Low review scores silled the order: 1886 sequel, reveals ready at dawn co-founder
The Order: 1886, the 2015 PlayStation 4 exclusive developed by Ready at Dawn, offered a unique single-player campaign set in an alternate-history London where players battled werewolves, vampires, and other creatures.
Despite its cinematic style and "playable movie" feel, the game never received a sequel, despite Ready at Dawn's initial plans. In a recent interview, the studio's co-founder explained the primary reason behind this decision.
Metacritic Score the Deciding Factor
In an interview with MinnMax, spotted by VGC, Ready at Dawn's Andrea Pessino revealed that The Order: 1886's sequel was canceled due to the game's poor critical reception. Pessino explained the crucial role of Metacritic scores, particularly for games published by major platform holders.
Pessino was referring to The Order: 1886's Metacritic score, which settled at a middling 63 upon release. This contrasted sharply with the game's positive reception in internal testing, previews, and mock reviews, according to Pessino.
A sequel to The Order: 1886 would likely have been released around 2018 if circumstances had been different. Ultimately, the development team at Ready at Dawn was forced to cut content from the original game to meet Sony's deadlines, resulting in some creative and engaging sections of the game being reduced to mere cutscenes:
"One of the problems was that a lot of stuff got cut. A lot of the more subtle narrative got lost because a lot of it was cut, and things that should have been interactive became cinematic. We needed another year, that's the truth. We needed at least another year, but we didn't get it."
The Order: 1886 joins a list of games that have garnered a cult following despite failing to secure sequels. It shares this fate with Bloodborne, another PlayStation 4 title for which fans have clamored for a continuation for years. The interview highlights the significant impact that review scores, particularly aggregated scores like those on Metacritic, can have on the fate of a game and its potential sequels, even when internal expectations and early feedback are positive. It also underscores the challenges developers face in balancing creative vision with publisher deadlines and expectations.
