• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Order 1886 Review Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
You sure do have an ax to grind with this game. Is it payback for what happened to unity, Yves?
I'm just gonna put a quarter inside a jar every time someone tries to mention Unity to discourage me analyzing this game's flaws.
 

H4r4kiri

Member
I have not seen it posted it, but I think this is a very very good impression/review from NX Gamer.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy7rV-Z4qOs

He quickly has become one of my most favorite youtuber for gaming. First he does not give scores to his reviews, but instead all the pros and cons and what he thinks defines the game. Furthermore his tech analysis are top notch and his attention to detail his very good.

I really like his review of the Order and recommend watching it.
 
Gears 1 was not a good game and Gears 2 was better? lol.
Gears 2 was a rollercoaster, huge adventure considering you were blazing through level/scenarios, lots of variety along the ride, it felt more like the game they were originally trying to emulate, Resident Evil 4. It just felt right.

They also didn't resort to the same cheap tricks of the first game, those birds who killed you out of nowhere were gone forever in the games that followed, because it was a cheap solution and they knew it probably even then. Difficulty spikes were ironed out, gradations in dark areas were improved just so you could actually see something the first game seemed as if it was doing crushed blacks , all the clunky and cheap mechanics were gone and it became a way better game for that and they made levels to showcase just that.

It also got the story rolling, the way Gears of War dealt with it before was just amateurish, "see this guy dying, we didn't even go out of your way to explain who he is, but this is gory and he's being killed by the Lizzard dude (General Scales!), and by the way, this is not planet earth, we also didn't thought you needed to know".


It's not the teams fault for the most part, Gears of War 1 was a afterthought for EPIC and they never had a lot of resources going for it, but yeah, I don't think Gears 1 is a "good game" it's not bad, or horrible either considering the circunstances, but the campaign is as average as average gets and if it kept being like that the series wouldn't be worth much today. Certainly not a console-seller.


The Order 1886 probably can be regarded as a way worse first attempt than that ever was, I realize that, but I wouldn't count on a sequel not fixing most of the shortcomings being discussed. Like I said, I think RAD did at leas one pretty shitty game before, and the sequel sure shown progress in all areas there.
 
Finished the game on hard, aim assist off, only used blacksight twice (i just forgot about it..). I have no idea how long it took mee exactly.
Now i'm doing a second run on easy just to collect the remaining stuff and to really enjoy brutally killing enemies. The only trophies left are some blackwater related stuff and collectables. Can't be much, by the way.

Note to devs:
On a second run of the game, cutscenes should ALWAYS be skippable.
I understand that in a game like this you wan't them to be unskippable on the first run. But come on. It's arrogant to think people should watch them twice.

Impressions / review:
+ extremely polished. Just amazing
+ atmosphere is realllly good.
+ best shaders ever. everything has the right look and shine.
+ great character design. even the npc-s have good looking faces.
+ great voice acting
+ great music
+ great sound
+ great weapons
+ good gunplay
+ good cover
+ art direction is some of the best i have ever seen. These guys and girls should be on the most wanted list of every dev company.
+ Some good cutscenes
+ some good use of QTE-s
+ functional nudity.
+ Bug-free game*

* I got stuck in a pillar once, on my second playthrough. That's nothing, and i was surprised since my first playthrough was absolutely bug free

- Waaaaaay to many cutscenes. Cutscenes should only be used for pacing and to tell stuff that is really hard to tell through gameplay imo. Sorry to say that Naughty Dog does this extremely well.
- The transition between cutscene and gameplay take too long. I'm allready pressing the stick but i have to wait.
- The gunplay is good, but the levels are often just a rectangular place with some basic obstacles where you can hide behind. Sometimes it's even a shooting range with you on one side and the enemies popping up on the other side. That's fine (and fun) for one time, but the level design for shooting were just too simple. I liked the charging shotties though, haha. Motherfuckers on hard. People should not confuse hard gameplay with bad gameplay. Same with QTE-s. They are meant to be frustrating since they're mostly a life or death kinda situation.
- Some button prompts were just lame. Come on.. The morse code..
- The lycian fights were a let down. Badly animated. Seriously.. what was that? (i like the other ones that were more QTE-heavy though)
- Pacing is just weird. But a lot has to do with taking freedom away from the player.
- no extra modes. No co-op, no horde mode, etc. Would be great for this game and these fun weapons.
- little destructibility. I thought there would be way more.
- cover is good but i think it would be nice to refine it, with (for instance) a move around corner cover like i TLoU.
- Forced walking is not gameplay.
- exploring the environments wasn't that rewarding.
- too linear. It can still be a linear game (it should be). Just with some branching paths.
- i'd like to melee myself, but i liked the brutal endings..

