It's strange how much a setting can affect a game's appeal. Set your game in the middle of Kandahar in the near future, and chances are we'll be dropping off before the level's even loaded. But set your game in somewhere more unusual - like, bizarrely enough, London - and suddenly we care a little bit more. Set it in the Victorian era, and we'll slide ever so slightly closer to the edge of our seat. And tell us it's a steampunk game, where Zeppelins patrol the skies, guns fire lightning at enemies, and the cast all have excellent facial hair (well, the men do, anyway), and we'll be snatching the controller out of your hand.
Enter, the Order 1886, a game that - coincidentally - is set in a steampunk take on London. Only this isn't London as we would have known it - instead, it's London torn apart by something of a civil war. Unfortunately, the game does a spectacularly bad job of setting up the plot or explaining what's going on here, presumably expecting you to have read up on it beforehand, so we'll fill in the blanks for you. You play as an impressively sideburned Knight of the Order called Sir Galahad. Some sort of ancient group (who it's later revealed have effective immortality thanks to this potion they carry around their necks), it's your duty to protect the people of London against any threat - whether it's in the form of a rebellion, or a supernatural foe. Unluckily enough, when you pick up the controller, you just happen to be facing off against both at the same time - a rebellion is under way, with regular attacks on public buildings (although quite what they're rebelling against isn't clear), and as if that isn't enough to deal with, a group of lycans (or werewolves) keep rearing their ugly heads and causing chaos. Quite why the two groups seem to have popped up to cause trouble at the same time remains to be seen, but could there be a link between the two? With your fellow knights at your side, that's the question you have to answer, in a game that's part cover based shooter, and part interactive cutscene.
Unfortunately, The Order doesn't exactly get off to the best of starts. It's like the developers have looked at every single negative/depressing trend taking over games, and decided to shoe horn them all into one game, in an attempt to bring the amazing setting down. So, you're plunged straight into the game with nothing to explain who you are or what you're doing; there's nothing in the way of an interface, so cutscenes merge seamlessly with gameplay, leaving you clueless as to when you're supposed to start playing again; and the game uses the smallest font we've seen in a main PS4 release so far. Seriously, this font is tiny, with capital letters standing all of half a centimetre tall on our screen, and lower case being around 3mm, making them pretty much blur together as one. And this is sitting a few feet away from a 32" TV. If you're playing on a smaller set in a bedroom, or are deaf, good luck with understanding this. Worse still, the subtitles are actually required in some sections, as two characters talk amongst themselves in French - although, equally annoyingly, not all main conversations are subtitled, so the plot will be even more confusing to those who are deaf.
Wow, thanks subtitles. We'd never have guessed what that headline said if you hadn't helped us out there.
And it's annoying, as a lot has been made of how The Order looks. Apparently one of the best looking games ever made, The Order certainly has its moments, but the developers seem to be a little bit wary of letting you see too much of it - possibly fearing lawsuits from the minds it might blow - as the whole game runs in a stupid super-widescreen window. Rendering half of your fancy HD TV totally pointless, along with giving the developers ample screen space they could have put their tiny subtitles in (and made them a bit bigger), it's a bit of a daft decision - but not as bad as the motion blur.
Because the Order is a great looking game. Everything comes with a level of detail you've never before seen - light glints off wood grain, hammocks sway in the breeze, and brass shines with a traditional steampunk fair. The only problem is, as soon as you start moving, everything falls to pot. Because for some reason, the team have gone to all the effort of making the textures, doing the modelling, and making a game that does look amazing (in stationary screenshots), only to make it look like you're staring through grease-smeared glasses as soon as you start moving.
So the game looks less like this:
And more like this:
And not only does this hurt your eyes (at least until you get used to it), as you try to focus on that which cannot be focused upon, but it also affects the gameplay. For the most part, the Order 1886 is a cover based shooter, and you'll spend most of your time crouching behind one inanimate object or another, popping out every now and then to take a pot shot at an enemy, before ducking down before they get chance to blow your noggin off. Clear the enemies out, and you'll be able to move a little bit further down the game's cobbled Victorian streets, rickety rooftops, or cavernous Gothic buildings. The only problem is, as soon as you go into cover, the game does a weird depth-of-field effect to blur everything else out - so the only way to see which enemies are around is to pop your head out and get it shot off. Yes, it's probably more realistic - but it makes the game a lot harder than it probably should be.
