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The Order 1886 | Impressions Thread of not shooting the messenger.

Yurikerr

This post isn't by me, it's by a guy with the same username as me.
Op, talking about the encounters.

Had moments that you think that was a high point and that give way to further experimentation or the encounters are more or less all the same?

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?

Just saw that we posted almost the same question.... [=
 

hydruxo

Member
I'll weigh in with my impressions in about an hour; was lucky to snag a copy. Fuck you Destiny; on the shelf you go!
For at least 5 hours 😜

Where'd you get your copy from if you don't mind me asking? I've heard Walmart has sold some copies of it early from a couple people
 

Unison

Member
OP:

Does this game have a lot of bosses that you fight outside of QTEs? Are there patterns to learn or are they bullet sponges?
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Gathered up a couple posts from OsirisBlack and Theman2k on their thoughts after finishing.

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

Theman2k 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.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=152072864&postcount=4230
 

BiGBoSSMk23

A company being excited for their new game is a huge slap in the face to all the fans that liked their old games.
Query:

This on a more technical level and comes on heels of another topic made on this board- Is there adequate amount of Anisotropic Filtering (AF) in the game?

I haven't played on PC in way too long to remember what AF does, although I think it made textures sharper?

There's just one texture that stood out to me as bland. ONE. And it was briefly during a cutscene the first half of the game. The rest of the materials look very realistic and natural.
 

Theman2k

Member
OP (or anyone else who has played/beaten it), while I know you stated you'd let us discover the story by ourselves, is the game worth it for the story alone? To me, the biggest reason I will pick up this game will be if the game offers a unique story and experience. Obviously, the visuals and "feel" of the game are a bonus, but for single player games I care more about how good the plot is. And please, no spoilers.

Story picks up for me by late middle game, in the beginning the story is disoriented with little exposition.

But when it starts to get good, it's really good IMO.
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
Yeah, probably. Uncharted 2 took me 10 hours. But i never really cared for collectibles, because I don't have too much time to play games :(

I'm not really talking collectibles though. I never really go out of my way for that stuff until after I've enjoyed the game thoroughly and then I'll usually do a cleanup run to find all the secrets and whatnot.
 

bombshell

Member
Query:

This on a more technical level and comes on heels of another topic made on this board- Is there adequate amount of Anisotropic Filtering (AF) in the game?

I think it does have good AF. This is a post from the PS4 AF "issue" thread:

The Order 1886 has incredible AF. Other devs are probably just lazy. Lazy is the middle name of this gen, after all.

SRBRTkc.jpg
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I was just about to post this. Man, we are so in sync! ;)

Haha

We needed to get the other impressions in here. I think it's pretty telling that even the one who didn't like the game nearly as much as the others said it was worth full price and a can't miss game.
 
I haven't played on PC in way too long to remember what AF does, although I think it made textures sharper?

There's just one texture that stood out to me as bland. ONE. And it was briefly during a cutscene the first half of the game. The rest of the materials look very realistic and natural.

AF changes the filtering of textures as they move away from the camera. THat would mean... a cobble stone road would look more blurred the further it went into the desitance with little to no AF.
 

BiGBoSSMk23

A company being excited for their new game is a huge slap in the face to all the fans that liked their old games.
OP:

Does this game have a lot of bosses that you fight outside of QTEs? Are there patterns to learn or are they bullet sponges?

It's a mixed bag. There's some patterns with a bit of bullet sponging.
 

benzy

Member
I haven't played on PC in way too long to remember what AF does, although I think it made textures sharper?

There's just one texture that stood out to me as bland. ONE. And it was briefly during a cutscene the first half of the game. The rest of the materials look very realistic and natural.

Clarity of textures in the distance.

Anisotropic_filtering_en.png
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
Story picks up for me by late middle game, in the beginning the story is disoriented with little exposition.

But when it starts to get good, it's really good IMO.

Can you post your length and how you did your playthrough? Did you take your time?
 

Kaze2212

Member
I'm not really talking collectibles though. I never really go out of my way for that stuff until after I've enjoyed the game thoroughly and then I'll usually do a cleanup run to find all the secrets and whatnot.

Dunno why I was so fast then. :/ Anyway great games.
 

viveks86

Member
I haven't played on PC in way too long to remember what AF does, although I think it made textures sharper?

Check the screenshot from bombshell above. The ground textures in the distance would essentially loose all detail if the game didn't have good AF.

EDIT: Beaten by Benzy
 

BiGBoSSMk23

A company being excited for their new game is a huge slap in the face to all the fans that liked their old games.
AF changes the filtering of textures as they move away from the camera. THat would mean... a cobble stone road would look more blurred the further it went into the desitance with little to no AF.

No, I don't think so. To be honest, that type of nitpicking I don't get to do too much.

Let me post a relevant, non-spoilery screen in a bit to see.
 

Ricky_R

Member
Tbf, MD has watched the gameplay and story on YouTube, so can at least comment on the game to a certain degree.

