The Order: 1886 (PS4) Review

Style Over Substance.

 From Ready At Dawn, the developer that brought us the hit PSP games, God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta, comes the highly anticipated PS4 exclusive, The Order: 1886. Ever since its announcement back in 2013, it garnered a lot of hype from players, myself included. Now that it's been out for a while, I had the time of playing the game and there are lots of things to talk about The Order 1886.  


STORY- The Order 1886 takes place in an alternate Victorian-era London, that's technologically advanced. We follow Sir Galahad, a knight of an old order that strives to keep the world safe from half-breeds known as Lycans. Along with his fellow knights, Galahad must take care of both the half-breeds and anti-government rebels that pack a threat to the nation. Throughout his adventure, we uncover many secrets and conspiracies behind the half-breeds and the order. However, there are some aspects of the story that prevents it from being a good one. Galahad and the rest of the cast are one-dimensional and lack much character development. It would have been interesting to hear about their past in conversations or even tapes. Additionally, more backstory to prior events would have needed. As for the ending, it's sequel-baiting. 

GAMEPLAY- The Order is a cover-based third-person shooter. In the span of 15 chapters, most of which are just cutscenes, You control Galahad as he take cares of the rebels and Lycans. A feature that'll aid you in your journey is Blacksight, which slows down Galahad's perception of time for a short while and allows him to quickly kill off enemies, similar to Red Dead Redemption's Dead Eye mechanic. That aside there's not much here to talk about. Thanks to the help of historical inventor, Nikola Tesla, Galahad will be able to use "Science Weapons", which 
are guns with an extra firepower that'll tear your enemies apart. Speaking of enemies, you'll mostly be fighting off hordes of human rebels. There are only 15 of the much-hyped Lycans, some of them being quick time events. The levels are fairly linear and offer no alternative routes to choose from, detracting from the replay-value.

The Science Weapons and Blacksight are the main meat of the gameplay.

PRESENTATION- Right off the bat, The Order: 1886 showcases the visual power of the PlayStation 4, despite it running only at 30 frames-per second. It's a gorgeous game. The character models, lighting, and backgrounds are some of the best to come out of the PS4. The voice work is commendable with some great performances. The soundtrack is nice, with some decent tracks.

The superb production values sadly overshadows the entire game.

OVERALL- Ready At Dawn have put in a great deal of effort and hard work on The Order: 1886 and it shows. Sadly the shallow story with loose ends and generic gameplay that doesn't offer much to the table are holding the game back severely.