The Order 1886

The Order 1886 was easily my most anticipated PS4 game in 2015, and understandably the game is absolutely beautiful and a Masterpiece of storytelling.  Unfortunately it falls short with basic gameplay mechanics and is also notoriously short.

Graphics: Let me first take a few moments to talk about one thing.  THIS. GAME. IS. GORGEOUS.  This is quite possibly the most polished, detailed, beautifully created piece of art I have ever had the pleasure of playing.  Level details from mosaics in the ceiling down to imperfections in the floor tiles, even sunlight interacting with bottles on the street is perfect. The world feels bigger as if breathing and alive, even with the small exposure we receive, looking far off in the distance still shows a city that is busy at work, even when shit hits the fan.  Characters in themselves were the showstoppers, your character Grayson has every aspect of himself meticulously detailed and rendered. If you ever wanted to really have a game be a “WOW” factor to show your non-gamer friends/family, this is it.

Sound:  While music was sparse, most areas had great ambient sound, but when the action or drama got intense the soundtrack easily delivered.   The voice acting however, easily steals the show.  Each character fits their voice well, with the best lip synching I have ever seen.  And let me just point out one thing, the BREATHING was amazing, yes that’s right, the breathing.  So much emotion was shown with characters breathing from their noses without saying a word and I cannot think of any other game that has done this, or done it nearly as well.  *BREATHS ANGRILY*

Gameplay:  Unfortunately the biggest turn off for The Order is the only thing that makes this a game and not just a digital video, the gameplay.  While The Order does work well as a basic cover based shooter, it does little to build on the genre and is extremely easy.  Even playing on hard I found it more or less impossible to die (except from improper QTE presses).  The Steampunk style weapons were awesome and a joy to use, but were extremely over powered and the game seemed to do everything it could to not let you have one all the time.  Not to mention that in a game where your main enemy is Lycans/Vampires you surprisingly only actually kill a few compared to the hoards humans.

Gripes:  The big one is the length of this game,  if the quality of the game wasn’t so spectacular this would have been a different review all together and The Order 1886 would have been the biggest budget game to ever be placed directly on the WFTBB list.  However given the fact that this game is so well crafted and the story is so well done, and without giving too much away, I seriously hope they are using this as a opening to a much larger franchise.

If you have waited this long to pick up The Order 1886 you might as well wait a little longer, a few price drops and this game becomes more than worth the ticket, I just hope that we have witnessed the opening to the greatest franchise ever made, rather than a short fizzle.

I Beat It First