The Order 1886 – Review
Follow Genre: Action, Shooter
Developer: Ready at Dawn; SCE Santa Monica Studio
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform: PS4
Tested on: PS4

The Order 1886 – Review

Site Score
7.4
Good: Beautiful setting, great sound effects
Bad: Forgettable story, short, no replayability
User Score
5.3
(3 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 5.3/10 (3 votes cast)

Movie inspired video games have been popping up a lot more those past few years. We’ve got Heavy Rain which played like an interactive movie and from the same makers came Beyond Two Souls, another more movie oriented video game. The Order 1886 takes the whole video game/movie hybrid idea to the next level as the borders between the two really start to disappear. If all of this doesn’t make much sense to you, be sure to keep on reading.

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Story

The Order is all about protecting the ordinary folks from creatures beyond your imagination. Lycans (werewolves) are daily encounters for these ‘Knights’ and they’d gladly sacrifice their lives if it meant to protect the world from evil.

In the game, we meet Sir Galahad, one of the members of the Round Table and part of The Order. In the very beginning of the game, we see how Galahad gets tortured and maltreated by the guards and as the prologue comes to an end, you immediately notice that there’s a lot of stuff that happened in the past. The game then takes you back to the events which led to those chilling scenes in the dungeons.

For obvious reasons, I don’t want to talk too much about the actual story itself but let’s say it’s not an incredibly unique and innovative story. The plot is quite predictable and although there’re some twists in the end, the narrative doesn’t really succeed in making this a blockbuster video game/video game movie/movie something… Oh you know what I mean!

The Order

Graphics

This is probably the part in which The Order 1886 shines the most. The graphics simply look astonishing and you can clearly see how much effort has gone into making this one of the most beautiful PS4 games ever.

The first things you’ll notice are the black bands at the top and bottom of the screen. The creators of the game must’ve thought the cinematic experience would benefit greatly from putting movie-like aspects into the game but those black bands might’ve been a step too far. Not only does it limit the screen capacity but the people who buy The Order 1886 still expect to receive a game, not a movie as then they would’ve stopped by at the local movie rental store. Although the cutscenes look pretty nifty in this format, it doesn’t make sense to give the gameplay segments the same treatment.

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Sound

Voice acting wise, The Order 1886 provides some fine actors and actresses who successfully copy the old English accent used in that time. Galahad is spoken in by Steve West and he sounds really charismatic and convincing. Apart from some exceptions, all characters truly fit the theme of The Order and it’s hard not to appreciate all the work put in creating the perfect atmosphere.

The sound effects and music in the game are also very enjoyable and make the whole world feel pretty authentic. Going from the beastly screams of the lycans to the sound of fire consuming a whole warehouse, everything sounds top-notch.

Gameplay

Not the easiest of tasks to talk about this part of the game as, well, there’s not much ‘game’ in this title. Most of the time, the player will be looking at cutscenes but at certain times, there’re some longer gameplay segments. In those parts, you can walk around, look for collectibles if that’s your thing or shoot down some thugs/lycans.

Ah yes, I’d almost forget but a rather large portion of the game consists of finishing Quick Time Events (QTE). Often the game will ask you to react quickly to fend off an attack or to push someone out of the way. Although QTE’s can become quite bothersome, they never tend to irritate in The Order. You’ve got enough time to respond and the controls are never complicated. Eventually, those events are more like a chance to get interactively involved in the scenes then to really test the player’s skills.

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Now some words about the shooting mechanics. First of all, if you walk into a shootout, you’ll notice the smooth cover system. With a simple press on the circle button, Sir Galahad jumps into the nearest cover spot. While behind cover, you can peek out left, right and up to take a ‘hip shot’ (without manually aiming the gun) or if you like some more accuracy, then aiming with the L2 trigger is the way to go.

So far, nothing out of the ordinary. Let’s talk some more about Blacksight. Blacksight is a sort of slow motion mode where the game automatically targets enemies and the player only has to press the fire button. For each enemy killed outside of Blacksight, the meter at the bottom right will start to fill up and then it’s time to go completely Max Payne! Honestly though, the feature isn’t really all that necessary as the enemy AI is not really something praiseworthy. Most of the time, opponents will act as pure cannon fodder and walk straight into your crosshairs.

The Order 1886 isn’t without minor bugs and some lesser problems. Sometimes a gun would get stuck in the walls or your NPC friends would blandly stand in your way, blocking your path. These are all tiny little things and there’s a good chance you won’t even notice them at all.

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Unfortunately, the biggest problem with the game lies in its duration and total lack of replayability. Depending on how much time you spend exploring the beautiful areas and hunting collectibles, the game can be finished in 6-8 hours and there’s only one real reason to go back to the game and that’s if you’re a trophy hunter. As the game is priced like any other big retail game, it’s a rather bitter pill to swallow that you can finish The Order in half a day.

Conclusion

The Order 1886 is a magnificent looking game with great voice acting and sound effects but fails to deliver an unforgettable story. The gameplay segments are very sparse and some features like Blacksight feel a bit like overkill. However, the biggest issue lies in the short duration of the game as The Order is priced like any other big retail release. As there is no replayability whatsoever and the game can be finished in 6-8 hours, that just doesn’t feel right. My advice: wait for a decent price drop and you’ll enjoy this game a lot more.

 

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 5.3/10 (3 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: +2 (from 2 votes)
The Order 1886 - Review, 5.3 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

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