OsirisBlack said:

says I have the theme cannot figure out where to download the damn thing though.

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Xaero Gravity said:

I agree, I'm just going on the assumption that the core gameplay loop won't differ much from what I've played so far. And for the record, I don't see a 7/10 as an abomination of a score like some people these days do.

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Xaero Gravity said:

I agree, I'm just going on the assumption that the core gameplay loop won't differ much from what I've played so far. And for the record, I don't see a 7/10 as an abomination of a score like some people these days do.

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bananafactory said:

If you activated your code in the store just go to Settings - Themes on your PS4, it was automatically added to my theme library it just had to download when I selected it

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OsirisBlack said:

I did it on the computer at work

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I think if it as bad review wise as Ryse then they should can the IP

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Nightengale said:

>walk into game store while out for CNY Eve lunch
>The Order not yet in store
>about to walk out
>suddenly some guy come in with a trolley of two boxes, listed 'The Order' and 'The Order T-Shirt'
>game store boss opens the box, pulls out 40 or so copies of the game and 2 Collector's Edition box.
>ask about the game
>said I could buy it now if I wanted
>realise I'm back hometown for CNY break, and that means no PS4 until 24th
>FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

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Nightengale said:

>walk into game store while out for CNY Eve lunch
>The Order not yet in store
>about to walk out
>suddenly some guy come in with a trolley of two boxes, listed 'The Order' and 'The Order T-Shirt'
>game store boss opens the box, pulls out 40 or so copies of the game and 2 Collector's Edition box.
>ask about the game
>said I could buy it now if I wanted
>realise I'm back hometown for CNY break, and that means no PS4 until 24th
>FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

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Glorified G said:

I'm about a couple of hours in the second chapter. This definitely leaves a good first impressions. The environment and setting is surreal. I'm getting flashbacks to playing Resident Evil 4 and being immersed in 3rd person while walking around. I can't remember the last time I've been this impressed by a game graphically. Probably early last gen. It's that good. Solid gunplay too. I was expecting more "punch" since reading comparisons here but turning down the music a bit in the setting definitely helped. The main character is much more agile getting into and out of cover than I thought he would be. It looked kinda clunky in gameplay vids but it is the opposite for me. The 3rd person action aspect is overall solid, I had to tweak a few things like the sound and up the sensitivity but nonetheless it's pretty good, nothing amazing or anything.

Sort of like the Last of Us or Uncharted it's not about one aspect but it is the whole package. It's really polished. The atmosphere is so immersive, nice gunplay, great acting and facial expressions. It's all there. There's been criticism of the pacing in the beginning but I feel it is the opposite, it's just right. Taking in everything, looking around, picking up objects, mixed in with the action pieces. It's like an old school adventure game mixed in with a 3rd person shooting.

This took me by surprise. I was only expecting to enjoy the shooting aspect of the game and figured everything else was a means to an end. But this is a really polished put together game. I wouldn't be surprised if this scores well.

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wapplew said:

Digital copy my friend.

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Glorified G said:

I'm about a couple of hours in the second chapter. This definitely leaves a good first impressions. The environment and setting is surreal. I'm getting flashbacks to playing Resident Evil 4 and being immersed in 3rd person while walking around. I can't remember the last time I've been this impressed by a game graphically. Probably early last gen. It's that good. Solid gunplay too. I was expecting more "punch" since reading comparisons here but turning down the music a bit in the setting definitely helped. The main character is much more agile getting into and out of cover than I thought he would be. It looked kinda clunky in gameplay vids but it is the opposite for me. The 3rd person action aspect is overall solid, I had to tweak a few things like the sound and up the sensitivity but nonetheless it's pretty good, nothing amazing or anything.

Sort of like the Last of Us or Uncharted it's not about one aspect but it is the whole package. It's really polished. The atmosphere is so immersive, nice gunplay, great acting and facial expressions. It's all there. There's been criticism of the pacing in the beginning but I feel it is the opposite, it's just right. Taking in everything, looking around, picking up objects, mixed in with the action pieces. It's like an old school adventure game mixed in with a 3rd person shooting.

This took me by surprise. I was only expecting to enjoy the shooting aspect of the game and figured everything else was a means to an end. But this is a really polished put together game. I wouldn't be surprised if this scores well.

