No, there are no underwater combat sections in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. While the game features a wide array of intense, globetrotting missions across diverse environments, from urban warfare to high-tech facilities, the core gameplay remains firmly grounded on land and in the air. The developers at Treyarch focused on refining the fast-paced, boots-on-the-ground gunplay the series is known for, and this design philosophy did not extend to incorporating dedicated underwater firefights. Players will not encounter sequences where they are submerged and engaging enemies with specialized weaponry.
This absence is particularly notable when you consider the history of the Black Ops sub-series, which has often pushed the boundaries of the Call of Duty BO7 formula with innovative settings. To understand why underwater combat wasn’t included, it’s helpful to look at the technical and design challenges it presents, as well as the specific narrative direction Treyarch chose for this installment.
The Technical Hurdles of Underwater Combat
Implementing a believable and fun underwater combat system is a significant technical undertaking. Game mechanics that work on land—like movement, ballistics, and sound design—behave entirely differently underwater. Here’s a breakdown of the primary challenges:
Movement and Physics: On land, character movement is governed by friction and rapid directional changes. Underwater, movement becomes sluggish and momentum-based. Creating a control scheme that feels responsive yet authentically weighty is difficult. If it’s too slow, it can frustrate players accustomed to the series’ pace; if it’s too fast, it breaks immersion. Treyarch likely prioritized a consistent, polished movement feel across all missions rather than introducing a one-off mechanic that could feel clunky.
Ballistics and Weaponry: Firearms are virtually useless underwater standard bullets travel only a few feet before losing their kinetic energy. A realistic system would require entirely new weapon assets, like spearguns or specialized underwater firearms, which have a very limited use case outside of specific missions. This represents a substantial investment in art, animation, and balancing for a feature that might only appear in one or two segments of the game. The development resources were instead allocated to fleshing out the core arsenal and its attachments.
Audio-Visual Design: Sound is a critical component of Call of Duty’s immersive experience. Underwater, the audio landscape changes dramatically—sounds are muffled, and propagation is different. Creating a unique and high-quality audio mix for a short underwater section is a complex task. Similarly, lighting, particle effects (like bubbles from a gunshot or a diver’s rebreather), and environmental details require specialized work to sell the illusion of being submerged.
Design Philosophy and Pacing in Call of Duty BO7
Treyarch’s design for the campaign appears to have been built around a specific pace and flow. Introducing an underwater section would have fundamentally altered this rhythm. The following table contrasts the standard gameplay with the hypothetical requirements of an underwater segment, illustrating the potential disruption to the game’s flow.
| Standard Gameplay (Call of Duty BO7) | Hypothetical Underwater Gameplay |
|---|---|
| Fast-paced, run-and-gun combat. | Slow, deliberate, momentum-based movement. |
| Wide array of familiar firearms and equipment. | Limited to a few context-specific weapons (e.g., spearguns, knives). |
| Verticality through mantling, sliding, and jump packs. | True 3D movement in all directions, requiring new player skills. |
| Focus on auditory cues for situational awareness. | Muffled sounds, relying more on visual cues. |
| Seamless integration between combat and narrative beats. | Risk of being a “gimmick” section that feels disconnected from the core loop. |
As the table shows, an underwater segment would essentially be a mini-game with its own rule set. For a narrative-driven experience that emphasizes a relentless pace, inserting such a drastic change could have jarred players out of the experience rather than enhancing it. The development team likely decided that the resources needed to perfect this mechanic were better spent on enhancing the parts of the game that players would experience for the majority of the campaign.
Historical Context in the Call of Duty Series
While Call of Duty BO7 avoids underwater gunfights, the broader franchise does have a history with aquatic environments, though these have typically been stealth-oriented or set-pieces rather than full-blown combat arenas.
Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013): This game featured one of the most memorable underwater sequences in the series, the level “Into the Deep.” Players controlled a diver navigating a sunken city, engaging in combat with enemy divers. However, even here, the combat was highly specialized. Players used a unique underwater rifle, and the engagement distances were very short. The section was more about atmosphere and tension than the high-octane action the series is famous for.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2015): While its campaign did not feature traditional underwater combat, it did include moments of underwater traversal, often tied to the advanced mobility of the player’s cybernetic soldier. These sections were more about navigation and avoiding hazards than direct combat.
This history demonstrates that when the series has dipped its toes into underwater gameplay, it has been treated as a special set-piece rather than a core mechanic. For Call of Duty BO7, the creative direction simply did not call for such a set-piece, with the team opting for other types of cinematic and gameplay moments to wow players.
Alternative Aquatic and Environmental Set-Pieces
Just because there’s no underwater combat doesn’t mean the game is devoid of environmental variety or water-based gameplay. Missions may include operations on the surface of water, such as:
- Naval Assaults: Fast-paced boat chases or assaults on offshore installations, where combat takes place on the decks of ships or on docks.
- Flooded Urban Areas: Navigating through partially submerged city streets or buildings, where water is a terrain hazard that affects movement but not the fundamental rules of combat.
- Underwater Infiltration: It’s possible the game includes a stealthy swimming section where the player must avoid detection rather than engage in firefights, maintaining a focus on tension without redesigning the combat system.
These alternatives allow the developers to introduce the visual and atmospheric appeal of water-based environments without the significant technical overhead of creating a fully-realized underwater combat system. They serve the narrative and provide visual spectacle while keeping the gameplay firmly within the established, refined mechanics that fans expect.