Medal of Honor suffers ratings casualties in debut; Electronic Arts shares down 6%

Medal of Honor, Electronic Arts' attempt to reboot its 11-year-old war game franchise, is getting a lukewarm reception from critics on its first day out, driving shares of the Redwood City, Calif., game company down nearly 6% on Tuesday.

The title, the 14th in the series, scored 74 points on a maximum 100-point scale, according to Metacritic, which aggregates reviews from multiple websites. The score is considered mediocre compared with 94 for Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, released last year, and EA's Battlefield Bad Company 2, which scored 88 points when it debuted in March.

One particularly scathing review from IGN concluded, "With serious stability and performance issues on console, level design that tends more toward turkey shoot than firefight, and a story and characters that stumble in their attempts at relevance and pathos, Medal of Honor walks into a quagmire it never really escapes from."

EA's shares fell $1.05, or 6%, to $16.61 on Tuesday, recovering 10 cents to $16.71 in after-hours trading.

The company issued a statement after the market closed saying, "Critics' scores are highly subjective." Even though IGN gave it 6 out of 10 points, EA noted that review scores ranged as high as 90 points out of 100 elsewhere.

EA also suggested that scores were not the same as sales. "The game had the highest pre-orders in the 11-year history of the Medal of Honor franchise," EA said, although it did not reveal sales figures.

"This is an essentially big achievement considering Medal of Honor has been dormant for several years," EA said in a statement. "This is the first year in rebooting the franchise. Medal of Honor is part of a larger EA strategy to take share in the shooter category. This is a marathon not a sprint -– today’s Medal of Honor launch represents a step forward in that race."

Ricardo Torres, editor in chief of review site Gamespot, said EA is battling steep expectations from players who remember the first Medal of Honor games with near reverence.

"When you hear Medal of Honor, you have high expectations," Torres said. "People expect it to be special. And the question is whether EA was able to deliver on that. From what we've seen, the game is solid, but solid doesn’t get you very far today. It’s so competitive now that you have to be extraordinary."

The first four games in the franchise were able to hit that mark, but subsequent games have struggled to impress. To see a full list of major releases in the franchise and their Metacritic scores, click the continue reading link below.

Medal of Honor Metacritic Scores (out of 100 points maximum)

• Medal of Honor (1999) -- 92
• Medal of Honor Underground (2000) -- 86
• Medal of Honor Allied Assault (2002) -- 91
• Medal of Honor Frontline (2002) -- 88
• Medal of Honor Allied Assault Spearhead (2002) -- 74
• Medal of Honor Allied Assault Breakthrough (2003) -- 72
• Medal of Honor Rising Sun (2003) -- 68
• Medal of Honor Pacific Assault (2004) -- 80
• Medal of Honor European Assault (2005) -- 73
• Medal of Honor Heroes (2006) -- 71
• Medal of Honor Vanguard (2007) -- 56 to 63
• Medal of Honor Airborne (2007) -- 73 to 78
• Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (2007) -- 73
• Medal of Honor (2010) -- 74

-- Alex Pham

Comments

[Preston]

Its funny, because Rising Sun was my favorite one

[Jeremy]

Blizzard's call of duty modern warfare 2? I you kidding me? you need to learn the subject you are writing about. Blizzard has nothing to do with COD.
IT IS INFINITE WARD!!!! not blizzard.

[Jacob Knox]

Do not buy this game!! Im just an average gamer so most single player campaigns take me a few days to weeks and i beat the single play on this game in 5 hours. Storyline is a joke and if you are used to the multi-player in modern warfare 2 the multi-player on this game is a JOKE, it is horrible, and i called gamestop, they only offer 23 dollars for trade in on the same day of its release!!! dont waste your money like i did. Im absolutely pissed even the old school ps 2 medal of honors make this game look shitty.

[Jim]

man what a bunch of crap ! i can"t even talk to my friends in pregame lobby. and we keep ending up on different teams ! i was so excited to get this game thinking it would be just as good as badd co 2 . it is not! its more like a lower grade call of duty .