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Nightengale said:

>walk into game store while out for CNY Eve lunch
>The Order not yet in store
>about to walk out
>suddenly some guy come in with a trolley of two boxes, listed 'The Order' and 'The Order T-Shirt'
>game store boss opens the box, pulls out 40 or so copies of the game and 2 Collector's Edition box.
>ask about the game
>said I could buy it now if I wanted
>realise I'm back hometown for CNY break, and that means no PS4 until 24th
>FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

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Karak said:

Not going to say much other than 1 thing.
The AI in this game isn't just bad, it actively makes the game far more difficult to enjoy than it should. Hardest difficulty still sees tons of errors, glitches, and just horrid AI programing and enemies can be boxed instantly or walled without any difficulty, resulting in a congo-line of deaths as they all follow the same trajectory to their doom ignoring anything going on in the level. Its like a full spectrum of code is missing in their programming. I can't believe whats happened so far a couple times. This game is going to be a gif generator for years.

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-MD- said:

You could rewind time to 15 years ago when video stores rented consoles out to hold you over until the 24th.

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JAYSIMPLE said:

I'm so torn on this game. I liked heavy rain. Hated beyond. Loved Fahrenheit. This game looks bad to me. No choice. Re used boss fights. Such a wasted opportunity

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Messofanego said:

It'd be cool if you record some of those moments for your review.

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De_Legend said:

Too much different impressions... can't wait to try it myself damnit!

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moris said:

Liking this game so far. Already played 5 hours and I'm still only on chapter two. I take my time to explore and stuff.

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Xaero Gravity said:

I agree, I'm just going on the assumption that the core gameplay loop won't differ much from what I've played so far. And for the record, I don't see a 7/10 as an abomination of a score like some people these days do.

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-MD- said:

You might end up with the longest playthrough in the world if you're up to 5 hours at chapter 2.

I can't imagine how you're squeezing that much time out of it.

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Hawk269 said:

I have been trying to not read too much, but just curious how many chapters are in the game?

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JackLongRod said:

Legit question because I wasn't a member here in 2008 but did MGS4 get hated on as much as the order in regard to cutscenes?

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JackLongRod said:

Legit question because I wasn't a member here in 2008 but did MGS4 get hated on as much as the order in regard to cutscenes?

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moris said:

Liking this game so far. Already played 5 hours and I'm still only on chapter two. I take my time to explore and stuff.

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bananafactory said:

Glad to hear you're enjoying it, great impressions.

Will be curious to see how your take on it changes as you progress, seen quite a few people here go up and down on the game as they get closer to the end.

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De_Legend said:

Damn that sounds good...

Too much different impressions... can't wait to try it myself damnit!

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Nokterian said:

Don't shoot this messenger got this link on steam..well i couldn't stop laughing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV-u5tvQC34

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JackLongRod said:

Legit question because I wasn't a member here in 2008 but did MGS4 get hated on as much as the order in regard to cutscenes?

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JackLongRod said:

Legit question because I wasn't a member here in 2008 but did MGS4 get hated on as much as the order in regard to cutscenes?

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Gurish said:

Lol that was funny! But what graphical downgrade is he talking about? didn't hear anything about it, the game was downgraded?

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JK-Money said:

ign on why they love the orders length
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/02/18/podcast-beyond-episode-382-why-we-love-the-orders-length

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A_Gorilla said:

It was definitely a common complaint from what I remember.

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travisbickle said:

But the repetitive gameplay loop is blowing people away with guns, it's not a gameplay loop that gamers and reviewers dislike.

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OsirisBlack said:

Finally finished.

Going to try to do this without saying anything at all about the graphics.

As I stated originally the game starts off slowly with a deliberate pacing building the characters story and atmosphere. After about 5 hours in the story becomes very tight but you are asked to read between the lines on a few issues which I will not spoil here. Following context clues makes some of them pretty blatant others a bit more elusive. It is all tied together very nicely.

Level design is good, not excellent but good there are often multiple ways to dispatch enemies besides hiding behind cover and playing whack a mole. I like to try different approaches to combat in every game I play and can make combat in Infamous Second Son look like a choreographed fight in a film.

Some of the things you can do in the Order when you put some thought into it are pretty amazing. They just require a bit of creative timing with Blacksight and the various weapons at your disposal. I do feel like something is missing from combat options but I cannot quite put my finger on exactly what it is. I never had a problem with the cover system and was at times impressed (annoyed heavily at one point) with the enemy AI.

The Order is going to be my new go to score and there is one track in particular that hits at just the right moment and adds an extra layer of drama to the already intense scene. The music never felt out of place but what stood out to me just as much as the music was the ambient sounds. Some of them are so good I would suggest standing still and just listening to the world around you.

There were a few QTE in the game that I felt were out of place outside of those few incidents the pacing and placement of them was fine. The game gets better as you go on and in my opinion ends on a very high note but I must admit it has left me wanting more. I would suggest playing with aim assist off, camera bias on and hard difficulty.

