Here we go again. After the absolute disaster that was 2023’s Modern Warfare 3 campaign, you’d be forgiven for keeping your expectations buried deep underground. When Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was announced, I tried to give it a fair shake, another chance to get it right. With our Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 story explained, let’s see how it turned out to be.
SPOILER WARNING: There are massive story spoilers ahead. Proceed at your own discretion.
What you will read here:
Black Ops 7 Story Explained
Fast forward to now and it’s hard to find the words. The Black Ops 7 campaign is not just a disappointment. It’s a baffling chaotic broken fever dream that feels less like a premium story. It’s more like an excuse for a live service endgame. It attempts to touch on themes of PTSD and forgiving one’s past, but it does so by having you fight a giant screaming plant monster that used to be Frank Woods. Yes, that’s what happens.
If you’ve finished the story and are sitting there wondering what the hell just happened, you are not alone. Let’s try to untangle this mess piece by piece and figure out what the story was and what the ending means. More importantly, where do you think it’s all supposedly going?
Is Raul Menendez Dead?
The story kicks off in 2035, a full decade after the events of Black Ops 2. The first thing the game does is finally canonize that game’s ending. David Mason did in fact kill Raul Menendez. It was the wrong call. What about this game? Is Raul Menendez dead in Black Ops 7? Yes, he sure is. Let me explain.
As BO7’s intro explains, killing Raul Menendez turned him into a martyr. His Cordis Die movement exploded. That ignited global riots and political upheaval that left trillions in damage. The world is a mess and David Mason has been living with that guilt for 10 years now.
Emma Kagan Is the New Villain
We find David meeting with Troy Marshall. He is of course the protagonist from Black Ops 6. The two meet at the grave of Frank Woods. It seems he died to an illness not a bullet. But that isn’t all. A new video has surfaced. It shows a very much alive Raul Menendez. He claims 2025 was just the beginning and promises a new wave of terror.
This is where the new villain steps into the light. Emma Kagan who is the CEO of a massive private military corporation called the Guild. This private corporation rose from the ashes of an old crime syndicate and presents itself as a global security force. Kagan goes on TV and vows to do everything in her power to stop this new Menendez threat.
Who Are Black Ops 7 JSOC Members?
Marshall isn’t buying it. He and David Mason put together a JSOC team known as Specter One. The main members include:
- David Mason: Our hero.
- Mike Harper: David’s right-hand man. Since killing Menendez in Black Ops 2 is canon, he is alive. That’s what we can assume.
- Samuels: The former Secret Service agent from the BO2 Protect the President mission.
- Leilani 50/50: She’s a new character.
Their mission is to infiltrate the Guild’s headquarters in the city of Avalon. They must find out what’s going on with Menendez and steal data from their quantum computer.
The Cradle in Black Ops 7
The infiltration naturally goes sideways. The team grabs a data drive but is immediately confronted by Emma Kagan herself. She drops the first bomb. The Raul Menendez video is totally fake. A deep fake as she calls it designed to stir up chaos.
Before they can process this, she drops the second bomb literally. She unleashes the Cradle which is a hallucinogenic bioweapon. If that name sounds familiar, it should. This is the exact same CIA created super soldier gas from Black Ops 6 that caused soldiers to rage out and kill each other.
How did the Guild get their hands on a top secret CIA bioweapon from 40 years ago? That’s a great question. The game never explains it though.
In a panic, Specter One detonates the C4 they planted to cover their escape. This is their second catastrophic mistake. The explosion ruptures the containment and leaks the Cradle gas all over the city of Avalon. The city is forced into a mass evacuation which leaves it a contaminated ghost town controlled by the Guild.
Specter One is trapped and infected. This is where the Black Ops 7 campaign actually begins. Or more accurately this is where it ends. The rest of the story is not a covert military operation. It is a bizarre psychedelic trip as the team stumbles through the empty city battling their own minds.
Raul Menendez Boss Fight
The game explains that the only reason the team isn’t dead is their DNI or Direct Neural Interface which is a cybernetic bran implant. The shared connection is somehow filtering the Cradle, but the side effect is that they are all plunged into shared hallucinations based on their deepest traumas.
The entire campaign structure becomes like walkthrough an empty open combat map in Avalon. Find a trigger and then play a linear nightmare mission which is awful to be honest.
