The Order 1886 - Review

There are many, many games that come out each year that I want to play, but due to time & financial restraints it is not possible for me to play them all.  So it's really great when your work buddy Siniša says, 'Hey man want to borrow Order 1886?' - the answer of course was yes.


Have any of you tried those Old El Paso Stand 'N' Stuff things?  They are also called Old El Paso Boats in other parts of the world, which to be fair is a much cooler sounding name & makes more sense considering their shape, but I digress.   I like Mexican food & have enjoyed Enchiladas & Fajitas for years so when I saw these cool looking things I thought to myself, yes I must try them. Unfortunately they ended up being disappointing because while they contain many great things like; meat, peppers, spices, garlic, cheese & other goodness when you bite into them the stuff goes everywhere, no matter how careful you are & just makes a mess.  The question I had to ask myself while playing the Order 1886 was is it something that looked great but when I bit into was is it just going to spill out all over the place & end up being a mess? Well, lets find out.

Welcome to Victorian London 1886, well sort of.   It is Victorian London but with a mix of steam punkish elements, oh & of course half breed humans running around referred to as Lycan's, more commonly know as Werewolves.  As if that were not enough there are rebels trying to tear down the city & Jack The Ripper is stalking the streets.  Who will protect the people from them?  Arthur & his Knights of the Round Table. Arthur himself is long since gone but his Knights still continue his work.


The half breed humans do have the upper hand against the well trained Knights due to their strength & tenacity.  As it turns out the Knights have access to an elixir which allows them to regenerate their health & mend their bodies.  This is also a nod to the Holy Grail & one of the many theories that it had the power to provide healing properties.


You play as Sir Galahad; a gruff, weather beaten, bad ass with a mighty moustache.  Don't worry you are not alone in your battle.  There is Sir Perceval your old mentor, an intriguing character with many secrets.  There is Marquis, who is very likable, offers some minor comic relief & has a way with the ladies.  Then there is Lady Igraine, who was Sir Galahad's student, she comes across as tough & smart but I found her character quickly waned for me.  One of the cooler characters was Nikola Tesla who of course needs no introduction,  I did feel he was not utilised as much as he could have been in the game.


While the premise was interesting the execution lacked a certain something & the ending I found to be poor & left many unanswered questions.  The studio clearly set the game up to be part of a Trilogy but they should have focused more on this game before worrying about possible future installments.

While I felt the game clearly fell down on story & character development it did not fall down on the visuals.  The places you visit & the general surrounding looked fantastic, two of my favorite areas of the game were; inside White Chapel Hospital & the Airship.  White Chapel Hospital is an old condemned building which feels grim & not just because it's a hospital.  There are old beds & wheelchairs littering the place, the paint work & tiles are wearing away & there is generally an eerie feeling as you navigate it.  The Airship was awesome, from the outside you get to view the city of London which looks impressive, inside you get to traverse the inner workings of it before entering the luxurious areas.  Outside of that the characters designs & outfits look good with the exception of the Lycans which I found to be a little dull.


The music has a very old & classical sound that makes great uses of stringed instruments especially violins.  A choir is used in some pieces & helps give a more dramatic feel to the game. The score was composed by Jason Graves.  Graves has previously worked on; Far Cry Primal, Dead Space, Tomb Raider & Fear 3 to name just a few.  Austin Wintory also features on the piece 'A Knight's Theme', who previously worked on Assassins Creed Syndicate & Journey.


As a whole it was nice solid soundtrack, my favorite pieces included: 'The Knight's Theme', 'Airborne Pursuit', 'Agamemnon Rising', 'Darkest Hour', 'A Knight's Burden' & 'The Edge Of Sanity'

The gameplay was a bit of a mixed bag for me.  Let's talk about the weapons first, the M2 Falcon Rifle looked & felt good, it also featured a stun ability.  There was the Thermite gun which allowed you to fire out thermite powder with one trigger & then another let you shoot off a flare which ignited it.  I really liked the design of the crossbow but the ammo was scarce & for some reason you could not retrieve the bolts from enemies which seemed odd.  Slow-mo seemed like an unnecessary ability especially consider how infrequent the combat was.


There were a few mini activities you can complete, one of which was lock picking. There were two types of locking picking,  one was using electricity to override locks.  Lock picking seem liked an interesting idea but you can only preform the action on certain doors, one of the mini games is fun (thumb sticks), the other reminded me of a bad version of Elder Scrolls IV locking picking, only not fun.  From time to time in the game you had to examine objects using the left thumb stick but it always felt clunky & unnecessary.  Searching for clues was so bad it was almost genius.  Basically you push papers around messily from the left to the right & let a few books fall over, it definitely felt like the Scooby Doo school of detective work - 'Good one Shaggy'.

Overall the gameplay moves from cut sequences, to quick time events to action but never transitions between each of them well & instead ends up feeling awkward.  There is barely time to enjoy or get used to elements of the gameplay as they change too often & feel jarring.





So after 10 hours of playing what did I think?  Well to call the game outright bad is unfair but had it not been for the visuals & mild intrigue in the story that is exactly what I would have called it.  My rating for this game was - 'meh'.