The Order: 1886
Players: Single-player
Genre: Action
Adventure, Third-person Shooter
Distribution: Blu-ray,
Download
Platform: Playstation
4
Release Date: February 20,
2014
The Order: 1886
had tons of potential. Since it was announced and the first clips
were released I've been excited for the game. The setting and
mythology surrounding the game is engaging. The Knights of the Round
Table succeeded in their quest for the Holy Grail and have, through
its power, gained longevity bordering on immortality. With their
guiding hand the world is very different, technology is more advanced
than in the world we know; zeppelins rule the air and weapons are
much more destructive than their real life counterparts. The Knights
are an organization sworn to fight the monsters of the world, of
which the player sees Lycans and vampires. They've done all of the
groundwork to bring a unique setting to gamers, something that
doesn't seem like we've done it a dozen times before.
With the promise of an intense monster-slaying adventure
the actual game falls far short. Most notably the player spends most
of their time fighting humans, rebels that have some nefarious
purpose whom you of course end up joining after seeing what they're
fighting against. Not only was it predictable, but it just switched
one set of human enemies for another. The player only every sees a
vampire and never engages one in combat. There are seven, perhaps
eight, encounters versus Lycans that are a whack-a-mole type “which
way will it come from” experience, during which you shoot them as
much as possible and then dodge out of the way. Two of the Lycan
encounters are reduced to quick time events in which the player is
armed solely with a knife, so the games interesting weapons don't
even come in to play there. This leaves the combat aspect of the
game completely unsatisfying.
The
graphics are gorgeous, the early Industrial Age London with a
futuristic flare looks amazing, if sparsely populated. The main
character models vary enough that I never had trouble remembering who
a character was or what to expect out of them. The voice acting too
is top-notch among all of the heavily used characters. The
unfortunate aspect of all of that is that the story that is being
told just isn't very interesting.
The
game consists of 16 or 17 chapters, several of which consist entirely
of cutscene. The game just goes, with absolutely no input from the
player. I don't have a problem with story oriented games; I've
enjoyed Tell Tale's games for years and they're basically choose your
own adventure stories. The difference is that in Tell Tale's games
there are decisions to make, outcomes that actually change depending
on the way you handle situations. In The Order: 1886
the player is merely along for the ride. There is no dialogue to
choose from and only one way through the maps that you actually get
to play through. This causes a disconnect from the game world in
which the player doesn't feel like they're having much of an impact
on the events going on around them. It's more like watching a story,
as opposed to playing through one and it just doesn't work. I'd
complain about the length of the game, which took me perhaps seven
hours, but honestly by the end I just wanted it to be over.
Conclusion:
A promising premise for a game got lost in the developers desire to
merely tell a story. That story didn't engage the player enough to
provide enough entertainment to justify the price tag. The
Order: 1886
is the first game I've returned after playing, because of its linear
nature there is little desire created for multiple playthroughs. The
production quality evident in the graphics and voice work isn't
enough to create a compelling experience.
Rating:
5.5/10
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