Let's just think of this first game as the introduction to the game. I think we can all see a big potential in this game as a series (and this engine, gawddamn).
The epilogue to me seemed like the beginning of the real game. That looked badass and promising.

I hope the fine people at Ready at Dawn will still feel confident, strong and belligerent after some of the reviewscores. And i hope they will read the criticism with full awareness that they can achieve greatness. Because they're more than halfway there.

Thank you for now Ready at Dawn. I hope to see a sequel.

Score: 7,5
The game is good but the immersion is damaged by too many instances where the freedom is taken away from the player. The gameplay is good but the leveldesign where the gameplay takes place is uninspired.There are no extra modes, no co-op, no multiplayer (though i wouldn't want them to spend any recourses and time on competitive multiplayer, fuck that). I'd love a co-op mode or some sort of horde mode or wave mode, since the guns are so much fun to use.
QTE-s are a valid gamemechanic imo and some of them are well done
(the elders)
. The basic lycian encounters were the biggest downside to this game. They really felt like an afterthought.

ps: giving this game a 1 out of 5 is laughable/ ridiculous.
 

Toxi

Banned
Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png
baby-crying-o.gif
 
Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png
That's a bit worrying. Seems like he's threatening sites that don't score his game high enough by pulling ad revenue...which is something that sounds like it could be potentially awful for consumers
 

QaaQer

Member
What other triple A games this year seem to be doing is taking familiar concepts and expanding on them significantly as a last big hurrah for their series. Dumb fun is something that occurs, but the devs seem to be going all out for their latest entries
-Bloodborne is taking the souls gameplay we know and love and making it much more fast paced, both for the player and for the enemies, which may result in the hardest game yet if the priest boss is any indication.
-MGSV is taking the gameplay established in Ground Zeroes/Peacewalker and dialing it up to 11, adding way more gadgets, base management, character management, while also expanding on MGO.
-Witcher 3 is taking some of the gameplay in Witcher 2 and reworking it into a very dynamic open world setting, including tons of world states, endings, and tons of content
-Uncharted 4 is taking the tried and true uncharted gameplay mechanics and adding new gadgets and most notable:level variety and choice. Instead of the levels being comprised of set piece after set piece we seem to be getting more expanded levels with more options for traversal and stealth or action gameplay.

These are just a few examples. And I doubt that each dev won't deliver based on their track record.

With the partial exception of bloodborne, those are all sequels. & I'm not sure why you think they will play all that differently from the previous entries. They are being made because people like the old games.

Further, these games, like all AAA, are focus tested and mock reviewed to death. As such, they will be tuned and adjusted for the same audience that bought and liked far cry 3&4, AC 1-8, Watchdogs, COD 2008-2014, Destiny, Shadow of Mordoor, Batman 1-4, GTA4&5, Titianfall, etc.

Dumb fun trumps all in this space.
 

nib95

Banned
Implying that gif is representative of the A.I and common place is hyperbolic. Those are the shotgun rebels who charge in close range to give devastating blows and flush you out of cover, you get killed in two shots if they manage to hit you. There's a bug of some kind in that spot where if your in the cover stance, their attacks miss even though you're directly in their line of sight and wide open. I've replayed this level a bit and they don't just stand there and do nothing, here they shot at me three times but for some reason their hits don't register when I'm in cover.

uskvtz.gif


Compared to when Galahad's out of cover, he gets hit by the shotgun blasts. Notice the different AI routine and one of them tries to do something else after I shoot at him.

khwity.gif


Enemy strafing, Galahad killed in 2 hits

davpnu.gif


Different playthrough, same guy trying to get in even closer with the shotgun, different AI routine.

xnujcr.gif


Enemies back up and weave in and out of cover.

mwecxq.gif


Some of the other guys also try to dodge away after being shot at.

qvqzik.gif


There are times where the enemies just reload their gun out in the open or slowly back up without firing at you, so the AI isn't without faults, and they're not super intelligent, but they're also not as braindead as you imply them to be. The only AI I'd call completely stupid and braindead are in those Lycan arena battles, just terrible all around there. Still would definitely like to see an improvement in AI in general if there's a sequel though.

