The Order: 1886 isn’t even out yet, and it’s already been at the center of a storm of negativity revolving around its length, implementation of quick-time events, and ‘cinematic’ 30fps/heavily vignetted visuals.
Speaking to Develop, the game’s director Dana Jan said that the length of the game has been blown out of proportion due to inaccurate or irresponsible reporting, pinning the blame squarely on game journalists who reported on, for example, a YouTube playthrough that spanned five hours in length.
“We have this uncanny ‘haterade’ for our game no matter what,” said Jan. “People are looking for something to throw at our game, some reason to hate it. I’m excited to hear what people who have actually played the game think about it, how do they feel about the quality and the quantity? I think by and large that most people are going to be satisfied.”
“It’s more just shocking that for a game that isn’t out yet, for a franchise that is brand new, the amount of negativity is just…” he continued. “I just feel like these days it’s so easy to be negative and I think the internet is the new playground for bullies. Who goes out of their way to really go and say something positive, right?
“If you go out to a restaurant and you have a good time, do you go online immediately to post something? But if you have a bad experience, you’ll jump on because you want to warn people about it right? It takes a lot more effort to say something nice than to say something negative, and I think people are excited to jump on some bandwagon of negativity.
“I don’t think people need to go out there and be unbiased supporters of our stuff or anything either. I want them to make up their own minds about the game period. It just seems like the pendulum swings the other way so frequently. I mean, we’ll see, right?”
The Order: 1886 comes out on February 20. It is exclusive to the PlayStation 4.