[Blake]

I noticed how they said "Blizzard's" Call of Duty as well hahaha

But you, sir, are wrong as well. It's actually Infinity* Ward... Not Infinite Ward haha

[J-SMOOTH]

I have the game and I love it. Screw the critics. The game is awesome and I have not seen any bugs.

[Kevin]

Activision, blizzard, infinity ward, treyarch it's all the same company

[Jose]

I like it! not as easy to maneuver around, but i love it! good addition to a first-person shooter collection. And i havent even looked through all of its features.

[Brian]

Jeremy, relax. Activision Blizzard is correct.

[Jerich]

was really hoping for something better i purchased this game earlier today and linked up with my brother and played for a good 5 hours and to be honest i didn't like the game at all i was once upon a time addicted to MOH allied assult but the new MOH didn't even come close to being anything worth my time COD has to be still on my tops then MAG then maybe MOH but dunno didn't really like it very little maps and weapons take a act of god to unlock

[Hater]

Jeremy, it's "Activision Blizzard"... they are a joint-company now and often called such these days. They aren't saying Blizzard made the game, but the two are the overall parent company of "Infinity Ward" studios.

However, IW isn't making Black Ops... the group that made (and failed with IMO) CoD: World at War is, Treyarch.

[Chris]

The publisher is "Activision-Blizzard" which he clearly said...

[bobzilla]

After buying and playing the New Medal of Honor, I feel the game is far inferior to the original MOH game. This is not what was promised by the original producers last year, the look and feel is completely different, and more like a console game or battlefield add on. I am no longer interested in supporting or playing this game and feel sorry for all those millions that paid their $60 for this loser!

[Eddie]

Pfffftt, these ppl can say whatever they want, i bought it, played it, and loved it.

[Jake]

@Preston: Actually you don't know what you are talking about.

1) Infinity Ward is a developer. EA LA and DICE developed MoH.
2) Activision published MW2 and EA published MoH.
3) The holding company of Activision (the publisher) is Activision Blizzard, Inc.
4) The article is about the holding company (aka the stocks of the publisher). EA, Inc. is the holding company and it gets the hit when the stock goes down.

So EA, Inc. is to Activision Blizzard as Infinity Ward is to EALA and DICE. Btw its InfinitY not Infinite.

[Bryan]

@Jeremy , you should not be so pedantic in future because its Infinity Ward, lol.

[David]

Jeremy:

Activision and Blizzard are both owned by Vivendi and merged in 2008. Activision Blizzard published COD MW 2...

No. We are not kidding you. Where have you been the last two years?

[RIott]

Infinity ward developed it .....which explains alot, But activision blizzard published it.

[Colin]

Jeremy, Activision Blizzard is the full name of the company. And it's Infinity Ward, not "Infinite Ward," since you're so hung up on spelling. Either way, it's irrelevant since the masterminds behind Infinity Ward were fired and started Respawn Entertainment. Those guys, by the way, created the Medal of Honor franchise AND Call of Duty franchise. I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

[Nick]

It was developed by Infinity Ward, and Published by Activision which merged with Blizzard. Think before you speak.

[Matthew]

Blizzard was merged with Activision, now known as Activison Blizzard they publish the CoD series.

[Corbin]

The campaign for Medal of Honor was the best story I've ever played in a war game. Don't get me wrong, the Modern Warfare series has a GREAT story...but this story is real. It's happening today. That makes it that much better. EA did an unbelievable job in creating that. Could've done without DICE for their multiplayer though. 74 out of 100 is a slap in the face..COME ON!!!

[Mark Standing]

""The game had the highest pre-orders in the 11-year history of the Medal of Honor franchise," EA said"

Yes, but er...they didn't KNOW how bad it would be at the time of pre-ordering.

A high number of pre orders is not proof that you've produced a good game.

[VK]

Medal of Honor 2010 is the worst game by far. I returned it after only having it for 2 hrs. The servers didn't work and the single player graphics were awful. The AI is also sub-par. You would shoot someone, they would fall down, and then get right back up. Not to mention your "squad" would stand still and get shot by an enemy right in the open over and over again. Bad Company 2 is by far better then this POS. I'm glad they are getting bad reviews because the game is that bad. I had high hopes for this game but it was a huge disappointment.

[John]

Jeremy, you should check your statement. It's in correct.