The Order: 1886 received mediocre reviews across the board, and plenty berated it for its length, but I get the impression that some might have enjoyed the game. Am I wrong?
I played it a couple of times before its release and what worried me back then was the core of the shooting. It was clear the game was shooting for that heavy-footed Gears of War style combat, but it never seemed to feel as responsive or instantly rewarding. Gears of War was one of those games that just had it. It had that glorious feeling of being an oversized muscle-man plodding through as oversized world. It was a universe where gravity seemed to push everything down an extra 50%. Such a unique, sticky feeling. Man, I loved Gears of War.
The Order: 1886 just never felt rewarding. It felt sluggish. Which is weird because the slow pace of Gears is what made it fun. The Order: 1886, I guess, just never felt as precise, never did as good a job with its encounters, didn’t give them enough variety, or enough space to feel strategic. Our review suggested it was a ‘shooting gallery’. I think we need a bit more than that in this day and age.
It’s a shame, because Ready at Dawn was my favourite PSP developer back in the day. I was hoping for big things with this game. The look, the universe, it seemed like the team was really on to something.
What are your thoughts?
Comments
67 responses to “Community Review: The Order: 1886”
Was there anyone who bought it after the reviews? I’m honestly surprised it’s not already on sale
At 7 hours long (half cutscenes) and with little-to-no replayability it’ll be in the bargain bins for next to nothing by the mid-year sales.
Even the people who were stupid enough to pre-order the game will have finished it by now and should have their copies up for resale.
I’d give it a go if I can get a copy for <$20 I guess. The reviews were pretty damning, I’m happy to play a game that’s buggy or ugly, but boring…. boring is irredeemable.
Same – I’d be happy to play this as a PS+ title for for $30, but not for $80
For Free*.
You are aware that eb has a policy that if you finish a game within 7 days they will refund you fully with store credit. 7 hours of play time just hurts the retailers
I was expecting it to at least have a good story or fun game play but from the reviews I’ve seen the story is a mess and the game play limits your options too much.
It’s not about how much game play there is or how much cut scenes there are, it’s about the overall experience. This is a cinematic game and it succeeds at that, there aren’t hard and fast rules to what a game should be. Why can’t people enjoy this for the unique movie like experience that it is, then u can go back to your regular games. I like that there is a lot of different types of gaming experiences these days and always try to appreciate games for thier own unique qualities.
some people play games and make thier own decision on whether they like it or not, reviewers aren’t the all knowing gods of gaming. I played the order and really enjoyed my time with it
I really enjoyed my time with it. After the campaign was done, I went back to get some of the trophies that I missed through my initial playthrough. I really wish there was some sort of replayability to be honest. Perhaps just Tesla’s Lab as some sort of hub environment where I can demo all of the weaponry or review all of my collectables. I pray for some DLC since I am a DIGITAL only consumer. It would be shame to uninstall it and never have a reason to revisit it.
Having watched it on youtube (as imo it isn’t worth anywhere near the asking price of $60) the story felt like it just dropped off a cliff and resolved nothing – leaving it completely open to be finished by either dlc a sequel or a combination of both – like lady Igrane chasing the rebellion as dlc, Galahad finishing what he started in London as a sequel. It felt like half a game from a story pov which matches its 6hr length.
I heard it was pretty average. I was discussing with friends that the worst thing a game can be is average. I mean, the game world seems really fascinating, and there seems to be a lot of potential, yet it falls flat. My examples would be Destiny and Watchdogs.
I’ve been playing PS2 & N64 games recently 😀
#helping
Wut gamez jimjim? I’m playing persona 4 exclusively, pretty much. P4 and Crossy Road.
Digital Devil Saga & Majora’s Mask
Chie rejection simulator!
Yeah, I’m playing Zach and Wiki on the Wii atm; seriously fun puzzle game!
Best $80 I didn’t spend
Don’t have it, but from what I hear the only good thing going for it is how pretty it is.
I’m glad I still got the game.
Happier that its finished and I can take the game back
I enjoyed the setting
story is so so,
Ai is dumb
Never felt hard
QTE are painful for the most part
Stealth section are terrible (instant death on fail, some people can see through the odd wall and find you)
It wasn’t a bad game, just I think a game that didn’t know what it wanted to be.
