I find half of the people in this thread hard to understand. There's people cheering for this game to fail. But people seem to wish to not acknowledge this..
No smart person is actively wishing the game failed. However, some of us are at least happy to see that certain...not-so-glamorous....aspects of single-player AAA "cinematic" games that began cropping up in the tailend of the PS2 era are being put on blast by a good deal of reviewers. Unfortunately, The Order seems to be the game that embodies those traits and is the current one under the spotlight.
The game being linear is not a problem. Many of the best games of all time are linear. The game being single-player is not a problem. Many of the best games of all time are single-player. It being story-driven is not a problem, for many of the best are also story-driven. It lacking MP is not a problem; I don't see people using that against classics like Super Metroid or Resident Evil. And even it being short is not a problem because personally most of my favorite games (such as a good deal of arcade games) are pretty damn short.
However, there is a problem with The Order. When literally half your game is cutscenes and a good chunk of the actual interactive content are QTEs, and the game's length is completely independent of the player's skill in learning the game's level designs/mission structures, enemy patterns, best routes, skill-related shortcuts, item placement/layout and manipulation of the game mechanics in varied scenarios so as to cut down their completion time in direct relation to increase in skill level...that
IS a problem, and is something the worst games of any type exemplify. The Order is a AAA cinematic 3rd-person TPS, but it takes some of the worst aspects of game design and then goes further to take some of the worst aspects of AAA cinematic game design in making half the damn game a film. This is where people such as myself can no longer really come to the game's defense, and have to accept the reality for what it is.
It's a very pretty game; depending on your tastes, the best-looking game out right now on any platform. Unfortunately it just seems to fail in being a game that plays to the real strengths of the medium.