THE ORDER 1886 Revisited
The Order 1886 Revisited
2015 seems like an awfully long time ago. In my own life I was on the cusp of turning 40, only had one child and started writing for 60MW, or 60 Minutes With as it was known back then. The 60MW website was brand spanking new and in need of new content. I don’t class myself as a writer, but it is something I’ve grown to love over the years, and I’m immensely proud of every review (nearly 200) which have appeared on the website. Something I’m even more proud of is the very first piece to be posted was my review of The Order 1886.
The Order 1886 was a highly anticipated PlayStation exclusive and I was extremely excited to say the least. In fact, I even took the day off work so I could play it. I can still picture the day. I pre-ordered the special edition (naturally) and was outside my local Game store in Wolverhampton at 9am. I picked up a McDonalds breakfast on the way home and by 10am I was playing the game. By 3.30pm I had completed it. I went to collect my daughter from her swimming lesson at 4.30pm and by 6.30pm I had written my first review. It’s funny how your mind recalls certain events! Anyway, you can read the review here.
The reason I’m writing this retrospective is all down to Pete or @Tat_Sun_ on Twitter. More about him later. I used to be an achievement hunter/whore way back on the Xbox 360. For those of you who don’t know, achievements are goals or things to do in games which give you up to 1000 points. In a nutshell the higher your score the bigger the size of your electronic penis! I became obsessed with achievements and I went on a quest to get the highest score possible. For anyone interested (and I assume you are as you are reading this) my current Gamerscore is 147,717. Looking back, I played some shite games in my quest to get an easy 1000 points. Here are just a few:
Bullet Witch – A crap rip off of Devil May Cry. I played through the story 3 times to get 999 points!
Avatar: The Last Airbender – The 1000 points could be achieved by playing about an hour of the game (if that) and I couldn’t even be bothered to finish the story.
Terminator Salvation – A crap movie tie-in.
Bionic Commando – A rubbish remake of the arcade classic.
Ice Age 3 – Can’t remember anything about this but bear in mind I was a grown man when I played it.
Madden NFL 06 – I don’t even like American football but still got 1000 points.
Big Game Hunter – No idea.
SpongeBob’s Truth or Square – Can’t remember a thing about it.
Eragon – Another crap movie tie in.
Jumper – I played through this piece of crap 3 times to get the points.
Megamind Ultimate Showdown – No idea.
NCIS The Game – A relatively easy 1000 points from a game based on the hit TV show.
Truth or Lies – Can’t remember anything about it but I got 1000 points.
I think the tipping point was when I considered playing Hannah Montana: The Videogame to try and get some points! It was at this stage of my addiction I started to question what I was doing with my life.
I haven’t been interested in achievements or the PlayStation equivalent which are called trophies for years until late 2020 where I got the platinum trophy for completing Borderlands 3 with Pete. Doing this ignited a long burnt-out fire and now folks I’m back on the trophy hunting train. My only caveat is that I am not playing crap games to get the fabled platinum trophy.
Circling back to The Order 1886, I decided to look back at my trophy list and see where I hadn’t quite got 100%. The Order was one of those games so thought it would be nice to revisit this game as it has been 6 years since I last played it. For full disclosure I didn’t play through the whole game this time around as I only needed to get some collectables I missed. I did however play through large sections of several levels and watched quite a few cut scenes. So here are my thoughts on The Order 1886 in 2021.
The Good
- The setting for The Order 1886 is awesome! I doubt there will ever be a sequel, but I would love to see these characters get into more occult adventures. At times, the game feels a bit like Resident Evil, so having a full-on horror game set in Victorian London would be fantastic.
- The graphics in 2015 were extremely impressive and they are still particularly good looking. The resolution lets it down slightly and everything now looks like it is smeared with Vaseline. 4k televisions and High Dynamic Range weren’t a standard feature in 2015, so this is forgivable. Still, everything is well defined and the character models, environments and cut scenes still look excellent.
The Bad and the Ugly
- The Order 1886 is a 3rd person action-adventure shooter. Playing it today felt a bit of a chore if I’m honest. The guns are based around what may have been around in Victorian London, but with a slightly futuristic twist. I enjoy this aspect of it, but what lets it down is the gun play itself. The guns don’t feel great to use and there isn’t much impact when you are in a firefight. The closest game I can compare it with is Gears of War. The active reload and feedback you get from Gears far exceeds anything in The Order. I appreciate the guns were probably designed to be inaccurate based on the story and setting, but it feels more like shoddy gameplay rather than designed by choice.
- Un-skippable cut scenes are annoying! There are lots of cut scenes in The Order 1886, with some of them being quite lengthy and you can’t skip any of them.
- Instant death quick time events or QTE’s as they are known are the devils spawn and should be burnt on a big fire. Even worse are instant death stealth sections and there are several of these in The Order.
- The game is relatively short and there is no re-playability value.
Overall
I described The Order 1886 as being cinematic back in 2015, and my opinion hasn’t really changed. In some ways it feels like the gameplay is getting in the way of an interactive movie where you watch a cut scene, play for 5 minutes, watch a cut scene, play for 10 minutes, and so on. There is a brilliant game hidden deep within, and maybe if the gaming gods are kind and the stars align, a sequel could rectify all the issues I have and further explore the excellent setting.
