E3 2014 - The Order 1886 Hands On

When I sat down to play The Order 1886 about the only thing I knew the game offer was a cover shooting mechanic, thankfully the game has a lot more to offer than just that.



At first I wondered why my gun was not shooting the people I was aiming at, I had the reticule on them and was shooting, but nothing was happening. It was only after a moment or two that I realised that I needed to use the alternate fire mode. The main trigger would shoot out a gel substance and then the alt trigger would launch a flare causing the enemy or parts of the environment to catch fire.

Once I discovered this I was unstoppable, well until the demo ended. It was during this demo that I discovered the games largest flaw; the cover mechanics are not solid. A lot of comparisons are going to happen between the granddaddy of cover shooters, Gears of War and with good reason after the series of games, they perfected their mechanics. Sadly with the demo I played of The Order, the cover mechanics were a little loose and moving from cover to cover was not as simple as it needed to be.

Thankfully they have plenty of time to correct that small issue and if they do fix it up the game will be one to watch out for. The characters that were present during the demo reacted to the events around them with so much detail you would swear they are real. The movement and weight to the characters was incredible, I mean this game is really taking advantage of the power the PlayStation 4 offers.

Grayson is your character and the interactions that he has with Mallory, Lafayette and Isabeau are believable and each of them in turn reacts as people in those situations would.  The world has been built with a level of detail that is staggering, even if the world is set in a alternate history London. Ready At Dawn are proving they can make a great looking game, they just need to tighten those cover mechanics.