The game has so many QTE’s it was more like a movie story game (Heavy Rain but not as good)
Yet it meant to be a 3th person cover based shooter?
Overall its a good game not great just good, its just not worth full price if it came out and was only $49 it would be better because it feels more like an engine demo
Keep in mind Ready at dawn started work on this game in 2010 :-S I can’t see almost 5 years of work on this
One of the things I don’t understand is why not co-op? most of the game you have at least one NPC with you, why not add to that ? or even a basic multiplayer hord mode?
The game could of even done an amazing multiplayer if they have Knights Vs lycans
Ive had the collectors edition preordered as soon as i heard about it. i checked out the reviews from a heap of different sites the day before release, and personally i think most reviewers were way off the mark, and that never swayed me from picking my copy up. probably the most enjoyable and atmospheric story driven game i’ve played since deus ex human revolution.
p.s. comparing a game to another game of the same franchise (e.g. assassins creed unity to assassins creed black flag) while reviewing is fine but comparing games from different franchises’ (e.g. the order 1886 – gears of war) for the sake of a review is a load of horsesh#t… review a game for what it is, not for its diferences to something else.
I think it’s interesting that most of the people that are saying it’s no good are people that didn’t buy it.
Most of the people I know that did buy it (myself included) are enjoying it.
Yeah, it’s got it’s flaws, (ie lots of QTE’s) and it is short, but I’m enjoying my time with it. Hopefully if they make a sequel it will be a bit more fleshed out.
Precisely why I’m keeping my ignorant opinion to myself. I do like the discussion that it’s provoking about “cinematic” games in an age of Twitch and Youtube, tho… Let’s just say I’m expecting to seeing many DMCAs of this game on youtube in the near future.
Based from what everyone is saying it seems like it was a great idea with a less than great execution. I’ll probably play it when it gets cheaper.
I am really enjoying it. Played for 6-7 hours so far and am pretty sure I am nearing the end.
Visually looks amazing. The world is really well realised. The story is fine but the storytelling is great and the voice work fantastic.
I see a lot of people criticizing the pacing. I think it flows really well and no environments outstay their welcome.
The combat isn’t standout but all the weapons feel weighty and the science weapons are a bunch of fun.
On the QTE note I honestly haven’t found them that obtrusive. They don’t feel anymore frequent than Tomb Raider or God of War and in most cases they feel fine.
Yeah it isn’t a well rounded master piece and it is very linear. But that is okay, and sometimes that is exactly what I want to play. Thoroughly enjoying it. I would certainly recommend anyone who was looking forward to this but was put off by the reviews to give it a shot.
I couldn’t agree more. I liked the look of the game right from the start, and there was no way that I was going to be put off playing it so easily. I’m glad I decided to buy it, it’s better than most people care to give it credit for. Too many people are just jumping on the haters bandwagon before they even play it.
Hearing nothing but praise from anyone I know that purchased it. Yes it is short but they say it is amazing.
The Order: 1886 is a bad game. Whether or not it’s a good story / “cinematic experience” is debatable. The graphics, world and voice acting is 10/10 but it seems like they forgot everything else.
Pacing is probably it’s biggest issue.
I’m up to chapter 4 and struggling to continue. Most of the game so far has consisted of cut scenes and walking down corridors whilst occasionally picking up objects to rotate in your hand. Occasionally you’re presented with some sort of shoot out which is nothing more than take cover, shoot, repeat.
Lucky EB has their 7 day return policy. I’ll try to finish it by Friday, maybe it’ll get better but so far the story really isn’t sucking me in and with no multiplayer there’s nothing to keep me interested.
Edit: I’ve continued to play though this game and Ive changed my mind. The start is slow and the pacing is terrible, but once you reach chapter 5-6 the game REALLY REALLY picks up. No idea how is scored so low unless reviewers quit early like I almost did.
7.5/10
I hope they make a 2nd.
The Kotaku review is WAY too harsh.
Not sure what the issue is there, I’ve never known a shoot out to consist of any more than that.
