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[Gestault]

This is an odd complaint.

Story based over-the-shoulder shooters, even in cases where the main game isn't amazing (i.e. something along the lines of Fuse), have really benefited from co-op modes. Particularly when the game design already has the player alongside a team of similarly outfitted allies, it makes sense to wish it was an option.

Also, since standard TV widescreen with a split-screen setup would give pretty close to exactly the desired aspect ratio that the letterboxing is used to achieve for single-player here, it's sort of a missed opportunity.

 

[Alxjn]

I really can't wrap my head around comparing the game's replayability to Vanquish. I really disagree with that.

I watched a playthrough like you did, and I feel the same. The encounter design looked painfully repetitive. Large majority of the game was fighting human enemies with fairly basic looking AI (I don't know what difficulty it was on), and not much was done to mix up the encounters over the course of the game. The most they do is give one of the enemies a thermite rifle, or some sort of special weapon. This would be a lot more tolerable if the game had combat geared towards skillful play like Max Payne 3 or Vanquish.

It also falls victim to the 'level design giving away encounters', which isn't just exclusive to the human enemies. There is a section in the game where the player comes into a room with a layout that is nearly identical to the room you last fought a Lycan in, and the most disappointing thing is that it plays out exactly the same as the first Lycan fight. It's not like Resident Evil 4 where when they reuse enemies they throw a new twist on it to challenge the player in an interesting way.

 

[Theman2k]

As we already knew about enemy AI, I want to ask about friend AI. Are your companies helpful enough to support you during gunfights or are they just letting you do all the work?

They just got in my way sometimes, i don't really felt they were helping me in any point.
They were just out there shooting around.

And for the person who asked, i did play with aim assist on.
Didn't felt the need to change that default setting.

 

[viveks86]

Did you play it with auto-aim on or off? I believe it's for blacksight mainly, right?

Auto aim is an inherent part of blacksight and there are no options to switch that off. The available option is for "aim-assist", which is common in many console shooters.

 

[Grady]

Value is subjective.

Some people will find more value in a strong 5 hour story driven single player experience than they would in a 40 hour open world minimap collectathon game with mindless run and gun MP tacked on top.

It comes down to what you look for in games.

Exactly what i have been saying. I would rather a game like this instead of far cry 4 or dragon age inquisition. Both of those games have only 10 hours of mediocre story, the rest of the content is meaningless drivel meant to make the game look longer then it is.

 

[bombshell]

Auto aim is an inherent part of blacksight and there are no options to switch that off. The available option is for "aim-assist", which is common in many console shooters.

Ah ok, I thought there was an option for free-aim during blacksight, but I guess not.

 

[EL CUCO]

Here. Individual chapter loading works just fine.

Hard to tell with so much DOF and film grain.

Pushing L stick moves you forward? Ty for spoil

Spoiler

Seriously, thanks for your input

 

[BiGBoSSMk23]

Rapier, can you say a little about the variety of combat scenarios? You say the game is a lavish production, but does it seem like a lot of effort went into keeping the combat scenarios varied in terms of enemy encounters and combat spaces?

Sorry, missed this questio as well. There's a lot of variety in the locales. Definitely a strong point in the game.

 

[TGO]

Sound's fantastic

 

[newsguy]

Exactly what i have been saying. I would rather a game like this instead of far cry 4 or dragon age inquisition. Both of those games have only 10 hours of mediocre story, the rest of the content is meaningless drivel meant to make the game look longer then it is.

I wouldn't go that far, but I get your point. As I get older I find I want more focused gaming experiences.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I'm shocked none of these walkthroughs and so forth aren't taken down. Movies are like 1 and a half to 3 hours somtimes and their spoilers are treated much more severely. I know for a fact that games have multiple aspects to them, but still. This game holds onto to specifics like games have had in the last 20 or so years. It feels like some people think that hiding a Boss, a death of a companion, or possibly a major event as being the only things to leave out. I still think there's a debate about what's considered a spoiler in a video game, but it's pretty obvious what can or couldn't be considered a spoiler. I know I didn't pay $60 already to sit here watching a YouTube clip or checking out a spoiler thread. That's like taking a torch to my money.