Still, after a while, you do get used to the mostly blurry gameplay, and things soon start to get better. For most of the game, rather than going around with the rest of your knights, you'll instead be split into a smaller group, consisting of you, your epic sideburns, one of the elder Knights named Sir Perceval, a random Frenchman called Marquis de Lafayette (or, in full, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier), who has more than an eye for the ladies, and the now gaming standard "strong female character" Isabeau D'Argyll. Sadly, while all of the other characters have, well, character, it's Isabeau that's the most wooden of the lot. The pressure that some parts of the industry are putting on writers and developers to create "strong" female characters seems to have had an effect here, as their cries end up interpreted as "a woman with no weaknesses", and therefore no character. After all, why create a character with humanity and flaws, if you'll just end up running the risk of being the subject of the next Sarkeesian video? While she's far from the worst example out there, Isabeau lets the cast down, and turns out as one of the most unlikeable - and heartless - characters in here.
The lab of your crazy scientist friend, Nikola Tesla
Far from a generic shooter, the fun here is in the weaponry you get to use - much of which has been bolted together for you by the Order's resident version of James Bond's Q - Nikola Tesla. From your standard rifle, which comes equipped with a crazy blowback function (press R1 to fire a burst of air and stun your opponents), to the much more inventive induction lance, which, when charged, fires a bolt of lightning from its barrel that even slightly homes in on enemies, making it incredibly powerful, there's a wide array of weapons here - and even that latest gaming staple - the crossbow. Perhaps the best - and most original - weapon on hand though, is thermite rifle - a gun which sprays a cloud of flammable matter, which can they be set alight with its secondary fire - a flare.
Happily, there aren't too many sections where the game forces you to basically camp in against wave after wave of enemies, either. While mostly you'll be facing off against rebels (who are all human), pushing them back with every one you pick off, you always feel like you're making progress, whether you're fighting through the underground, a huge abandoned hospital, a brothel, or a vast dockyard, ducking in and out of the crates of supplies.
Zzap.
Every now and then, you'll get to face off against the game's more supernatural enemies, too - the lycans. Essentially werewolves, the lycans are humans that can transform into a gigantic, beastly version of themselves - and suddenly become a lot faster, and a lot tougher to beat. In fact, when you do face off against these, you'll be lucky to get a few shots in before you're forced to dive out of the way and dodge. These lycan fights are actually really tough, and are one of the things that anyone not all that great at shooters will struggle with.
And while it takes a long time to get going, the story does pick up - around four hours in. If you can make it through the dull dross of the first half of the game, the last act almost makes up for the stuff that's come before, as you start to head to some much cooler places, and do even cooler things. All of a sudden, all of the characters get some character, the plot finally kicks into gear, there's murder, betrayal, and twists aplenty - and then you'll find yourself abseiling down the side of a giant airship, to prevent a rebel attack on one of the esteemed dignitaries on-board. With an actual goal at hand, and dozens of innocent civilians and workers that need to be saved, you finally get a chance to be the hero - and it's genuinely great. Flying high as the sun sets around you, this is one of the highlights of the game, as it blends the setting and story together almost perfectly - after all, what better display of steampunk England than a gigantic, luxury passenger airship?
So, so pretty.
Unfortunately, it's not all smooth running from here on in - but at least the bad is punctuated by several stages of good. Sadly, the game's stealth sections, are one of the games lowest points - and these tend to come towards the end of the game. The problem here is that you're given literally no leeway at all - if you're spotted by a guard, even for a split second, it's an insta-death, and a trip back to the last checkpoint for you. And that's something that'll happen a lot. Thanks to the blurry camera, and thanks to the strange camera angles, you'll repeatedly find yourself accidentally stumbling in front of a guard - and when it happens for the tenth time, it'll soon try your patience. And don't get us started on the "blink and you'll miss it" quick time events, where you have to mash a button within a second or two of it popping up on screen - and woe-betide you if you get the wrong one.
When this icon pops up on screen, what are you meant to do? Answers on a postcard...
Still, despite its flaws, The Order: 1886 manages to steal success from the jaws of defeat with a storming second half. While it may get off on totally the wrong foot, the setting, story and characters eventually come together to create an ending that you'll want to see - even if it does leave on something little more than a cliffhanger. While it may not be worth the full £40, and while a single play through will likely be all you'll ever want to do, The Order 1886 has potential. And seeing as the credits seem to point to a sequel, we may not have long to wait before we venture out again in the boots of Sir Galahad.
Format Reviewed: Playstation 4