I will give the game another play through at a much slower pace but if I had to say yes or no to buying this game day one, I would say this is definitely a day one game.

I think the game is more akin to TLOU in pacing than Gears which is a good thing in my opinion and after completion I would still say this is my favorite new IP so far this generation.

First play through score 9/10

Edited to add:

My wife watched me play this entire game from beginning to end, the last game she watched me play from beginning to end was TLOU.

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Therman2k said:

Well here are my final impressions for the game, i'll review parts of the game in different categories , then the overall experience and summary.
I'll try to sum up everything as much as I can.

Graphics:
Technical marvel. True next-gen experience, on all fronts.
No loading times, super silky smooth frame rate (you all be surprised how smooth it is), no graphic glitches, amazing and consistent art all around.
A lot of times it's hard for you to grasp it's even a game running real time.
Black bars didn't really filled their job.
Making transitions back to gameplay already done better in games like MGS. They downgraded from the experience, from gameplay side and from art side.

Sound:
True 1886 era fitted music, amazing score and theme.
Voice acting is top notch all around.
Were moments I was surprised the developers added some of the sounds you usually don't hear while interacting with the environment.
The theme really works and sticks with you, other times though really good music kicks in but can be forgettable easily.

Menu and UI:
Menu is on the light side, something I like.
It's easy to navigate, and to understand and looks good.
Only thing that comes to mind on the bad side, is the weapon selection UI.
It's too big and centered in the middle of the screen, not very good while action is going.
No option to change button layouts is a big negative.

Pacing and story:
Starts really slow, the intro stays it's welcome way too much.
And on top of bad paced intro, it comes instead of good exposition that I felt lacking most of the game.
The story starts to pick up from late middle of the game, but when it does it grabs you so hard it makes you want to continue playing nonstop. Really emotional and good, something a lot of games having hard time to achieve.
Characters are really believable and make strong impact.
Sometimes the story kicks you to some places, which you wander what happened between the last cut scene to the next. I felt out of place when it happened, it felt unnatural to the flow of the game.
Sadly the game ends way too quick after the story really shines and makes you feel you deserved more.

Gameplay:
Odd design and gameplay decisions plague this game.
Basic cover and stealth mechanics makes a solid shooting encounters.
It also fails to explain in depth cover mechanics like camera bias (which is off by default) and corner cover switching, taking into account the game has a very long intro to introduce them.
You actually use some of the weapons once or twice the entire game. Made me wish I could use them more in the first time playing.
Setting up encounters in terms of level design and weapon placement can be better.
It's on par with KillZone SF right now.
QTE's in the game strike me as a failure from the gameplay design aspect for making better shooting encounters and "boos battles". Like Far Cry 3.

Overall:
Game is AAA with high production values, I don't think the negative outweighs the positive.
In a sense it's more of a journey, a really good and polished one we must endure till a sequel that will make good on gameplay without any black bars.
Is it worth the price of admission now? Yes.
There's nothing else like it on the market now, the wow factor is really big.
And if we put aside the wow factor, it's still a good polished story driven game with production values trough the roof.
Granted if you played uncharted or gears, there's a lot of room this game doesn't deliver, but overall it's something you can't allow yourself not to experience.

The order 1886, is really a new mascot for SONY. Just not too shiny.

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Rapier said:

Before I proceed I'd like to state that these views and opinions are expressly mine and mine alone, and by no means should they undermine the game's chances for success come the official release date.

Let me try to keep it simple. Games are interactive and audiovisual, so that's all I'll be giving thoughts on out of respect for RAD. So, here we go.

First off, the obvious. Visuals & Presentation:

The Order 1886 has a very explicit goal. That is, to be an authentically cinematic experience, complete with richly detailed period "sets", "wardrobe", "props", expert cinematography, lighting, etc. The team at Ready At Dawn have succeeded in every respect in recreating all of these elements which ultimately come together in a way never before seen in a video game. No detail is left unrefined, everything has such an expert level of craftsmanship and polish that it quite simply sets a new standard for production values and artistic integrity. Needless to say, both the film industry and the games industry would do wise to look at The Order as the current shining example of what the medium can achieve.

Now for more sobering thoughts. Gameplay:

Every notion of what some of you may consider to be proper game design has to be suspended. The game will hold your hand. It will walk you through areas. It will funnel you. It will bombard you with simple context sensitive button prompts and loads of sharply directed and acted cutscenes. For many, this is the bane of "cinematic" games, and that's the divisive crux in The Order. But for all those criticisms which can fairly be leveled against it, The Order succeeds because the physicality and feedback of the gameplay sections (which are by no means scarce) are so well executed and consistent with the games overall quality, that not allowing it its quirks would be to completely miss the point. Personally, I think it harkens back to Metal Gear Solid in terms of pacing, to Killzone 2 for its gunplay theatricality, and to Vanquish, for its replayability. It is by no means a short game, either. It's pacing is dictated by the unskippable cutscenes and expository quasi-interactive sections.

