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The Order: 1886 |OT| Gears of Yore

alterno69

Banned
Game beaten, 9 from me easily, awesome ride from begining to end, i even enjoyed the ending, but then i also like Killzone 2 ending so sue me.

Can't wait for the sequel.

I feel like this game was tailored made for me, details like being forced to just walk and not being able to aim or equip a weapon in some areas is awesome, i always feel silly running around with a gun in games where there is clearly no need for one, and i don't run everywhere either.

Like trying to drive correctly in GTA.

I know this is not a game with mass apeal but i just loved it, my main issue was camera position and visibilty during some shootouts as well as the constant wave of enemies.

RAD delivered for me, will be there day one for the sequel.

They need to be given credit for the crazy atention to detail no only in the visuals but the production in general, the wardrobe, architecture, sound, voice acting, everything is on a level not seen before in a videogame or at least not often at all.
 
Can I get a bump on this, y'all? My inner try-hard technophile is very curious.

Question for someone in the know (and this is not to incite any wars; I'm genuinely curious and not at all well-versed in this stuff):

In addition to having some very talented developers at the helm, is TO1886 able to reach its visual fidelity because it oftentimes has "very little going on behind the scenes", so to speak? I mean, a lot of the game looks to be selective-camera-angle canned animations triggered by a single button, with its most taxing moments only upping the stakes to a pretty sparse cover-shooter. It seems to be lacking in underlying 'systems', is what I'm trying to say.

Does this correlate at all with the amount of power you're able to allocate to visuals? Also, feel free to tell me that I'm completely mistaken; like I said, I'm really not around this stuff.

Cheers, Gaf.
 
Brah perfect Galahad right here:

65c81bfcd1f31b173f48d16b99d45682.jpg


Ian McShane

MY GOD!

That dude is like the perfect realization of the character.

Terrific actor too!
 

alterno69

Banned
Selective camera angles? How? You can look anywhere at any time and the detail is there, everywhere. There are plenty of very intereactive areas and they all have the same level of crazy detail.
 
I said this in a stealth edit back along but does anyone know what "the armoury" option is all about that's in the pause menu? It's greyed out the entire game and even in chapter select once you have completed it.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Selective camera angles? How? You can look anywhere at any time and the detail is there, everywhere. There are plenty of very intereactive areas and they all have the same level of crazy detail.

The camera bias setting. I use that now and just switch sides when shooting.
 

Sean*O

Member
MY GOD!

That dude is like the perfect realization of the character.

Terrific actor too!

He'd be great, but I think this would be a good match too with a slightly different trim on the moustache.

Bill+the+Butcher.jpg


But after that Sunni GIF it's hard to look at DDL in that role without laughing.
 

CozMick

Banned
Just finished it.

Opinion incoming....

This from a Hard playthrough with aim assist off, 7-8hr run.

The reviews as a collective score got it completely wrong, it gets a 9 from me, a well written and brilliantly acted story, gun play is better and more polished than Gears/Uncharted, it just feels so much tighter than those two even with aim assist off, the soundtrack and sfx are beautiful, QTE battles have been over exaggerated in the press imo, they were used in the correct amount of scenes to complete the "filmic" nature of the game. Cutscenes were plentiful, but I do believe they dont distract from the game as it does in other titles simply because its "in-game" not pre rendered.

Is it a niche title? absolutely, I can see why people dislike it. I do however bloody love it.

Bring on the sequel.
 

Ramenman

Member
One of the most interesting, and perhaps concerning to some, is the fact that Ru (Creative Director) is actually an artist, I believe. A traditional artist. He began in film/TV if I recall correctly, and eventually transitioned to the games industry. His background is not really in the game design/development area, and I think part of his vision for The Order was bringing "art" from the 2D page to 3D, which may be a big reason why so much emphasis was put on the engine and making every scene look like concept art brought to life.

I wonder if he will even be interested in making a sequel more "gamey", though I imagine the studio will definitely be receptive to fan input.

Yes he was an industrial designer at first (class buddy with Viktor Antonov), but quickly went to the games industry as a concept artist, I mean the guy was at Blizzard from before Warcraft 3 dev even started up to the early days of World of Warcraft, and then after that he founded RAD and made Daxter and the 2 God Of War on PSP which are as "gamey" as it gets.

