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Same Im on chapter 4. Really liking it. This is my first true PS4 game and Ive been racking up screenshot after screenshot just because im amazed that a console game looks this good. I got the game just because the story intrigued me and Nikola Tesla designed weapons and gadgets. I have played about 2 hours and not disappointed yet.
I think your assessment of how those older games would have scored is conjecture at this point. They scored exactly as they were meant to for the time. If I cherry picked a game from the 80's that scored well and it bombed now and it was one of the most beloved games of that decade it would be because tastes always change as time goes on.
Open world games have made games on rails with QTE's become quite off putting (FMV games already hit this wall in the early 90's). Beyond : Two Souls is a perfect example of this. Interesting story (a tad hokey) full of interesting sequences but its an on the rails QTE game. Some adored it and many did not. The Order falls into this category.
I think the reason The Order has bombed critically is because we are spoiled with games that offer massive replay value or far more user involvement and decision making. The Order has none virtually. And what it does offer is extremely curated and lots of gamers HATE the gaming experience being heavily curated.
I played The Order today. Spent 3 hours with it. I'll give my impressions of that now :
1. Beautiful. I mean staggeringly so. Its kinda funny I remember people wondering when Pixar like movies would become the gameplay of tomorrow. Well The Order crosses that threshold and its pretty damn amazing. Of course it cheats to do this with its fixed aspect ratio. The letterboxing is a sad reminder of how under powered "next gen" consoles are respectful to what we should have gotten (guaranteed 1080p 30 without letterboxing at least). Its still a benchmark of what magic an internal studio can create... graphically.
2. Story. Its not that great but its also lots better than I expected. Starts out very vague but by the (SPOILER) third hour it finally started to unfold. I don't intend to finish it since it doesn't compel me enough to do so. But its not quite as bad as some gaming journos are making it out to be. You don't feel the impact of decision making as this is not a Telltale game. Its the exact opposite. If you were expecting Shakespeare then go else where Hamlet because Denmark will still be here tomorrow
3. Controls. Its absolutely 95% on the rails. You have a very confined space to move through. You can't draw your weapons when you want and there is NOTHING to configure. No RPG elements to this game at all. If that is required for you then don't bother to read further. This is probably the third most heavily QTE'd game I've ever played (Heavy Rain is number one and Beyond : Two Souls is number two). If you don't mind giving up control and allowing the narrative to take you then you might not mind this so much.
4. Value. Nothing to due other than trophies after its done from what I'm told. No reason to go back , nothing to re-experience. Its a one and done game. So in short overpriced. I don't care if it took 5 years to make or the developers family needs my money to keep them going or blah blah. If the game is a one shot experience in today's world then its going to have to be an amazing one to justify its value to my bank account.
In my mind The Order : 1886 is not a $60 game. Its a pretty tech demo surrounding what is masquerading as a game. Its a show piece to demo what can be done with the PS4. It maxed out the PS4 fan when I was playing it so this could be the demo of the very limit of the PS4's graphical power and if so its still impressive but again also disappointing. If you must experience a well done QTE game then I highly recommend Beyond : Two Souls. Its a much better introduction into a heavily curated experience and the characters are FAR more fleshed out and you actually give a shit what happens to them. Also its dirt cheap.
Unless you simply must experience it for yourself don't buy it or at least wait for a dirt cheap sale in 3 months. Rent it absolutely just to gain a greater grasp of the controversy and form a better opinion on your argument. But don't buy it expecting a deep involving game you'll dwell on for years to come. Hope that helps you guys. I'm still pumped for UC4 and Bloodborne so even with this great disappointment Sony can easily recover and perhaps make the sequel or next new IP a bit less fixated hands off experience.
I think you articulated here exactly what the Forbes' article couldn't. These are the two main things I expect from a game these days. One is that what I do in the game, whether it be explicit decisions as a player or not, feels like it is having some impact on the world I am interacting with. To give a couple of examples of older games here:
Christ on a bike.
Actually this describes my feeling while playing HL2 perfectly... going through the motions. That's not to say Doom 3 was better (only played the demo), but it was the most on-rails FSP shooter I'd ever played. The story, characters, and some of the gameplay made up for it though. It was a good example of "cinema game" and how successful that can be.