Some options on how to approach a situation would be nice, yet you cant because its all ‘this is the box you will be hiding behind. Your targets will hide behind that other box on the opposite side of this corridor, kill them.’
You cant even choose what weapons to use most of the time.
You find weapons on the ground all the time, and can switch easily.
Pistol to another very similar pistol. You use whatever the game let’s you use for the chapter.
I’ll pick it up when it’s cheaper (It’s just too short) and probably enjoy it more than I think I would from the reviews.
We demand new IP’s, but then when they come out, we are shocked that they have teething problems and aren’t as refined as Far Cry 4, GTA V or other established franchises. (And games with tried and tested systems from developers who have done it before, like The Last of Us.)
Ryse, Knack and the Order are all new IP’s and, from what I’ve heard from people who have played them, they are technically competent games that are, mostly, enjoyable but rough around the edges (And hence, for the most part, critically and other wise panned).
It makes me think back to the first Assassins Creed, Infamous, Uncharted, Gears of War, etc. They all had problems but I still I enjoyed them all. If they had released today, they would get a lot of flack for not being as refined as other games out there. (Plus I quite enjoyed some elements of the roughness of the games.)
It could be that this generation is so flooded with sequels and re-releases that it’s hard to get used to something fresh, or see around it’s rough edges. Or the game could just be a stinker and I’m talking out of my ass (I haven’t played Knack or Ryse either… waiting for the bargain bin to hit $5-15).
I’ll have to see lol.
*Edited some tangents into brackets.*
^This. I remember the complaints Uncharted got when I was working in EB. people brought it back complaining about its 7hrs of game play and janky combat system but look at it now. Uncharted 4 trailer has probably moved more PS4 Consoles then anything else Playstation have promised.
I haven’t had a chance to open my copy yet but judging from all these opinions its just a base for what has potential to grow into a fantastic franchise and universe.
Ryse’s biggest issue in my opinion was that it’s combat was mediocre and it was too linear. It was well made, production values good, story interesting and enjoyable, gameplay smooth and well thought out. It’s combat though was a little too simplified and the levels were a little too linear for a game with a limited amount of combat options. I think it’s good enough to warrant a sequel fixing these issues though, I enjoyed it and when I finished I wanted more.
I think a lot of the issue with “responsiveness” that you’re talking about comes down to the era, back then the guns weren’t deadly accurate they were big and weighty and considering you’re normal men and not roided up juggernauts that places a bit of reality to it.
As for the rest of the game ( I finished it yesterday), i had a lot of fun with it, the story could have been a bit more elaborate but it was still there and easy enough to follow
the game was incredibly pretty from the waving of your coat while you run to the feed back through the guns and the fact that pretty much everything that’s on a table can be shot off if it’s in the way.
the best part of the game for me was the setting, the lore seemed strong and left me wanting to know more about how things progressed or what happened before and the Victorian Era setting was amazing and i thought it was done very well with a few cheeky references to
Sherlock Holmes & Jack the RipperYes it could have been done better in regards to the cutscenes ( which i didn’t find that bad, most of these were used for stealth kills and fighting off enemies when they grapple you etc) and possibly some more innovation but overall i thought it was a well polished and solid game all be it a short one it still left me wanting more.
I’m curious Mark, is putting the community review up after the weekend of The Order’s Friday release supposed to be a subtle dig on the time required to beat the game? 😉
Thanks for your comment.
You seem to one of the only people who have actually played the game to comment.
Isn’t that what a Community review is about, it’s frustrating to read people just speculating based on other reviews. I will give it a go. There aren’t a lot of good games out at present (that I haven’t already finished) and it is good to see one that utilises next gen potential graphically.
I hope the gameplay holds up. But you don’t know til you try it eh?
Honestly it’s a great game. It’s pretty, it’s got awesome weapons, I quite like the characters.
But. It relies too much on cut scenes, I reckon so far i’ve spent half the game watching cut scenes with my controller in my lap, and also it’s capped at some silly resolution which puts big black bars top & bottom of my TV. Why couldn’t it have been capped at a resolution which would scale natively in a 16:9 panel.
