STACK #253 November 2025

GAMING FEATURE

visit jbhifi.com.au/stack

Shooter fans rejoice! It’s Call of Duty time again, and this month we’re future bound with Black Ops 7 .To find out more about this latest series entry, we picked the brains of developer Treyarch’s associate creative director, Miles Leslie, and associate director, design, Lawrence Metten… Words Amy Flower DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE

ML: Going to 2035, knowing we’re in a new era, not only do we have the amazing story elements, locations, and characters (and villains) that build off that, but that’s when we can get all the fun gadgets, weapons, and Operators as well. For the weapons and design teams, that’s fuel to let their imaginations run wild with the ’what ifs’. One of the things that comes out of that is the Rhino, a ginormous robot that you call in from the sky, it smashes down in multiplayer, and you get to remote control it. It has one arm that’s a gun and this clanker hand on the other. It’s really, really scary for other players that see you using it, but you can only do that because we’re in 2035. It still feels grounded and real, and that’s what is exciting about going to this era. Speaking of… What wild new weaponry will we get to play with this time out? ML: We’re continuing to push the boundaries. One thing we’ve always had permission from our players to do, is that because we’re in the world of Black Ops, you’re dealing with prototype and experimental weapons that we’ve never heard about, but the military might be developing, right? Something like the Gravemaker Scorestreak where they can X-ray and shoot through walls.

in 2025. How has the world state progressed? What are they reeling from after those first attacks? Now Raul Menendez is back, and it was the perfect time to tell a new story in our own Black Ops history.

Can you please let us in on the story in Black Ops 7 ? ML: Black Ops 7 isn’t a direct sequel. It takes place in the Black Ops universe but stands on its own with a fresh new narrative and world. Set in 2035, it’s an era we’ve never been to, which is really exciting. It comes with a mind-bending and bombastic story that circles around David Mason, as he and his squad figure out what’s going on with the return of Raul Menendez. We’re pulling on threads from Black Ops II and Black Ops 6 , but there’s no homework required. If you’re new, you’re going to get an awesome experience. If you’re an existing fan of the Black Ops series, there’s a lot for you here. ML: When we left Black Ops II , there were story elements at the end that we knew we always wanted to go back to. David Mason experienced some traumatic events facing Raul Menendez, and Menendez kind of won with the global attacks, so the world and our heroes were left in disarray. We always knew we wanted to go back to that, but it was never the right time or game to do it. Black Ops 7 is the perfect time, picking up ten years after Black Ops II , which was set What inspired the team to create a follow-on to the story from Call of Duty: Black Ops II ?

Were there any specific real-world inspirations for the story?

ML: Because we’re set in 2035, it’s really fun using 2025 in Black Ops II as our fictional background and how we left the world with Raul Menendez, but also, if you look at the global attacks, the world changed over the next five years. So, what would ten years on look like? In 2035 how has technology evolved and what does that allow us to create that we can put in the players’ hands? Because we’re in a near-future fictional setting, there’s never a 1:1 experience, but we did want to touch on the zeitgeist of this near-future world that’s kind of left in a state of chaos; a world that doesn’t trust itself and doesn’t trust other people, and I think that speaks to the world we’re in now and people can relate. With Call of Duty single player storylines set in the future like this, how inspiring do you find the opportunity to get creative with in game features such as weaponry?

NOVEMBER 2025

jbhifi.com.au

4