Why do you think they're weak though? Is it that you believe that the medium is somehow less capable of presenting a good story than other mediums? I think the answer is far far more obvious, it's because games need to sell well more than other mediums and stories like the Transformers and Avengers of the world sell the best. Gears emulates the emphasis on spectacle that these two movies have going for them to its benefit, it's not purely the gameplay that's the appeal here and that's the cinematic aspect.
And to your last point, you could look at Bioshock which didn't excel in gameplay to nearly the extent that Gears did and is still remembered fondly.
Also, let me be clear, I'm not defending The Order at all, I think the crictism is well placed, I just don't like how cinematic has a negative connotation when it comes to games, when there are plenty of cinematic games with good gameplay.
I think the writing talent isn't there, and until it is, it's a terrible idea to bank the success of your video game on it. I don't know why you think I have a problem with cinematic games in general. Maybe you hadn't seen my other post, but I've said I like some cinematic games.
You're right, Gears does mix game play and cinematic story telling together to make a great game. In fact, that's in part WHY it's a great game. If you were to take either of those two things out what you would be left with isn't very interesting. If you take out the game play, the story and lore isn't enough to hold most people's attention. If you take out the lore and story, the game play, while good, becomes less meaningful.
Which is where the problem seems to lie with the Order. From all impressions I've heard and all of the videos I've seen, the Order doesn't do either of these things very well. They took most of their focus and put it on their story, and the story isn't good enough to carry the whole game. They seem to have put very little focus on the game play comparatively, and I haven't seen anyone say the game play in the Order is anything but serviceable. So what we were left with is a game that doesn't do anything particularly well.
Gears of War is everything the Order is not when it comes to a cinematic game. It uses the interactivity of video games and pairs it well with the storytelling style of a movie.
The Order isn't an example of why cinematic story telling in video games is bad, it's an example of a bad cinematic video game that misses all of the aspects you need to make a good cinematic video game.
