Great Lessons From The Order:1886

By now, you've all seen the reviews and personal accounts of experiences with The Order: 1886. Very mixed, depending on who you are which isn't a bad thing. Variety is good and opens the doors for more varied games in the future. At the time of me writing this, the game has a 65 average on Metacritic based on 56 documented reviews. Normally, I'm not an advocate of Metacritic, but it serves a purpose that I'll get into later. Though some reviews were very condemning (such as a 1/5 review), it wasn't without some useful information. That is, following The Order's life cycle from introduction at E3 to the release, there are interesting conclusions one can extrapolate from the game's journey into our homes. Here, I want to list some things I've learned from watching this as an outsider looking in, some of which are very obvious but should be reiterated anyway. Hopefully, many of you can identify and generate some interesting discourse on the topic.

1. Hype is a cruel mistress

This is an obvious one. Since the beginning, the game was shown to have incredible visual fidelity and a very interesting universe with great physics on the cloth simulation, gunplay, and more. Everything from the start looked incredibly incredible. Based on the looks and the fact that the game was always demonstrated in the same areas, enthusiastic gamers believed the demo was based on an early build and the game has evolved since. Unamused gamers suggested that if Ready at Dawn had anything different to share with us to dispel the bad vibes, they would have. The game more or less played out as the unamused gamers expected and the game ended up doing worse with review outlets than expected. Conversation about a game in a large enough community can justifiably be treated as press; it's when it is overwhelmingly positive among gamers that hype is created. Hype creates an enormous expectation, often more seriously when a game is exclusive. When I see games like No Man's Sky, I wonder if we care about it so much because the concept is very interesting, Hello Games' involvement, or because it's a PlayStation 4 exclusive.

2. Bad Press Can Be a Primer

Serving as the antithetical of hype, bad press came flurrying in since a month ago. All of the problems and concerns voiced then are review criticisms now. You have to wonder...would these issues be as prominent now if all we heard or saw from the game from about a month ago were screenshots and trailers? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the problems were really that pronounced and very many reviewers felt the same about it...or maybe all of the bad press had a sort of MC Escher effect where once you're shown how to look at something, you struggle to un-see it. We won't really know, but it would be interesting to see how gamer opinions differ following a media blackout period.

3. No studio is infallible

This is a scary lesson to consider. The Order: 1886 was made by studios that one would have intense faith in. Ready at Dawn of PSP fame and Sony's own Santa Monica Studio. Now, I hope you all understand I'm not saying that The Order is a bad game, but it seems almost unanimous that it could certainly be a better game. That said, the time and talent that went into this game is hard to ignore. This is an important lesson to remember. After all, Destiny which many people seem to be iffy about came from Bungie and Capcom who made Resident Evil 2...also made Resident Evil 6. I like to stay optimistic, so let's not talk about dangers looming over Quantum Break or The Phantom Pain. Yeah, who am I kidding, those games have a high chance of being great. The early impressions are promising which they never really were for The Order sadly.

4. Exclusives are still the fun thing to hate

Anytime we have press conferences with the console makers involved, forums, message boards, and gaming sites turn into a Bostonian pub on Superbowl Sunday with strangers calling your favorite team bums, cheaters, crooks, etc. My point is, it gets messy and defensive for one big reason: who will have the big exclusives? If you subscribe to notion that you only need/want one of the consoles, you're probably still hawking the competition to see what they're snatching up. Heck, the world was furious with the initial announcement of Rise of a Tomb Raider...then it was revealed that the deal has a duration. Either way, PS4 only gamers will not be playing Rise of a Tomb Raider this year. The defense? "We have Uncharted, our LIFETIME exclusive, that will be releasing this year. Good luck, Crystal Dynamics". In the case of The Order:1886, a lot of the people without PS4s or any interest in the PS4 or this game consistently had negative opinions of a product they were surely not going to be buying. Watching a game is fine if you're on the fence and commenting accordingly, but then you have the kids who most certainly will not buy it and found some kind of intimidation factor in the product. To be fair, I see a lot of this being treated as "payback" for a previous game on a rival platform that was chastised, which, by the way, is incredibly petty and immature. There were people gathering around the Forza Horizon 2 topics to berate a game they surely were not going to play either and talked up Drive Club. Drive Club ended up having severe online impairments which was a big part of the game where the Forza Horizon 2 fans were surely not going to let that blunder go unnoticed which was then followed by the Drive Club players having a great laugh at the Master Chief Collection fans' frustration with the broken online. At the end of the day, we're just out to deter sales and interest in the rival platform's exclusives. I'm sure in a couple of days or a week, we'll find out all about why Bloodborne will disappoint...then the Bloodborne fans will find some criticism for some game on XBOX One. Rinse, repeat.

