It might be a sign of the times, or just a strange decision on Activision and Treyarch’s part, but the campaign aspect of Black Ops 7 cannot be paused, meaning you have to keep playing and progressing until the mission is over, or you reach a checkpoint.
Yes, this marks the first time ever that you can’t pause a Call of Duty campaign. Black Ops 7‘s campaign utilizes an always-online aspect, meaning the game is live at all times. This has several huge implications for your game and means progress and progression can be interrupted at all times.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Campaign Can’t Be Paused
Black Ops 7’s campaign has attracted a lot of discourse because of the nature of its content. One thing that can’t be overlooked is the campaign being always online. In previous games, when you pause the game, the action stops. End of story.
That’s not the case here, and the action carries on—think of it like a FromSoftware game where you bring up a menu, but the world is still active. You can die, lose your progress, and go back to the start of the checkpoint. This isn’t ideal when you’re playing on Veteran difficulty, for example.
ModernWarzone also shared a clip of someone’s campaign journey, and while the user is trying to watch a cutscene, Black Ops 7 suddenly decides in that moment to drop the Daily Update.
This instantly derails any campaign momentum and throws you out to the main menu.
Treyarch might enable some kind of offline workaround later on, but this is unlikely due to the game’s online integration and the addition of Worlds Collide.
Is this a bad move from Treyarch? Does this put you off playing the campaign altogether? Head to the Insider Gaming Discord Server and let us know what you think of this decision.
If you are playing Black Ops 7, or intend to, read about Cursed Mode, all Campaign Camo Challenges, and every Multiplayer Camo Challenge.
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
More from Andrew Highton