Story:

NO. Do yourself a favor and experience it like it was meant to be.

-----

Concluding remarks:

The Order 1886 is for lovers of old fashioned single player experiences. For those who want to see strong efforts in storytelling-focused games make a comeback. It's a highly curated museum piece for old-timey, story driven videogames, and if you cherish having a collection of finely produced games, then that's the value of The Order in a nutshell. If you're excited for a strong new IP with endless possibilities and want to see RAD put out new iterations of this level of quality, then give them the nod. I already have.

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MagicMushroom said:

Just finished this after around 10 hours of playtime. So it's not the longest game, though to clock in at 5 hours you'll have to rush through and hardly enjoy the wonderfully crafted world and all of its details.

Both story and gameplay-wise the game ramps up noticeably towards the end, with some interesting twists and amazing gunfights. Definitely looking forward to a sequel of some sorts - or even DLC for that matter.

What stands out mostly for me is how coherent it all feels. As long as you don't mind spending a third of the time walking around (beautiful scenery) and another third watching and listening (to unravel an exciting story), you'll have an absolute blast - and some of the weapons are immensely satisfying to use

Is it worth 60 Euros? Tough to say, there isn't much to come back for after you finished the game. Anyone still on the fence may want to wait for a pricedrop.

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periniumlick said:

For those worrying about gameplay length, please stop. I've been playing it nonstop since 2:45pm; it's now about 10pm, and I have 7 6 chapters left to finish. And yes, there is plenty of gameplay; it's not mostly cutscenes. The beginning of the game is heavy on exposition, but things heat up midway, and now I would say it's heavy on combat. Some very interesting story developments going down now; I could easily finish this in one sitting, it has me hooked, but The Walking Dead is calling me lol. I can't stress enough how crazy the visuals are. No slowdown, crazy smooth frame rate, (it's gotta be above 30) it really is playable CGI.

Just finished the Lycan encounter that's been shown at E3. The visuals seem to have been upgraded; it looks incredible. The fight itself reminds me of RE4; very visceral and hard hitting. I think this game will be very divisive; I like slow burn, atmospheric games, which The Order most certainly is. Those who crave constant, in your face action will probably be disappointed, because it's just not that type of game. The real star of the show is the universe itself; the settings, the characters, the way the story is told bit by bit instead of just flooding you with information. If someone were to walk in on you playing this, at first glance they would think you were watching a movie, which is what I believe RAD was aiming for. It looks eerily lifelike at times. I'm playing on Hard, with aim assist off, and I've died about 10 times so far.

And the credits roll...
I really enjoyed it! I love Galahad as a character; no nonsense, gruff, but with a sense of loyalty and honor that's quite admirable. Enough has been said about the visuals and production values, so I won't go there. The combat is great; there's a scene near the end where all of your skills are called into play, and it was kicking my ass, until it finally clicked that I was playing too conservatively. You can't just spam Blacksight to win; there are consequences to using it at the wrong times. You can play it like a whack a mole cover shooter, but there are systems in play that let you close the distance, flank, etc., that you might forget in the heat of the moment. Once those systems click, and you get creative with your approach, it's a beauty to behold.

Now for the negatives. So much lost potential story-wise, and with the Lycan encounters. They almost come across as lazy; there's no real build up, just throw some enemies at you seemingly out of nowhere. I should dread running into them, yet they were easier than the human enemies. What a missed opportunity. I also agree that the cool weapons are underutilized. I wanted to use the Thermite Gun in every encounter, but alas you can't. The Arc Gun I thought to be meh at first, until I found out that blind firing from cover is straight up OP; it will wreck shit. My go to weapon turned out to be the shotgun, a dismembering machine.

I won't go too deep into the story, but it leaves a lot on the table. It spoonfeeds you all these great tidbits, but they never come together as tasty as you'd expect.

In the end, imo The Order is a hodgepodge of great ideas, lore, and mechanics that while they never come together to form a great game, they all provide a solid foundation that will leave you satisfied, but hungry at the thought of what a sequel addressing the negatives may bring. It deserves to be successful because I truly believe it has the potential to be a great new IP.

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nbnt said:

Ok, just finished the game (took me about 9 hours on normal). I suck at writing impressions so I'll keep it short.

I didn't find the story anything special. But it's good enough, good characters with top notch VA and great facial animations.

