Sony's first-party third-person shooter for the PlayStation 4, The Order 1886, may have recently released at the $60 price point but the game is already discounted down to $40 over on Amazon. Yep, the game is discounted by $20 even though the game just released barely a month ago.
At the time of the publishing of this article, there are plenty of new and used copies of The Order 1886 available over on Amazon right now. If you get the game directly from Amazon you'll be putting $40 in their coffers, a major drop down from the $60 price tag that the game carried when it first launched. There are also third-party vendors who also have the game in stock for as cheap as $35.97. Used? You'll only have to shell out $27.99.
The used prices are literally under half the price of the game's original suggested retail price. That must sting pretty bad for both Sony and developers Ready at Dawn Studios.
One of the most common questions down in the user section asks if the game is, in fact, worth its retail price-point at $60, especially at only 30 frames per second and the letterbox formatting. User John A. Gladding has a very terse response that sums up most general criticisms, writing...
“Nope. Wait to buy it used, borrow from a friend, or Redbox. It's stunning visually, but not $60 stunning.”
As much as you might see that statement and go “ouch”, there's a measure of truth to Gladding's sentiments that have been echoed by both professional critics and customer reviews.
One of the biggest complaints about The Order 1886 was that the game was too short. Although, a more accurate form of criticism was that it was too short with no replayability. There was no real reason to go back and play the game again and the game's museum-type security around the environmental interaction made the game feel more like a static painting than an interactive game.
The other problem was that the game lacked multiplayer co-op. While I doubt a deathmatch would have extended the life of the game very much, the fact that there was no two-player co-op to help give the game a bit more depth and tension just really buried a lot of enthusiasm and player-interest in the title after most people conquered the game.
The general consensus for The Order 1886 was that the story was decent, the graphics were amazing and the gameplay was passably okay but repetitive, limited and linear. Word of mouth spread quick and far that The Order 1886 wasn't quite the system-seller that some people may have thought.
Sony is already investing a lot into Bloodborne as their first-party savior for the first quarter of 2015, so we'll see how well that pans out when the game launches this week.
As for The Order 1886... the boring, Victorian-era, single-player version of Gears of War hasn't been able to maintain its $60 presence for more than a month at Amazon, so if you were interested in the game but wanted to wait for a discount... now you can get it while it's discounted.