Ru isn't some dude that was just parachuted in there to make The Order, he's been in the industry for decades, so the idea that the game was less focused on gameplay due to his background makes no sense, he's always been there at RAD :p
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Just finished it.

Opinion incoming....

This from a Hard playthrough with aim assist off, 7-8hr run.

The reviews as a collective score got it completely wrong, it gets a 9 from me, a well written and brilliantly acted story, gun play is better and more polished than Gears/Uncharted, it just feels so much tighter than those two even with aim assist off, the soundtrack and sfx are beautiful, QTE battles have been over exaggerated in the press imo, they were used in the correct amount of scenes to complete the "filmic" nature of the game. Cutscenes were plentiful, but I do believe they dont distract from the game as it does in other titles simply because its "in-game" not pre rendered.

Is it a niche title? absolutely, I can see why people dislike it. I do however bloody love it.

Bring on the sequel.
I agree, I was surprised how easy and fast I could get Headshots without aim assist on, even with the DOF reviewers complained about.
 

alterno69

Banned
Just finished it.

Opinion incoming....

This from a Hard playthrough with aim assist off, 7-8hr run.

The reviews as a collective score got it completely wrong, it gets a 9 from me, a well written and brilliantly acted story, gun play is better and more polished than Gears/Uncharted, it just feels so much tighter than those two even with aim assist off, the soundtrack and sfx are beautiful, QTE battles have been over exaggerated in the press imo, they were used in the correct amount of scenes to complete the "filmic" nature of the game. Cutscenes were plentiful, but I do believe they dont distract from the game as it does in other titles simply because its "in-game" not pre rendered.

Is it a niche title? absolutely, I can see why people dislike it. I do however bloody love it.

Bring on the sequel.

I see we're on the same page, those are my exact feelings on the game.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I agree, I was surprised how easy and fast I could get Headshots without aim assist on, even with the DOF reviewers complained about.
I think a lot of people didn't use the cover peek. It helps to mentally line up shots safely before firing and gives you a clearer view of the battlefield than when all the way in cover.
 
Yes he was an industrial designer at first (class buddy with Viktor Antonov), but quickly went to the games industry as a concept artist, I mean the guy was at Blizzard from before Warcraft 3 dev even started up to the early days of World of Warcraft, and then after that he founded RAD and made Daxter and the 2 God Of War on PSP which are as "gamey" as it gets.

Ru isn't some dude that was just parachuted in there to make The Order, he's been in the industry for decades, so the idea that the game was less focused on gameplay due to his background makes no sense, he's always been there at RAD :p

Yeah I wasn't saying he was incapable of making more traditional games, just that I wondered if given the chance to make a brand new IP and game that played a role in the desire to make it "filmic" in nature. I wasn't trying to imply he was unexperienced in the industry.
 
Honestly the whole characterisation from the end of chapter 8 through chapter 11 bothered me. I realise I said that before but having seen it through to the end now there wasn't any payoff that redeemed it for me.

I realise they wanted to get Galahad
to a certain point to set up the sequel but it just felt they took so many shortcuts to get there.

In his anger at Malory's death he goes running off straight to the people responsible, but then he pretty quickly gets swayed into joining up with them to infiltrate the docks owned by the company run by something very influential, both within The Order and the world at large.

I think the reason Galahad got swayed is because he trusts Percival and the whole thing on the airship with Percival and the rebel soldier. Percival knew something was up and Galahad wanted to find out what was going on.

He finds out there's a conspiracy afoot, and is told that it runs to the heart of his Order, so he immediately goes back to them and starts throwing accusations around with no proof (because he destroyed it all) and then acts all put out when they don't believe him.

There he really had no choice but to burn all the cargo, it was for the greater good. He couldn't allow that stuff to be shipped no matter if they ended up not believing him.

So decides to infiltrate the home of the very influential person who is actually a vampire, doesn't tell either Isabeau or Lafayette because.....reasons and invites along the head of the rebellion that he was fighting at the start of the game, because hey, just in case something goes wrong you want the situation to really look as bad as possible.

He had the Knight Commander with him so he thought that covered his bases when it came to figuring out the conspiracy and having the rebels with him wouldn't matter in that case. If you have the Knight Commander on your side there would be nothing to worry about. As for the whole why he didn't tell Isabeau I felt it was more to do with keeping her safe then anything.

When Ise does catch him at the end of chapter 11 I would have some respect for him if he'd actually owned up to how suspicious and dumb his behaviour was but instead he basically pulls a 'this isn't what it looks like'.