5. Believe it or not, the gaming media still has power

Be honest with yourselves for a moment: when you saw a bad review, did you agree with it and say it was well written or did you treat it as biased and lacking credibility? When you saw a good review, did you agree with it and say it was well written or did you treat it as biased and lacking credibility? The very thought that these review outlets can evoke such strong emotions, positive or negative, suggests we do care what the gaming media has to say. Not in its entirety, of course, but we do love to pick and choose when to listen to the media. The media cares not for your agrees or disagrees. Only that you have an opinion about something they wrote because obviously, if you do, you've contributed to their daily traffic.

6. Sequels and Second Chances for Studios are a Must

Yes, production costs are skyrocketing. No, The Order:1886 wasn't a cheap venture. No, the game isn't likely to break even in light of all the criticism. Do I believe Ready at Dawn should be written off in any capacity? No, and I don't even think we should bar The Order from sequels. Sony as a company are often committed to games, even if they don't cash in; Mr. Spencer even had kind words about that. When a game is poorly received, the entire product should be reevaluated. In the case of The Order, the reception is very mixed, but at the higher end of the mixed reception tier. In my eyes, this means that Ready at Dawn was on to something, but to make it a huge success, there are some constructive changes that can be made to appeal to more people.

7. The Industry Can Learn from Ready At Dawn

Just to counterbalance the last lesson, what do P.t., Metal Gear Solid V, The Order: 1886, and Drive Club have in common? They're ambitious projects with high production values that aren't afraid to be themselves. P.t. takes a well-known franchise and completely reworks everything we know about it and makes it into an apparition-based experience. Metal Gear Solid V boldly removes a beloved franchise from its comfort zone and goes open world with very different mechanics. The Order takes a familiar cover system with a new spin on history and focuses on a cinematic experience more than just about any other game that I can think of. Drive Club to my knowledge was the first game that was created with the intention of a true asynchronous, online-intensive arcade racer. Were all of these games well received? The Order and Drive Club had issues, but MGSV is heavily anticipated (seriously, I've blacked out all media since the E3 trailer because the anticipation is getting unbearable) and P.t., a DEMO, was treated as perhaps the most terrifying experience in a long time. These games all set out to define themselves. Drive Club underdelivered at launch but has since made strides to show gamers a great time. As for The Order (which is what this is all about) despite the concerns, criticisms, and uproar following the QTE and black bar emphasis, Ready at Dawn stuck with their original vision of the game, which might I add is RARE in high quality titles. There's generally a tried and true formula for high production games to maximize consumer interest, but some games take serious risks. In the case of P.t. and MGSV, those could have potentially alienated their entire fanbases. No, we the consumers appear to be very impressed and want to see much more and that's the attitude that can push the industry forward. The Order and Drive Club who had no fans of the games (only the developers) did something very different. It remains to be seen how it pays off, but some of us are often quick to write off indies. Some of them are pretty awful, but then you have the Velocity 2Xes, Hotline Miamis, and Shovel Knights of the world which take pieces of our favorite games and create some unique elements to make them stand out. To me, The Order may not be an amazing game, but Ready at Dawn stuck to their steampunk guns and wanted to see how consumers felt about their vision and I can't say how much respect that deserves, especially with a game like that which no doubt has a massive budget.

I feel like saying this all the time is incredibly redundant, but I want you to know there's only sincerity when I say thank you for reading and feel free to agree or disagree in the comments below. Hopefully, if you bought The Order: 1886, you love this game and found your investment worthwhile. Happy gaming, mates. :0)

[PiNkFaIrYbOi]

Good read.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

I think the problem is, there has not been a triple A video game that has a lot of wow factor in a long time for us veteran gamers . Can anyone name a game that came out in the last year that has had that type of wow factor . I can not name one myself . Great blog !!

[HammadTheBeast]

All of the potential ones were disappointments because PR is so stupidly overfunded that they set impossible standards for themselves. Destiny, Titanfall, Watch Dogs, all of them set themselves up for failure because of the massive advertisement campaigns they set up.

