The Order: 1886 Game Review. The knights of The Order may be near immortal thanks to the mysterious Black Water substance that slows their aging and helps them heal, but these aren't alternate-history supermen and women dominating their world. They are in a desperate, centuries-long fight against a new species of man-beasts that are stronger than humanity.
However, The Order also faces foes from all sides, including fellow humans. The E3 demo opens with Galahad, Igranie, Lafayette, and Percival pinned down in the streets of London by thugs from the Rebels of Whitechapel. The rebels are bunkered down in balconies and doorways, but Galahad's thermite rifle is the perfect weapon for the occasion. The byproduct of the aluminum iron-oxide rounds it fires is a dust that is easily set alight by the flares of the rifle's secondary-fire function. This is perfect for subduing the hail of fire coming from all angles, allowing the group to recover in a nearby building before heading out into the back alleys where more rebels wait in ambush.
During gunfights the camera is slightly behind and just over the character's shoulder, but for cutscenes the angles and edits are more cinematic. This, combined with the excellent voicework, augments the graphics and adds a layer of believability to this grim story. Despite the quality of the cutscenes, gameplay looks just as good, and the transition between the two is smooth. During gunplay you also experience occasional breaks from the traditional over-theshoulder look, whether that's the camera panning up for sequences of enemies attacking from above or zooming in when you initiate Galahad's slowed-time combat state.
The trouble the band of rebels gave us should be nothing compared to The Order's fight against their half-breed foes. E3 also provided us our first glimpse of this subspecies, which is capable of shape shifting between a human-like form and a more feral one. This wolf-like form charges fast on all fours, has claws, and is more physically imposing in every way. Developer Ready At Dawn hasn't revealed many details about the story, but one look at the beast in the trailer and it's clear that even with a near-immortal group of knights fighting on its behalf, mankind is on the losing side of this evolutionary battle.
While it's a little worrisome that all we've played of the game since our late-2013 cover story is the same sequence in the streets of London, the game undoubtedly looks and plays well. The title was delayed into early 2015, giving Ready at Dawn a few extra months to polish the product and hopefully enough time to affirm The Order as a triple-A experience and not just a tale from some alternate history of the PlayStation 4.
Platform: PlayStation 4
Style: 1-Player Action
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Ready At Dawn Studios
Release: February 20