All because of some text too.

 

[XxRampage07xX]

They just got in my way sometimes, i don't really felt they were helping me in any point.
They were just out there shooting around.

And for the person who asked, i did play with aim assist on.
Didn't felt the need to change that default setting.

Alright. Thanks for the answer

As long as friend AI isn't intolerably obnoxious like occupying too much space of cover and my sight, I am fine

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

Sounds like a safe get.

 

[Yurikerr]

I watched a playthrough like you did, and I feel the same. The encounter design looked painfully repetitive. Large majority of the game was fighting human enemies with fairly basic looking AI (I don't know what difficulty it was on), and not much was done to mix up the encounters over the course of the game. The most they do is give one of the enemies a thermite rifle, or some sort of special weapon. This would be a lot more tolerable if the game had combat geared towards skillful play like Max Payne 3 or Vanquish.

It also falls victim to the 'level design giving away encounters', which isn't just exclusive to the human enemies. There is a section in the game where the player comes into a room with a layout that is nearly identical to the room you last fought a Lycan in, and the most disappointing thing is that it plays out exactly the same as the first Lycan fight. It's not like Resident Evil 4 where when they reuse enemies they throw a new twist on it to challenge the player in an interesting way.

Going a little off-topic and speaking of Max Payne 3, while i think that the game shooting mecanichs are fantastic, i'm not so fond of the level design of the encounters. On my entire time with the game i didn't got a change to experiment with the weapons and change my approach on the combat.

Playing on the second hardest difficult my perception is that the game forced me to play behind cover and pick the enemies at a distance using always the same weapons, or i would be dead in 2 shots. I think that i used the shotgun like 4 times. (And, am i stupid or you don't have grenades on this game?!)

Maybe i'm a bad player, but i still think that the level always were the same where a huge number of enemies spawned from the other side of the room. On the bright side they always charged your direction.

 

[GobFather]

I wouldn't go that far, but I get your point. As I get older I find I want more focused gaming experiences.

lol me too

 

[MiamiWesker]

So from reading the impressions it seems to me like boss battles are non existent or bad cause there is not one mention of them in any impressions. Also it seems like there aren't any amazing gaming set pieces like the train in uncharted or it would have been mentioned too. Seems to me like it has good gun play and some good combat areas but nothing really stand out. Would this be accurate?

 

[jmaine_ph]

So from reading the impressions it seems to me like boss battles are non existent or bad cause there is not one mention of them in any impressions. Also it seems like there aren't any amazing gaming set pieces like the train in uncharted or it would have been mentioned too. Seems to me like it has good gun play and some good combat areas but nothing really stand out. Would this be accurate?

Sounds like you want spoilers not impressions.

 

[NullPointer]

Why does it kill the replayability? Maybe some people want to watch the cutscenes more than once you know..

Unskippable cut-scenes absolutely killed Max Payne 3's replayability dead for me and I fucking loved that game. I just couldn't sit through them each time I wanted to jump into some action.

The more I read about this game the more it throws up red flags that The Order just isn't my kind of thing, but I'm still curious because 1. I really enjoyed Ryse and think that this could be the PS4's more polished take on the idea, and 2. 99% of my PS4 games right now are full twitch combat based or else they're open world Ubisoft like mini-game/side-mission fests, so I'm definitely in the mood for a good moody change of pace.

 

[nelchaar]

Gathered up a couple posts from OsirisBlack and Theman2k on their thoughts after finishing.


http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=152092925&postcount=4532


http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=152072864&postcount=4230

This sounds exactly like the game I'm hoping it would be.

 

[MiamiWesker]

Sounds like you want spoilers not impressions.

