The Order: 1886, a painful but quick journey

by Abhishek Singh, junior co- editor in chief 

The Order: 1886 has been one of the most anticipated PS4 exclusive since it’s unveiling at the gaming conference E3 2013.

Its praise and hype comes from the premise and graphics of the game. The game features photorealistic graphics that really show a new leap in the generation of consoles. The Order 1886 is visually stunning but lacks gameplay and tends to confuse itself along the course of the game.

The player takes the role of Sir Galahad, a powerful knight fighting against the half breeds (half man and half animal). Engineers are far ahead of their time in terms of technology with wireless communication devices and weapons that seem far too futuristic.

The premise of the game doesn’t sound bad at all, since its story is creative and original. The main problem of the game lies in the way it’s executed.

The Order: 1886 focuses on a immersive and cinematic experience. Developer Ready at Dawn took the cinematic experience over its gameplay which isn’t the worst thing, but it isn’t the best either. The production and voice acting of the game was great but left the fans wanting better gameplay than what was provided.

It’s gameplay lacks the fun factor and only causes repetitive and annoying action. The game seems to be a unfun cover gameplay but it perfectly executes the cover based gameplay.

A significant problem of the gameplay is the pacing of the game. It seems to confuse itself during its course. The QTE (Quick Time events) and walking for minutes at a time loses the player’s interest significantly.

Its locations are surely beautiful but it doesn’t work because the characters are lifeless all throughout the game. Since the focus was mostly put on its story and cinematic approach, the story was forced with its terrible pacing. This makes it a painful experience to play.

This game’s biggest addition that it offers are the feeling of the weapons. The weapons are one of the most creative and fun additions to The Order 1886 that any game has seen in a while.

A fan favorite is the Thermite Rifle which shoots ignitions of dust (acting as fuel) while they shoot a rocket which then ignites on enemies and spreads like a wildfire. It’s one of the more satisfying guns in the game.

There was a big controversy that occurred when the game’s length was released with a five hour completion timestamp. Ready at Dawn has since denied this allegation, saying quality over quantity. Fans who picked up an early copy of the game seem to have completed it within 7-8 hours. The Order 1886 is a short game that seemed to take more than five years to create. With such small to none replay value, it’s $60 price tag can be questioned since there isn’t any multiplayer or co-operative game mode.

“I am not comfortable spending $60 on a game that I can complete in 5 hours, that to me is not worth it. I’ll gladly play it when it drops to $20, 30 dollars,” science teacher Mr. Vanduers said.

One of the biggest complaints that fans of the game have is the idea of not including the half breeds or any type of supernatural being in the game. The main story is centered around the idea of supernatural beings but instead it focuses on regular human enemies that show up in ¾ of the game.

Fans wanted to battle supernatural creatures with regular weapons to see a real different battle but instead fought humans that appear in every other shooting game. The premise destroys itself as it progresses.

Some fans don’t have a lot of issues with the game however. They feel as it’s fine with just some minor balancing issues.

“I think it’s a good game. It flows well. It’s got a good pace. But it has some problems. It’s a good game but not worth the $60 pricetag. $45 seems to be good,” junior Daniel Kricheli said.

If the The Order: 1887 ever happened, Ready at Dawn better bring the big guns and actually use what they established in the world. They mentioned that the world of the game was built to have sequels. If this is true, then fans still have hope.

Fans still want to play as Sir Galahad, and hopefully make him actually laugh instead of impersonating Batman.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10

Flawed but it’s creativity has potential. The Order 1886 understands its thoughts, just fails to show them effectively.