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.