Talking about the quality of boss battles is not what I would consider a spoiler at all. I don't want to know anything about them except "they are good" or "they are bad" or " there are none". I think it's as normal a question to ask as how long is the game. But if that can't be answered here then forget it.

 

[Oneself]

Unskippable cut-scenes absolutely killed Max Payne 3's replayability dead for me and I fucking loved that game. I just couldn't sit through them each time I wanted to jump into some action.

The more I read about this game the more it throws up red flags that The Order just isn't my kind of thing, but I'm still curious because 1. I really enjoyed Ryse and think that this could be the PS4's more polised take on the idea, and 2. 99% of my PS4 games right now are full twitch combat based or else they're open world Ubisoft like mini-game/side-mission fests, so I'm definitely in the mood for a good moody change of pace.

Buy, play and trade ASAP before the price goes down.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

.

While skipping all the cutscenes and running through right?

Absolutely, and on the easiest difficulty. That's the point. People will have different experiences when it comes to how long a game lasts depending on how they prefer to play their games.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

I wouldn't go that far, but I get your point. As I get older I find I want more focused gaming experiences.

Yup. I agree as well. I don't actually mind the idea of open world titles like FC4 or DA:I...I just don't have the time to play them. The only big exception to me trying to play shorter games these days is on handheld. I can easily carry a 30-50 hour RPG on my 3DS or PSV. But I can't afford the time to spend 30 hours in front of a TV set at home.

 

[Fhtagn]

Sounds like The Order coming out Friday and Bloodborne out end of next month makes way more sense for Sony etc than the original Bloodborne then The Order schedule.

Thanks for the impressions. This sounds like a fun game I can easily clear before Bloodborne shows up to consume the rest of my year.

 

[ironcreed]

Nevermind

 

[SSReborn]

This guy is on chapter 14 and has been playing for 7 hours. Here are his impressions

As interesting as that is mods say this is gaffer impressions only.

 

[msdstc]

.]

careful I would delete this post.

 

[Savantcore]

Gave into the hype and ordered it. Worst case scenario: I get an enjoyable dozen hours or so of game and then trade-in for a decent price.

 

[ironcreed]

careful I would delete this post.

Done. Just thought more impressions would be helpful.

 

[BiGBoSSMk23]

Pushing L stick moves you forward? Ty for spoil

Spoiler

Seriously, thanks for your input

LOL, no problem. Glad to help.

 

[Drewfonse]

Was the game fun? Stupid question, I know, considering the "Vanquish-like replayability" comment, but I just need to hear it.

The moment to moment gameplay. Fun? Exciting?

 

[arevin01]

beat the game in just north of 4 hours...now i understand why cutscenes aren't skippable...

Duck Hunt has more gameplay i'd say...

This guy just compared the Order to Duck Hunt. Now Ive seen it all.

 

[moondoggerr]

I only have an Xbox One, and generally, that's fine. I don't feel I'm missing out on too much. This is the first game that has made me consider getting a PS4. I think it looks fantastic.

 

[MrS]

Buy, play and trade ASAP before the price goes down.

Seems like sage advice. Looks like it's a 'platinum and out' for me. Still, there's plenty to tide us over 'til Bloodborne arrives.

 

[nib95]

This guy just compared the Order to Duck Hunt. Now Ive seen it all.

The guys been at it for a while. End of the day we have plenty of proper impressions now, and the game is out in only a few days.

 

[LouisaFerre]

Glad it's what it set out to be, at least. I'm probably not going to buy it any time soon. Even with TLoU I felt the story was okay/good but not amazing, and the gameplay was a mixed bag. I know it's not the same game, but after that experience I'm kind of just skeptical that I'd be able to get as much out of this as most people. I am impressed by the visual fidelity and cinematography, though. Would like to give it a short run through at some point in the future.

 

[Markitron]

Was buying day 1 anyway but this thread has me very excited for Friday. Gotta get thru Far Cry 4 first though.

All those outposts and radio towers..........................

