The Order: 1886 - Afternoon Delight
Werewolves, vampires, and Arthurian knights with machine guns.
The Order: 1886 surprised me. I picked it up on sale for four dollars or so, not knowing much about it other than it looked really pretty and it had relatively mixed reviews because the game was dreadfully short. I knew that four dollars was about as low a price as one could get away with without giving out a Triple-A game for free so I snatched it up when I realized I still had some spare cash in my PSN wallet. I thought, sure, I'll spend an afternoon playing the game. Why not? It looks gorgeous and, even if the story or gameplay is bollocks, I can at least write about how graphics aren't everything and how the game industry needs to grow up and make some shooters with decent stories. Which I will be doing to an extent, but not to the extent I expected. Because I actually really enjoyed playing The Order.
Don't get me wrong. The game's flaws are not numerous but the few that are there really, truly hurt the experience. The game is incredibly short for a tentpole release, one that you can complete in about 5-6 hours. There are little to no collectibles besides some short recordings, meaning that replayability is practically nonexistent. Add to that a lack of multiplayer and you have a game with absolutely zero lasting power. As well, the game is about as linear a corridor shooter as you can get. No alternative paths, no arena-based levels. Not even any co-op so you can jump back in with your friends a la Gears of War. The story's also got issues, but I'll cover that in a bit.
Still, I found myself strangely satisfied after finishing the game. For sure, I don't regret spending the afternoon or so that I used up to start and finish it in its entirety. For a while, I was puzzled. But thinking on it, I've singled out some aspects of the game that made the whole experience worthwhile, at least to me. Let's start with the obvious. The Order is gorgeous to look at with superb texture work, postprocessing, and animations. If you need more proof, just play through the sequence where Grayson, the player character, is going through his ally Nikola Tesla's laboratory. There are a number of different objects you can interact with, all of which have you zoom in and rotate it L.A. Noire-style, though here it's clearly just meant to show off the graphics instead of looking for clues. Specifically, take a look at the part where Galahad examines a sniper rifle. While the rifle itself is pretty, take note of the animation of Galahad's hands and wrists, as he turns over the rifle. The way his wrist twists and bends is one of the most realistic moments of character animation I have ever seen, not to mention the exquisite amount of detail present in the gun's meshes when Galahad begins loading and reloading it. I was floored by just how impressive it all was.
I would also be remiss if I did not mention The Order's most peculiar visual trait, its strange resolution. The game is letterboxed like it was a film that was shot in Cinemascope, meaning that the overall resolution is actually 1920x800 instead of 1920x1080, though the game remains "1080p" for all intents and purposes. The conceit used by the developers to explain this odd letterboxing is that they wanted the game to look "cinematic." While I neither endorse nor object to this practice of (essentially) hiding chunks of the game behind black boxes, I am personally a bit of sucker for Cinemascope-style aspect ratios, and so this stylistic decision made the game feel unique - even if it was little more than exactly that, just style. The game also runs at 30 FPS which is fine and, actually if I'm being honest, I doubt the game's "cinematic" style would have worked if it ran higher than that. It's up to the individual if The Order's unique aspect ratio and limited framerate work to its advantage, but I accepted the conceit wholeheartedly and it improved the experience for me considerably.
Speaking of "cinematic," quite a bit of The Order is cutscenes. Not since Metal Gear Solid 4 did I feel like most of what I was playing through wasn't actually the "meat" of the game. Indeed, the gameplay is almost beat-for-beat ripped from Gears of War complete with D-Pad weapon selection and chest-high walls everywhere. It's fine, in so far as the gameplay isn't offensive, just incredibly bland. Since most of the work of the game seems to have gone into the story, then it definitely needs to be a good story for it to be worth the while. However, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I'll start with the negatives: while this Steampunk-themed werewolves-and-vampires narrative is something that hasn't been done in video games very much, it is very much trodden ground for films and novels. Because of that, the game apes quite a bit of its visual style from them. The plot is fairly basic, a "conspiracy" that needs to be uncovered, rebels fighting against a morally-grey government, and vampires plotting to spread their kin. However, a lot of the story threads get dropped in the third act (insofar as there is a third act) and we never really get answers to the questions that get dredged up in the first half of the game. Characters are introduced and are never seen again, things are set up that are never followed up on, narrative considerations are not taken into consideration. The last third of the game is something of a mess in that sense, since there is little to give the player a sense of catharsis save for something of a sequel hook.
However, not everything is bad. The game' story excels in a few aspects. Though the storytelling got a bit messy, its characters are actually fairly well-developed. Though the game isn't long, the time you spend with Grayson, Isabeau, Lafayette, and Sebastien makes all of them come off as quite likable fellows. I would have loved a whole game of just these four making their way through Steampunk London killing werewolves and fighting rebels, making quips throughout. In particular, Sebastien comes off as quite an interesting mentor figure, experience and reasoned, though clearly with a maverick streak. The real interesting aspect of the game's story is its lore. The game is about a group of incredibly long-lived knights that are kept youthful by the Holy Grail. Most of the members of the Order are several centuries old, save for new recruits like Lafayette, who is a very real historical figure that fought in the American and French revolutions (and who you probably know best from Hamilton). There exists something called Blackwater, which is enchanted by the Grail, that the knights use to heal their injuries, meaning they're far more like posh British versions of Wolverine. As if that wasn't enough, the Order is actually the same organization as the Knights of the Round Table, with every member taking a name of the original knights or allies of King Arthur. Grayson, for example, is Ser Galahad while Sebastien is Ser Perceval, Isabeau is Lady Igraine, and so forth. Not to mention, of course, that this clearly alternate history has sped up the rate of technological change. In 1886, there are already zeppelins in regular usage, electro-guns (and for that matter, automatic weapons of any sort), hacking tools, vibrolocating lockpicks, and much more. Nikola Tesla even works as the Order's armorer. This is all incredibly compelling stuff, presenting a load of questions to the player. Just how old are these knights? What adventures have they been up to? Where exactly did history begin to diverge? While the game does a great job of presenting these lore tidbits here and there, we largely don't get answers to them. Normally, this would be fine if the game had sequels to flesh out these aspects, but unfortunately, it's looking more and more like that game will never see the light of day.