Great post dude. Agree with everything you said.
 

phanphare

Banned
That's a bit worrying. Seems like he's threatening sites that don't score his game high enough by pulling ad revenue...which is something that sounds like it could be potentially awful for consumers

oh I hadn't seen that. wow, that is certainly troubling especially coming from a first party developer. I'm sure he's not actually serious but damn, that's not really the best thing to joke about.
 

MaDKaT

Member
I finished the game over the weekend. Took me about 9 hours on medium and despite some obvious flaws the game was quite enjoyable.

Things I liked

-The game is a visual spectacle. Overall just amazing to look at. Presentation is top notch.
-The gunplay was actually quite fun. Pretty by the books but I very much enjoyed the weapons, how they felt and how you get to use them.
-Story was pretty good. There were certainly some inconsistencies with the characters, lack of context/back stories and the ending was only ok if not a bit rushed. I did enjoy the transitions between gameplay to cutscene and back to gameplay. Understandably it will turn some folks off, but I liked the emphasis on story.

Things I didnt like

-The inconsistency with what the player could and couldnt control for the story elements. Things like being able to walk in one scene, then the game walking for you in the next for no real reason.
-
free running lycan/halfbreed encounters
The peek and charge routine was pretty annoying
-
The end of Chapter 9's grenade lobbying, armour toting bullet sponge
Easily the weakest gunfight for me. Just felt cheap
-Sneaking up to stealth kill was a bit clunky
-
this goes to the above but lack of non lethal takedowns
seemed oddly absent considering the character.
-No dedicated dodge button. The context sensitive dodge/roll was nice but really should be something you can do whenever.
-Not having a basic melee attack.
-
rooms of what feels like endless waves of enemies
Not specifically a The Order issue. Something I just dont like.

All in all, I can see where some reviewers are coming from but I certainly dont agree with the severity/importance placed on a lot of the criticism. If I was to give it a score I would feel 8 is appropriate. The game is Good but flawed. I personally feel RAD has pretty good base/formula for what could be an excellent story driven sequel. Some refinement to the gameplay with some additional abilities(give me a dedicated dodge/roll button). Maybe some more modes, ng+ or co-op campaign or side missions etc...
 

Hugstable

Banned
With the partial exception of bloodborne, those are all sequels. & I'm not sure why you think they will play all that differently from the previous entries. They are being made because people like the old games.

Further, these games, like all AAA, are focus tested and mock reviewed to death. As such, they will be tuned and adjusted for the same audience that bought and liked far cry 3&4, AC 1-8, Watchdogs, COD 2008-2014, Destiny, Shadow of Mordoor, Batman 1-4, GTA4&5, Titianfall, etc.

Dumb fun trumps all in this space.


Lol do you really think Bloodborne is gonna be adjusted to be like those games you listed? Have you played a Souls game before? Unless I read your post wrong, but I don't feel focus testing is gonna hurt the gameplay of Bloodborne or Witcher 3 in anyway at all.
 
Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png

Sticking his fingers in his ears may seem silly, but the Internet is absolutely vicious.

I can totally sympathise with a guy who is fed up with the endless bombardment.

It just beats you down after a while.
 
Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png

That is such a stupid thing to tweet.

Well made has never equalled 'good game'. That is the problem with The Order in a nutshell; technically, it's is great, but as a game to be played, it is average at best.

I'm with the press on this. Fancy graphics are not enough to divert attention away from the fact that the gameplay is sub-par, and the game does not respect the player.

There is nothing wrong with cinematic games. The Order just isn't a good example.
 

breakfuss

Member
I posted more extensively in the OT but overall I'd give it a 7. The story is what disappointed me the most. Had they gotten that right I think we'd be seeing a much different reception. The 5s are harsh but an 8 seems too generous. It's at least worth a rental.
 
Finished the game last night. Anyone that gave this game a 5/10 or lower I don't ever want to hear their opinion on games. It's totally fair that they didn't like it and thought it was their score, but their opinion on it means nothing to me. The one who gave it a 1/5 is absolutely hysterical though. That's just a terrible review IMO.

Game has its set of flaws no doubt, and they have to improve quite a few aspects of the sequel to push it a few levels above. Hopefully they acquire more people and have the team that's capable of doing it.
 

