Black Ops 7 Season 3 is almost here — and it's full of Call of Duty nostalgia

• Developer Activision has revealed what's in store for the third Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 season
• Major multiplayer additions include a raft of fresh maps and plenty of new weapons
• It launches on April 2

Developer Activision has lifted the curtain on what's coming to multiplayer in the next season of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 when it launches on April 2, and it's going to be full of glorious Black Ops nostalgia.

Five multiplayer maps will be available day one: Beacon, Abyss, Plaza, Gridlock, and Mission: Trident. First up, Beacon is a brand-new mid-size map set in a remote snowy region, centred around a freezing Guild facility dotted with shipping containers for cover and offering a mix of indoor and outdoor settings.

Abyss is a much smaller environment, taking place entirely inside a submarine. It's a long, rectangular map that looks pretty similar to the excellent Bullet map from Black Ops 6 (which was set on a speeding bullet train). It seems much more cramped than Bullet, though, with tight corridors and loads of obstacles to navigate around.

Then there's Plaza, another mid-size map and a remaster that's returning from Black Ops 2. Like the original map it's set in a nightclub at the Colossus Resort from that game's campaign, which also appears in a ruined state in the existing Black Ops 7 map Colossus.

The throwbacks don't stop there though, with the first ever remaster of Gridlock from Black Ops 4 arriving the same day. This one follows the aftermath of an armored truck heist gone wrong on a busy Tokyo highway, and given how prominently Black Ops 7 features Japan as a setting it only makes sense to bring it over.

Rounding off the initial offering is Mission: Trident, a new 20v20 map for the massive skirmish game mode featuring a huge harbor and its surrounding warehouses.

An upgraded arsenal

Season 3 Reloaded will then add even more with the spa-themed small map Onsen and a remaster of Summit. Black Ops 6's version of Hacienda is being ported over too, with some small tweaks to the vineyard's layout to accommodate Black Ops 7's enhanced movement abilities.

There's also going to be an interesting new mode, Freerun, which will have its own dedicated map called Ascent. As the name would suggest, Freerun is all about parkour and doesn't seem to feature any combat at all with players instead competing to reach a set finish point in a race.

It wouldn't be a new Call of Duty season without new weapons and attachments either. Launch highlights include the addition of the MK35 ISR assault rifle and VST SMG, with the likes of the Strider 300 sniper rifle and the legendary 1911 pistol following in the Reloaded update. A mid-season event will even let you unlock a bizarre energy weapon, the Siren, which shoots big electric projectiles capable of passing through multiple players. There will also be another event that rewards you with a new katana for melee.

All of these come alongside a paid battle pass filled with neat skins, and a revamped Blackcell tier that now offers it's own exclusive challenges. You can read all about, plus the content coming to Warzone, Endgame, and Zombies, on the official Call of Duty blog.

Black Ops 7 is available now for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Xbox One.

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