Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's multiplayer is better than its awful, terrible, abominable, ghastly, hideous, not very good campaign. But 'better' in this case does not necessarily mean 'good'. This year's anxious flurry of maps, modes and zombies achieves the base requirement for a satisfactory shooting experience, and there are a couple of ideas that are interesting if inconsistently successful. But the overall quality is wildly incoherent, while the whole package is overshadowed by the spectre of generative AI.

The biggest change to this year's multiplayer is also the least interesting to discuss, its approach to skill-based matchmaking. Call of Duty's habit of matching you with players allegedly on your ability level has come under fire in recent years for flattening the experience. So this year, Treyarch offers you a choice, letting you play with 'standard' SBMM, or in a pool where SBMM is 'minimally considered'.

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To say that Demonschool comes out swinging with its premise would be an understatement. Trapped on the isolated Hemsk Island and surrounded by increasingly spooky occurrences, it quickly becomes clear that Faye and her classmates have no choice but to kick demons’ spines out, pass their semester without going to prison, and face the greatest horror of all: making friends in university.

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