He can comment all he wants, and he might be correct for all I care, but his comment about knowing more than the person he replied to, because he saw a playthrough on youtube or whatever, seems kinda stupid when compared to the impressions from somebody who actually experience and completed the game first hand.
 

Artex

Banned
So more than one person has mentioned the excellent quality of the ambient sound. Can someone who has played it or made the claim provide context with an example?
 

RSB

Banned
That's going to kill replayability, you know. The cut-scenes in this game are numerous and they're lengthy. If I was forced to watch the cut-scenes in a PG game every time I played them, well, they would be one-way tickets for me. :p
Max Payne 3 is the perfect example of this. I loved the gameplay, and I would have replayed the game 6 or 7 times, easily, but the un-skippable cutscenes killed any desire I had to come back to the game, and that sucks.

Hopefully RAD can add the option to skip the cutscenes in a patch or something...
 

Peterthumpa

Member
Well, all the legitimate impressions here just make me realize that most of us were spot on about the game premise since it was unveiled, something that's actually pretty common to realize on a gaming board with plenty of experienced gaming folks.

It's a graphical showcase and sets the bar for the following true next gen games, it's basically a cover shooter of sorts like GoW, has moderate replay value and a good story.

I'm fine with that and I'll be there day one. This is my kind of game and I'm sure it will be amazing.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Around 12 hours on hard. I took my time to enjoy everything like i do when i play for the first time.

Did you find it frustrating on hard? I'm considering starting on hard but I want my first playthrough to not get stopped to a halt by a some huge difficulty spike.
 

MilkBeard

Member
Judging by the thread title and the intro paragraph, I was assuming the worst. However, based on what you wrote about the game, it sounds like it will be a good experience. Your impressions seem to sum up what I was expecting.
 
People comparing TLOU and Uncharted game lengths are nuts. TLOU was like 12-15 hours on normal. That was a long, non RPG single player game for today. And it even had fantastic multiplayer that was worth experiencing.

Uncharted games are always 8-10 hours unless you die a lot. And didn't have multiplayer until the second game, which was still a less unique experience than TLOU.

In any case, verdict on the Order 1886's length seems to be 8-10ish hours unless you die a lot. Fastest guy did it in 5.5, and some took 15.

Wish there was a demo. I'm sure the reviews will be solid enough but I want to feel the game out for myself first.
 

BiGBoSSMk23

A company being excited for their new game is a huge slap in the face to all the fans that liked their old games.
Here. Individual chapter loading works just fine.

Hard to tell with so much DOF and film grain.

 

Yurikerr

This post isn't by me, it's by a guy with the same username as me.
Here's two more: (P.s: i edited the possible spoilers out)
edit warning: One of this quotes (ReNeGaDe124) will take you to the spoiler thread, so be careful

Beat the game today.
Armoury in pause menu didn't unlock.
What's up with that thing ?
I thought it would open after beating the game, but it did not =(

btw I liked the game very much. A new strong IP for Sony I hope :)

I quite liked it. First of all I liked atmosphere and overall style of everything because it wasn't just a modern military shooter...

Good thing is that game has a lot to offer if you choose to listen up and look closely - from hearing conversations, to reading newspapers and etc. Plus there are like couple of big reveals I didn't expect at all. And a couple of twists that surprised me too. I like that a lot.

you cannot choose a way to play different segments of the game. there's nothing like TLOU where you can shoot your way thru or you can stealth it. In Order you have firefights where game wants you to shoot and Galahad uses dagger when game has a stealth level


I would give it a 7.5. I enjoyed playing it but I find it pretty hard to justify the full price.

There is nothing broken about the game, on the contrary, it's one of the most refined games I have played in a while. The graphics, acting, sound and production value are top tier. The story is good, but nothing memorable. I liked some of the characters, the atmosphere and the world they created. Unfortunately, the gameplay is just functional, basic. Also, the pacing in the first two hours of the game bothered me (the majority of those hours where walking and cutscenes). I and the fact that cutscenes cannot be skipped makes me think replaying the game will feel like a chore.

I really expected more from the game. There wasn't much in addition to what was shown already in videos. I was really thinking before playing it that the developers where keeping a lot of things unknown, but it wasn't so.

I look forward to a sequel, because I think the franchise has potential, but the developers have to come with a more fleshed out campaign that takes some risks and maybe some form of multiplayer to increase the game's replayability.


If there's a problem in crossposting this or the original poster find something wrong please tell me.
 

i-Lo

Member
Here. Individual chapter loading works just fine.

Hard to tell with so much DOF and film grain.

Thank you. This answers my question remarkably well.

Looks like 4x maybe? Not as high as I thought it would be...

I would guess it is more than that because the screenshots produced using the "share" function produces compressed JPGs that are notably far removed from the IQ visible on screen while playing a game. I speak from personal experience in this matter.
 
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