The ‘Call of Duty Black Ops 7’ Trailer Was Too Good for a ‘CoD’ Game

Microsoft closed out Summer Game Fest’s Xbox Showcase this year with the surprise announcement of Call of Duty Black Ops 7. However, many players were disappointed by the reveal, as it looked like it was for a completely different game. In my opinion, the BO7 trailer was way too good for a CoD title.

Wait, that was a ‘Call of Duty Black Ops 7’ Reveal?!

I first discovered the topic of players being disappointed with how good the Call of Duty Black Ops 7 trailer looked when I stumbled upon a discussion happening on TheEvilWithin subreddit. In a thread sarcastically titled “What do you all think about new The Evil Within 3 trailer?” a user explained how they were tricked by the BO7 reveal. The redditor initially thought it was for the Shinji Mikami horror series instead.

However, it wasn’t just the topic creator who felt this way, as many players shared similar reactions to the BO7 trailer. For example, a commenter wrote: “For real. For a moment I thought this was actually The Evil Within, I hate them.” Another user replied, “This was the most cool trailer until the COD logo.” One comment passionately argued: “This doesn’t even look like a Black Ops game. Everything about this trailer is essentially what the atmosphere of The Evil Within series is.”

And this isn’t even just contained to the Evil Within community, either. On social media sites like Twitter, many players argued the BO7 announcement was a “disappointing” conclusion to the Xbox Showcase because of how deceptive the trailer felt. While I didn’t think it was a new Evil Within game, I totally thought it was for a different project. The Black Ops 7 trailer felt way too horror-themed for a Call of Duty title.

‘BO7’ trailer Was Too Good for ‘COD’

Imagine, if you will, you have just sat through two hours of the Xbox Game Showcase, and you know the show is wrapping up. However, Phil Spencer is now on your screen and hypes you up with “one last game announcement.” You then see a flashy trailer featuring Heroes’ actor Milo Ventimiglia, who is thrown into a twisted psychological horror world straight out of Alan Wake.

As the reveal trailer reaches its creepy climax, a Call of Duty logo flashes on screen. Yeah, insta-disappointment. I was watching the Xbox Showcase with my wife, and we both let out an audible groan. Nothing against Call of Duty, but that trailer looked like it was selling us on a completely different project.

With Milo Ventimiglia at the helm, I expected this to be a new psychological thriller from a studio such as Remedy Entertainment. And in all fairness to the Evil Within community, that upside-down world the character ends up in screams: horror game. But nope, instead it’s just our annual Call of Duty game. We shouldn’t be too surprised, given Microsoft’s massive investment in the series. But I feel like people expect more from a final game announcement.

I mean, say what you will about Geoff Keighley, but at least he knew to end his showcase with a surprise like Resident Evil Requiem. Although, Black Ops has a history of releasing psychological trailers. Not to mention, this is a franchise that literally has a zombie mode with magical powers. So, it’s not that out of the norm. Still, I, and many others, couldn’t help but be let down that this was a Call of Duty title. The BO7 trailer would have been perfect for any other game.