The only smear campaigns are the usual ones that accompany all high profile exclusives. They're called haters and they exist for all platforms. So other than that usual sort of smear there has been no grand smear conspiracy.

The one interesting thing about The Order is that a lot of the game's moderate detractors really want to see a sequel. That doesn't happen very often.

Over half of the critics on Metacritic gave a score of 7/10 or more, which means the bits they liked about the game outweigh the bits they didn't like. So there's no smear among the critics. The gaming community who have actually played the game range from love to loathe and everything in between. So there's no sharp divide which might indicate a strong desire to hate the game.

IMO the game is good enough to sell well enough to earn a sequel. But it's not good enough to deserve Uncharted, TLOU or Gears-like sales. With several improvements The Order 2 could certainly deserve a 5-10 million sales audience. Most of the core concepts and of course the world created by the game are solid enough to achieve that level of excellence. Hell if the had done just did one thing: better the dynamics of fighting Lycans (ordinary ones and boss Lycans), the game probably would have got 75 meta score not 65. With just that one improvement.

I will say winning the "award" for most disappointing game of 2015 would be deserved. Even during the game as you're playing it you can see so much unrealised promise, even with the "collectables" or rather pick up and put downables.

Who are these "smart" people?

why would an agenda  leave some evidence lol, mass media agenda, and other agenda is proven if it's shows on the result not by evidence it self. You think you will believe if i am showing a lot of evidence. The answer is you will REFUSE to  believe. This discussion will only end bad because you have shows that you from the start already deny every possible scenario.

So deny all you can, and keep replying my comment and the Order is keep selling lol.

You only think there is agenda because its poor scores run contrary  to your own pro-Sony agenda.

First off, I agree. Second, this was a risky thread too make, 3rd it was worth getting bannd for. Stand firm in your conviction without waver.

I love what I seen from this game, and will pick it up. I Hope The Order 1886, adds multiplayer. If the next Gears gets better reviews, this was more than a smear campaign.

so you just telling i did this only for sony, too bad i am not that low.   there is a lot of thing that you don't know about thing in this world my friend. To bad before you discussing with me is better you try to learn what is a console warrior, and sales researcher  both are different.

incredible

Alot of people think this way,look at my earlier post to see what excuses some of them make which I find sad.

I don't expect you (or many others) would be claiming as it a smear campaign if it wasn't a Sony exclusive being panned.

Reviewers are not united in some grand conspiracy against Sony. Ready at Dawn simply made a game that doesn't meet the criteria by which most critics assess video games.

I think that what the game did well, it did well enough to leave me interested in a sequel; it built a very interesting setting, (I love the Gothic secret half-breed hunting pseudo-Illuminati alternate history vibe,) and it was of course visually gorgeous, both in the obvious 'whoa' ways, and in subtler ways that need a bit more focus to really appreciate.

Which, ironically, probably hindered it a little too. I got some hands-on time for a couple of hours on my friend's console, (as I'm saving my limited gaming monies for Bloodborne, thank you muchly,) and then a day or two later watched a complete playthrough. I found I actually enjoyed watching the playthrough more than PLAYING the game, for the simple reason that it's a little trickier to notice and admire some of the details when bullets are whizzing past your head, or you're trying to keep an eye on the QTE notifications; the enjoyment of those details outweighed what, for me, was pretty mediocre gameplay. Like that Arc Lightning gun.... I used it during the sequence on the bridge, but I didn't notice until I saw a playthrough that the gun REALLY wrecks your target... like, sometimes half of their torso and an entire arm is missing, it's insane and gruesomely gorgeous, but I didn't notice it until I wasn't distracted with not dying.

Same with the Elder Lycan battles. Those things are gorgeous in motion, but goddamnit, WAITING FOR BUTTON PROMPTS HINDERS THEIR AWESOMENESS. D: For me, at least.

Anyway, aside from that, there are other things about the game that I feel are valid criticisms. Shoddy AI, simplistic gameplay, and the nature of the plot just kind of leave me feeling like we're dealing with a placeholder title, a 'This Is A Prologue Until The REAL Meaty Game Comes Along, Please Buy It Too!' The fact that most of the time the 'rotate stuff in your hands' feature goes nowhere leaves me thinking they ACTUALLY have something useful in mind for it in a sequel, but just threw it in this one as well because shiny graphics.

Funny enough, this game makes me think of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, only this one is sixty bucks. =P Basically, a title that did what it set out to do ('Be Cinematic,') but is just the precursor to something bigger and better down the road, a taste if you will. Another difference though is that Ground Zeroes made it CLEAR that it was a taste (albeit at a price point that did raise some grumbles,) whereas The Order: 1886 is trying to push that it's a full sixty dollar title... and I don't really think it is.

Again, though, interested to see what they do with a sequel. Hoping that maybe with the engine made and all that stuff worked out this game, they can focus their budget on providing content to GO with their sparkly engine for The Order: 1887. (Imma trademark that title. >.> )