Gameplay wise, it's solid. Satisfying gunplay, great weapons, decent AI. My main issue with the mechanics is that when you're close to a cover, Galahad would automatically stick to it, and that really irritated me. There's a button for taking cover if I wanted to, so why is there a contextual system on top of that? And there's no way to turn this off.

The disappointing: The unique weapons are so underutilized. The half breed encounters, both number and design wise.. What a missed opportunity.

Overall I liked it, I was craving for an AAA TPS and this game delivered, with an amazing atmosphere and solid gameplay. But just as I expected, it was honestly nothing special. 7/10 (If you wanna know my scale:

Spoiler

1-5=different levels of crap, 6=decent, 7=good, 8=great, 9=amazing, 10=The GOAT and it's reserved for TLG

).

Now, where's my photo mode...

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ron_bato said:

Well I just got my collectors edition. Played for about an hour, which got me to the beginning of chapter 2.

Hard difficulty, aim assist off. Had to adjust aim sensitivity to my liking as default was too high for me.

Cover system seemed pretty par for the course and intuitive. Combat felt satisfying and about as punchy as I'd expect. One thing I feared from watching the videos was that movement would be clunky and almost too heavy, but Galahad actually moved real well and faster than I thought he wouldn't.

I've only used blacksight once and I'm not sure if I 'get it' yet or I'm doing something wrong but I wasn't able to execute well with it yet.

Not going to spoil the story except that right now it's done a good job of catching my attention. The voice work and writing has been excellent, even for the random npcs. The banter in particular between the main characters have been really enjoyable.

There hasn't really been anything to throw me off yet, the worst thing I can say about the game so far is that combat encounters have been pretty standard. But that's to be expected anyway for the first chapter.

There's nothing I can say about the graphics really that hasn't been said before, its as good as people have been hyping it up to be.

These are pretty quick first impressions, I'll try to go in a little deeper later. But I'm enjoying the game so far.

Quick impressions as I start chapter 4:

Hard mode can get hard, the ai is more accurate and the ai can get really aggressive. You can't just stick around 1 spot as there will be enemies that try to rush you from both sides. Then they'll try to throw grenades. And you got guys at range trying to pick you off.
There's this one part in chapter 3 where I admit that I died a lot because I was being too cavalier and impatient and sticking in one spot too much. Not a good idea when you got flankers on both sides lol.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the melee, on one hand I like how it's context sensitive and changes depending on the situation and environment, but it takes you out of control too much.

The black bars have not been a problem for me but the camera sometimes gets in the way too much. And there are some jank in an otherwise very well animated game.

When you get in a dire situation and you make blacksight work well for you, it feels so good.

I must stress that gun play feels really good and impactful, and it handles a bit like the last of us in terms of control and recoil.

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BluePumpkin7 said:

Just finished the game, if not for trophies I wouldn't play it again because I feel like I've experienced everything there is to experience in this game. Loved everything about the game, didn't really like the way it ended though.

The characters are one of the most human/grounded characters I've seen in gaming, the plot could've been better, but the characters and lore truly make the game, some characters stand out, some feel like GoT rejects, the VO for the characters goes beyond even ND levels, it's just exceptional. I disliked how the ending felt a bit anti-climatic, there's still a lot to resolve by the end of the story, and I think they might be hinting at a sequel/dlc.

I soaked in all the atmosphere I could get, died and repeated some sections multiple times for trophies and I still finished it in what felt like 6 hours at most, the game is pretty short but if you're fan of most Sony exclusives (ND/QD/SMS) you'll love this one too, I'd recommend waiting for the prices to go down if you feel like $60 is too much for a 6 hour game with no replay value.

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TacticalFox88 said:

Let me just say this:

The game is short, but fucking excellent. I'm fully confident that the Order: 1886 is the UC1 of this generation, a damn good game, where the sequel will likely top it without question.

I completed it in about 6 hours.

However, my only gripe is that the story, while good, still feels like it should've been an HBO series rather than a video game. Though, I guess that's a backhanded compliment from a certain point of view.

Either way. Had a blast.

Buy it.

Enjoy it.

Form your own opinion.

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mgs2master2 said:

I picked up my copy today before going to work
(THANKS WALMART EMPLOYEE)

only got to play about a hour. Honestly regardless of whatever the length is, just from this hour alone I have the following impressions (positive).

- gameplay is solid
- QTEs are integrated nicely imo
- solid story

I am actually having fun with it. When I get more time i will love to get more immersed into it.

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otaku-asia said:

Played for around 1-2 hours and completed the first three chapters. Not a bad game but nothing that hasn't been done before. The chapters that I've played were quite slow paced. Lots of dialogs, exploration and QTEs.

