finally played The Order. my Sony biased opinion UPDATE finished it

[binary solo]

6.5/10 is exactly what I gave the game (having actually played it from start to finish). There is plenty good about the game, but there are plenty of flaws and lots of room for improvement. So I completely agree with the metascore on this game. And I pretty much agree with most of what Jim Sterling says in his review.

I do suggest playing it on hard, and self imposing the discipline of not using bullet time (which is what I did for my one and only (so far) play through. That way some fights are genuinely challenging and make for a sense of satisfaction when you get through them. If you play on normal and use bullet time the combat will be ridiculously easy and thus make for an unsatisfying experience for those who like to have challenge in their combat. Also making the combat sections too quick and easy to get through increases the perception that the game is nothing but QTEs and cutscenes. When you set up the conditions for combat to be a challenge that perception diminishes significantly. The way I played the game the balance seemed not so unreasonable.

The only gameplay element I felt was boring was the stealth sections. Fortunately there weren't too many of them. I don't know why I didn't like the stealth sections because I am mostly fine with having a change of pace and having the odd stealth sections.

I am very keen for and looking forward to a sequel.

Even if Sony has greenlit a sequel now, I think they should let some more dust settle and not announce it at E3. If there is a sequel it won't be releasing until some time next year, and so E3 2016 is the time to announce show a decent amount of gameplay, and have a playable demo for the press.