The dawn of a new order
Before I start my review let’s just get one thing clear: I like story-driven games. In fact I love story-driven games. Even though most games have disappointing endings to their stories the question of what happens next can be one enticing carrot at the end of the stick. I also have respect for game developers that are not afraid to focus on world building and story over gameplay. That’s not because I hate gameplay, if that was the case then why would I even play video games to begin with? No the reason why I love to play a really focused and linear game from time to time is quite simply because I like to play different kinds of games. There’s a time for open ended open world games and there is a time for linear story-driven games. The Order: 1886 is 100% a linear story-driven game and if that sounds boring to you then it’s safe to assume that this game isn’t for you. If you are still interested then read on.
The Order: 1886 takes place in an alternative 19th century Victorian London where the battle against monstrous half breeds, half breeds are a cross between humans and monsters, have propelled science forward to make more advanced and crazier weapons than what was available at the time. These weapons are developed by Nikola Tesla and used by the knights of the order in their fight against the half breeds and rebels.
The story of The Order is actually pretty straightforward most of the way, but it delivers because I find the 4 main characters, Sir Galahad, Lady Igraine, Lafayette and Sir Perceval, farely well realized and their relationship becomes slightly more interesting as the story grows and tensions rise. The world of The Order also seems really compelling; the idea of hundred plus year old knights with guns is pretty unique and kind of crazy in cool way.
The game is a third person cover based shooter so it plays pretty much as you would expect. The game is totally playable but make no mistake that Ready at Dawn have focused on world building over gameplay. The game plays fine but the controls aren’t quite are sharp as say Uncharted or Gears of War. It does feel a little stiffer to control than those games. But you get used to it. The gameplay didn’t bother me but then again I haven’t really played a cover based shooter since Uncharted 3 so that might be why. If you are tired of tps games then this game probably isn’t for you. I had fun while it lasted and I loved using the crazier weapons like lightning gun and dust/fire gun. If anything I wish the crazier weapons had played a bigger part in the game because they are actually a lot of fun to use.
The game obviously looks absolutely gorgeous and it’s one of the game’s biggest strengths along with its setting and world building. If you wanted to buy one game just to show that PS4 actually is capable of a lot more graphically than any of the last generation consoles this is the game to buy. Not only is it the best looking console game on the market right now, it's one of the best looking games at the moment including PC games.
I now that I’m in the minority here but I enjoyed my time with this game and I just wanted to at least show my support. The game definitely has a few rough edges; the stealth sections aren’t great and some of the quick time events can be a little annoying, but they are done pretty quick so in the end they didn’t really bother me too much.
I enjoyed my time with The Order: 1886, despite some of it's rougher edges, and therefore I give it three stars out of five.