Derpyduck

Banned
Finished the game last night. Anyone that gave this game a 5/10 or lower I don't ever want to hear their opinion on games. It's totally fair that they didn't like it and thought it was their score, but their opinion on it means nothing to me. The one who gave it a 1/5 is absolutely hysterical though. That's just a terrible review IMO.

Game has its set of flaws no doubt, and they have to improve quite a few aspects of the sequel to push it a few levels above. Hopefully they acquire more people and have the team that's capable of doing it.

So no problems with the ratings of 90 or above then?

Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png

That's just sad. But what makes it sadder is people agreeing with it.
 
Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png

Threatening reviewers with pulling ad revenue and not sending review copies for poor reviews and not for breaking agreed upon embargo? This will not go over well at all.

I mean seriously you are going to threaten reviewers with pulling ad revenue because they didn't score a game where you thought they should. This is going to go really badly.
 

Loakum

Banned
Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png


He has a very valid point! We seen several games last year THAT WERE BROKEN recieve 8's and 9s. But we have a fully functional, fully polished, top notch voice action, interesting story, and fun gameplay mechanics get a 4s out of 10 is asinine as it is ridiculous! I just finished The Order 1886, and it's clearly a 8 out of 10 game. (Me, I would score it a definite 9.)
 

MrxDemix

Banned
He has a very valid point! We seen several games last year THAT WERE BROKEN recieve 8's and 9s. But we have a fully functional, fully polished, top notch voice action, interesting story, and fun gameplay mechanics get a 4s out of 10 is asinine as it is ridiculous! I just finished The Order 1886, and it's clearly a 8 out of 10 game. (Me, I would score it a definite 9.)

SIMON-CONFUSED-GIF.gif
 

Sheroking

Member
He has a very valid point! We seen several games last year THAT WERE BROKEN recieve 8's and 9s. But we have a fully functional, fully polished, top notch voice action, interesting story, and fun gameplay mechanics get a 4s out of 10 is asinine as it is ridiculous! I just finished The Order 1886, and it's clearly a 8 out of 10 game. (Me, I would score it a definite 9.)

Which games are these?

Reviewers didn't really see the issues with the Master Chief Collection IIRC. They certainly hate-fucked Assassin's Creed: Unity just as hard.
 
Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png

As off-base as some reviews (not all of them, forget about the scores) might be be, this is very poor form and wouldn't be surprised if heat comes in over it.

A lot of people need to chill out over this game. Too much angst over a single game that...what, promised to look good? I really don't get the focus at all and everyone trying to pull one agenda over another. Just doesn't seem worth it.
 

Loakum

Banned
Which games are these?

Reviewers didn't really see the issues with the Master Chief Collection IIRC. They certainly hate-fucked Assassin's Creed: Unity just as hard.

Awww please. Assassin's Creed Unity got plenty of 80's and a 78 from IGN. It still was a broken game at launch.Master Chief Collection was a broken game at launch. NBA 2K15 was a broken game at launch. DriveClub online portion was a broken game at launch. ALL of those games not only got better review scores, but didn't receive the level of disdain that the fully polished The Order 1886 received. It's ridiculous, I don't blame ANY of RAD Devs for being miffed. I'm glad I didn't listen to those BS reviews, or comment forum tomfoolery.
 
Awww please. Assassin's Creed Unity got plenty of 80's and a 78 from IGN. It still was a broken game at launch.Master Chief Collection was a broken game at launch. NBA 2K15 was a broken game at launch. DriveClub online portion was a broken game at launch. ALL of those games not only got better review scores, but didn't receive the level of disdain that the fully polished The Order 1886. It's ridiculous. I'm glad I didn't listen to those BS reviews, or comment forum tomfoolery.

MCC wasn't broken when it was reviewed. Polygon went back and lowered their score.

I think the reason those games got better scores is because in the end, when their issues are/were fixed they were still better games than the Order. Just for working a game doesn't automatically get an 8.

The Order is a really polished game, but the core mechanics and structure (which can't be fixed via a patch) are what drove its score.
 

Kinthalis

Banned
Awww please. Assassin's Creed Unity got plenty of 80's and a 78 from IGN. It still was a broken game at launch.Master Chief Collection was a broken game at launch. NBA 2K15 was a broken game at launch. DriveClub online portion was a broken game at launch. ALL of those games not only got better review scores, but didn't receive the level of disdain that the fully polished The Order 1886 received. It's ridiculous, I don't blame ANY of RAD Devs for being miffed. I'm glad I didn't listen to those BS reviews, or comment forum tomfoolery.

