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The Order: 1886 tops UK charts despite unfavorable critical reception

Do reviews (regardless of if you believe they should bear a score or not) matter anymore? Perhaps a better question would be have they ever mattered at all? Based on a glance at today’s UK charts, it would seem the answer is a flat out no. Despite a huge portion of gaming sites across the industry leveling harsh criticism against Sony’s latest exclusive it has not mattered saleswise, with the first brand new IP to ever come out of Ready at Dawn sitting atop of the UK charts on its debut week.

Chart Track comments: “Another new release comes straight in at No1 for a second successive week – last week saw a No1 launch for 2K/Take 2’s ‘Evolve’ and this week it is Sony’s turn to debut at No1 with PS4 exclusive ‘The Order: 1886’”.

Ángel Fernández, Product Marketing Manager at Sony Spain has chimed in on Twitter – boasting that The Order has sold 20,000 units in Spain and Portugal during its first days of sale in the country – which is a decent amount for both regions.

The success comes despite many gaming sites (that includes us!) suggesting that the game, at least in their opinion, is a not too spectacular early year effort for Sony’s still burgeoning new console. A few highlights of the industry reviews are as follows:

Giant Bomb | Jeff Gerstmann | 2 Stars

It’s a technical showpiece, a graphical powerhouse that, in some ways, is almost without equal. It’s also a short and disappointingly straightforward cover-based shooter that offers little to no variety in its encounter design, a lackluster story that fails to make good on its initially compelling premise, and a set of jarring Quick Time Event setpieces that aren’t especially interesting from a gameplay or a storytelling perspective.

Polygon | Justin McElroy | 5.5

Though it nails some of the fundamentals, The Order: 1886 has been released without answering the essential question of what it offers that other games aren’t already doing better.

IGN | Brandin Tyrrel| 6.5

Its best aspects are its stunning looks, atmosphere, and style – which are truly fantastic – and entertaining fiction. But the shallow, slow, and generic quick-time event-riddled gameplay make it feel like an experience that would’ve been better served by a non-interactive movie than a game.

If you would rather stay in our warm embrace, you can also read our opinion should you so wish.

The reviews also seemingly go against what seems to be decent fan reaction. A quick look at threads about the game on both NeoGAF and Reddit lead to many positive opinions. A quick snippet of those results in comments like these :

Can someone explain the negativity towards this game…I think it’s amazing!

This game has made me realize that I must be totally out of touch with what’s widely accepted as a “good” video game.

how the fuck is this game getting so much hate?

Will The Order end up a success despite differing opinions from both parties? That is very likely, as it has happened in the past, and will no doubt continue to happen in the future.  However, we will have to wait for Sony themselves to give official numbers until we all know The Order’s fate for sure.