The Order 1886 | Review
Developer Ready at Dawn
Publisher Sony
Platform PS4
Release Date Out Now
The Order 1886. Set in an alternative London that cleverly intertwines real world locations and historical fact, with large chunks of fantasy. This new take on the Knights of the Round Table sets you Sir Galahad as a member of the The Order duty bound to protect the Empire from a gruesome threat.
What starts as a simple hunting mission to clear out werewolves from Whitechapel (as you do) soon begins to unravel a nasty conspiracy which threatens The Order from within.
The London they have created is incredibly impressive. It’s visually stunning and teaming with life. It is a realistic city and one I would have loved to have had more freedom to explore. There is a stunning level of detail put into recreating real locations like the historic London Hospital, and even historical figures like the inventor Tesla or the infamous Jack the Ripper. The backdrop allows for a familiar setting as a sort of jumping off point for the more out there ideas.
When it comes to Gameplay you are very limited; for the most part it is a third person action shooter. You simply crouch behind cover during combat, and pop out to shoot enemies with the usual array of guns. Outside a few hacking mini games and lock picking there is little else to do other than walk the narrow path or watch the cut scenes. Unfortunately you don’t get to ramble around the city as you are pushed along such a liner path that at times it almost feels like an on rails game purely progressed by QTE’s.
The Order 1886 is the first big polarizing game of 2015. A prelaunch controversy around game length emerged when a Youtuber uploaded an apparent full playthrough that clocked in at just over five hours. The studio made moves to dispel these rumours by suggesting that there was more to the game but that did little to silence the growing rabble.
I would like to think that a game should be “as long as it needs to be” to tell its story. I would always take an action packed five hours over any game that has been artificially stretched out purely to hit some arbitrary lenght predetermined as acceptable. While the length versus value for money battle rages on it has to be noted that 14 hours of fetch quests isn’t necessarily value for money either.
Game length aside The Order seems to have attracted additional ire not directed at other short titles due to the lack of gameplay within the short experience. A large chunk of that time is taken up with cut scenes (that could have been handled with in game narrative). Let’s not forget our old enemy the Quick Time Event also feature heavily.
Some do say that everything has its place in the wide spectrum of gaming and the QTE is a valid method of moving a scene along. If used wisely it can add to the game, but if used excessively (like it is here) it really takes away from it.
Here is another polarizing question with the Order 1886, does it entertain? This is a very subjective question indeed. For me it was certainly entertaining. In fact i did rather enjoy the production, the voice work, the art work, all of which is stunning.
I liked the new London they created and the possibilities this new IP offered.
This is my main disappointment with The Order they never really explore this new universe. Just when things were getting good and the game looked like it was going to take off, it ended.
I won’t lie it does take away from the overall experience after you realize what you thought was just the set up, actually turns out to be the game.
Overall: The Order 1886 is your typical launch title. Built to show off the new graphical power in shiny adverts. It is true that throughout the game it does look amazing, everything screams quality from the way your character looks, moves, and interacts with his environment. This is high production values indeed.
For many including myself the limited interacting (or actually playing) was an issue, however this is still a fun experience for one play through.
Beautiful but ultimately not engaging enough. The Order 1886 had so much going for it and yet fails to deliver on that early promise with something truely compelling.
SCORE 3/5
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