It plays a bit like a mixture of Heavy Rain (in terms of QTEs) and Uncharted (cover shooter parts). Overall it's very story driven, which doesn't have to be a bad thing though if you like those kind of games.

On a side note, what I really dislike is the size of the subtitles. I had to keep the volume down as I didn't want to wake up the kids, so I had to rely on subtitles. However they are so tiny, which makes it almost impossible to read them. And I played on a 50" plasma...

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RE_Player said:

In the middle of chapter 2. Everybody knows the graphics are great but the highlights for me are the faces and the lighting. Maybe the best I've seen.

The core group of characters have been introduced and the dialogue between them is well written. Story is intriguing.

The game does a good job in introducing it's mechanics and just as you are getting used to them throwing in a scripted sequence to catch you off guard.

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JK-Money said:

ign on why they love the orders length
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/02/18/podcast-beyond-episode-382-why-we-love-the-orders-length

EDIT Starts around 540

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Juan29.zapata said:

Okay, I'm pretty sure I'm past halfway through, and I gotta say, the game's pretty good so far.

Playing Hard without aim assist, my initial thoughts was that enemies fell far too easily, but then I realized that this is a time when guns had quite big bullets, and not to mention that in this universe the guns were made to have a better rate of fire, and I was happy on how to the enemies fell. It was quite realistic, in that aspect.

When I stay too long in certain places the AI will try to flank me, however not in every place. Enemies are not dumb, they know you're fucking lethal and will kill them, if they realize that you are close they will try to change their cover. They will react to your actions/guns you have equipped, in certain times. "Oh God, he has an arc gun!" "He has a shotgun, hide!" and some others (althought that's not the exact wording). And when killing them in certain times, they have some awesome animations/hit reactions, for example an enemy who was about to shoot you receives a lethal shot in the abdomen, making him fall while shooting his gun.

Melee makes you feel like a god damn boss. You go running and gunning and run out of ammo? Sprint to the hurt enemy before he can recover and break his bloody neck. RAD made a combat that while it's easy, it feels lethal and strong. I have never been bored during the combat sections or was forced to stay in cover for long if I knew what I was doing.

The story is very, very good. I like how it's presented, however I can see that some people are going to have a field day criticizing how it feels. I personally love it. The attention to detail is impressive, making other studios blush. People who love history from the 19th century are going to love this one. I kind of giggled in some parts because of the references to real life people. The performances are great, and there's great chemistry between the main characters, and I have to highlight La Fayette, brought a smile to my face whenever he talked.

The graphics are freaking amazing. They do not disappoint and found myself saying "next gen is fucking here", and the vistas, oh man, the vistas, I'm so glad that RAD did not budge to public reception to the black bars because they have made possible to some shots that just made want to take pictures (which I didn't because they might be spoilerific).

I forgot to say the biggest negative I've found: the lycans encounters are kind of wasted, except of the one they hyped.

I was expecting them to hype it more in game, and even make them more tense and hard, but they were pretty easy. I feel that they wasted that potential, sadly. However I've yet to finish the game and so I might get some surprises.

I can't tell you guys how excited I am for RAD's next game. If this is their first try at a AAA game, I can't even imagine what they'll do next when they don't have to focus on making an engine or building a new IP. Congratulations, Ready at Dawn, you have made an excellent game.

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ChasingComets said:

So here are so light impressions after getting to the end of chapter 3. The game is turning out exactly the way I expected: a moderately competent cover shooter with highly linear sequences, and nothing much more than that. Take that as you will, whether you see it as a negative or positive, but it's very by-the-books to me.The gunplay is satisfying, But there's nothing terribly exciting being done with the gameplay or the (so far) nondescript storyline, which seems to be hitting up every secret organisation and gothic fantasy cliche. Playing on hard, which isn't any more terribly difficult than say, uncharted or GoW on hard. I do find it annoying that there were so many portions that the game took control from you, but it's gotten better in chapter 3, so impressions might continue to change.

The game remains a marvel at a technical level; as my friend puts it, there are flaws if you look hard enough (mainly speaking about AF and AA here) but the artistic direction is so cohesive, so singularly omnipresent that it overshadows these. Sound design is great, rivalling BF's work on guns, and goes a very long way in making gunplay feel satisfying impactful and visceral (I like to compare back to GoW and Black).

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iTehDroiD said:

So I just finished the game...

My biggest issue with the game/story was that

Spoiler

they first let you see that Galahad "betrayed" the Order and then have most of the game set before that. I mean what is the biggest problem with prequels? Yes, that you know what happens at the end and it felt like that half the game.