In the end, what can I say about The Order? It's a competent shooter with some great lore that is marred by an incredibly short playtime and a narrative with inconsistent quality. It's also gorgeous and worth an afternoon of playing it, if to do nothing else but gawk at how pretty it all is. There are certainly worse ways of spending your time.
Still, I found myself strangely satisfied after finishing the game. For sure, I don't regret spending the afternoon or so that I used up to start and finish it in its entirety. For a while, I was puzzled. But thinking on it, I've singled out some aspects of the game that made the whole experience worthwhile, at least to me. Let's start with the obvious. The Order is gorgeous to look at with superb texture work, postprocessing, and animations. If you need more proof, just play through the sequence where Grayson, the player character, is going through his ally Nikola Tesla's laboratory. There are a number of different objects you can interact with, all of which have you zoom in and rotate it L.A. Noire-style, though here it's clearly just meant to show off the graphics instead of looking for clues. Specifically, take a look at the part where Galahad examines a sniper rifle. While the rifle itself is pretty, take note of the animation of Galahad's hands and wrists, as he turns over the rifle. The way his wrist twists and bends is one of the most realistic moments of character animation I have ever seen, not to mention the exquisite amount of detail present in the gun's meshes when Galahad begins loading and reloading it. I was floored by just how impressive it all was.
Speaking of "cinematic," quite a bit of The Order is cutscenes. Not since Metal Gear Solid 4 did I feel like most of what I was playing through wasn't actually the "meat" of the game. Indeed, the gameplay is almost beat-for-beat ripped from Gears of War complete with D-Pad weapon selection and chest-high walls everywhere. It's fine, in so far as the gameplay isn't offensive, just incredibly bland. Since most of the work of the game seems to have gone into the story, then it definitely needs to be a good story for it to be worth the while. However, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I'll start with the negatives: while this Steampunk-themed werewolves-and-vampires narrative is something that hasn't been done in video games very much, it is very much trodden ground for films and novels. Because of that, the game apes quite a bit of its visual style from them. The plot is fairly basic, a "conspiracy" that needs to be uncovered, rebels fighting against a morally-grey government, and vampires plotting to spread their kin. However, a lot of the story threads get dropped in the third act (insofar as there is a third act) and we never really get answers to the questions that get dredged up in the first half of the game. Characters are introduced and are never seen again, things are set up that are never followed up on, narrative considerations are not taken into consideration. The last third of the game is something of a mess in that sense, since there is little to give the player a sense of catharsis save for something of a sequel hook.
However, not everything is bad. The game' story excels in a few aspects. Though the storytelling got a bit messy, its characters are actually fairly well-developed. Though the game isn't long, the time you spend with Grayson, Isabeau, Lafayette, and Sebastien makes all of them come off as quite likable fellows. I would have loved a whole game of just these four making their way through Steampunk London killing werewolves and fighting rebels, making quips throughout. In particular, Sebastien comes off as quite an interesting mentor figure, experience and reasoned, though clearly with a maverick streak. The real interesting aspect of the game's story is its lore. The game is about a group of incredibly long-lived knights that are kept youthful by the Holy Grail. Most of the members of the Order are several centuries old, save for new recruits like Lafayette, who is a very real historical figure that fought in the American and French revolutions (and who you probably know best from Hamilton). There exists something called Blackwater, which is enchanted by the Grail, that the knights use to heal their injuries, meaning they're far more like posh British versions of Wolverine. As if that wasn't enough, the Order is actually the same organization as the Knights of the Round Table, with every member taking a name of the original knights or allies of King Arthur. Grayson, for example, is Ser Galahad while Sebastien is Ser Perceval, Isabeau is Lady Igraine, and so forth. Not to mention, of course, that this clearly alternate history has sped up the rate of technological change. In 1886, there are already zeppelins in regular usage, electro-guns (and for that matter, automatic weapons of any sort), hacking tools, vibrolocating lockpicks, and much more. Nikola Tesla even works as the Order's armorer. This is all incredibly compelling stuff, presenting a load of questions to the player. Just how old are these knights? What adventures have they been up to? Where exactly did history begin to diverge? While the game does a great job of presenting these lore tidbits here and there, we largely don't get answers to them. Normally, this would be fine if the game had sequels to flesh out these aspects, but unfortunately, it's looking more and more like that game will never see the light of day.
In the end, what can I say about The Order? It's a competent shooter with some great lore that is marred by an incredibly short playtime and a narrative with inconsistent quality. It's also gorgeous and worth an afternoon of playing it, if to do nothing else but gawk at how pretty it all is. There are certainly worse ways of spending your time.
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