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[kevboard]

known as a horrible game?
far from it! I played Horrible games and that is not!!

it is worse than that. because it isn't bad due to technical issues, or developers that couldn't get the controls right, or untalented coders, or being a small indy game with a tiny budget, or anything of that sort.
it is designed deliberately in the exact way it was, and was executed perfectly...

they perfectly executed a plan that is, at its very core, a slap in the face of the very concept of video game design. the same shit Hellblade 2 did... see Hellblade 1 had the excuse of a super small budget, the second one didn't anymore

for the sales number I can see why its not getting a sequel, but its Sony's own fault for the poor sales....

well it's the game's fault, being a disgrace for the entire medium

 

[Shifty1897]

What the fuck is a mock review???

What's the mock review score for Avowed?

Where they hire game journalists to secretly review a game before it comes out to get an estimate of what the metacritic score will be. Just about every publisher does it, usually it's pretty accurate except in this case where it wasn't, and I think The Last of Us originally was mock reviewed as an 8/10.

 

[VeganElduderino]

it is worse than that. because it isn't bad due to technical issues, or developers that couldn't get the controls right, or untalented coders, or being a small indy game with a tiny budget, or anything of that sort.
it is designed deliberately in the exact way it was, and was executed perfectly...

they perfectly executed a plan that is, at its very core, a slap in the face of the very concept of video game design. the same shit Hellblade 2 did... see Hellblade 1 had the excuse of a super small budget, the second one didn't anymore




well it's the game's fault, being a disgrace for the entire medium

did you even play it?

 

[SlimySnake]

it is worse than that. because it isn't bad due to technical issues, or developers that couldn't get the controls right, or untalented coders, or being a small indy game with a tiny budget, or anything of that sort.
it is designed deliberately in the exact way it was, and was executed perfectly...

they perfectly executed a plan that is, at its very core, a slap in the face of the very concept of video game design. the same shit Hellblade 2 did... see Hellblade 1 had the excuse of a super small budget, the second one didn't anymore




well it's the game's fault, being a disgrace for the entire medium

Someone didn’t watch the video. The director mentions that they had several gameplay systems in the works but Sony execs wanted them to focus on graphics and literally withheld payments until done so. They had several combat mechanics that didn’t make the cut because execs were afraid that their bosses would not like graphics in a bad state after such an amazing initial trailer.

Shu was promoted, went to japan and the bitches who took over from him were used car salesman who just wanted to please their bosses who wanted to lease their bosses. The end result was the blackmail of a developer who was no longer able to make the game they really wanted.

 

[existensmaximum]

Did they cut all the fun and good gameplay elements too? That would explain a lot.

The gameplay and the story were well below average. I really had to struggle to even finish it.

 

[Danjin44]

Looks like @EverydayBeast took over Danjins account holy shitballs

I'm everywhere and everyone....

 

[Blood Borne]

Dude should STFU.

They could’ve simply made “Gears of War: Vampire and Werewolf Edition”, but instead made some bullshit.

 

[nial]

Shu was promoted, went to japan and the bitches who took over from him were used car salesman who just wanted to please their bosses who wanted to lease their bosses. The end result was the blackmail of a developer who was no longer able to make the game they really wanted.

Me when I lie on the internet.

 

[bender]

I'm everywhere and everyone....

More than one Danjin44 ?

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

This is an amazing review and my favorite thing to post any time GAF starts trying to revise history and change 1886 into some underrated gem. Imagine if in four or five years people start to try and claim Redfall was actually pretty great but just *insert excuses here*.

Interesting to hear that a lot was cut, including some narrative stuff. Maybe the extra year could have helped salvage the god awful story. Probably wouldn’t have done anything about the piss poor gameplay, though.

 

[Calverz]

Everyone knows the first game should have had multiplayer. A few bits of narrative here and there would not have increased its metacritic score. A simple gears clone multiplayer mode would have.

 

[AndrewRyan]

Got it for $3 and loved the graphics. One of those games that right in the middle of playing realized I wasn't having any fun and just quit and never went back. Too bad they didn't get time to finish/polish it.

 

[hemo memo]

The Order 1886 is a stunningly beautiful turd. Repetitive, uninspired combat, punctuated by ridiculously long cutscenes. A hollow, overpriced tech demo masquerading as a game.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Is there an example of a franchise that flopped this hard on it's initial release getting a good sequel? I'm sure there must be. I'm just genuinely wondering.

There's Hellblade I guess, a game that parallels this one in a lot of ways. Though I don't know if that sequel is generally considered "good"

Since when was the first Hellblade considered a flop? It was never touted as this hype machine. We always knew its an AA effort at best, small game, just the subject matter was something new to talk about. No matter the sales, nobody advertized Hellbalde 1 as a system seller, just one of the games from a pile for that year.

 

[Grizzled Ghost]

Since when was the first Hellblade considered a flop? It was never touted as this hype machine. We always knew its an AA effort at best, small game, just the subject matter was something new to talk about. No matter the sales, nobody advertized Hellbalde 1 as a system seller, just one of the games from a pile for that year.

