Cardinal Brooks here with my review of the highly anticipated and greatly delayed PlayStation 4 exclusive, The Order: 1886. If you own a PS4, you’ve likely been watching the game as closely as I have the last year-and-a-half or so. In some ways, the extra time developer Ready At Dawn (God of War: Ghost of Sparta) needed paid off; however, many pundits are already disputing the game’s length– at length. Let’s explore.
Let’s just get this out of the way real quick: The Order is the most beautiful game I have ever seen; its set pieces and character models are stunning and the world they live in is gorgeous. But much like the wondrous world of Destiny, it’s a damn shame players will never get the chance to actually interact with it. I mean, every once in a while you get to interact with an object or a document, but that’s about it. Shat.
In short — get it?? — The Order is a very look but don’t touch kind of game.
The story takes place in a Steampunk-influenced (see: Dishonored) alternate universe London, where you’ll cross paths with many historical figures such as Jack The Ripper and inventor (and original S.H.I.E.L.D. agent!) Nikola Tesla. You take on the role of Sir Galahad, a member of — you guessed it — The Order, which is this world’s version of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table.
Perhaps the coolest thing, congregationalists, is that you’ll get to play with all types of fantastical weapons as you take on werewolves who have absolutely no issue ripping your throat out– if you don’t hit the X button at the right time.
There has been a lot of chatter about the The Order‘s length especially from our esteemed staff at GHG — Hi Templar! — which is around 7-hours, depending how you play. I found myself awestruck by Ready At Dawn’s breathtaking world. Thus, of course, I’m nipping at the bit to see and touch more of it. Is this a good thing? Should RAD throw in some free DLC campaign to make up for it? Tweet us @GodHatesGeeks for your feelings on this one; I know Mark will.
In closing, The Order pulls you through its world in a very linear experience akin to Beyond: Two Souls (remember the hype on THAT one?), moving from cutscenes to QuickTime events (good ol’ QTE‘s) to gameplay with no real freedom to do anything much else. As for The Order‘s gameplay, it’s a very standard, but tried and true cover-based shooter that adds nothing new to the genre. Bioshock, this ain’t.
