If I am being completely honest, having played The Order: 1886 at E3, it didn’t ‘wow’ me. Seeing at in action during the PlayStation Experience piqued my interest in the seemingly by the books third-person shooter. In the end I found out that there is a lot more under the hood than just a corridor shooter.
Visuals of The Order continue to impress
Suppose someone asked me to describe The Order: 1886 to them without having any base knowledge of the title. In a nutshell the game is a period shooter set in, you guessed it, 1886. However it’s not just other factions of people that the Knights have to contend with but also half-breed human-lycan creatures that have been warring with the Knights Of The Round Table for centuries. Players will traverse environments with an over the shoulder perspective and encounter mechanics that are similar to those of the Uncharted series. It should come as no surprise though as developers, Ready At Dawn have stated, they are heavily influenced by Uncharted 2.
The Zeppelin mission that we played, was a wonderful display of the mechanics and the shooting. It was the first time that Ready At Dawn have shown something besides shooting to the public. It should be noted that it is the fifth level in the game just incase anyone is worried about spoilers. As the mission starts Grayson, aka Sir Galahad, is tasked with stealthily infiltrating the Agamemnon and preventing an assassination attempt on Lord Hasting’s life. Lord Hastings being the leader of the United India Company and the one who hired the knights. Once prevented, the red coats show themselves as having stowed away on the ship and Grayson along with his comrades are tasked to take back the ship.
New gameplay mechanics were showed off at PSX
The intensely tight corridor mission, gives us a chance to try out the great stealth mechanics and other aspects of the game. Such as the newly revealed electrical tampering that allows players access to doors or to distract guards by shutting off lights. Also shown was the lock picking mechanic which is very similar to many other lock picking types having to get the pin at the exact precise moment. Thankfully if you make a mistake you don’t have to start over again, looking at you, just about every other game that has a lock picking mechanic.
The Order: 1886 looks to be a sufficient shooter with some great story behind it. The combat is fluid and fun, the quick-time events are well done and will keep even the twitchiest gamer on their toes. The shooting may be by the books but the atmosphere and setting attempt to make up for it. It took me around twenty or so minutes to get through the mission, which included cutscenes. So hopefully the full game will be a weighty experience but until then, we can continue admiring the graphically rich experience that Ready At Dawn has created so far.