I'll admit I didn't realize it had such a small team and budget, and I may have been conflating the second game's dismal performance with that of the first's.

Any good examples?

 

[Robb]

And the fact that he thinks the problem was that they had to cut “subtle narrative parts” just proves Sony made the right call.

Maybe pitch and make a game next time.

 

[Ozzie666]

Great world and concept, poor execution of gameplay and controls. Real shame because the setting was inspired.

 

[Gojiira]

In my opinion Order 1886 should have been survival horror game which lets you use Tesla’s weapons freely and actually fight proper Werewolves and Vampires.

Yep this is exactly what it should have been. A Hub, a ‘War’ map style mission select, missions taking place across the country. Would have been so much better.

 

[GymWolf]

Some things better stay dead.

 

[Felessan]

Said no to Resistance 4
Said no to Days Gone 2
Said no to Order 1886 2


Common Sony management L.

One thing Sony management do right is to not allow 343 bullshit to continue for years

It's not a charity business, if game doesn't perform, maybe you should do something else. We have enough bloatware as it is, it's better than devs concentrate on things players actually like than "continuation of their loved but mediocre shitty franchise"

 

[TheSHEEEP]

What the fuck is a mock review???

A pseudo-review in which you have a bunch a people write a review for your in-development title as if it was finished, and as if the review would be written for a magazine.
Where generally some of the things that aren't finished are just pretended to be the way they are planned for the sake of the review.

In a way, it is similar to test screenings for movies.
Trying to gauge perception, basically.

The issue is of course that journo/magazine reviews are barely relevant anymore and definitely NOT representative of a game's general perception anymore.
But back in 2015, this was still quite different (and execs tend to stick to outdated stuff longer than reasonable anyway).

 

[nowhat]

What the fuck is a mock review???

Ask Bethesda/MS, they conducted ones for Redfall. It apparently seemed pretty good.

As for Hellblade getting a sequel over The Order - if it really was about critical reception (big if), the original Hellblade reviewed very well.

 

[Xtib81]

I wish they would reboot the IP, the universe is amazing. That's wasted potential here

 

[angelgs90]

A sequel would be amazing.

They could just focus on improving the gameplay and use the exact same graphics engine and will look awesome even for today standards.

 

[The_Observer]

So they needed one more year and they would have easily produced a better game that could have received a sequel. But Sony didn’t let them delay it and even if what we got was memorable, while not perfect, it was decent. But this was not enough, useless “journalists” and console warriors killed it for good.

 

[dDoc]

If true might explain why the game lacked so much, whilst being promising.

Sony fuck ups did not only occur recently.

 

[MetalFreak]

I wished that game had been delayed to flesh out gameplay a bit more.
The visuals, setting, affective tone, etc, are still great though.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Said no to Resistance 4
Said no to Days Gone 2
Said no to Order 1886 2


Common Sony management L.

Sony didn't say no to Days Gone 2. It was the studio itself.

Resistance was a flopped trilogy and The Order was mocked when released for being a movie. Only later it somehow got that cult classic treatment.

None of those 3 games would make people to buy a PS4 or 5.

 

[Lord Panda]

I'd forgive Sony if they simply gave The Order 1886 the HBO mini-series treatment. It would be a damn awesome show.

 

[TheKratos]

I'm in the minority who loved the game I guess.

 

[Bradamante3D]

Order 1886 did a lot of things right. Art style, steampunk London atmosphere, mocap, the particles were great. For me, this is a single player title, not multiplayer. If you implement multiplayer for this thing, you would either get a GaaS game where vampires and riflemen are fighting over sectors; or an asymmetric shooter a la Evolve. Or an extraction shooter a la Hunt the Showdown, which in terms of art style is kinda close. The problem I see there is that you dont want to put melee characters (werewolves, vampires) vs riflemen.

The big controversy at the time was performance, because the game ran at 2,35:1 with black bars at 20-30 FPS.

So yeah, with another year in the oven this could have been one of the greats.

 

[midnightAI]

@adamsapple My man finally with a W.

Sony never owned RAD though?

(if you want to play the blame game put it on the studio heads at RAD and, ultimately on META for its closure)

 

[longrainwater]

I still don’t understand the view in video game culture that reviews are meaningful.

 

[Lysandros]

The big controversy at the time was performance, because the game ran at 2,35:1 with black bars at 20-30 FPS.

I don't remember reading that the game had poor performance, i was under the impression it ran at a pretty consistent 30 FPS. The aspect ratio choice had nothing to do with performance though, Andrea Pessino himself explained it here.

 

[MALpractice311]

The main problem with The Order, in my opinion, was the value proposition vs. the amount of content. It was only 5 hours long and significant percentage of that time was cutscenes and there was a lot of reused content. But it was sold for full price new. If it had been a $30 release, I think there would have been a lot less criticism, because it would have been a budget length title at a budget price.

