MW3 become the worst rated title of Call of Duty’s franchise

With a dismal 53 points out of 100 on Metacritic, Modern Warfare 3 has been rated as the poorest Call of Duty game in the entirety of the franchise’s history. 

After Modern Warfare 3 was released at the end of last week, reviews for the game have gradually started to surface online. Players could not provide a precise score for the shooter during early access but since the multiplayer and zombie modes were made available on November 10th, feedback on Activision’s recent title has been flooding in.

As of this writing, the title has a Metacritic score of 53, making it the lowest of the series offshoots. Not only is MW3 now among the worst-reviewed games of the year by all measures, but it is now the lowest-rated Call of Duty game on Metacritic by a margin of about 20 points. The lowest-scoring Call of Duty title before this title was Call of Duty: Vanguard, released in 2021, with a Metacritic score of 73.

The review becomes more concerning for Activision when comparing it with Bethesda’s horrendous vampire game Redfall. Redfall received a lot of negative reviews and was a misery to play, but it still has a higher Metacritic score of 56 than Mass Effect 3. In the upcoming days and weeks, more reviews for MW3 will undoubtedly continue to filter in, thus this total score could possibly rise.

Call of Duty’s recent title with their Metacritic rating:

• Modern Warfare III – 50 points
• Modern Warfare II – 75 points
• Vanguard – 73 points
• Black Ops Cold War – 76 points
• Modern Warfare  – 80 points

Is Modern Warfare III that bad?

There are a number of possible reasons for the game’s poor reception. An insider report claims that Modern Warfare 3 was originally intended to be a DLC expansion for Modern Warfare 2. However, Activision officials are said to have restarted the project and informed Sledgehammer Games’ creators that it would now be a full-fledged sequel. According to “over a dozen” current and former Call of Duty developers, the game suffered from a hurried production cycle that saw the campaign created in just 16 months, Bloomberg claims.

Due to this, players get a bad aftertaste from spending so much money on a game for stuff that would normally fit into a DLC. Players feel that MW3 was rushed overall, and reviews make it evident that fans aren’t thrilled even with the developer’s denial. It remains to be seen whether Activision can turn things around, but it’s safe to assume that with such a wild start to the MW3 cycle, they’ll need to conjure up something rather substantial to move up the rankings.

Header: Activision Blizzard