[gamejediben]

I can name a few recent triple A exclusives that still had that wow factor...

Super Smash Bros
Bayonetta 2
Mario Kart 8

Nintendo.
Where awesome triple A exclusives call home.

[mac_sparrow]

Bayonetta 2 probably, but Mario kart and Super Smash are now up to far too many iterations to have the wow factor. I'm not saying they aren't solid titles, but we certainly know what to expect from them.

[ABizzel1]

@DefenderOfDoom2

I've been saying that for the longest. The last games to give me that wow factor were GTA5 and The Last of Us.

Nothing so far this gen has done that. I've been wowed by graphics, but not by story, characters, protagonist, antagonist, gameplay, world, etc... Not a single game has nailed all those fronts for me, so far this generation.

Up next (the next few months) Bloodbourne, The Witcher 3, and Batman Arkham Knight.

[maniacmayhem]

I think this game would have had a better reception if it would have been a launched title. It probably would have gotten the passes everyone expected other games who launched early would have had.

But instead it was delayed and even the devs said that the demo would not be how the final game was. But it pretty much was indication on how the gameplay was.

I truly feel that the game was delayed to fill in a void of no Sony 1st party games releasing the first half of the year.

I really hope that the sequel addresses all the issues many are having. My biggest gripe would be multiplayer. I love the weapons in this game and would love to use that arc lightning gun in a team deathmatch on top of an air blimp.

[memots]

I feel Dev should come out with the game idea and then not show anything or answer any question. No release date nothing.

Simply come out; here is a blueprint of what we are working on and we will announce more when it comes out.

That way everyone can be pleasantly surprise instead of have stupid console war destroying everything and ruining it for the dev and everyone.
Just look at everything that came out this gen. Its a full on disaster, If gamers don't wake up soon we will kill the industry.

[DarXyde]

Thanks for the compliments, all. I try to space out my replies since I'm a man of a few words. And by that, I mean bubbles. :0)

@DefenderofDoom,

You're very right about that. If The Last of Us didn't come out for PS3, we might have a different conversation, but we're definitely having a bit of a drought. I'm hoping that Bloodborne signals an amazing year ahead. But you know, I really enjoyed P. T. Sure it was a teaser demo, but I found it groundbreaking enough to scare me and I'm hard to scare.

@HammadTheBeast,

I'd have to disagree on the advertising thing, but only somewhat. Ubisoft might be the only one who set their standards against them. Otherwise, I think Titanfall and Destiny are victims of consumer hype. I don't recall any of the talk about those games from reputable sources saying the game would include anything that it didn't. That was probably just hope for the studios behind it. I find that The Order suffered similarly.

@maniacmayhem,

This is totally a game where multiplayer would make total sense. Third person shooters typically are. If it were a launch title I think it would wowed more and it would be treated as one of the better titles and show a glimpse of what PS4 could do early on. Sends a powerful message.

@memots,

Jeff seems to be doing that with Drawn to Death right now. But withholding too much info too long is bad. Sega Saturn suffered for that.

[miyamoto]

5. Believe it or not, the gaming media still has power

Are you kidding?

You call spamming the web with negative nitpicking and negative publicity a display of power? Don't kid yourself.

If there is one thing the American gaming media, Microsoft and Nintendo have in common this generation is they under estimated the natural intelligence of gaming consumers- from causal to hardcore.

These big and small gaming sites like IGN, Gamespot, Eurogamer etc., which are infested by trolls and haters, are nothing compared to big Let's Play YouTubers like Pew Die Pie, The Rad Brad, etc. because these gamers chose not to just accept any information but to question and SEE for themselves the truth.

Greg Miller and company saw this change coming so they left the establishment and went to YT because they know gamers want to see the truth and not read paid news and opinions. And guess what IGN's PlayStation segment which Miller represents are the one that truly generate traffic and following.

These gaming media scumbags are just capitalizing on the popularity of PlayStation to generate clicks.

One gaming analyst quoted that M$ had a huge media buyout in US and UK last gen like Kotaku, Eurogamer, Polygon, Venture Beat, Digital Foundry, etc. Where are they now? Insignificant. Gamers don't trust these sites no more.
No amount of billions of dollars can ever bring back the trust M$ & its PR department lost by screwing the gamers this gen.

This is the era of the truth-informed gamers and the end of gaming media. The millions of consumers there trust those with factual evidences. Truth-Informed Gamers have the real power.

