Most of the time when I do these game reviews, the end verdict results me in saying you guys should definitely play this game. I feel that my analyzation of them justifies what the game is being sold for. What I have for you guys today is interesting. For the longest time since the PS4 launched, I wanted this game. It's premise was kind of badass, old school London playing as a version descending from the Knights of the Round Table. WITH STEAMPUNK WEAPONS AND WEREWOLVES? Sign me up right? Then the game hit, and reviews were flooding in. Unfortunately they panned the game, why? I was tempted to purchase this game (spoilers I did) so i did my research. The one thing that stuck out was that the game was short. Short that it being $60 bucks at earlier this year was a slap in the face to those that did pay that price. Flash forward to December, with the game being now at $20. I went into the game knowing it would be short, I sure as hell wasn't expecting the real length though! I got the game last Monday, and cleared it by Wednesday of the same week.
So yea, I think that's a new personal record for me in clearing the game's main story. So with that out of the way, let's get into this. Developer Ready at Dawn handled the making of this game. To put it simply, you're playing a movie. It's more so that than a game, half the time you're watching cutscenes and moving around exploring things as per what your "Directive" is. I truly feel, that The Order: 1866 is if anything, a long tech demo to show the true power of the PS4 in terms of graphical style. Seriously this game is fucking gorgeous, the detailing is absolutely insane. The story centers around 4 individuals who are given their codenames/titles based on the Knights of King Arthur lore. I thought that you'd be swapping through most of them but you solely are in control of Grayson, otherwise known as Sir Galahad.
In the midst of a rebellion happening in London, you're tasked with maintaining the balance betweens humans and half breeds. The latter of which being lycans (werewolves) that you do come across and fight. When you're not watching scenes or exploring, you're playing a shooter which is described as being similar to Gears of War's cover system. As Galahad, you use a variety of weapons to move through waves of rebels. Speaking of which, the weapons are incredible. Pistols that shoot 2 bullets per shot for maximum damage. An Arc lightning gun that's pretty much a 1 hit KO for enemies. What's one of my favorites has to be the Thermite. You shoot out a stream of gas/liquid, then another button spits fire to ignite it. Get lucky and you can set your foes on fire! Galahad is equipped with other tools such as an unlock mechanism and a electricity jammer. All built by good old Nicola Tesla, what a guy. There's also the concept of Blackwater which you can drink when the bar below is full. What this does is slows down time and gives you the ability to shoot enemies for an instant kill. If that sounded like I half knew what it was, that's because I barely used it.
That's pretty much the gameplay, with very few boss battles might I add. As I mentioned above what really stands out is the visuals. Perfectly consistent and fitting for the time period and country itself. Every house looks so real as do the civilians and knights. I have to give huge props to RaD for doing a beautiful job with the story. The cast is also pretty incredible and has some of the most solid voice acting that I've ever seen outside of other games like Kingdom Hearts and Metal Gear Solid. You can feel the raw emotion they're putting into each characters. Sir Perceval is the wise veteran, Lady Igraine is caring but sometimes hasty/emotional, and good old Lafayette is the suave frenchman. I actually adored every character in this game, since they each brought something useful to the story.
Not to mention also, the music is stunningly beautiful, like a movie score in certain ways. I appreciate what this game accomplishes, truly I do. Like most of these kinds of games, I did find myself becoming frustrated after being stuck on certain parts. I'm just in truth a horrible shot XD. It might seem unfair that the one negative thing this game has actually devalues it a lot but I can't ignore it. I didn't check my total play time when I cleared this after having the game for 2 days but my estimate is 10 hours or less. I heard from my friends that the story was really good which was one of the main hooks that really persuaded me to get this. Story is an important element to me, hence why I love RPG's 9 times out of 10. If you don't have any big game in your library that you're working through at the moment, I wouldn't feel bad in recommending this to you. The Order: 1886 is a tremendous feat in graphical horsepower and cinematic display. You can play back through certain scenes when you boot up the game a second time to play where you left off even!
Should you Play this Game?
If this game was $60, no. Now that it's at the much more reasonable price of $20, you're getting your money's worth. The Order: 1866 is a moving tale filled with suspense, tragedy, betrayal, and a couple of twists. Much of these elements can make up a movie today, and basically that's what The Order is. A 6-10hr movie with some shooting parts.
