The Order: 1886, taking place during the titular year, 1886 follows Sir Galahad who belongs to an elite group of Knights who have descended from King Arthur’s round table itself. These knights are sworn to keep the natural order of things, and are the strong line of defence against nature’s darkest foes (ranging from various mythical creatures such as Lycans aka werewolves). However, when a dangerous conspiracy comes to light, Galahad must question his loyalty before he is plummeted into a world of betrayal and survival.
So, the story sounds pretty interesting right? Well, the coolest thing is that the story is the best part of this game. I have gone around and seen a lot of reviewers calling the story uninteresting and boring. Now, I understand that reviews are nothing but pure opinion of the writer responsible; however I have to really disagree on this particular occasion. If I was to describe the mood of the story and the way it is told, I would call it a Victorian drama. First of all, you see it is not everyone’s cup of tea to write a compelling Victorian era drama as it can get quite tricky managing everything from the setting to its background lore. Fortunately, everything here from the animations to the dialogue delivery was amazing. In fact, you can sense the level of quality from only the first 15 minutes into the game.
Memorable characters, great set pieces and strong writing give this game a unique colour; however the star of the game is the back lore and dialogue delivery. You can see how much research and effort they have put into creating a grounded storyline that makes sense. One of my favourite things they did was reference a well known individual from India’s history with the British Empire, a part of which conveniently took place around the games setting. So, you can imagine that the game is not afraid to use well-known figures such as Nikola Tesla himself who plays a major part in the game, as kind of a Q from 007. It is great how seamlessly everything works together.
Now, about the line delivery, remember how I said it is tricky managing everything, well line delivery is included for you see, back then people spoke the purest form of English language and the way they spoke it was perhaps unlike anything that is heard today. It requires a certain timing, and combination of words to truly carry weight, something that this game has definitely done without sounding too cheesy. I can’t believe that most reviewers overlooked this and blindly proceeded to bash on the game’s story which universally, from a critical point of view is done pretty good, except for the loose ends and plot holes by the end.
I not only liked the main characters, but felt sympathy for the antagonists as well, as throughout the game it is shown and noted that survival is important for everyone, and you have to care for your kind no matter what. A good story makes you feel amazing when the bad guy dies, but a great one makes you feel bad for what they’ve been through. Even I hesitated finishing off the final villain in this game, as it felt sad and wrong. The characters are just done so memorably well.
Now, don’t even get me started on how good the game looks. Every scene and their items are designed with such authentic detail in mind, that you can definitely see it as being something that existed once. The lighting and shading on the other hand is also quite good, something that really shows what the PS4 is capable of. I just find the blackbars really distracting, and think there should be an option to turn them off, especially if you are using a monitor like TV to play the game. Still, the graphics are amazing and the transition between the cutscene and gameplay is mind-blowing, especially due to the excellent animations.
Unfortunately, the gameplay on the other hand is a bit of a mess. It mostly plays like a generic cover-based third-person shooter. Still, the shooting is quite polished and especially fun due to the addition of amazing and creative weapons that you can use. One of my favourite weapons has to be the M86/FL Thermite Rifle, which is basically an LMG that shoots pellets of gas, which when mixed with the gun’s secondary magnesium rounds, it lights up in flames to devastating effect. You even see Galahad using the magazines as C4 to blow through obstacles. As you can imagine, the game has got really clever and satisfying weapons and you really cannot label them uninspired or lacking in my opinion.
Unfortunately, there is still a particular weapon that I absolutely loath and that has to be the shotgun, especially the enemy class that uses it. They are so extremely over powered that you will not stand a chance against them until you’ve gotten used to how to defeat them effectively. They not only come charging at you like suicidal maniacs, but also wear heavy armour giving them too much of an edge. It is absolutely frustrating, overall badly designed and just feels like a cheap tactic to ramp up the games difficulty. They would make more sense if they were stripped of their armour and placed in a more cover filled, and open-area. Also, as most of you are already aware, the game is heavily QTE focused with lots of fights and cutscenes relying on them. Now, I wouldn’t exactly mind if they had been properly used to help develop the story, perhaps something non-linear like Heavy Rain or Beyond Two Souls. Unfortunately, this is unforgiving and you get only one chance, so once you miss-press a button, it results in an instant death. In my opinion, that makes no sense whatsoever at all, as on one hand you’ve got such dynamic and interesting fight sequences that change every time you play, and then on the other you’ve got this, extremely linear and one dimensional. If you are going to use something, use it right that aids the game in an effective manner.
Also, they really shouldn’t have put the boss fights behind QTE’s. Basically, during two sections of the game, you will be required to defeat someone really strong bosses and these sections are pretty much just button mashing experiences where you press one button to dodge and the other to attack, all so while given a limited amount of mobility. Don’t get me wrong, they are definitely exciting and somewhat dynamic, but I’m not sure that they are the way to go when fighting the game’s iconic enemies. It just makes what should be an epic battle, way to easily and empty. Don’t even get me started on the Lycan fights themselves.
The Lycan fights are so recycled that every time you are trapped with them, it is basically in a warehouse setting, which is engulfed in darkness and all you have to do is aim and wait for a Lycan to come running at you from the darkness as it will almost always follow the same programmed path. Then you shoot it as much as you can, press X to dodge, and then repeat until they are knocked over and you can go over and perform a finisher on them. It feels as if they didn’t focus on this aspect as much as they should have. The Lycan fights, just like the boss battles were a big missed opportunity and very uninspiring to say the least.
To be fair though, I don’t care much for what they’ve done with the vampires but it is disappointing that the Lycans were given such minor thought during gameplay. Now, vampires are already well known throughout popular media, but the same can’t be said for Lycans. When was the last time you ever saw one in a compelling game? I have to be honest, I was really looking forward to that aspect of this game and even though they were done justice through storyline, the potential felt wasted in gameplay. The enemies are also used in such an uninspired way for the games ending, as even that feels cheap and under-developed. I won’t go into details in regards to The Order’s ending, but you will see it coming a mile off, before it leaves you on the inevitable cliffhanger pointing towards a sequel at some point in the future.
As much as I was engrossed in The Order’s storyline, the experience really might not have been so memorable if it was not for the absolutely gorgeous music. With the way Jason Graves has scored this game, it really gives everything a fresh breath of life, a unique identity as it perfectly aids the story development. The themes are absolutely amazing and the scoring is top notch, with each scene given equal vigour through adrenaline pumping music. In fact, I would advise you to definitely buy the soundtrack as it is absolutely worth it and without a doubt, one of gamings finest in recent times. In my opinion, it is one thing scoring a cutscene and another scoring the gameplay, but Jason Grave’s yet again proves his mastery with both.
Overall, I think that at the right price, everyone should give it a go as it is definitely worth playing once for the heartbreaking storyline and well written characters whose voice actors have given perfect delivery to the script they were given. Not to mention the music is absolutely amazing, and memorable. Though remember, you may have to push through the gameplay quite a bit as it does feel monotonous at times. Now if any developer of the game reads these reviews, or any others, please don’t get discouraged as it was definitely a great try, just one that needs more polishing and building upon for its inevitable sequel. Keep at it, and make sure the next one is absolutely amazing in both story and gameplay, add to the length of the campaign and The Order could very well be the blockbuster game that it deserves to be.