The reason it scored so low is because there's barely a game in there. IT's a QTE fest with HOURS of cutscenes full of a mediocre storythat doesn't go anywhere, occasionally interspersed with walking, and the occasional whack-a-mole shooting gallery style combat.

I would hope, if that's all this studio could come up with after 5 years, that at least it wasn't broken on top of everything.
 

mxgt

Banned
I think 6-7 is spot on for the game. I'm up to chapter 11 and I've had fun with it; it's certainly nothing special game play or story wise but I adore the art direction, atmosphere and soundtrack. It's the best looking game I've ever seen and the gunplay is fun to boot.

It's a shame about the inconsistent pacing, awful QTE's and lack of variety in encounters and enemies, as they really take away from the experience as a whole. Let me fucking run, damnit.
 

breakfuss

Member
Awww please. Assassin's Creed Unity got plenty of 80's and a 78 from IGN. It still was a broken game at launch.Master Chief Collection was a broken game at launch. NBA 2K15 was a broken game at launch. DriveClub online portion was a broken game at launch. ALL of those games not only got better review scores, but didn't receive the level of disdain that the fully polished The Order 1886 received. It's ridiculous, I don't blame ANY of RAD Devs for being miffed. I'm glad I didn't listen to those BS reviews, or comment forum tomfoolery.

Why in the world should a game be rewarded for being "polished", or working properly? Come on now.
 

Vespene

Member
Well made does not mean it's fun.

You could have a well made boring piece of shit. Games should be reviewed on how fun they are, not on how well they are put together.
 

nib95

Banned
The reason it scored so low is because there's barely a game in there. IT's a QTE fest with HOURS of cutscenes full of a mediocre storythat doesn't go anywhere, occasionally interspersed with walking, and the occasional whack-a-mole shooting gallery style combat.

I would hope, if that's all this studio could come up with after 5 years, that at least it wasn't broken on top of everything.

Is this based on your YouTube viewing impressions again? Lol. On a side note, there are a total of roughly 11 minutes worth of QTE's in the whole game, depending on how many you fail or whatever. So it really is not a QTE fest at all.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Is this based on your YouTube viewing impressions again? Lol. On a side note, there are a total of roughly 11 minutes worth of QTE's in the whole game, depending on how many you fail or whatever. So it really is not a QTE fest at all.
How is the 11 minutes thing quantified? Just the entirety of a cutscene that happens to have a QTE?
 

dracula_x

Member
The reason it scored so low is because there's barely a game in there. IT's a QTE fest with HOURS of cutscenes full of a mediocre storythat doesn't go anywhere, occasionally interspersed with walking, and the occasional whack-a-mole shooting gallery style combat.

I would hope, if that's all this studio could come up with after 5 years, that at least it wasn't broken on top of everything.

How do you know? Let me guess, YouTube walkthrough. Right?
 

Gestault

Member
Awww please. Assassin's Creed Unity got plenty of 80's and a 78 from IGN. It still was a broken game at launch.Master Chief Collection was a broken game at launch. NBA 2K15 was a broken game at launch. DriveClub online portion was a broken game at launch. ALL of those games not only got better review scores, but didn't receive the level of disdain that the fully polished The Order 1886 received. It's ridiculous, I don't blame ANY of RAD Devs for being miffed. I'm glad I didn't listen to those BS reviews, or comment forum tomfoolery.

A release being free of technical issues is the tiniest sliver of what makes a game stand out. What does it tell you about a game that in spite of being free of technical hitches, many would rather play "broken" games? A lovely, well laid-out book can be a bad one, and a book with poor binding and sloppy grammar can still inspire people.
 

Sheroking

Member
Awww please. Assassin's Creed Unity got plenty of 80's and a 78 from IGN. It still was a broken game at launch.Master Chief Collection was a broken game at launch. NBA 2K15 was a broken game at launch. DriveClub online portion was a broken game at launch. ALL of those games not only got better review scores, but didn't receive the level of disdain that the fully polished The Order 1886 received. It's ridiculous, I don't blame ANY of RAD Devs for being miffed. I'm glad I didn't listen to those BS reviews, or comment forum tomfoolery.

