For as long as Call of Duty campaigns have existed, so has the option to play them at whichever difficulty suits you best. Whether recruit, normal, hardened, or veteran, long-term COD players know their level. But this year’s entry, Black Ops 7, won’t let you pick.
Black Ops 7 has a campaign that can be played solo or in co-op for up to four players. As part of that, the difficulty scales based on how many are playing, and cannot be adjusted in the settings.
“For the difficulty, it’s baked in,” associate creative director Miles Leslie told IGN in a recent interview. “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 — we’re not forgetting about you, we love you — but also because it is 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.”
So, no more veteran-level runs for single-player fans in this year’s Call of Duty. Are you someone who enjoys testing yourself with the toughest challenges COD campaigns have to offer? Are you disappointed by the fact that Black Ops 7 won’t have this option at launch?
For now, you can check out my full preview of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. For more from the devs, check out their thoughts on Call of Duty being called “lazy,” the proliferation of “goofy skins,” and how generative AI is being used in Black Ops.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
