I didn't really have that much interest in this game to begin with after seeing some of the initial reveal footage with QTEs and what appeared to be generic chest-high-walls cover shooting mechanics, so I can understand some of the reviews that are critical of the mechanics of the game and the pros and cons of them. What I find abso-fucking bewildering is the number of reviews criticizing this game for what it apparently isn't instead of what it is, a very linear, story driven SP experience.
Somewhere I missed the memo apparently where SP games now have to have unlockable weapons that you have to level now? Tacked on MP? Choice-based narratives and branching paths in a linear narrative experience? I think I literally read something that knocked the game for beginning development at a time when people were enamored with the likes of Uncharted 2? Uncharted 2 is a bad game now? Jim actually says that it harkens back to a PS2 game, which sounds kind of awesome. Does every game have to have an open world now with a skill tree to unlock the ability to run fast and jump slightly higher or something now? I can obviously get why the mechanics of the game may be dull or outdated, such as the shooting mechanics and QTE's, AND I understand why certain people don't like "cinematic gameplay" games, but hell I loved the Uncharted games and The Last of Us.
The thing I'm worried about is that these reviews are going to send the wrong message to publishers. Instead of sending the message that maybe you should try to liven up the gameplay mechanics, the message is going to going to be that no one likes SP narrative games anymore. The message is going to be if we try to make a AAA story driven SP experience, we are going to get shit reviews and nobody is going to buy it unless we water it down and fill it with busy work filler content, unlockables, skill trees, leveling guns, and a tacked on MP mode filled to the brim with microtransactions along with an aggressive DLC release schedule.
This line of thinking is the same reason why I'm struggling to play through Alien:Isolation because they felt like they needed to make it a 20-hour experience instead of a 10-hour one and why playing Dragon Age Inquisition at this point for me feels like work because it is filled with so much time-wasting, game-padding, filler-laden bullshit side content.
I wonder how these reviewers are going receive Uncharted 4? It should get a baseline 6 or 7 judging by something of these reviews I'm reading. .
This is great post. The Order is (apparently) a shit game because it's a shit game - because it fails at what it attempts to do and be. It shouldn't be criticized for not being something it never aspired to be.
The lessons here need to be the following:
If you're a single-player only game, you absolutely cannot skimp on content.
If your game has a heavy narrative focus, the story must be top quality and professionally written.
If your game has a heavy narrative focus, the story therein must be self-contained, and a full experience with beginning, middle and end.
In such a game, the early pacing between plot exposition and gameplay is of crucial importance, and should lean away from plot dumps and towards easing the player into the game systems themselves.
Pretty visuals are not, in and of themselves, a substitute for world-building through writing.
If your game is on the short side, you will really upset people if you pad the game or reuse sections. You probably should never do this anyway.
If your game is single-player only, you need to base the game around fun encounter design, which includes enemies themselves, their AI patterns and level design. Having two or three types of enemy throughout a game does not cut it.
If you're making a cinematic game, don't try to pretend that's not what it is or you will trick some people for a while, and receive a tremendous backlash when they realize they've been misled.
You need to pay at least a little bit of attention to the gaming zeitgeist. If everyone and their mother rages about how much they hate QTEs online, it might be a good idea to avoid making QTEs 10% of your game.
Unfortunately it feels like the lessons are going to be:
Don't make games without multiplayer
Don't make games without leveling systems
Don't make games without new game+
Don't make single-player narrative games at all
Hopefully everyone can just point to Uncharted and The Last of Us if people are coming to the wrong conclusions.
