What to know

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s campaign does not let you choose a difficulty level.
  • The game uses an adaptive difficulty system that changes based on your playstyle.
  • This approach aims to create a more cinematic and personalized experience for every player.
  • The change is designed to keep the campaign engaging and challenging without traditional settings.

If you’re used to picking your favorite difficulty before diving into a Call of Duty campaign, Black Ops 7 is about to shake things up. This time, you won’t see the usual options like Recruit, Regular, or Veteran when you start the story mode. Instead, the developers have taken a bold new approach that’s all about adapting to you as you play.

So, why did Treyarch and Raven Software decide to remove the classic difficulty selection?

"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 the popular gaming blog,  IGN.

The answer comes down to immersion and personalization. The team wanted to deliver a campaign that feels cinematic and tailored to each player’s skills, rather than forcing everyone into preset boxes. As you move through the story, the game quietly watches how you play—how aggressive you are, how often you die, and how you handle different situations. Then, it tweaks the challenge on the fly to keep things tense but fair.

This adaptive system means you might not even notice the game is adjusting itself. If you’re breezing through firefights, enemies could become more accurate or aggressive. If you’re struggling, the game might ease up a bit, giving you a better chance to enjoy the story without constant frustration. The goal is to keep you in that sweet spot where the action feels exciting but not overwhelming.

For longtime fans, this is a big shift from the traditional Call of Duty formula. In the past, picking a difficulty was almost a ritual—some players loved the challenge of Veteran, while others preferred a more relaxed experience. By removing that choice, Black Ops 7 is betting that most players will appreciate a campaign that feels more like an interactive blockbuster, where the focus is on the story and the moment-to-moment action.

Of course, not everyone will love this change. Some players enjoy setting their own challenge and measuring their skills against the toughest settings. But the developers believe that adaptive difficulty can offer a more consistent and engaging experience for everyone, especially as games become more cinematic and story-driven.

It’s worth noting that this system is only for the campaign. Multiplayer and Zombies modes will still offer the usual ways to tweak your experience. But for the main story, Black Ops 7 is all-in on adaptive difficulty, aiming to keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

Whether you’re a series veteran or a newcomer, you’ll get a campaign that responds to your playstyle, making every firefight feel just right. It’s a bold move, and it could change how Call of Duty tells its stories in the future.