The Order: 1886 Reviews
In the end, The Order: 1886 is truly an exciting spectacle in a setting that we thoroughly enjoy, elevating our expectations for PlayStation 4 games to come. However, it's held back by its limited scope and abbreviated plot. It may not have the most well-rounded strengths, but it's a remarkable game nonetheless.
The Order: 1886 is a dull, plodding experience that's beautiful to behold but spends too little time giving players a reason to stick around.
Ready at Dawn's first foray into developing a completely new property has paid off as The Order: 1886 is among one of our favorite games to be released this year.
The Order: 1886 unfortunately feels like that ho-hum action-adventure game that accompanies a console's first-year launch. This PS4 exclusive is by far the most stunning visually of the bunch, but is that enough for players starved for something new and original for their console?
The Order: 1886 features a wonderfully crafted and realistic alternate history setting with the greatest visuals and production values so far on the PS4. While the first half or so of the story really works, it's let down by the final few hours, which abandon things shouting out to be explored in favour of introducing forced plot points which do the world and the main cast a disservice. Despite that, the gunplay is a lot of fun and it's not a bad story overall, just one which could've been far better.
The world built by 1886 is an engrossing one, and if nothing else the way it's presented is fantastic, especially when it comes to the strong vocal performances and beautiful character animation. As burly English people yell at each other, one could feel they were watching something from the Sharpe series of televised adaptations, even if the dialog is intensely cliched at times – for example, there's a cringeworthy "not so different" speech from an antagonist, including a bromide, "maybe one day you'll understand."
The Order: 1886 is a great game, as long as you treat it as a mindless shooter and not the bevy of innovation we were all led to believe it was. Graphically appealing, the title shows us once again, we should not judge a book by its cover.
At times Ready at Dawn's latest title is so efficient at seamlessly blurring the lines between gameplay and cutscenes, it's difficult to tell what portions of the game are actually interactive.
The Order: 1886 flaunts its interactive cinematic presentation, and it plays that card well. Despite this, it will continue to incite debate about overall length, being story heavy, and not allowing much freedom for the player. If these are things that bother you, then The Order was not developed for you. The decision will need to be where each player places value in their video games. This is an immersive game for people who want to sit back — or on the edge of their seat — and let themselves become engrossed in the story of a Knight in turmoil fighting against a supernatural force. Give The Order a go yourself, and perhaps you'll find yourself diving back into it as much as I've rewatched Jurassic Park over the last twenty years. It may not be perfect, but The Order: 1886 is an immersive cinematic experience and a damned good ride worth going back to.
The Order: 1886 is a spectacular visual showcase, but its muddled narrative and gameplay make for a wasted opportunity.
Like Resistance: Fall of Man, The Order: 1886 comes early in a console lifecycle to set new visual benchmarks and give us creative, compelling fiction. As a game, it's significantly less ambitious.
The Order: 1886 is a remarkable achievement. The team at Ready at Dawn should be applauded and given the chance to bring their complete vision to life in its entirety. Breathtaking visuals, top notch performances and industry leading motion capture animate a great story to create a very special and unique gaming experience.
The Order: 1886 is an antique that's aged ungracefully. The presentation is sublime from the release's rousing start right the way through to its anticlimactic finish, but several shoddy design decisions detract from its otherwise exemplary gloss. The developer's crafted an incredible universe, but outside of the title's core cast, it's failed to do much of note with it. This is a property that's begging for a sequel to realise its undeniable potential – but only time will determine whether it gets that opportunity.
The Order: 1886 isn't easy to recommend, but it isn't impossible to endorse, and despite its familiarity, is a game we enjoyed our time with. Here's hoping The Order: 1887 pushes for greater.
Just like mustaches, not everyone can appreciate what The Order 1886 was trying to accomplish, but if you know what you're going into, you just might walk away loving it as much as I did flaws and all. The Order 1886 joins my list of story driven games I'll play again and again.
The Order: 1886 is not a perfect game by any stretch but it certainly wasn't deserving of the early criticism it received. Now that the release is finally here and you can play through the whole game yourself you'll find that despite some very minor misses in gameplay, Ready at Dawn sets a very high bar in terms of both presentation and story offering up one of the best experiences to date on your PS4.
The Order: 1886 is an incredible tech demo for the PlayStation 4 and, like Ryse: Son of Rome on Xbox One, will likely be one of the best-looking games on the system for quite a while. It stands tall and should be commended for that. The flat characters, paint by numbers story, and strictly workable mechanics, though, keep the game from being anything more than just a technical demo of the engine Ready at Dawn has created.
The Order: 1886 isn't a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination; it's just a massive disappointment that failed to break new ground. It's a shame because you can tell that a great deal of effort went into building this alternate version of 19th century London, and boy is it gorgeous.
Though impressive in some ways, The Order: 1886 fails miserably in its most important goal of keeping the player entertained for any significant length of time.