Many years ago, when the PS2 was still relatively new, I was given a box full of random gaming items. Most of these items were for the Sega 16 bit but there was a demo for a Japanese RPG called Lunar 2, a game that shaped my love for gaming. Being relatively new to RPG’s this demo took me some time to complete and after I bought the full game I found out I was barely playing 5% of it. You may be asking yourself now ‘Why is this sappy nerd talking about some ancient RPG for the PS1? I thought this was a review for The Order: 1886?’ Well reader, first I would choke back my quite sobs. Second, while I literally only played about 5% of Lunar 2, it still took just a little under the same amount time to beat that it took me to defeat and platinum The Order: 1886.
As far as gameplay goes there is nothing special here, your basic 1st or 3rd person shooter game with the standard shooter arsenal. There are a few futuristic steam punk style weapons that were actually fun to use though. I particularly enjoyed a tesla cannon looking thing that seemed to disintegrate everyone and an odd gun that shot clouds of ash you could set on fire and incinerate everything in the area. While these were fun to use finding ammo for anything other than the basic guns is tedious at best, making the fun guns impractical. Why waste time finding more ammo for a special gun when you can just pick up any of the rifles lying around and shoot your enemies in the head to get the same result.
I realize that most reviewers have already beaten this dead horse to nothing but a stain on the carpet but it is entirely justified. Not only was I able to beat this game, I was able to get the platinum as well, in little over a day with no real grinding, immediately after dental surgery that left me doped up on pain medication for days. What has game development come to where games on a system with less power and functionality then a modern cell phone has almost 10 times more play value? It’s almost like going through college again, you can have sleep, friends, or good grades but you are only allowed two of the three. Except in this case, the choices are graphics, plot, or play time and instead of two choices you only get one. It almost feels like we are being punished for getting to greedy, as if papa Newell is taking away one of our toys because we wouldn’t stop bugging him about another Half-Life or Portal.
I can only imagine that this game had a turbulent development process in which many key features were removed at the last second. The way developers try and force multiplayer into every game now and days, it seems odd that a game with multiple active protagonist that actual calls for it would be overlooked. Of course, the game is so easy on any setting, having multiple players would feel like shooting fish in a barrel for anyone smarter than the average dullard. It also seems unfair though that the game was advertised as a grand steam punk style fight against werewolves when you spend most of the time fighting random dudes. Out of all the skirmishes you go through, werewolves only come up three or four times, at least one of which is mainly comprised of quick time events.
Plot is almost completely non-existent in this game as well though and what plot there is has so many holes it could be repackaged as Swiss cheese. The game itself is broken up into a dozen or so chapters but a few of those chapters are only cut scenes, they don’t have any actual game play whatsoever. Why would you have a chapter in a game that is comprised of literally nothing but a three minute cut scene? Why would anyone give a cut scene its own chapter except as a big middle finger to the player?
Before I continue there might be spoilers now, just so someone doesn’t get upset and read something that completely ruins the game for them and spams my inbox with more hate mail. I can say that I had to look up the wiki on this game just to understand the full plot of what was going on. Most games fall into the problem of describing things too much or providing too much back story. The Order: 1886 though just kind of goes with whatever and leaves the player to ponder what in the hell is going on.
For instance, I didn’t realize that the black liquid they were drinking was extending their lives; I assumed it was just making them heal really fast. It wasn’t until a couple of the older characters started arguing and compared their ages like teens argue about who is more inadequate that I realized they were also hundreds of years old. That just brought up more questions though, like what the hell is that liquid, how it is made from blood, how the silver thing refills itself and so on. Does the game ever answer any of these questions? Not as far as I can tell, there are plenty of collectable that may shed more light on the subject but if it wasn’t important enough to put in the main story I don’t see why I should spend time on them. Also, I understand this game is trying to go for gritty realism but it is not helpful when it is impossible to understand anything being said over the communicators or the recording collectables. More than once I was given instructions over the communicator but had no idea what I was told, so I just ignored it and followed the linear path to the next group of dudes I had to kill. Also, also, why is type in games so damn small now and days? I have a decent size TV but when I constantly have to get up and move closer just to read the miniscule print it quickly becomes annoying.
