Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's campaign is always-online and cannot be paused

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 arrived this week, and players have quickly discovered that the game’s co-op campaign is only playable when connected to the internet and cannot be paused at all.

The details:

• Unlike previous COD campaigns, the Black Ops 7 campaign can be played entirely in co-op with up to four players or completely solo without AI teammates, despite the story's focus on a squad of soldiers. The main issue raised by players is that the game is always online, even when playing solo, and cannot be paused at all.
• Surprisingly, the game lacks checkpoints during missions, which means that if a player has to leave the game or becomes disconnected from its servers, they will lose progress. Updates to the game can also cause disconnects, leaving users with little control over the situation.
• The campaign as a whole has been met with a mixed to negative reception from fans, as despite being playable solo, Treyarch and Raven Software appear to have neglected adjusting its structure to cater to squad sizes lower than four. As a result, players are forced to complete some objectives four times over, and the title also lacks any form of difficulty setting, instead changing depending on the number of players in the game.