner rewards. An example embedded below, spotted by @Kumesicles on Twitter, might just be one of the most shameless examples of AI slop we've  seen in a AAA game.

But it gets worse. The campaign that most users have panned seems to be genuinely broken. For some reason, the single-player campaign is treated like multiplayer, complete with drops and XP and the complete inability to pause the game. And spoiling as little as possible, a series that previously attempted a realistic tone now has a final boss fight where you shoot a giant human villain in an abstract hellscape, more akin to drug trips from Far Cry DLCs than anything from an on-brand military shooter.

It's a disappointing turn for Call of Duty. While the Battlefield 6 campaign wasn't particularly praised either, it isn't outright hated or totally busted like the Black Ops 7 campaign is. The abysmal campaign has seemingly resulted in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 having only a minor impact on active Battlefield 6 Steam players, with BF6 coasting at 247K concurrent players and Call of Duty languishing below Bongo Cat at 88.5K players at time of writing.

In its defense, Activision seems to have listened to player feedback regarding immersion-breaking skins, but has otherwise lost the battle with Battlefield on PC. That said, while the player numbers are lukewarm, the sales numbers on Steam are still quite high—for now—and sure to be even bigger on consoles. Call of Duty may genuinely be "too big to fail", but that's no excuse to phone in art assets or the campaign to this extent.