I bought it on sale for $10 and thought it was decent for that amount, but could never personally justify more than $20.

 

[Hudo]

I'd forgive Sony if they simply gave The Order 1886 the HBO mini-series treatment. It would be a damn awesome show.

I'd watch that.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

I still don’t understand the view in video game culture that reviews are meaningful.

It only matters when someone wants to use it as a pro or as a con in their argument

I have really enjoyed many games that reviewed poorly and also didn’t like some games that reviewed extremely well.

 

[photogaz]

I passed on The Order when it first came out due to the reviews. I finally played it last year and I loved it. Yes it was short, yes it had issues but the story and atmosphere was great. I'd argue that the art direction and visual look is still unbeaten to this day. I'd love a sequel but it's never going to happen.

 

[SF Kosmo]

The Order was really behind the curve in terms of gameplay. It leaned hard into the linear cinematic stuff that dominated the previous gen but which fell out of fashion in the PS4 era.

Ready at Dawn is a great dev though, and I loved their VR games. I'm really sad to see the studio shuttered.

 

[Moriarty1889]

Ashamed a sequel was never made as this game world had so much potential. I personally loved the Order and still go back and play it from time to time.

 

[Sgt.Asher]

It was a really good looking game. It was a really bad game.

 

[Cyborg]

The design of these characters man o man! They fcking look amazing, just look at Galahad. Damn!

 

[Fbh]

Most early Ps4 games were probably rushed a bit and could have used more time, The Order still ended up being one of the worst ones though.
It's still a shame such a cool concept was wasted on such a poor game

The Order was really behind the curve in terms of gameplay. It leaned hard into the linear cinematic stuff that dominated the previous gen but which fell out of fashion in the PS4 era.
Ready at Dawn is a great dev though, and I loved their VR games. I'm really sad to see the studio shuttered.

I don't think the problem is that it was a linear cinematic game. The problem is that it was a BAD linear cinematic game.
The approach games like Uncharted 2-3 took to cinematic gaming was making cool scripted setpiece moments where the player still gets to be an active part of the action, which makes you feel like you are playing an action movie. The approach RAD took was to make you slowly walk around non interactive environments where you can occasionally pick up an item to look at it and having lots of cutscenes and QTE's.

Being like 7 hours long with zero replay value and not additional modes or multiplayer didn't help either.

 

[viveks86]

What a shame. The premise had so much potential and it looks like RAD had their hands tied. Just a tragedy that the game didn't hit its own goals. But it never came across a rushed game. Just a shallow and mediocre one. So I will push back a little as this definitely comes across as a biased, one-sided story. The game did not suck because of lack of nuance or polish. I highly doubt one extra year would have made better AI, level design or increased replay value. The setting and lore were fantastic, but the actual plot was paper thin as well. Seems like someone isn't reflecting hard enough on what they could have done better.

 

[SF Kosmo]

I don't think the problem is that it was a linear cinematic game. The problem is that it was a BAD linear cinematic game.

More dates than bad. It played like Gears of War or so many other games that were quite popular the previous gen, but in the PS4 Gen you had to be more wide linear or open.

 

[StereoVsn]

“One of the problems is that so much was cut,” Pessino said. “A lot of the more subtle narrative parts were lost because so much was chopped away and things that were supposed to be interactive became a movie.”

“We needed another year, that’s the reality,” he added. “We needed at least one more year, we didn’t get it, so we were like, cut, cut, cut.”

That’s a damn shame. Sound like the game could be quite a bit better and the setting was pretty interesting.

 

[Denton]

This IP and setting had so much potential...to see it squandered is just sad.

 

[Spiral1407]

Would probably be loved if it launched today. Walkie talkie games seem to be all the rage nowadays.

 

[poodaddy]

The game took years to develop and was not good. It had great aesthetics, but was completely devoid of compelling gameplay. I don't think a year would have saved it. This game would have needed multiple years to create a more compelling structure to it.

Shouldn't be any surprise why Sony didn't greenlight a sequel. More revisionist history that this game was somehow great when it wasn't.

That said, it must have been a hard choice because clearly the game looked the part. There's certain things to like about the game. Maybe they did not do a good enough job convincing Sony they had a path to greatness, especially with their handheld roots.

It had very interesting lore and world building, and is still one of the most filmic and flawless presentations I've ever seen in a game to this day. It was not "bad", it was unfinished, and it deserved a sequel with plenty of time to realize its potential, and it's a shame that didn't happen regardless of what you thought about the game. I truly think something potentially special was lost there.

 

[Mercenary09]

Guy comes across as salty and I say that as someone who liked the game. I wanted a sequel but let's be real 1 extra year wasn't going to do anything for this game. It takes most games a year to get done polishing. This game straight up had major design flaws. 1 year wasn't going to make the game much longer. Changing a few cutscenes to gameplay wasn't going to do much either. I don't blame Sony one bit for not wanting to put another year's worth of money into it. They just fucked up worrying too much about making a pretty game and hoping they were going to get handed a bag to make a sequel.