I only have an Xbox One, and generally, that's fine. I don't feel I'm missing out on too much. This is the first game that has made me consider getting a PS4. I think it looks fantastic.

Your not likely to be the only one, the complete lack of Gears on the XB1 probably won't help the situation.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

The Order very much seems like an Uncharted 1 situation.

Great foundation, amazing production values/visuals, and ultimately a lot of potential for a series as a whole.

Plenty of room for improvement (expanding the core mechanics and game design) as well as adding in MP for more replayability.

 

[Melchiah]

There's footage of the entire game online by someone who completed the game in 5 hours 23 mins.
I'm going to say the average play through will be 7-9 hours, and the average GAF play through will be longer because the share button

RE2 can be played under 4 hours, but the first slow-paced playthrough took me +15 hours. Some completed TLOU in less than15 hours, but it took me 19 hours. Based on the past and the gameplay times mentioned on this thread, I think, and hope, this could be +10 hours for me.

The OP has certainly made me even more excited about the game.

 

[Acquiescence]

I think I'll answer this with what I think it's the most sincere prediction of how this game is going to be perceived.

There's two sides to the typical gamer out there today: The artsy-fartsy, collector types (like me), and the pragmatic, all-business player types. To further illustrate how this pertains to The Order, let's humor an apples to oranges comparison: Just Cause 2 vs. The Order 1886.

There is an incredible amount of "game time" in JC2. There is comparatively nil in TO. Now, your definition of value, depending which side of the coin you belong to, is in how much of the same thing are you willing to be doing until it bores you, or you cease to care about the story. In JC2 your basic actions are shooting, grappling and traversing the environment in a number of different ways. In TO your basic actions are shooting and traversing the environment. How much of that you're willing to repeat until you're bored of it, or how many different environments or situations you need to have to perform the same core actions before they're stale, is also up to the player's discretion.

In my personal, artsy fartsy, opinion, there's as much merit in The Order's approach as there is in JC2. I can play and play and play JC2 and just get bored of it for a number of reasons (repetition/story/etc). Inversely, I have my fill of The Order during it's running time and with the amount of chances its story gives me to perform the basic, core actions.

For me, it's the same value in both scenarios. But I can understand polarized opinions on this.

Oh man, this is such an apt comparison for me. I've gone on record before as saying that Just Cause 2 was literally one of the worst games I played last gen. Not just because it was fundamentally flawed in some aspects of how it played, like the abysmal handling of cars/airplanes and having to execute that same fucking QTE every time when hijacking an aircraft for instance, but in particular for its whole design philosophy. It was a game that believed that 'more is more' is unreservedly a good thing, even if that "more" amounted to nothing more than a copy and paste of the same locations over and over again. It offered this huge, expansive world that the player could treat like a gigantic playground... and then inserted nothing of any interest in that playground beyond the first hour of play. It was ugly, it was workmanlike, and worst of all, it was mind-numbingly repetitive. It was a game that potentially offered over 100 hours of gameplay sure, but when you find yourself overthrowing the same military base for the umpteenth time, and the environment layout is exactly the same and the enemies keep spawning the same patterns they've done countless times before, what's the point?

So for all this controversy surrounding The Order's longevity, I get what Rapier is saying. I can see the virtue in what RaD is trying to achieve, and I will happily take a 7-10 hour campaign that's tightly-woven and expertly-paced over potentially 100+ hours of flab-filled inertia any day of the week. Honestly, based on the impressions given so far, The Order strikes me as the next Silent Hill: Shattered Memories more than anything, and that game ranks as one of my favourites. Short in length and simplistic in its gameplay yes, but with everything honed to such a tee that it got better and better the further I progressed. If The Order is even half as good as that game then I'll consider it a success.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

I watched a playthrough like you did, and I feel the same. The encounter design looked painfully repetitive. Large majority of the game was fighting human enemies with fairly basic looking AI (I don't know what difficulty it was on), and not much was done to mix up the encounters over the course of the game. The most they do is give one of the enemies a thermite rifle, or some sort of special weapon. This would be a lot more tolerable if the game had combat geared towards skillful play like Max Payne 3 or Vanquish.

