I'd believe this was the case too if they didn't then go and lob a brick load of resources at 4xMSAA. If they swapped it out for a normal post processing AA method like infamous's, and reduced the horizontal FOV, it would run pretty much the same at 1920x1080 as it does now. That's what makes me inclined to believe it's genuinely an artistic decision. Perhaps a shitty decision, but a legitimate one none the less.

What scares me is that you actually believed that "cinematic aspect radio" was even a thing. By now I expected everyone to know that all that "cinematic" crap it's just another way of saying "oops, srry, da consnole cant handle it".

One of the many things I dont care for from Evil Within.

I had no problems with it in The Evil Within, i loved it even. Only thing stopping me from getting The Order would be bad reviews across the board not a silly aspect ratio lol.

Yeah. Personally, I stop noticing them after a couple of minutes, that is if the game is engrossing enough for me.

In the video in the OP, Black Bars with Fixed FOV gave quite a bit of the scenery. Seems like a fair trade off with no bars+fixed FOV. I don't see the problem. Especially if we're getting better AA for it.

The whole bashing of choices developers make has to stop, it's their games, they make them, if you don't like the game then don't buy it.
The fact that Uncharted 4 has a full screen image, better image quality, a less linear environment, even better AA and it's targeting 60FPS shows that PS4 is capable of more than the Order is doing, so it having borders is a choice because the developers want it to look more like a movie and that it does.

I think the concept of something being "cinematic" goes right over your head. The 2.34:1 aspect ratio is not used to make the game play better, its purely an artistic and design choice. the game is just "framed" that way. with the obvious added benefit of it freeing up resources to use elsewhere.

if anyone can remember a game called fear effect they would know stuff like this has been done for a very very long time. I honestly really like that aspect ratio, of anything my problem is that more games should be made to support it.

the fact that you didnt even notice this when you say the many gameplay vids of the game says a lot. 

Yeah and it looks great.