Never have I walked out of a demo as underwhelmed or as disappointed as I was when I got my hands on Ready At Dawn’s new PlayStation 4 exclusive The Order: 1886. Of course, take this article with a grain of salt as it does not illustrate the final product. I only played a 10 minute section of the game’s third chapter at the Montreal Comic-Con, but I was not wowed or impressed at all during my time with the game. In fact, I was mostly confused as to why it plays like it does. The Order: 1886 does look like a “next-gen” title, but visuals aren’t the only thing that matter when you play a video game, at least for me personally.
The demo, which was the same as the one showcased on the show floors of this year’s E3 and Gamescom, kicked off as the Knights of the Round, composed of Sir Percival, Lady Igraine, Marquis de la Lafayette and, the main protagonist, Sir Galahad, are being ambushed by the Rebels as they are making their way towards the Hospital. Right from the get-go, you’ll be in-awe of how amazing the game looks visually with its impressive amount of detail on the characters and environments as well as the dark lighting effects that truly capture the game’s gritty tone. The new RAD Engine 4.0 brings a realistic look to the game, even so that I stood still for a couple of seconds because I thought I was still watching the opening cutscene. Yes, that’s how good the game looks.
Unfortunately, despite capturing my initial attention with its interesting alternative London setting and stunning visual fidelity, the game is simply not fun to play at all, at least from what I played in this demo. Similar to other cover-based shooters, The Order borrows a lot from franchises like Gears of War and Uncharted, but that’s not the main problem I had with the gameplay. In fact, I appreciated the way it relied on familiar core mechanics as it was very easy to pick up and play at first, even though they don’t feel as responsive or as tight as the ones we find in some of those other games. What’s really The Order’s main flaw is with its shooting mechanics. I don’t know if the lack of any explanation on how to use the Thermite Rifle, your main weapon, was the reason why I couldn’t wrap my head around the combat, but, regardless, it still doesn’t help the fact that it is sluggish, slow and absolutely boring. This could’ve been different if the game would run at 60 frames per second, but Ready At Dawn decided that 30 FPS would benefit the game the most.
I was literally asking myself if the game was glitched somehow as I was unloading bullets on my foes for about 3 consecutive minutes and they were simply not dying. I eventually figured out that I had to combine the rifle’s bullets and flare, located on the R2 and R1 buttons respectively, to burn the enemies to the ground, but the enemies were still on their feet even though they had fire on them a couple of seconds ago. It removed all sense of immersion that was initially brought by the game’s stunning presentation.
The cover mechanics are very similar to other Third-Person Shooters
After saving a couple of civilians from the hands of the Rebels, the Knights find themselves in an abandoned building as they help a wounded man. While it is yet another cinematic sequence, we get to see the effects of the Black Water, a mystical liquid that extends lifetime and gives healing abilities, as Sir Percival uses it to rapidly heal the bullet wound on the side of his neck. The Black Water is supposed to have a big part in the game itself and I am really interested in seeing where it will take the characters throughout the narrative. What followed shortly after was another boring combat sequence where I had to make my way through another set of enemies. This time around, it took me less time to actually vanquish everyone, but I encountered something that simply did not make sense to me. With one enemy left in the alleyway, I decided to rush him to finish him off as he was stunned by the bullets I had shot at him earlier. My knee-jerk reaction has to quickly press the Triangle button, since it is the Interaction input, however nothing even happened. I then rapidly tried out other inputs, but the result was still the same. It turns out you cannot even melee/execute enemies at a close range, and that is absolutely stupid because Galahad clearly has a vast array of equipment attached to his vest and doesn’t even bother to use it. This left a bitter taste in my mouth as the demo concluded moments after I encountered this absurd element.
The Thermite Rifle is an unresponsive weapon that isn’t fun to use
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this preview, I only played a very small chunk of what The Order: 1886 has to offer. Plus, the build I played was the same one they used back in June of this year, so improvements have obviously been made on the game over the last couple of months. We still have a while before Ready At Dawn’s new IP is released on February 20, 2015, so who knows if the game will play the same way. The Order: 1886 looks like it will be one of the best games on PlayStation 4 presentation-wise as it is probably the best-looking game on the system as well as the most intriguing one with its unique plot and setting, yet I cannot help but worry that it will be an overall failure because it simply does not play as well as it looks. Unfortunately, the main thing I got out of The Order: 1886’s demo is that it confirmed that visuals don’t necessarily make a good video game.
Despite all of my complaints listed in this preview, are you still excited for The Order: 1886? If so, let us know why in the comments below and, as always, stay tuned to Gamer Headlines for all things gaming.
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