And the PS4's success is proof of that.

[thorstein]

One lesson we can definitely learn from the Order: 1886 is that the gaming press is woefully out of touch with the user base. I just read through the comments section of a clickbait article about the Order that claimed it was a disappointment.. The majority of posters praised the game.

Thinking that it could be an anomaly, I checked the low review comments section. Low and behold, the posters once again defended the game. Now, I know how fanboyism works, but many, many of these posters were basically relating their own experience with the game and saying it was quite enjoyable.

There were even some Xbox One fans that were calling out the reviewers (of particularly low reviews) and claiming that it was certainly clickbait.

So, yes. There are lessons in all of this:

1) Don't believe review scores. Do not, under any circumstances, let them influence your purchase of a game you want to play.

2) Gaming journalists (especially at the more well known sites) are becoming increasingly out of touch with the gaming public. And, incredibly, they jump into the comments section to fight a battle with the people who are disagreeing with them. Then, instead of conceding that they are wrong (no the Order is not a 4/10) or mistaken, they continue to fight on.

There are still places to go and read articles that are not clickbait, but these (formerly respectable places) are getting few and far between.

[Chard]

Mainstream journalists and reviews have been compromised and unreliable for a long long time, which is how we've ended up with this paradigm where scores below 8 have been generally considered 'bad', while games with big budgets have gotten inflated scores despite having shallow gameplay.

To be honest, I was surprised to see The Order get average (or 'bad' according to the current paradigm) scores that actually reflected its gameplay quality.
IF these standards are now applied consistently henceforth, this could be a good thing, assuming it pushes developers to put more effort into the gameplay aspect of their games.

[CaptainObvious878]

I thought my opinion on the games media couldn't get any worse, then The Order embargo lifted.

[Kevlar009]

While it's wasn't fair or acceptable for The Order to get the backlash it did over the past year, as a developer it can be immensely valuable to get vocal criticisms 6 months to a year from launch. Sure Developers have a set plan from the start of how they want their games to be (R@D wanted a cinematic, SP experience), but when people tell you the combat is a little stale, the pacing isn't quite right, there needs be more to do then it's a good idea to make sure those aspects are refined and enjoyable for everyone who plays it.

Now critics didn't necessarily eloquently describe their criticism (it's was more yelling and name calling than constructive), it's one thing to aide development another to bash it. Devs do need to keep certain components under wraps, so it's not like we can get a clear picture from the get-go on what needs to get better, but I'm sure we can look back and say "these parts needed a little something extra". Ideally R@D would have been able to cut through some of the filth, compare useful criticism to what they already had, and made sure everything was as good as can be. I can't fully judge them since I'm not a game creator, but it is something you have to be able to do to the best of your ability as a game designer if you hope to gain credibility.

Anytime you create a game that isn't the norm there are more challenges to face than say a more tested or conventional game. However it's important for us and the industry to be civil when passing early judgment, and for the game developer to take common criticism seriously and silence the doubt with a great creation. When it comes to The Order, I'm sure the majority of us who either have played or seen the game from footage can truthfully say "This was not the best it could have been".

[DemonSlayer420]

Well, that's YOUR OPINION. I waited for The Order since it was announced. I picked it up day one and played through it in two days, something I never do with an SP game. I still haven't finished Rage, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider PS4, Watch Dogs PS4, Ryse or SSOD. The Order however had an amazing story, great gunplay with fantastic weapons, an amazing setting with attention to detail that most games couldn't even accomplish with ten years dev cycle, and my god the graphics are astonishing. This is NEXT GEN. What game on Xbone is better or defines NEXT GEN like The Order?? I bet when the new Gears of War comes out it will receive praise even though it will have the same gameplay as the Gears of War 3(3rd person cover shooter) with generic characters, a generic sci fi setting, and a non-coherent story and we will see 9's and 10's roll in. Give me a break please and just stop, "This was not the best it could have been." Are you fucking kidding me? That statement is beyond ignorant.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

To DarXyde , I gave you a bubble up vote due to the work you put into the blog . The blog section is my favorite section to go to at this N4g site .

To everybody , remember , bad press is better than no press . The Order has recieved so much press in the last 2 weeks which i believe helps advertise the game . Just watched a video from Gamespot about all the 1 scores giving out by Gamespot featuring Jefff Gertsmann . Gertsmann said when he comes across a video game that is terrible , he will not cover it . No Quick Look or nothing . But Giant Bomb did a Quick Look for The Order hence giving The Order more exposure and free advertising .