Secondly I was not able to build a real connection to Galahad as I wished. He isn't a bad character but as Rapier said it feels like "Sort of like popping in the middle of a movie". Furthermore I wished there would have been more interaction with Lady Igraine and Lafayette than just in the couple of missions.

Then the end... It's actual quite good imo but there are so many things unanswered/unsolved that it's a little bit frustrating that we have to wait for the sequel.

One thing that I really liked was the gunplay. The guns feel amazing, their sounds are great and the soft-body physics made it really fun to mess around with the enemies (like shooting them in the leg). Easily the best 3rd person gunplay for me yet.

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SSReborn said:

So I'm pretty far into the campaign now (have been playing for about 7 hours now on hard) and I've decided to take a break to give some impressions as well as play some FF14. Anyways on to the impressions:

The game goes over that game/movie line a little more than other "cinematic" games such as Last of Us, Uncharted etc etc. But it isn't like interactive movie levels like Beyond Two Souls or Heavy Rain there is still a game there at its core. However the game also isn't afraid to go into "movie mode" or adventure game mode" where this a good amount of walking and no straight up combat So if you hate these types of games then this one is definitely not for you.

The cover system is like a mix of LOU and Gears however it isn't as good as either (or any other leading cover systems in the tps genre) imo. It didn't feel as smooth navigating from cover to cover as I wanted it to. Just seemed like it needed a bit more polish all around. Not to imply it was bad or anything it was serviceable.

The AI was decent you have your standard AI enemies who stay back and suppress you and then you have other types such as Shotguns, Assaults who move in and try to flank you from the sides.

The shooting felt really good there was a pretty good punch behind all the weapons and they were fun to use. I also like how grounded the gameplay felt you had to be smart about when you decided to move and how you would go about doing so. There seemed to be a good amount of uniqueness in the scenarios they threw you in.

Personal Gripes

• Some actions could only be performed when the game wanted you too instead of having a dedicated button.
  - Their is a roll in the game but it literally can only be performed when someone throws a grenade and the prompt is on your screen I feel like this should have just been possible at any time would have made the cover system a bit more interesting.
• Some unnecessary QTE's and at times an over reliance on QTE's
  - There was one where you pressed triangle each time to countdown from 3 also tapping x to get up after drinking blackwater I find unnecessary
• I feel like there was a bit of pacing issues in the beginning in regards to gameplay/movie ratio, as the game progressed they managed it better. Will definitely turn some off.
• I'm not a big fan of how the melee worked it was basically like press triangle and watch a small little takedown animation, I'd rather a bit more interactivity here kinda like UC1 or 2
• At times the game feel too linear

Graphics are amazing some of the best I have seen and I don't even feel my TV is personally doing them proper justice.

The characterization is really great they really nailed this the banter between characters and all of that is very well acted.

The story started off a bit slow but slowly has been pulling me into the conflict that surrounds this world. I'm really eager to get back to it and find out what happens next.

I feel like its a really cool new ip but it definitely needs some fleshing out in subsequent releases much like many new ip's this gen. I actually feel more and more the UC1 comparisons actually hold some weight. In terms of reception I think this game will be polarizing some will hate, some will love, other will find it middling.

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ron_bato said:

Well I tried my best to finish the game as quickly as I could because I would be leaving my house for a week. Was unsuccessful, and I'm now at the end of chapter 9,with about six hours of gameplay in. I died a bunch of times because the ai has proven to be challenging, I know I don't suck at tps because it's my favorite genre (at least I'd like to think I don't suck lol).

Got to say, the game is good. A lot of great impressions have been posted that summarizes how I feel about the game, all I can say is that so far I'm very happy with the game (though there is room for improvement and a lot to look forward to considering this is Rad's first Aaa console game).

Won't spoil the game but there's a moment in the game that made me go andydwyerwoah.gif. Though there are bits of the story that are cliche and predictable, it's held up well so far. Voice work and dialogue are great, although there are weak spots and some actors not as good as others. Lady igraine steals the show from a performance standpoint in my opinion.

For all the individual aspects of the game that are great, like the graphics, sound design, and musical score, gunplay is up there as one of the strengths of the game. Though combat encounters have been nothing special (they are solid and provide enough of a challenge). The cover system is not as good as I thought it was, like moving around corners feels off, but in general the cover system works well enough and doesn't really take way from the experienxe.

The weapons are some of the best I've ever used in a shooter. And each weapon does a great job of having its own unique feel to it. Some go crazy with recoil, while others just have this booming quality to them. And as much as I was expecting to fall in love with the crazier weapons in the game, the combo rifle has proven to be my favorite.

I have some gnarly screen captures of the arc rifle doing work. That thing is a beast.

