The Order 1886, is one of these games which is both interesting to experience however suffers from tedious game play, a boring cast of characters and a mix mash of game play styles, what could have been one of the best new IP’s in the Playstation library feels like the developers wanted to add more to an overcooked idea.
In concept alone the Order 1886 is a great idea. Taking known characters from the Knights of the roundtable, throwing those known characters into the British industrial revolution, having them taking on werewolves and humans alike. Additionally introducing people from history like Nikola Tesla almost like ‘Q’ from the James Bond movies is a fun way to deal with an alternative reality London, even Jack the Ripper is given a cheeky nod and wink to that time period.
Like wise the game itself is perhaps the best looking game on the PS4 at the moment. Graphically I have no complains about the game even if there was one moment in a cut scene that had some texture pop in. However one of the things which always felt out of place was how Galahad would always pick items up and just stare at them, some of them feature events that had taken place in the game or audio recording which would be used to help give information on the background story. However I found the photographs to be almost useless assets for the game and I think those could have been done in a better way.
As for game play this is where the game starts to get a little confusing. On the surface the game is a 3rd person shooter in the vein of Gears of War, Space Marine and Resident Evil 4 onwards and when you’re playing the game as a shooter it seems to jump from being a good solid shooter to below average shooting gallery.
This is more so in some of the later stages in the game. However in the same mission you can get a tonal shift and then are playing stealth based game, which for me just felt out of place, and is perhaps one of my biggest complaints of the game. It feels like the developers Ready at Dawn (The studio who brought the PSP God of War games) just kept adding trying to make the game more “Epic” that it should have been to one mission being stealth all the way through then next mission shooting everything in sight.
While the weapons feel and sound great, the problem I have with them is that it limits you to two main weapons, which is normally a weapon like a rifle and a pistol, followed by two grenades (which are smoke and frag grenades). However I have to give Ready at Dawn credit where credit is due with the idea and concept of the Thermite gun. This gun basically covers enemies in a cloud of metal oxide and then using the secondary firing mode ignites and it acts like a flame thrower assault gun, I actually preferred using that gun more than the lighting arc gun which is another weapon which Tesla creates for the knights of the order.
The music of the game is actually forgettable; I couldn’t tell you a single song or score that stands out. However the general sound design of the game is actually excellent. The guns give off a feeling of power and strength. The general back ground conversations for the none playable characters (NCP’s) take the beautiful and bland world of the order and breaths some elements of life into the game.
However the problem with this game ultimately starts with the bland and none descript villains that you are in control of gunning down or silently killing. I cannot help but feel like it’s a rehashing of the enemies of Alien: colonial marines, while the game spent most of the times advertising that the gamer will “discover history’s darkest secret” with the idea of humanity developing werewolves like traits during the 6th-7th century, however it feels like 80% of the time I was shooting and dealing with more humans than werewolves (Or “half breeds” as the game calls them). So when you actually do go against a werewolf it doesn’t seem special or better, just a simple roll out of the way of the charging enemy and shoot till you get a button prompt to kill. The only time I felt the game did something different in one of these battles was against a creature called “The Elder” which felt like a lower rate Deathstroke fight from Arkham Origins.
Speaking of the button prompts and quick time events in the game, while there are quite a bit it does seem that the game wanted to keep them for moments like opening doors or some actions like the stealth kills in the forced stealth sections however it didn’t seem too out of place or intrusive like the infamous funeral scene in Advanced warfare. However one miss timed press and it resulted in your death and start over, which for myself was one of the massive frustrations in the game itself. The idea of the lock pick mini game is good however I feel games like Skyrim and Fallout has done lock picking a whole lot better.
Additionally when it comes to button prompts and QTE’s the final boss is just like “the Elder” boss fight for mentioned in the review, however in a different setting and then features I feel is perhaps one of the worse ways to end the game in general, You have to hit a button prompt once again. For a game which is suppose to be the best showcase of what console games are in the new gaming generation, it feels like it has completely missed the point and it actually made myself angry at the game once completed, it felt like the developers wanted to insult the gamers intelligence.
Now to address the elephant in the review and that would be the length of the game. I clocked in around 7 hours over three days playing the game. However for me this was the most boring seven hours experienced in a video game, while the voice actors did a semi decent job with the script that was given. Throw in a boring game play which doesn’t feel like it has an identity (not too sure if it’s a 3rd shooter or stealth based game) and how the game felt flat and bland, which in turn felt like it, was too long. If the game had been fun and consistent then a five to seven hour-long game would have felt too short. I don’t know if the pacing of it was off, I got to a point and it was getting like a chore to finish the game.
Pros | Cons |
This is perhaps the most beautiful current Gen released to date | Too Many button prompts and Quick Time Events |
The attention to detail in regards to weight and lighting is brilliant | The Game is 7 hours of boredom |
A very interesting take on an alternative timeline in London | Zero re-playability at the moment. |
Fun take on known historical figures | Poor writing for the characters lets the game down |
Poor enemy AI and enemies in general | |
Struggles to find its own identity as a game. |
I would give the game 4 out of 10. Down below is why I would do so.
Closing Thoughts:
The Order 1886 received a 4 out of 10 simply because this game just didn’t keep my attention as a gamer. While the game itself looks gorgeous and had a very interesting idea in delving deep within a parallel universe, where the traits of the werewolves had slowly developed over time and the order of the knights had been designed to keep them at bay is something I would have loved the lore to the game designers and director took something that should have been cool and fun and turned it into an below average game that seemed to struggle with its own identity.
While the world seems to be alive with a fully living breathing London. In my option the game just sucked every bit of soul out of it. The characters that you meet throughout the game was one dimensional and felt out of time of the world they lived in, and felt like modern day terminology like Arson and Terrorists/Terrorism seemed out of place.
While the duration of the game isn’t a problem with myself, I found some of the game mechanics to be the main problem. For myself I really think developers and directors should look to the future in being interactive in games. While button prompts are still perfectly fine when used sparingly, Quick Time events by now should really be retired from all forms of video gaming. I found these to be more distracting than required and the final action of the game is a button prompt and I feel that this is a con of a way to finish a game, let alone insulting for anyone who plays this game.
From my experience I would say if you really want to play this game then I would wait for a serious price drop or even pre-owned. You should not spend your hard earned money on this as a full price game because you will feel disappointed with the title because there is (at this moment of writing this review) zero reparability. The only good part of this game is giving Playstation 4 users an example of what could come from the machine in the future graphically.