The Order 1886

[Rage187]

Get it Rage187 😛 I'm wondering what you'll think about the game 😀

Hit me up on FB messenger with your address and I'll send you Bloodborne. I'm a couple days from beating it and it is really worth sharing.

 

[HOOfan 1]

I just finished the game last night. I've got to say the critical denigration of the game is greatly overstated. I don't think it was worth $60 (I paid $14 and thought it was well worth that), but there are plenty of games that get critical praise that I don't think are worth $60 either.

The game is straight up gorgeous. It is right up there with Uncharted 4 for the best looking console or otherwise game I have ever played. Yes, appearance does count for something in my opinion.

The story is interesting, although it obviously pulls inspiration from other sources. It reminded me of elements of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with the steampunk inspired peacekeepers. It reminded me of Bram Stoker Dracula with the setting and the supernatural element. It reminded me of Mark Millar's Wanted with the long standing society which is broken by betrayal from the very top. However, I think the way the story is presented is very flawed. The workings of the Order are barely explained, what little explanation there is, comes 3/4 of the way through the game. The connection between the rebellion against he monarchy and the fight against the Lycans is never explained well. They throw vampires in the game as a toss away and never explain the connection with the Lycans. They Lycans end up only being a secondary enemy that you fight perhaps 3 times. The explanation for killing innocent guards is rather dubious.

Elements of the game were obviously inspired by Naughty Dog. Story telling through collectibles was not implemented nearly as well as Naughty Dog does it though.

Most of the time, it is a rather straight forward third person covers shooter. I didn't think the shooting felt as refined as the later Uncharted Games or Gears of War. I found that often quick follow up shots, especially with the sniper rifle, did not register even when I had the enemy clearly within my crosshair.

There were a lot of cut scenes, and many of them seemed like elements that could have been played out in gameplay. I didn't find the cut scenes overly long though, no worse than those in Uncharted 4 or The Last of Us. They certainly weren't as intrusive as the cut scenes in Metal Gear Solid 3, and the critics all ate that game up.

The stealth parts were not that good, but not as bad as some critics hinted. I would have liked the ability to use stealth throughout the game, and not just in designated sections, and I would have liked a better mechanic for stealth take downs.

There was also an odd difficulty spike just before the end, where they throw the player in a tiny room and shove waves and waves of enemies at you. Basically I figured out that using cover in the room was useless, as the enemies will always outflank you and one enemy fires explosives at you which can't be avoided by using cover. I just had to run around the room like a madman. Using Blacksite was also a must, and I was not used to using that ability throughout the game.

The boss fights seemed contrived and full of too many QTEs and static fighting. The player is basically only allowed to stand in one spot and wait for an opportunity to swipe away with a blade, while waiting for button prompts to tell them when to dodge. I personally don't see the need for Boss fights in games, especially if they are narrative driven games.

The game was short for sure, but not nearly as short as a lot of the hate made it out to be. 5 hours is a speed run, and I did a speed run of Uncharted 4 in a little over 5 hours. I think it probably took me about 9-10 hours to finish the game.

Perhaps my expectations of the game were lowered by the poor reception it got, but I ended up being pleased with the game. Conversely, I think when I played Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (in 2015), I was swayed by the overwhelming praise the series garnered, and while I really liked the game, I didn't think it was worth of the praise heaped on Uncharted (UC2 and UC3 made me see the light though). I would have given Uncharted: Drake's Fortune an 8.5 out of 10

I would give The Order: 1886 a solid 7 out of 10.


I think the game needs a sequel, and when they do the sequel, they need to take more inspiration from Naughty Dog, and they need to do a better job of emulating Naughty Dog than they did in the first game.

 

[clok1966]

The boss fights seemed contrived and full of too many QTEs and static fighting.

DAMN! I bought it not to long ago and haven't had a chance to play it and now likely wont. If i wanted SIMON i would buy a dang Simon. There where about 12 QTE arcade games in the 80's-90's and there is a reason for that, and its sure not because everybody loved QTE. Yes, my contempt for button timing is showing. At the least do it like Witcher, not specific buttons, let me decided, but mashing them wont work, carefully time them.

 

[Tweak155]

Need a controller like the Turbo Controller for SNES... I loved that thing.

 

[HOOfan 1]

DAMN! I bought it not to long ago and haven't had a chance to play it and now likely wont. If i wanted SIMON i would buy a dang Simon. There where about 12 QTE arcade games in the 80's-90's and there is a reason for that, and its sure not because everybody loved QTE. Yes, my contempt for button timing is showing. At the least do it like Witcher, not specific buttons, let me decided, but mashing them wont work, carefully time them.

If you have other games that are calling to you, The Order is skippable. If you can find the time to play it, it really isn't long. I nearly finished it in 1 sitting. I'd say a couple of nights about 4 hours each would be enough to finish it if you are not someone who explores every corner of a level like I do. (Most people said they finished Uncharted 4 in 14-15 hours, my play time clocked in at 25 hours and I got 80% of the collectibles without using a guide.) If you are a trophy hunter, you are almost guaranteed to get most of the trophies with just a simple playthrough.

My biggest pet peeves about the game were

-Stealth was limited to a couple of specific levels. You could not use stealth outside of those levels, and in those levels you were basically forced to use stealth. In one level, if you were detected, it was game over (kind of like the original Splinter Cell). Stealth kills are performed with a timed event. There is a big circle which closes in on a smaller circle, and you have to mash the indicated button as the big circle meets the smaller circle (it wasn't difficult, but certainly uninspired)

-Something that a lot of people complained about with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, you traverse a linear path and trigger a fight, traverse a linear path and trigger a fight. Also there was the use of what some call "monster closets" In several sections, you were trapped in a very small area, with just a few pieces of cover and as you killed enemies, more would spawn. The enemies were not quite infinite, but harder and harder enemies, requiring more hits would spawn, and there was no way for you to leave cover to get more ammo without being killed. In those instances I found it more productive to run around shooting like a DOOM game instead of taking cover like a Gears of War Game.

-95%+ of enemies end up being humans and the fights against werewolves are either, just standard fights, where they charge you and you unload a magazine into them (bullet sponge style) and then you are prompted to dodge out of their way, then they charge you again (rinse repeat until you have them down and are forced to run up and stab them to complete the kill). There are two werewolf boss fights. In those fights you are not given the ability to move around the room. You are forced to use a blade, and given a light attack and a heavy attack. The boss werewolf basically stands in front of you the entire time. You can mash away at the attack buttons and maybe half the time you will land a hit. Then you have to be aware of prompts on screen which tell you to dodge, using the analog stick. You have to move the stick in the direction the prompt tells you.

This game reminds me of some movies I have seen, where I leave saying "the concept is intriguing and this could have been really good, but they wasted too much time on superfluous fluff". It wasn't a bad game. It was an enjoyable game. It's just so easy to find areas where it could have been a great game, but the developer failed at making it a great game, by following tired gaming tropes, instead of the better gaming tropes companies like Naughty Dog have started inserting into the genre.