The team is instantly transported to Nicaragua. They are forced to relive the BO2 mission where Frank Woods accidentally killed David’s father, Alex Mason. In Black Ops 7, this culminates in a boss fight against an illusory Raul Menendez who teleports around with cheap visual effects and dodges giant machetes that fall from the sky. He does all that while screaming and laughing. Yes, it’s Call of Duty campaign we’re talking about.
Frank Wood’s Nightmare
Finding a shipping container triggers David’s memory of Frank Woods’ capture in Angola. They find Woods who is consumed by his grief over killing Alex Mason. This grief then manifests as a giant plant monster known as the Nightmare. After you defeat it, Woods tells David, “You got to forgive yourself.” and David replies, “You first.” It’s as subtle as a grenade to the face. I’m not kidding.
Skibidi Toilet Boss Fight
While this is happening, the team is also trying to find a mole in their ranks. They get help from Chloe Karma Lynch. And yes, this is the same Karma from Black Ops 2. And yes, just like Harper, she is somehow alive. A fact the game finds so unimportant it is never mentioned, let alone explained.
This whole plot line eventually triggers Harper’s PTSD from the USS Obama, where his partner Salazar was revealed as a traitor. How does the game represent this? By turning Harper into a skibidi toilet boss fight that you have to take care of. I am not making this up.
David Mason’s Memories
It’s now Kagan’s turn to mess with David with her deep fakes of his father, Alex Mason. First in Vorkuta and then the story leads to David’s childhood home in Alaska. Here, the Cradle is actively trying to erase David’s memories.
As he fights to hold onto his identity, the memory of his father’s love breaks through Kagan’s control. An apparition of Alex Mason appears and tells David he is proud of the man he’s become. It helps him break free from the mental prison.
This is without a doubt the single touching moment in the entire campaign. It’s immediately followed by more nonsense. David wakes up. The plot suddenly remembers it exists. The team discovers Kagan’s real plan. Of course there never was a new Menendez as I’ve mentioned. The entire threat was fake.
What Was Emma Kagan Going to Do with the Cradle?
Emma Kagan’s plan was to use an offshore mining rig to mass-produce the Cradle bioweapon. So that she can unleash it on the world to cause terror and chaos and blame it all on her fake Raul Menendez. She can then have the Guild step in with the security in order to save the day. That would make her a lot of money.
Black Ops 7 Ending Explained
Specter One assaults the underwater production facility. They fight their way to the core and overload the bioreactor which causes to destroy the Cradle supply for good.
This leads to the final confrontation with Emma Kagan. It is not a boss fight. It’s a lecture. She’s trapped and she mocks David. She taunts him to kill her and wants him to make the same mistake he made with Menendez.
But this time David has learned. He says, “Plenty of choices I’d regret, but not today. You’ll face the world, Kagan.” He refuses to kill her. The team arrests Kagan and escapes the exploding facility. The campaign then ends.
Who Is Alden Dorne in Black Ops 7?
Kagan may be gone, but the Guild is not. In the end it’s revealed that Kagan’s right hand man, Alden Dorne has taken command. We get a quick shot of Alden Dorne who looks really angry and punches the screen.
What Is Black Ops 7 Endgame Mode?
This is the entire point of the campaign. The story isn’t over. It was just a prologue for the live service Endgame mode. We see Colonel Marshall in a debrief. Kagan gets locked up. Worse part is Avalon is still infected with the Cradle and the Guild’s forces are still active and holding the city.
Marshall tasks Specter One with one final mission. Go back into Avalon. The campaign’s story officially concludes by setting up the 32-player PVE Endgame mode, where players will fight Alden Dorne’s Guild forces and clear out the infected zones of Avalon. The rest of the story will be out over seasonal updates.
The main campaign of Black Ops 7 isn’t a story. It’s a setup. It’s an elaborate incomprehensible excuse to get you to the real game. It leaves a graveyard of unanswered questions. It seems the only thing that mattered was setting the table for the next grind.
How Karma and Harper Are Alive in Black Ops7?
In Black Ops 2, your choices dictate what happens to Karma and Harper. Normally one of them ends up dying. But in Mission 6, if the player fails to rescue Karma after she gets captured, she stays imprisoned and the game never tells us what happens to her. This could allow for an alternate timeline where both Karma and Harper survive which would explain why they are alive in Black Ops 7.
With this Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 story explained, now be sure to leave a comment and talk about your opinions. Did you like the Black Ops 7 campaign? Let us know.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 FAQ
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