It also falls victim to the 'level design giving away encounters', which isn't just exclusive to the human enemies. There is a section in the game where the player comes into a room with a layout that is nearly identical to the room you last fought a Lycan in, and the most disappointing thing is that it plays out exactly the same as the first Lycan fight. It's not like Resident Evil 4 where when they reuse enemies they throw a new twist on it to challenge the player in an interesting way.

You guys watching playthroughs of a game(Watching, watching, waaaattching of a game meant to be played) from start to finish and commenting on the gameplay is just, man I struggle to think of a descriptive word that won't get me banned.

 

[msdstc]

You guys watching playthroughs of a game from start to finish is just, man I struggle to think of a descriptive word that won't get me banned.

This might sound strange, but do you watch golf? For some people watching someone else play a game is entertaining, get over it.

 

[RoboPlato]

You guys watching playthroughs of a game from start to finish is just, man I struggle to think of a descriptive word that won't get me banned.

Same. I can't believe so many people are doing it.

This might sound strange, but do you watch golf? For some people watching someone else play a game is entertaining, get over it.

People don't watch 18 holes of golf and act like they had the same experience as playing 18 holes of golf.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

This might sound strange, but do you watch golf? For some people watching someone else play a game is entertaining, get over it.

Yeah it's exactly like watching competitive sports. Okay

 

[TomShoe]

The Order very much seems like an Uncharted 1 situation.

Great foundation, amazing production values/visuals, and ultimately a lot of potential for a series as a whole.

Plenty of room for improvement (expanding the core mechanics and game design) as well as adding in MP for more replayability.

It sounds right up that alley.

Hopefully it doesn't get stereotyped in reviews too hard, and we get a sequel.

 

[Melchiah]

I'm confused by this statement.

I would never call a cinematic, storytelling focused game focusing on story and presentation above gameplay "old-fashioned" in any sense of the word or categorise these sorts of games as being so rare as to have them make a "comeback".

Maybe I'm just misreading it, or maybe I'm just 20 years older than the OP and from a different generation of videogames.

That said, I don't dislike this kind of game. I like story-heavy graphical showcases if they're done well.

His description fits a game like Silent Hill 2, which is a pretty old game.

 

[NullPointer]

You guys watching playthroughs of a game(Watching, watching, waaaattching of a game meant to be played) from start to finish and commenting on the gameplay is just, man I struggle to think of a descriptive word that won't get me banned.

Seems like fair game when it comes to discussing encounter design, enemy variety and AI, which that post does.

Of course the proof of the pudding *is* in the tasting.

 

[Always-honest]

This might sound strange, but do you watch golf? For some people watching someone else play a game is entertaining, get over it.

But nothing will surprise you anymore when you play the game yourself. It ruins the experience. Even if you don't mind.

 

[nib95]

This might sound strange, but do you watch golf? For some people watching someone else play a game is entertaining, get over it.

Maybe so, but to fully judge a game based on something you watched is somewhat inadequate. Ultimately what matters is how the game plays, how it feels, how satisfying it is to aim or shoot a gun, to dart about in cover, to experiment with the different weapons and approaches, how it controls etc. This kind of stuff cannot be gauged by just watching others play. A game ultimately is meant to be played. It's not like journalists review games based on what they watched someone else play.

Not saying you can't form opinions about games based on videos, of course you can, as all of us do, but certain things will always be assessable only through actual play.

 

[Comfort Jones]

"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."

It's kinda amazing how many times I was told I somehow need to play this game to understand what it's about.

Clearly blatantly not true seeing how it has hit every mental check list I had for it. It's kinda depressing that AAA has really doubled down on this route because it's not going to age well at all. Games like Uncharted are already showing their age and going harder on the graphics isn't going to help.