The Order 1886 - Review

Set in an alternate 1880’s London, The Order 1886 tells the tale of Sir Galahad and the Knights of the Order, a society that was created by King Arthur, yes that King Arthur in order to combat the half-breed threat.

The story of The Order is actually pretty well done, it has enough twists and turns to be entertaining, but also leaves enough threads that a sequel is likely. Galahad is part of a squad of four and is entrusted to hunt down the half-breeds, while at the same time dealing with a rebel uprising that is centred on the London District of Whitechapel. Alongside Galahad is Sir Percival, Lady Ingraine and Marquis de Lafayette, each of the characters has their own histories that play out over the length of the game as well, giving them a grounded feeling.

Galahad was trained by Percival and follows him, almost blindingly, accepting half-truths and silence because it comes from Percival, but when he is he away from his mentor, he is gruff, loud and very opinionated.  The Order has learnt that the rebels are using Whitechapel as a base and the squad is sent it, but only on the quiet and what they learn there proposes many more questions than answers. While most players will be able to suss out a heading from this point, the story does a good job of keeping things under wraps until such time as the player needs to know them.

But it is the waiting for these story elements that hurt the gameplay, because while the sections that you can play through are interesting at times, it feels like you are partaking in an interactive narrative. When you are in control of Galahad, you are able to walk around the environments but they are not open per say, while there is a generous amount of space to move around in, each space is still linear and is focused on getting your attention on the goal. There are elements you can interact with, a discarded flask or a draw to be inspected, but they are so few in the scope of the world that you could probably miss some items because most of the world objects are not interactive and the few that are, are not easily distinguishable.

The other issue with the gameplay is how little of it there is, while cutscenes are needed in order to help fill out a story, they occur here as often as you reload your gun. While some of them are quite lengthy, including one chapter of the game being almost entirely cutscene, some of them are so short that you will find yourself asking why have it at all. The reason those short cutscenes are problems is that they break the flow of the game, while is not some 40 hour game, the extent to which it feels artificially extended by the cutscenes is intense. But they are not the only cause of the games flow to suffer, there are times when you are not allowed to run, or you have to wait for other people to get to a door before you are allowed to open it.

The other concern with the gameplay is the cover mechanics, simply put they just don’t work. Sure, getting into cover is easy enough, but getting from cover to the next piece of cover is nothing short of taxing, the game does away with almost all on screen prompts except when you inspecting something. So you have to watch for visual clues when you are at the end of cover, the problem is, even then you may not be able to swing to cover to the side of you, if it is out if range. But you don’t know how far something is, until you attempt it, which can result in you having to reverse your direction. The game also suffers from a distinct lack of Half-Breeds, which is the entire reason that the Order was created and has existed for centuries, hardly make appearances in the game. The few times they do appear, they are not really the threat they are made out to be, but they are far more interesting than the remaining enemy types.

And while the lack of enemy variety is a concern, it is something that can be corrected in any sequels that happen and there should be at least once, the team behind the game went to great lengths to provide a visually stunning experience. There are no qualms here, the game is gorgeous and you will be hard pressed to find any element that does not fit within the world they have created. Each of the guns, characters and locations feel like they could have existed in this alternate London, with the slums of Whitechapel looking dirty and lived in while the Agamemnon contains two distinct styles, one gritty and one luxurious. The detail on the characters is just as stunning, Galahad has adornments on his uniform that bounce, shine and react to the actions he undertakes.

Exploring the city of London is fun, but I just wish there was more to do in it, you spend most of the time moving from point a to b and along the way you will see something that looks amazing, but being unable to go there is such a letdown. Of course you will hear the city much more than you will see it, which is also pretty awesome, each of the expected sounds is a treat to the ears, but it is the unexpected ones that really ground this as a possible world, the arc gun has a wicked crackle to it as electricity streaks through the air striking its target. The enemies and the members of the order sound as they should, with the only real escape from the London accent is Nikola Tesla, the well-known inventor, who helps the order with armament.

The Order 1886 contains a pretty good story, interesting characters and a beautiful game world, but it is let down by broken cover mechanics and an over reliance on cutscenes, which cause the game to drag on far longer than it needs too.

The Score

7.0

Review code provided by PlayStation

The Pros

+The visuals are incredible and bring the world to life

+The characters are interesting

The Cons

-Broken cover mechanics make combat a struggle at times

-Some chapters are just cutscenes, which drag on for way too long