No matter what he said at that moment nothing would change, the Knight Commander just betrayed him, escaped and made it look like he was in there with just the rebels.
 

Ramenman

Member
Two things I forgot to mention :

Text size GODDAMMIT TEXT SIZE. To be honest, I find it to be a problem with every single PS4 and Xone game, text is just too fucking small this gen, but seriously, The Order takes the cake on that one. Shit is just unreadable even with your eyes right on it. I actually went into the settings checking if "subtitle size" wasn't an option because it seemed impossible to release a game with such small text. And the problem is it's also valid for tutorial text...

Other thing is more a question,

When they burn the crates in the docks, they say they're "vampires", but are they though ? I thought there was only Lycans (ie werewolves) in this game, but then it is implied that what Hastings and his friends are shipping around are 'vampires'. I just thought it was a way to refer to Lycans because they can 'turn' other by biting them, but was it something else entirely ? Also any idea why there are 2 types of Lycans, like the ones on all 4 and the ones who stand and talk ? I feel like I missed a few things.

Yeah I wasn't saying he was incapable of making more traditional games, just that I wondered if given the chance to make a brand new IP and game that played a role in the desire to make it "filmic" in nature. I wasn't trying to imply he was unexperienced in the industry.

ok my bad :)
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I think a lot of people didn't use the cover peek. It helps to mentally line up shots safely before firing and gives you a clearer view of the battlefield than when all the way in cover.
I think there's a lot of things people miss, especially if they rush through it.
 

Cth

Member
Galahad: Clive Owen for the look, Christian Bale for the shouty voice

Lafayette: Alain Delon in his prime

Will think of more when I'm not supposed to be working lol

I had Liam Neeson for the voice until I remembered what Clive Owen looked like.

Curious... why no mention of Lakshmi? I thought Tehmina Sunny's performance was an absolute standout, and her character stole the show (and Galahad's heart) from the frigid Isi.

You do realize Lakshmi has been set up as the leading lady for the sequel, no?

Yeah, I was going to include her but the only name I could think of was Salma Hayek and that would have derailed any discussion based on how casting counter to race in other threads have shown.

That and I didn't know any Indian actresses.
 
Two things I forgot to mention :

Text size GODDAMMIT TEXT SIZE. To be honest, I find it to be a problem with every single PS4 and Xone game, text is just too fucking small this gen, but seriously, The Order takes the cake on that one. Shit is just unreadable even with your eyes right on it. I actually went into the settings checking if "subtitle size" wasn't an option because it seemed impossible to release a game with such small text. And the problem is it's also valid for tutorial text...

Other thing is more a question,

When they burn the crates in the docks, they say they're "vampires", but are they though ? I thought there was only Lycans (ie werewolves) in this game, but then it is implied that what Hastings and his friends are shipping around are 'vampires'. I just thought it was a way to refer to Lycans because they can 'turn' other by biting them, but was it something else entirely ? Also any idea why there are 2 types of Lycans, like the ones on all 4 and the ones who stand and talk ? I feel like I missed a few things.



ok my bad :)

They are vampires, basically the Lycans and Vampires have joined forces, the vampires are using the Lycans as protection. The vampires are trying to spread their disease around the world and using the Lycans as a front to do so. The Lycans that walk on 2 feet are Elder Lycans, much stronger than the others
 

Skux

Member
If you want Indian actresses, look no further than the ridiculously photogenic Aishwarya Rai


Way too good looking for the role but you'd get a lot of Bollywood fans on board. It'd probably have to have a few musical scenes to cater to them lol
 

Grinchy

Banned
I'm on Chapter XI now, on Hard, and I have been liking the game a lot. It definitely reminds me of a Heavy Rain inspired TPS. I have on problem with its linearity.
 
I said this in a stealth edit back along but does anyone know what "the armoury" option is all about that's in the pause menu? It's greyed out the entire game and even in chapter select once you have completed it.

If you bought the game on disc there is a slip of paper with a code that lets you unlock the preorder knights armor (gamestop pre's get some extra stuff too). Even after you enter the code you have to go to the store on PS4 and find 1886 and click on addons and download the bonus stuff. Same applies afaik to digital.

I think everyone who bought a new copy of the game (physical or digital) gets a knights armor DLC bonus, its only people who buy it used that may not get it.