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MrxDemix said:

The gameplay became repetitive for me about four hours in. The slow-time mechanic just isn't enough to make the combat, which is held back by average A.I., exciting. After the first stealth section, stealth becomes a chore. There are cutscenes and QTEs absolutely everywhere. My favorite cutscene was about halfway through the game, and it amped me up, but everything after it didn't capture my interest.

After watching the credits I tried to think of a reason to run through it again, but there's no difficulty higher than Hard, no multiplayer to speak of, unlockables, or anything else to push replay value.

It's these things that make it a disappointment to me.

It's just my opinion. Maybe you'll walk away happy. I honestly don't foresee this game performing well critically, although it could still sell well as Michael Pachter predicts.

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Karak said:

Not going to say much other than 1 thing.
The AI in this game isn't just bad, it actively makes the game far more difficult to enjoy than it should. Hardest difficulty still sees tons of errors, glitches, and just horrid AI programing and enemies can be boxed instantly or walled without any difficulty, resulting in a congo-line of deaths as they all follow the same trajectory to their doom ignoring anything going on in the level. Its like a full spectrum of code is missing in their programming. I can't believe whats happened so far a couple times. This game is going to be a gif generator for years.

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SolidChamp said:

The game is a very solid, very engaging third-person shooter with some more interactive cinematic elements and quick-time events than the average shooter. The game puts it's focus on the characters and the story (both of which are very, very good) and uses the incredible atmosphere and visuals to rope you in.

This is as linear as it gets in terms of single-player games (something I welcome in a market that is suffering from open-world, "checklist gaming" overload); but I can forgive the linear nature because of how gorgeous everything is. I'm someone who doesn't mind linear gameplay, and I often take the time to absorb the environments.

The shooting is par for the course, gunplay is varied a bit because you're using weapons designed by Nikola Tesla. Some of these guns are really cool, sporting innovative (for the era) secondary fire modes.

Every context sensitive action takes place within a cinematic context, so you always feel as though you're part of the story. Dying/failing takes on a similar form and your characters always have reactions to those instances.

The frequent bursts of gameplay are balanced with equally frequent bursts of cinematic storytelling, but it's all seamlessly integrated and all unfolding in real time. At no point in time have I ever been taken out of the story with a jarring cut to the action, or vice versa. The game flows together like nothing I've ever seen. If you're someone like me who appreciates video games as an alternative form of cinematic storytelling (interactive), then you might enjoy this.

I've just passed chapter 5 and I've been playing for roughly 4 hours.

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Glorified G said:

I'm about a couple of hours in the second chapter. This definitely leaves a good first impressions. The environment and setting is surreal. I'm getting flashbacks to playing Resident Evil 4 and being immersed in 3rd person while walking around. I can't remember the last time I've been this impressed by a game graphically. Probably early last gen. It's that good. Solid gunplay too. I was expecting more "punch" since reading comparisons here but turning down the music a bit in the setting definitely helped. The main character is much more agile getting into and out of cover than I thought he would be. It looked kinda clunky in gameplay vids but it is the opposite for me. The 3rd person action aspect is overall solid, I had to tweak a few things like the sound and up the sensitivity but nonetheless it's pretty good, nothing amazing or anything.

Sort of like the Last of Us or Uncharted it's not about one aspect but it is the whole package. It's really polished. The atmosphere is so immersive, nice gunplay, great acting and facial expressions. It's all there. There's been criticism of the pacing in the beginning but I feel it is the opposite, it's just right. Taking in everything, looking around, picking up objects, mixed in with the action pieces. It's like an old school adventure game mixed in with a 3rd person shooting.

This took me by surprise. I was only expecting to enjoy the shooting aspect of the game and figured everything else was a means to an end. But this is a really polished put together game. I wouldn't be surprised if this scores well.

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-MD- said:

You might end up with the longest playthrough in the world if you're up to 5 hours at chapter 2.

I can't imagine how you're squeezing that much time out of it.

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JK-Money said:

ign on why they love the orders length
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/02/18/podcast-beyond-episode-382-why-we-love-the-orders-length

EDIT Starts around 540

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Original Man said:

MGS4 is the most hated game on GAF. Despite winning GOTY, everytime I see it mention, it's being bashed.

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JK-Money said:

ign on why they love the orders length
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/02/18/podcast-beyond-episode-382-why-we-love-the-orders-length

EDIT Starts around 540

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JK-Money said:

ign on why they love the orders length
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/02/18/podcast-beyond-episode-382-why-we-love-the-orders-length

EDIT Starts around 540

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De_Legend said:

Wow, sounds like they are actually thinking and recognizing what the devs are going for...

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nawwafh said:

Where do i get this theme from that everyone seems to be talking about..

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