I agree with you, OP.
Mainly because I think they could hit it out the park with a sequel, to make up for the tiny gem the first game was.
TO1886 is a gem buried deep under the rubble of a skyscraper. A skyscraper of towering ambition and technology which crumbled in on itself under its own weight, compromising how good the
experience could have been.
What did you like about the gameplay besides the actual shooting? It pales in comparison to its direct competition ala Vanquish, Gears of War and Max Payne 3 from an AI, encounter design, movement, level design and overall mechanic standpoint.
Hell even Mass Effect 3 which has clunkier movement at least allows you to roll in a non contextual standing and has a ton more weapon variety along with the draw of all the powers and more enemy variety and open levels.
Fully disagree. The Order 1886 has shooting as good as Gears of War and Max Payne 3. The cover system is, in mechanical and design terms, the best out of both of those games. The AI is fantastic. The movement is god-tier, and also best in class. The close combat is perfectly handled - one button, well integrated, satisfying.
Indeed, it's the encounter/level design which fails the game. And
completely fails it. Some of the encounters are actually still pretty good, but the game barely gives any of them space to breathe before shunting you forward into the next plot point. The AI - which is also very good - also isn't given any space to breathe because they have a super-low shelf life, so tend to be dead before they can do any of their interesting behaviours. They are also almost all in narrow corridors so can't really do much.
There were moments when it felt like I was playing a third-person F.E.A.R. The guns looked amazing, felt amazing, and the AI reacted to them believably and well. The vibe was just badass and fantastic.
All of the above would be fine if the game was longer. It's the truncated length which is The Order's real problem. Just as it's getting going and the combat is getting proper intense, it's over. Even the writing drops to shit-tier in the last scene. They must have mismanaged their resources. Such a tragedy.
TL;DR:
Very short, badly paced game.
There were like 4 shooting sequences that showed how awesome this game could have been, that's why people feel it deserved more dev time or a sequel. And I agree. RAD has shown that it has the technical proficiency, it just needs a better game.
I was really hoping that the order would be like uncharted 1, where its was an ok game, but the sequels would shine and fix things.
We just have to have to make a better game next time, and we will