The problem with broken online functionality is you don't know that these critics actually saw that in pre-release without those servers under load, let alone those who would willfully ignore that because of the promise of a fix in the day 1 patch (which is wrong in it's own right).

On Metacritic, Driveclub is scored at 71 and Unity is anywhere between 66-72 - not far from The Order's 65. Just because one reviewer gave Assassin's Creed a decent score doesn't really change the fact that critics as a whole didn't positively review those games.
 

FryHole

Member
Sticking his fingers in his ears may seem silly, but the Internet is absolutely vicious.

I can totally sympathise with a guy who is fed up with the endless bombardment.

It just beats you down after a while.

"The internet" is usually shorthand for the great unwashed though right? Seems a bit out of place to start lashing out at the games press if that's what's ground him down.
 

EL CUCO

Member
Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png
SSM is The Order's publisher. Not surprised that he is pissed. That said, I personally dont think it deserves to be in yellow on Metacritic but I understand reviewer's gripes about it.

It's an easy 7-8/10
 

Oneself

Member
It feels like I have played much more than the reviews indicated... Maybe walking / inspecting wasn't considered gameplay??
 

Loakum

Banned
Why in the world should a game be rewarded for being "polished", or working properly? Come on now.

You completely missed the point. The point is, if you have a online game that won't allow you to play online, then it warrents a low review score. For the games I mentioned, this largely wan't the case. If you have a game so defective, folks fall through the floor, and have players without faces, then it warrents a low review score. For the games I mentioned this wasn't the case. The Order had none of those issues, but to receive review scores lower than proven broken games, just because "I duh..don't be liken cut scenes, and quick time events" doesn't justify it being beneath broken games. That's the point I'm making. You can either agree, or you don't. I'm done talking about this.
 
Oh deary me, one of the Sony Santa Monica devs certainly got a bit upset

lhb3pLv.png

Oh right. Only send review copies for games when they are guaranteed a high score. I mean, we wouldn't want games to actually be reviewed, we should just rubber stamp an eight, nine or ten on it and call it a day.
 
If they're upset about the score they should have made a better game. Control what you can control, SSM should have sent an external designer in to test play the game and point out all the flaws well before the game shipped. A good game designer should be able to tell you that cutscenes for opening doors, going down ladders and melee/stealth is a bad idea, same with making the player wait for exit prompts when viewing objects.
 

Eccocid

Member
Woo i really don't get the hate against this game. I still haven't finished it yet, at chapter 12 or something right now. But i am really enjoying every moment of it. As someone who had played all Uncharted games (still 1st one is my fav), i liked The Order more. Probably because of the setting, and length.. Yeah i always thought Uncharted games should have been shorter. Those shooting segments sometimes drag on forever.

The Order has a slow pace yeah, but it really suits that moody Victorian London setting a lot.
 

Denton

Member
Was this posted?

I Got 1886 Problems But Graphics Ain’t One: Game designer's perspective on The Order 1886, by Adrian Chmielarz:

If you play The Order: 1886, you play a cut-scene.

The good side of this is that the graphics look, indeed, like the previous generation’s cut-scenes. “How the fuck did they do that?” was something that crossed my mind quite often during the playthrough.

I know they “cheat” a lot. The heavy noise alone gives a strong boost of pseudo-realism, so does the low contrast color grading. This is visible in the image above: without the live noise the game loses a bit of its visual punch, and I had to boost the contrast of the PS4 captured image to have something recognizable.

That still does not explain everything. That image above still looks stunning. But I will leave the digging to others. Bottom line is that the game’s visuals do for this generation what Gears of War did for the previous one.

I mean, it’s a game that makes even the worst cliche settings in gaming a treat. Here’s a warehouse.

Still, along with some scene compositions, excellent character models and animations, real-time clothes, and its gaslight fantasy stylization, The Order: 1886 is basically a must see game for any graphics, uh, aficionado like me.

Yes, must see, not necessarily must play.

The bad side of this “you play a cut-scene” game is that there’s not a lot of meat under all that fat. It’s not the question of length, which personally I found satisfying (the game lasted exactly one full charge of a brand new Dualshock 4). It’s a question of player agency.

Imagine you watch a movie that pauses at random intervals and you have to press Resume on the remote. That’s more or less what the majority of The Order: 1886 is. In a couple of places, all I was able to do between two long cut-scenes was to walk forwards for about three seconds. This is not an exaggeration, just cold reporting of the facts.

Read the whole thing, it's great.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom