The Order: 1886 Reviews
The Order: 1886 is a paper-thin PS4 launch title delivered 15 months behind schedule. It's nowhere near as profound or innovative as it thinks it is—the epitome of all style and no substance.
A stunning graphical showcase that can't hide a so-so game. The Order: 1886 has a great premise and a decent, albeit clichéd narrative, but the cost of its cinematic values comes in restrictive gameplay, mediocre shooting and an over-reliance on quick-time events. It's a fantastic looking game with which to show off your PS4, but it's too short and too unimaginative for its beauty to be anything more than skin-deep.
It's amazing the mileage The Order gets from its incredible presentation and world, but that goodwill is squandered by a title that's middling to poor in most other areas.
Yet, this is a high-quality first chapter of a promising new IP that fully deserves a chance from all lovers of an exceptional story and tight, fun cover shooting gameplay.
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.
Overall, The Order: 1886 is an exceptional game that can be mistaken for a film as much as it can be for a game. Ready At Dawn achieved their mission of showing how a game can be great even when priorities lie in the visual, sound and plot departments.
Great visuals alone do not a great game make - and there's unfortunately very little in The Order: 1886 to elevate it beyond being a pretty, but shallow and insipid shooter. It commits the one sin no interactive entertainment should: it's painfully boring.
If the setting and lore of The Order: 1886 interest you at all, the game is at least worth a rental. Those hoping for a meaty, innovative experience however need not bother as the game wastes much of its potential on rehashed gameplay systems, an unsatisfyingly thin story, and a noticeable lack of long-term appeal.
The Order: 1886 is a disappointing and short game that fails to live up to the hype that surrounds it. However, if you're willing to overlook its faults and sit through its abundance of lengthy cutscenes, you'll find that there's some fun to be had. It's fleeting, but it's there.
The game is our best example that we can play a movie. The fact that the movie in question is a leaden, unimaginative waste is almost incidental.
The Order: 1886 shows just how good games can look on the PlayStation 4, but it's not an example of how fun or satisfying they can be.
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.
It is an unfortunate irony that a game offering a glimpse into the future of video game graphics should be so hamstrung by its limited, conventional gameplay. This is one anachronism too many — even for a steampunk game.
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.
This is a game and a concept that could benefit from a sequel. And if we're lucky, it'd give us an even deeper look at this gorgeous yet squalid Dickensian London.
The Order: 1886 will embrace you in a unmatched cinematic experience and the shooting mechanics are solid. The overall short time you are actually "playing" the game is a major disappointment. There are no advancement options for weapons and the only collectibles in the game are audio logs, photographs and newspapers. There are trophies for finding them all, but no indicator of which items you may have missed. Let me be clear: I did enjoy my time spent with the title, but with no clear reason to trek through the adventure multiple times, combined with the fact it can be beaten in a single afternoon, The Order: 1886 is a rental at best.
A playable third-person shooter with a laughably short campaign, pretty visuals and no substance.
Overall, I don't think you'll be missing out if you didn't experience The Order 1886. Weighing up the pros and cons results in a heavy tip towards the cons, and with that I would say save your money for something else. There was so much potential surrounding The Order, yet it hasn't lived up to the expectations. On a positive note, there is the scope for a sequel, or prequel that if it can utilize the good aspects of this effort, and incorporate some fun, then maybe we'll have reason to feel excited about visiting this world another time.
The premise is solid, the graphics are great, the voice casting is excellent, but in the end you have to ask yourself, are we buying games to watch them or to play them? This is something you need to ask yourself before picking up The Order. It's a shame, too. Werewolves are always getting a bum wrap in entertainment, and this game isn't going to help their cause.
A case of extreme hype and zero reward