For anyone who likes to play Call of Duty in a more methodical, tactical manner, holding down long angles and anchor points, there’s one gun you’re likely to be using throughout your time with Black Ops 7: the M8A1. This marksman rifle shoots in four-round bursts and, in its current iteration in the beta, before any potential nerfs come in with the full launch, it’s capable of “one-bombing” foes — aka killing enemies at full health in one burst, and that makes it one of the best guns in Black Ops 7. If you land all your shots and don’t whiff, of course.
The M8A1 will be brand new to any recent Call of Duty adoptees, but for those of us who have been around the block a few times, it’s like bumping into an old friend at the bar we haven’t seen for over a decade, and reminiscing about the good ol’ times. In 2012’s Black Ops 2, the M8A1 — combined with the MSMC in the SMG category — ran the show in multiplayer, especially in ranked playlists and the competitive scene. If you timed each burst correctly, you could essentially fire it like a fully automatic weapon, with only a very brief delay between each trigger pull.
So to have it back in Black Ops 7 isn’t just a wonderful nostalgia trip, it also makes complete sense. The next Call of Duty installment harks back to older games beyond just adding old favorites to the arsenal; they’re returning to the three-lane map design philosophy, which, at its core, entirely changes how matches play out due to pacing, sight lines, and angles.
Tactical sprint — the stamina-based movement mechanic that enabled even faster sprinting — has been removed (unless you equip it with a specific perk, but the trade-off is slower general movement speed), so the game plays slightly slower than any Call of Duty in recent memory anyway, which means the M8A1 is a perfect fit because it’s viable again. If it had returned last year for Black Ops 6, or if either Modern Warfare 2 or 3 had brought back the classic three-burst FAMAS from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2 (we know, the Call of Duty naming system is confusing) as a like-for-like example, it wouldn’t have worked because those games have all been mostly led by SMGs and assault rifles geared towards shorter-range combat.
There have been countless other fan favorite guns through the years that could return to a slower-paced Call of Duty: Black Ops 1’s Galil, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’s AK-74U, M16A4, R700, or Barret 50. Cal, World at War’s BAR, Gewehr 43, or Kar98k… the list goes on. It’s worth noting that the M8A1 — and all of the above, in theory — don’t work on every map in Black Ops 7. Toshin, for example, is far too chaotic to play anchor for any decent length of time, and Blackheart is simply too small. Cortex, Exposure, and Imprint, on the other hand? Whew, they’re an absolute haven for anyone who can nail a headshot with this four-shot burst monster.
We’ve only played six of the 16 maps coming to Black Ops 7, as that’s all that is available in the beta, but it’s a very strong start for anyone who’s partial to a bit of burst-fire action. We cannot wait to use it on Raid and Standoff again.
