The Order: 1886... Is its backlash good or bad?

[Sentient_Nebula]

So the reviews for The Order: 1886 have been coming in. Perhaps, somewhat unsurprisingly, its reception is rather lackluster.

But something was bothering me about this... Overall, I feel glad that it's getting poor reviews. It might discourage them and other developers from trying the same concept of the "cinematic experience" or whatever that's supposed to mean. I want games to play like games, and I don't like "cinematic" experiences in my games.

And that's part of the problem: I'm selfish. Just because I don't like "cinematic" games, (And I'm not alone in the opinion) that doesn't mean there aren't people out there who do enjoy these kinds of games. We have movies, and we have games. Maybe The Order: 1886 is something in between? Is Ready at Dawn trying to bridge a gap between the two?

And the brings me to the next thing: Ready at Dawn made what they said they were going to make. Vivster pointed this out in his thread recently, and I think he's right. Ready at Dawn said they would create a single-player, story-driven, cinematic video game. Meanwhile, what did they deliver? A single-player, story-driven, cinematic video game. Should we be accusing them for making what they said they would make? And going back to the first point, there's likely people out there who wanted something like this to come out; something in between a movie and a game. Maybe reviewers were looking at this at the wrong angle?

With that said, I'm still not interested in Order: 1886. It doesn't look like a game I would enjoy. However, I think this highlights an issue with the current review system journalists use, particularly review scores. Many sites gave this game a low score, its short length and minimal/uninteresting gameplay as common critisisms. But maybe someone doesn't mind the short length (Most movies are only about 2 hours long) and maybe they don't care about gameplay as much as they care about a good story, beautiful graphics, and that "cinematic" feeling (A feeling I still fail to understand...). Yet unfortuntely, those factors result in a lower arbitrary score, even if those factors are insignificant to someone.