15 years later, here’s what it’s like replaying Call of Duty: Black Ops 1

Ever since Gamescom 2025, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been the talk of the town. Whether because of its weird, "experimental" social co-op campaign, or because of the backlash Treyarch has been facing about whimsical skins for their operators, the one thing that can't be denied is that we're all looking forward to November when the game comes out.

As such, I thought there's no better time to revisit the very start of this amazing subseries, and go all the way back to 2010's Black Ops to see where Mason's story started. Before the first Black Ops, Treyarch was behind Infinity Ward, and sort of the B-studio for Activision's Call of Duty, especially after Modern Warfare took off and made the franchise a household name across the world. After it, though, Black Ops became just as big, if not more, and a revisit to the original game makes it clear why.

Black Ops 2010 ended up redefining the FPS space

Two hours into the revisit, I saw exactly why it was so impactful

In 2007, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare really changed the entire FPS space for good measure, and this was also where the Call of Duty franchise really found its identity. There's no denying that the first Modern Warfare game really is the best COD game of all time, but when Black Ops arrived, it took the franchise to places we hadn't ever seen before.

The Cold War setting, the political intrigue, the paranoia, and Mason's highly-intimate story — all of that came together to make us realize that we weren't just playing another military shooter. Instead, it felt like a psychological thriller with a Call of Duty tag attached to it. Replaying it now, I can easily feel just how bold Treyarch went with their storytelling.

This game nailed the gunfights and explosions as was expected of a great COD title, but it went beyond, and explored themes of identity and manipulation, all revolving around a man losing his grip on reality. It's a lot heavier than "stop the terrorists", and even in 2025, the campaign gripped from the very start, refusing to let go until the credits rolled.

Black Ops' 15-year-old campaign is still better than many modern titles

This is an easy 10/10 campaign, even if it came out yesterday

It isn't difficult to argue or convince people that Black Ops has one of the best narratives in Call of Duty, ever. The numbers sequence is still one of the most chilling and inventive framing devices I've ever seen, and, when viewed as a 2010 media product, the in-media-res opening, with the interrogation of Mason as a backdrop, makes for a fantastic balls-to-the-wall thriller.

And when it comes to the characters? I was surprised at how vivid they still are. Mason is a broken man, Reznov steals every scene he's in, and Woods still commands every room he walks into. A COD campaign that makes you care about more than the gunplay, locations, and explosions is a rarity, and boy did Black Ops nail it exactly right. It's no surprise that this fantastic subseries is still going on, and I can't wait to see how the story that started with his dad, ends for David Mason, fifteen years later.

Here's the facts — if we were to get a brand-new FPS campaign today, with this story, and this level of phenomenal voice acting involved, along with the fantastically-paced narrative to boot? It would still be an easy 4 or 5-star campaign without a single doubt. The interrogation, the confusion, the doubts about Mason, the confusion about the numbers, and the moment-to-moment gameplay always complementing the campaign — all of it made Black Ops' campaign one of the greatest single-player experiences ever made in an FPS.

The gameplay, somehow, hasn't aged a bit

Black Ops' gameplay is still fantastic

Here's where I really thought time would catch up with Black Ops. COD has significantly changed since 2010. Movement today is snappier, the gunplay is so much slicker, and the missions are bigger than ever in scale (sometimes for the worse). Despite all of that, when I replayed BO1, the slower, weightier feel actually worked in its favor. The guns still have kick, the movement has heft that wouldn't really feel out of place in a modern game if it was marketed right. Every single firefight had me tensed up, admiring the intensity of it all, and that's definitely not something I expected from a fifteen-year-old game. Sure, a cover-peek system felt missing to me, but after the first mission, I never thought about it again.

The mission design itself? That's pretty top-tier, even now. I trudged through the trenches in Vietnam and scaled the rooftops in Kowloon, but one thing remained the same — the campaign refused to be uninteresting. Pair that with great pacing, and the overall experience never felt like it dragged on or was bloated in any way, shape, or form whatsoever. That is not something I can say for a lot of COD campaigns that have come out after the first Black Ops game, and sitting down right now in 2025 to replay BO1, I was pleasantly surprised at just how well the game still holds up.

There are a few areas where Black Ops shows its age

Time has caught up with the game in a couple of departments

Not everything about the game has aged like fine wine, though. The first thing that jumped out at me immediately was the visual fidelity. The character models I remembered as some of the best ever now look like stiff mannequins, and during combat, a lot of animations aren't nearly as smooth as the ones I'm accustomed to after fifteen years of evolution and polish.

Now, the firefights are intense, yet, but there's still more than a handful of enemies who like standing out in the open or charging directly into my bullets. It never ruined the fun outright since the story and pacing are phenomenal, but it did often take away from the tension of the gunfights I was in. Plus, let's be honest — quick-time-events were never as cool as the industry thought they were back in 2010. Now, despite these cracks showing, BO1's campaign is still excellent, and that remarkable pacing and storytelling easily overshadows any problems I might have with the dated textures.

A decade-and-a-half later, Black Ops 1 is every bit as good

I genuinely wanted to be critical, but it leaves no room for notes

You know the absolute best part of replaying Black Ops today? It was the slow realization, as each hour went by in my playthrough, about how much of this franchise's DNA comes from this single game. The psychological edge and the bending of reality? It's still a front-and-center theme in the upcoming Black Ops 7, fifteen years later. The morally gray characters? They've bled into the entire series, along with other great FPS games. And all of these seeds, for this franchise, were planted by BO1.

And here's something that Black Ops does better than other, newer COD titles. It doesn't try to do everything at once. It's focused, it tells a story with remarkable confidence, and it never overstays its welcome. Every twist in the campaign hits just as well as it did back in 2010, and that's because there aren't too many of them, which also lets one of its biggest plot twists shine that much brighter. There are a lot of players today who would call the overall story for the Black Ops sub-franchise a bit convoluted, and they wouldn't be completely off-target. But playing the very first one made its simplicity feel like a lost art.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Like

FPS

Systems

Released

November 9, 2010

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language

Developer(s)

Treyarch

Publisher(s)

Activision

Engine

iw

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer, Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op

Franchise

Call of Duty

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Where to play

Close

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

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PHYSICAL

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Genre(s)

FPS

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Black Ops 1 really did change the COD franchise for good

Replaying the first Black Ops in 2025 felt like revisiting an old friend who just hasn't aged a day. They're just as witty, just as sharp, and they only have a few wrinkles and gray hairs to show for the time that's passed.

This series is one I know I will be talking about decades later with a few like-minded friends, telling them about how great it felt to be there from the start, and none of that would've been possible without the fantastic running start BO1 gave the Black Ops series.