It'll be interesting to see some of the Lets Plays for this game and how they react to it. Also I was just thinking, were there any female "bad guys" (the elites) in the game? Come to think of it I never actually killed a female, kind of interesting. I know why - TLOU had the same reasoning, its kind of messed up for most guys to brutally attack women - but then how do the bad guys reproduce...

I liked the way they kept a lot of stuff mysterious but I wish there were some better backstory in extras somewhere, like how exactly Lycans come to be or a more rigorous history of the Order.
 
I think a lot of people didn't use the cover peek. It helps to mentally line up shots safely before firing and gives you a clearer view of the battlefield than when all the way in cover.
That's the thing for me, they complained about not seeing targets in the IGN review but I'm actually enjoying using the peak and my own intuition to know where to aim when I pop to shoot. A lot of the time I'm noting where the bullets hit my cover to make an approximation of the target before I shoot.

I actually like doing this, it's very satisfying and preferable to just seeing them as is usual in these games.
 

Skux

Member
Just thought of a question:
who is the hooded man who saves Galahad on the boat?

I'm pretty sure
it's the same person Percival was talking to. There are hints in the dialogue about some other people it could be (mentioned in earlier posts) but we aren't sure.
 

alterno69

Banned
I was thinking, what defines a game like Beyond Two Souls or Heavy Rain, both were well received by critics and are of comparable quality with The Order in terms of story, characters and graphics. The main diference is that The Order has more "gamey" parts, mainly the shootouts, when Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls are more interactive novels. I consider The Order on par with Heavy Rain and well above Beyond Two Souls, which i was not a fan of but i could still see it was a fine game. Like, the three games acomplish what they set out to do even with their shortcomings but one of then gets trashes and ridiculed by the critics.

It's like saying Shenmue is a shitty fighting game cause it has too many extra stuff to do before getting to the fighting parts.
 
He'd be great, but I think this would be a good match too with a slightly different trim on the moustache.

Bill+the+Butcher.jpg


But after that Sunni GIF it's hard to look at DDL in that role without laughing.

Hmmmmmm Bill Cutting from Gangs of New York is a LONG ways from Galahad, but this is Daniel Day Lewis we're talking about. He could play any character in his sleep.
 
If you want Indian actresses, look no further than the ridiculously photogenic Aishwarya Rai



Way too good looking for the role but you'd get a lot of Bollywood fans on board. It'd probably have to have a few musical scenes to cater to them lol

I wouldn't cast her but the resemblance is big in my opinion:

jada-pinkett-smith-wallpaper_--960x600.jpg
 

Alucrid

Banned
the more i think about it, the combat in the game felt great. shooting and weapons were all really fun, but man, most of those encounters were dreadful.
 
If you want Indian actresses, look no further than the ridiculously photogenic Aishwarya Rai



Way too good looking for the role but you'd get a lot of Bollywood fans on board. It'd probably have to have a few musical scenes to cater to them lol

No, thanks... she doesn't particularly suit Lakshmi. I'll take Janina Gavankar.

janina-gavankar-8619.jpg


She's not only a natural beauty, she's quite the actress having played parts on Arrow, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, etc. She also gave voice to another gaming heroine to remember as Amita in FarCry 4.
 

alterno69

Banned
the more i think about it, the combat in the game felt great. shooting and weapons were all really fun, but man, most of those encounters were dreadful.
The worse one was the one in chapter three with the rushing shotguners. It's funny cause i think the encounters are exactly like the ones in Uncharted three, actually those were far worse with the rocket launcher spamming.
 

slade

Member
If you want Indian actresses, look no further than the ridiculously photogenic Aishwarya Rai



Way too good looking for the role but you'd get a lot of Bollywood fans on board. It'd probably have to have a few musical scenes to cater to them lol

If this was ten years ago, maybe.
 

Seventy70

Member
I completed the game and didn't get the Well Rounded trophy. I'm pretty sure I killed enemies with all the guns. Are there any easily missable ones?
 

viveks86

Member

Nice write up. Clearly we disagree on the crucial parts, which is why the conclusion of our reviews diverged quite a bit. Some thoughts:

This is a game I feel is divisive in the most dangerous fashion. If one of the core strengths doesn't hit the mark for you, your experience is essentially ruined.