The other main point of annoyance in the plot is the werewolves themselves, or as they are referred to as ‘The Lycan’. At the start of the game I wondered about this, whether there was some greater point to calling them Lycan or if the game just wanted to be hip or something. I stopped caring fairly quickly though, if it looks like a werewolf, walks like and werewolf and rips my throat out like a werewolf that is all I needed to know. Late in the game though, while searching for proof that the enemy is shipping lycan abroad, you open a crate that doesn’t contain a lycan but a vampire. When in the hell did vampires enter this story? The game even calls them vampires and stakes one in the heart as it turns into a lycan. I can only assume some writer for this game thought ‘What can make werewolves even more dangerous? I know! We can make them part vampire as well, that has never been done before.’ As the writer hides all of his Underworld memorabilia.
There is also a point where you must infiltrate a hospital that is supposed to be swarming with lycan but you find more dudes than anything. Why fabricate this false partnership between the lycan and the current dudes you have to kill? How does it make sense that these two groups are sharing a base when you find out later they are enemies? Did they agree before the fight that the resistance gets the top floors while the lycan get to run around in the basement? This is also the point where you encounter your first super lycan, referred to as an old one or something similar. The characters act as if it is such a big deal but there is no explanation why it is a big deal. Sure it is a lot stronger than the other half dozen lycan you’ve killed so far and it can talk but that doesn’t mean anything without context. Instead of fleshing out the plot though you simply kill it in a series of quick time events and move on.
Character development is also fairly shoddy with allegiances switching back and forth like partners in a square dance. The only characters who did not seem to change sides every couple of chapter were the French lover boy Lafayette and the female resistance leader Lakshmi, both of which were far more interesting as characters than even the main character. There was actual conflict with Lafayette, whether he should remain faithful to his friend or the order. Likewise, Lakshmi was a far more interesting female protagonist than Igraine. She had actual drive and commitment to her cause and followed her beliefs rather than simply following orders.
Igraine on the other hand instantly becomes suspicious and throws you to the wolves just for taking off your uniform. Which is rather odd when not even two chapters ago she risked her life for you and acted as though she would throw herself from the tallest building if you rebuffed her advances. Of course the main character is also fairly inconsistent in this aspect. You spend the first few chapter blowing away enemies like the average GTA player and then decide not to kill anyone for a while. Of course this quickly changes from ‘don’t kill anyone’ to ‘kill everything with a pulse’. Then again while sneaking through a garden during the night you are told not to kill but knock out any guards. Of course the first guard you see ends up brutally dead and you go on another murder rampage.
What is the strong point to The Order? The graphics are very well done, with the level of detail obvious in most areas of the game. Every level has been designed to really emphasize the gritty realism of a steam punk Victorian England. As a spokesman for the developer said “It’s a matter of quality, not quantity.” Yes, the quality of this game is top notch but that isn’t saying a lot with many main stream games coming out half done now and days, with NPC faces vanishing like a horror movie. Like some other reviewers, I argue that instead of dumping all your effort into the graphics alone, some of that effort could have been put towards other parts of the game. Instead of detailing every dark section of wall that the player might not see and probably not care about, add a bit more play time or fix some of the other glaring holes.
In conclusion, there is no conclusion. The Order: 1886 just sort of ends, anticlimactic, with only one of the various enemies taken care of. I figured I was only about half way through the game when the credits rolled and immediately checked online to make sure I hadn’t done anything wrong. It was the end though, except for a batman style cut scene at the end for good measure I suppose. Basically, you are paying full price for a game that amounts to a demo not even a decade ago. I would have been upset if I wasn’t so doped up on pain meds at the time. If you feel a need to play this game I suggest waiting until the price is slashed drastically, which may not take very long.