I got the limited edition, haven’t even bothered with the DLC I got. It’s not worth the $90 I paid. I would say it’s a pick it up pre-owned in an EB sale kind of game at like $25 like I did with Watch_Dogs the other day after taking that back first week of it being out.
Also a few nit picks of the game, the way you activate run sucks but holding in the L3 whilst pushing the left analog stick forward, and the aiming system isn’t as good as I hope, despite having aim assist on, it doesn’t assist in anyway I find.
Out of 10 i’d give it a generous 5 over all. Somethings about it are great, just some things suck and they really do suck which degrades the over all experience sadly.
You don’t have to hold R3 in you only have to push it once, pretty similar to any shooter out at the moment.
But then It only does it for short bursts if you let go. Total fail.
Mine continues to run the whole time :/, either that or my controller is sticking haha
I found you get about 3 second burst of running then you go back to that fast paced walk lol.
I guess there’s not really that much requirement for a sprint in the game honestly haha
I guess so. I’m just impatient 😛
Don’t be 😛 otherwise you’ll complain about the game finishing too quickly haha
Haha. I can’t, damn unskippable waste of time cut scenes 😛
I have only done the intro and maybe 30minutes after that, game looks beautiful, but the gameplay reminds me of uncharted 1, not that great, dumb AI, all the enemies look the same, one of my hates is when games force you to walk not run, allot of this so far, way too many QTE’s. Ended up playing Dying Light instead.
I love Dying Light so far, I was so worried it was going to be clunky like dead island.
I didn’t like dead island, I am loving Dying Light tho, I love how they have intergrated the coop fully into the story, I wish FarCry was similar. I’m still not that far 20% as I have been waiting for coop partners to play it with.
I’ll join your game if I see you on 🙂 It’s just made to be played in CO-OP 🙂
I haven’t played it. Just a comment on the prettiness vs length thing: unless you’re a multi-studio mega publisher like Ubisoft or EA, you can’t have both.
I’m betting Uncharted 4 will be the shortest in the series, too.
Possibly. I also think games this gen are going to take longer. It just makes sense. At some point it’s no longer what the hardware can do, but how much time you can take to doll the game up.
It just comes down to man hours. At some point it just takes too long to make something more detailed than it used to be in the past. (Regardless of what the hardware can actually do.)
I have a theory that eventually we will hit a wall where games will either not look much better (In terms of asset fidelity) or need longer time to make them, and I think this gen is starting to show that.
And Ubi and EA are not exempt. Their attempts at matching graphical fidelity with the best looking games generally come off short, with repeated/ generated terrain/assets and game worlds full of holes/ glitches as a result. The worlds look more like they are made in a terrain editor with an object brush, rather than a crafted world.
I’m not very up on the graphical side of things – does it look pretty? Is the world big? Then yeah, it qualifies.
Those games are packed with content. Some of it is samey, a lot of fetch quests and meandering hours of nothing and traversal, but I guess that counts for something.
It does count for something but I do feel quest repetition is a different topic to graphics IMHO.
All I meant was that, in terrain editors (Like what they use to make Crysis, FarCry or to an extent Assassins Creed) they have a brush that literally paints on trees, grass, roads etc as opposed to modelling/ placing the stuff by hand for the most part.
Assassins Creed Unity can even paint in rows of buildings, randomly selecting windows, roofs, walls, etc for you, leaving the team to focus their time on land marks. And it shows in that the locations look ‘samey’ and painted in (or randomly generated from an asset library) and not unique/ crafted/ placed.
IMHO, it’s certainly a trade off that pays off in most cases. The world looks less unique, but there’s is more content.
I’m interested in checking it out from a purely graphical standpoint. Digital Foundry’s article on it stated that it’s more or less the best graphics of this gen so far. Not worth full retail price for graphics alone, but at the same time it seems not much attention is being given to the games achievements in this area.
The graphics are indeed stunning, it’s really interesting breaking down how it was done because the engine itself isn’t that sophisticated with most of the visual trickery actually occurring from post-processing effects.