I'm not sure what you mean by "core strengths". My experience was ruined by what is unanimously agreed to be the game's weaknesses. We are pretty much on the same page on most of the game's core strengths (visuals, audio, atmosphere, gunplay, characters, dialogue, voice acting). We probably disagree on some of the story elements in the second half, but that wasn't what ruined my experience at all.

You can tell that RaD painstakingly designed every facet of the world to look believable artistically and chose the proper tech to complement it.

Agreed

This brings me to my first major complaint, the UI and tutorial messages. The bright white outline images stand out more than an in-world colored icon like in a game like TLoU.

Good point. This didn't bother me, but it definitely could have been better.


Combine that with the ceaseless, basic tutorial messages that you can't disable and you get pulled out of the experience more than a game of this sort should.

Agreed.


I actually thought that chapters 11 and 15 had the best combat design in the game. Much more focus and had a key sense of urgency that earlier scenarios didn't have.

I find this pretty surprising. And it seems like many echo this sentiment. What about the "design" of chapter 15 did you like? How is throwing in waves of every single type of enemy into a cramped space good design? I can probably get that people enjoyed blowing everyone to bits, but I feel there is nothing thoughtful or well designed about it. To top that off, the guards are essentially rebels in different clothing with no unique behavior whatsoever. Was it fun and a guilty pleasure? Perhaps based on one's sensibilities and tolerance. Was it good design. Not at all.

And story wise, in chapter 15, you are essentially massacring guards
working for the order, who are still considered to be good guys.
The end did not justify the means at all. What is this sense of urgency you speak of? When chapter 15 started, it sounded like a covert mission to
extract Tesla,
so what was the point of going in all guns blazing? Just to reach
Tesla's lab
? The world wasn't burning to justify that. Even
Lord Hastings'
plan was thwarted. So how was any of it meaningful? For a game where every single gameplay element was carefully placed to fit the story, everything was thrown out the window in the latter half. I get that people are forgiving such weaknesses, but I don't get it when you praise it as good design or core strength.

We seem to be in agreement with everything else that followed in your review.
 

antitrop

Member
I completed the game and didn't get the Well Rounded trophy. I'm pretty sure I killed enemies with all the guns. Are there any easily missable ones?

The last weapon I had to use to get that Trophy, playing normally, was
The Crossbow
.

I bet you forgot to use one of the pistols. There are a lot of pistols in the game, that do all pretty much the same thing. If I wasn't picking them up just for the sake of the achievement, I never would have. The game has more pistol types than it needs.
 
I completed the game and didn't get the Well Rounded trophy. I'm pretty sure I killed enemies with all the guns. Are there any easily missable ones?

I'd say there's a a good chance you missed the Service Revolver. It's incredibly common but it's so basic that I completely avoided it on my first playthrough. Just go to the first encounter in Chapter 1 and you'll find one quickly enough if that's it.
 
I think the reason Galahad got swayed is because he trusts Percival and the whole thing on the airship with Percival and the rebel soldier. Percival knew something was up and Galahad wanted to find out what was going on.

There he really had no choice but to burn all the cargo, it was for the greater good. He couldn't allow that stuff to be shipped no matter if they ended up not believing him.

He had the Knight Commander with him so he thought that covered his bases when it came to figuring out the conspiracy and having the rebels with him wouldn't matter in that case. If you have the Knight Commander on your side there would be nothing to worry about. As for the whole why he didn't tell Isabeau I felt it was more to do with keeping her safe then anything.

No matter what he said at that moment nothing would change, the Knight Commander just betrayed him, escaped and made it look like he was in there with just the rebels.

The game shows us nothing as to why Galahad would trust Alistair though, certainly more than Ise. If anything the one person that's put forward as someone that Galahad would trust above all others is Malory, who specifically told Galahad to trust no-one. Then he's shown damning evidence of a conspiracy, perpertrated by someone with a highstanding within The Order, he runs to someone else with a highstanding within the Order, who from what the game has also showns us has a close relationship with the conspirator (otherwise what's the point of having Lucan on the airship with Hastings?).

And why does Ise need protecting for, she's a knight as well.
 
The last weapon I had to use to get that Trophy, playing normally, was
The Crossbow
.

I bet you forgot to use one of the pistols. There are a lot of pistols in the game, that do all pretty much the same thing. If I wasn't picking them up just for the sake of the achievement, I never would have. The game has more pistol types than it needs.

Yeah I got that trophy right near the end in chapter 15 with a pistol I had never used before, it was some type of revolver
 
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