The Order: 1886

Feels weird, in a good way, coming back to these massively hyped AAA shooters years after the fact when there's no hype cycle to follow. But it also exposes how The Order was already playing catch-up when it launched, feeling about as good to play as Gears Of War 2. Aside from some underutilised new weapons, it's very standard cover shooting, but I have always liked cover shooting where others got more tired of it.

That being said, this is as much a movie as it is a game, with so much cutscene and the most egregious letterboxing I have ever seen. And with as much riding on the cutscenes, the story ought to be a lot better. The presentation is great, with nice uses of depth of field throughout, and the dialogue is consistent, but the actual plot is a very standard story about a rebellion against the empire and a turncoat from higher up once he understands how the Order's own goals are undercut. It's basically the plot of Deus Ex but even more telegraphed, and worse, it doesn't have an ending. It just stops, leaving many obviously alluded to plot points just lingering as the game slams into the credits after a disappointing final boss.

Spending only 10 bucks on it, I was reminded more of enjoyable but schlocky films I occasionally like to rewatch, especially Equilibrium, which pay lip service to a grander narrative and probably would have had a sequel if it didn't all feel a little B-grade. But God forbid if I had spent full price on it at launch.

The Order: 1886 very much plays out like an interactive movie, which is perhaps part of why it's so polarising amongst gamers. Indeed, some of its flaws are a product of the fact that it toes the line between movie and game--cutscenes and set piece-based gameplay tend to either fight for space or mesh together in contrived QTE's, whilst there's essentially no replay value to speak of.

Despite its flaws, though, I enjoyed a whole lot of my time with the game; The Order: 1886 does what it sets out to do relatively well. The storyline is consistently engaging--if not particularly deep nor impactful--and is bolstered by stunning visuals, brilliant voice acting and a detailed world, whilst the shooting mechanics are fun and refined.

3.5 stars / Good

I'd heard a lot of really bad things about this game before I actually played it so I was a little worried that I might have wasted my money on purchasing it, but in the end I actually got some enjoyment out of it. First off the visuals are pretty great, the steam punk-Victorian era aesthetic is enamouring and thoughtful, the level designs are competent and at times adventurous (the airship Agamemnon is particularly sweet!). The human vs. werewolf story is surprisingly deep; the game allows you to explore the story at your own discretion and it doesn't beat you over the head with plot points. Plus the voice acting is believable, I was half expecting for the voice actors to fake British accents but they seemed to have brought in the real deal! :P Also the game's soundtrack was pretty epic, nothing too memorable but it was tense and exciting when it needed to be.

Though the weapons in this game were sweet (thanks Nikola Tesla!) I wasn't a fan of the cover based shooting (especially with those annoying black bars always getting in the way!). I pretty much just found myself trying to race to the next section every time waves of enemies would begin pouring into a room. I also wasn't too big on the QTE's for the werewolf fights, or just the werewolf fights in general.... The environments are again; gorgeous but also really linear and un-explorable. The game is also criminally short at about 6-8 hours and has little re-play value. Despite all of that I ended up enjoying a decent amount of my time with this game. It's certainly a worthy story to tell, it just doesn't have anything interesting to say game-play wise. I'd recommend maybe picking this up if you see it in the used bargain bin at your local games shop! ;)