I’m not sure what ‘post process visual trickery’ your talking about? The 4xMSAA, physically based rendering, volumetric lighting and fog, umbra and penumbra shadows, parallax occlusion mapping, global illumination are all ‘real’ effects (That not many games have). What ‘isn’t that sophisticated’ about that?
The post process effects in the Order are the colour grading, post process AA to soften texture aliasing (MSAA doesn’t cover textures and alpha), motion blur, depth of field, film grain, screen spaced reflections, and chromatic aberration… Just like in any other game.
So I beg to differ, the engine is quite sophisticated in comparison to most other games.
IDK if you’d be interested, but if you like Digital Foundry you may want to check out NXGamer on youtube.
His analysis videos often go into even more detail than DF does, even uncovering some contradictions in some of the, unfounded, conclusions DF jump to. (Sorry to rant, but it annoys me when they jump to conclusions based on their speculation.) And other stuff like: DF didn’t mention that AC Unity ran unlocked, up to 60fps on PS4, before the patch, and more.
Just thought it may interest you if you’re into analysis stuff, I frequent both to cover my bases lol.
Cool, thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out
copy -> paste
so i started The ORder 1886 last night.. i played about half an hour of it… i say played as i actually kept dozing off while playing it… literally. i may/may not have missed some pivotal plot points…
yeah, i dont know if im going to be able to sit through the rest of it.
heres what ive done so far. personally dont think there is any point in spoiler tagging it as its basically, “i moved a bit, killed some shit and done” but i figured id tag it anyway for the diehard folk. no plot points revealed.:
Escaped the prison, killed some dudes. killed 2 lycans, chased the third through the streets. killed him with as seriously OP weapon. discovered that pressing R1 whilst equipped with the shotgun unleashes a non lethal kamehameha wave on some poor bastard the practically scares the shit out of them (wtf is that???), ran into another comrade, Lafayette, who i just massively cock-blocked (not cool man), and checked out Nikola Teslas “amazing” invention… (hint: its just your everyday shitty sniper rifle edit: oh he also makes a shitty device to overload a power circuit), at that point i fell asleep and woke up about 5-10 minutes later, my character waiting for me to move….…and at that point, i switched the fucker off…. so disappointed. was really looking forward to this game. Looks perty though! Very perty. i also perfectly agree that 60fps would have ruined the games aesthetic…
im normally a fan of QTE’s when done right, but seriously WTF. no less than about 30 qte’s in 30 min.
I returned mine the next day, got that $102 back from EB Games.
$102???
I payed $79.95 for mine.
Yeah I pre-ordered like a sucker, luckily with EB you can return upto 14 days (i think?) later if you’re a Level 4 member. It’s a great game, but not for $100. I will gladly pay that for the Bloodborne Collector’s Edition though 😛
did you get anything extra for paying that? A hat or something?
Better, a steel book!
Interesting community reviews considering the vase majority commenting haven’t played it?
Anywho, I’ve actually played it and would say it’s no AAA blockbuster, however I’ve found it no where near as bad as most reviews I’ve read. I’d agree pretty much with busa91’s review. It’s a good game, not a great game and definitely not deserving of the hammering it has copped.
It’s kind sad, because 1hen I played it at the EB Games expo last year I had fun with it. I need a PS4 first but when I get one, it’ll probably be a $30 purchase.
I played Skyrim again yesterday. I give it 100000/10
#relevant.
Okay, I’m no doubt in the minority here but I actually enjoyed The Order: 1886. Yes, it certainly has its downsides from short play length, lack of replayability, dull opening chapters, QTEs, limited gameplay (e.g. shooting baddies and investigating newspapers/photos) & limited environmental interaction. But despite all that I did enjoy the gunplay, the cinematic scope, polished graphics, the alternate Victorian era setting and dark atmosphere, an intriguing story, excellent voice and mo-cap acting, just to name a few.
Ready at Dawn have set up this game as a franchise. Make no mistake; this is a prequel with more games to follow. But with middling review scores and negative press, it’s hard to see a sequel becoming a reality, which is a real shame. The game is artistically uncompromising, possibly to its detriment. If a sequel ever gets made (and I’m hoping it does) Ready at Dawn MUST address the drawbacks of The Order: 1886. It has things going for it but they need to make some compromises.