There is not much big video game news on daily basis for video games media to cover . So they will discect every trailer , demo , screenshot ect.._ of a big video game coming out . Again whether the coverage is good or bad or in the middle, the game is still getting a lot of exposure which most publishers love .

[DarXyde]

It really makes me happy to see such lively discussion. :0)

@Thorstein,

I'm entertaining the thought of journalists being out of touch with users. On one hand, you would think they're upsetting their users, but would it grab your attention if the author agreed with you? It's a lot like being told you're great all the time and suddenly, someone says you're terrible. You're likely to bat an eye, I would imagine. Certain comments and views are more salient than others and it sounds like they used ol' journalistic psychology for hits. I should add that I find review scores more or less supplemental in my decision-making. If I really want a game because the gameplay looked solid and I've been wanting it for a while and I hear it's terrible, I read reviews for justifications. Is it broken? Are promised features missing? In that case, I might wait for a patch or bargain bin. The only reviewers I took with some weight were Joystiq and (let me explain) Kotaku. I like the scoreless system Kotaku uses (recommend or no?), but it ends there. Joystiq I loved because I compared my personal opinion of games after I played them to their's and Joystiq's reasons were often synonymous with my own. They even recommended me some games through their reviews. I trusted their journalism and it's a shame they went under because they were incredibly objective in their analyses. I certain agree with being out of touch and sensationalist though. Seriously, a 4/10 is absolutely brutal and that is bordering on unplayable for technical reasons or otherwise. A 4/10 basically means there's very little fun to be had, but from what I understand the game itself isn't terrible at all, it's just short, linear, and could use more action. That in my opinion is a 6-6.5 at least. Most reviewers felt that way too, which says a lot about the extremists. But I also find the 9/10 scores are reviewers with rose-tinted shades. At the very least, I expect it's an interesting adventure that leaves something to be desired, which is fair. First console outing, new IP. I think they'll nail it next time.

@Kevlar009,

Interesting point; you can nip the problems in the bud before the reviewer wolves are let out of their cages if you take the criticisms constructively. I suspect there are only 2 reasons why The Order didn't take a hint: Sony's deadline and Santa Monica needed to free up time to work out other games. When you think about it, it makes sense that some of these games were less than stellar. With Sony as the publisher, they likely had a strict policy in place. I assume this will not affect Bloodborne, but Uncharted 4 being shown in alpha, Killzone Shadow Fall disappointing, and LittleBigPlanet 3 underperforming might be telling clues (but to be fair, Media Molecule didn't make LBP3). I'm of the opinion that the next Killzone and LittleBigPlanet will deliver.

@DefenderofDoom,

Much appreciated! Incoming courtesy bubble! :0)
You're right about the bad press; it worked for Microsoft with Tomb Raider. For The Order though, it's a bit of a crux where the game is getting press, but with so much negativity before release, I feel like that actually made people aware of the game and talking about it, but enough to hurt sales. Negative press didn't work out for the XBOX One prior to launch/policy reversals, which I think is a great example of where bad press can be that. Honestly, we'll have to see how the sales break down in light of all the concerns and berating reviews. Should be interesting to observe.

[DemonSlayer420]

I bet it sells well, word-of-mouth amongst gamers sells more than any marketing campaign. See Demon's Souls.

[DarXyde]

@Miyamoto,

Take a look at your own post above. You wrote an in-depth wall of berating remarks about gaming media. I wonder why that is. Could it be that you actually have formed animus for them? The display of power is not so much in the reviews themselves, but the influence which they've apparently imprinted onto gamers, yourself included. You went as far as identifying specific outlets and names, which if they didn't hold some kind of reputation and influence, you wouldn't be able to be so particular about. Thank you for proving my point.

@DemonSlayer420,

Agreed. Demon's Souls did pretty well I would imagine because all we would hear from friends is how hard the game was. It's an ego challenger and we needed to rise to the challenge. Sure enough, people found out the game was actually great fun and Dark Souls and Bloodborne were born from the catalyst that was Demon's Souls. For The Order, it will need a similar hook for it to sell by word of mouth, if you ask me. I'm not sure it has one yet or ever will. I guess it could be the graphical showpiece.