Modern Warfare 3 has been crowned the worst Call of Duty title in the franchise’s long history this week—and it’s not even close.
The latest installment in the two-decade-spanning series has accrued a measly 53 out of 100 on Metacritic. While its passing critic score may sound bad at first, MW3’s user score, 1.6, shows how the community really feels.
The closest CoD title score-wise is Call of Duty: Vanguard, which eventually broke through to 73 on Metacritic after a rocky start to sit a full 20 points ahead of the latest installment. 2023’s MW3 sits 35 points below the game of the same name made in 2009, and well below both revamped Modern Warfare titles.
MW3 re-introduced multiple maps from CoD’s past versions. Iconic maps like Highrise and Favela made it back into the CoD landscape, which originally built hype for the release; but fans now believe they’ve become “rehashed and overused” and actively subtract from the experience rather than adding any points to the score.
It seems multiplayer wasn’t enough to save MW3 from the critique it received when its six-hour single-player campaign arrived early too. Fans raked the single-player experience over the coals, calling its design lazy, and tearing into its newest features.
The feature blasted the most was Open Combat Missions, which thrust gamers into a Warzone-like map with objectives to complete, actively steering players off the linear path in the process. These expeditions take up six of the 15 campaign missions—nearly half of the story—and players have absolutely hated them.
CoD’s multiplayer gameplay wasn’t saved from critique either. MW3’s Armory System was immediately slammed by the player base for forcing gamers to play a certain way. Players are already begging the developers to take it out completely.
Overall, players believe MW3 was rushed, and despite the developer’s rebuttal, the reviews clearly show fans aren’t happy. Whether Activision can turn the tide simply remains to be seen, but it’s safe to say they’ll have to brew up something pretty massive to climb up the rankings after such a torrid start to the MW3 cycle.
