I think the age of social media/games specific forums like GAF (including YT, Twitch) hitting mainstream combined with the incessant rise of DLC stealth price rise, reviewers have had to react because if enough people dislike a game where a review site has given the game a high score, trust will be eroded in that site, so they now seem to be being more harsh than before, the thing though is are they being harsh?
With the issues recently the last few years, i'm not going to be pre-ordering anything else (have Project CARS LE PS4, only) games-wise because it it too much of a risk now, what with huge day one patches, missing content in the form of day one DLC etc etc.
What really started making me think this way was getting a WiiU at launch, it may not be a bad decision now, but it was in the early days, but the games released now have just reached a point where it is pointless in buying on day one unless it is a in-house NIntendo legacy game, Mario, Zelda etc or a R* game GTA specifically these are the only games i would consider pre-ordering.
I think this gen X1/PS4 the gaming landscape as a whole has changed, grown up maybe & the reviewers have had to do the same.
In regards to The Order 1886, if the dev is going to make a cinematic game bordering on a interactive film, then can the dev really complain if it is going to be reviewed like a film thus be judged more critically?