Review #594: The Order 1886

 Which poses the question, are we humans the real monsters?

 The Order 1886 is a third-person shooter game that was posed to be one of Sony's first steps into delivering bonafide exclusive games to their new console. And, well, the game works better as a showpiece than as a game, but darn if it isn't engrossing.

 The game follows Sir Galahad, one of the many members of The Order, a group of men taking titles  named after the knights of the round table, who hunts monsters. That's the what they are trying to sell you. The truth is that most of the game is spent watching human drama unfold as you lay dozens upon dozens of human to waste. There're a very few werewolves here and there, as well as two vampires(That you don't get to fight, although one is killed in a cutscene) but the rest of the enemy cast are humans. As for the plot, it begins with Galahad escaping prison, as it seems like he betrayed the order... but we know better. 90% of the game is spent catching up to the prelude and then there's a cliffhanger ending that may very well never be expanded upon. I wouldn't say that the story was groundbreaking or noteworthy, but the game is a very cinematic affair and character design is brilliant, I swear to god, these are some of the most stylish characters ever put on a Blu-ray disc.

 The game is pretty much your average modern-day third person shooter. You can hide behind cover, blindfire, aim from an over-the-shoulder camera, etc etc. You can carry two main weapons as well as grenades. The armament is comprised of basic rifles, shotguns and guns as well as a couple of 'Science' weapons developed by Tesla, the electric Arc-Gun and the fire-based Thermite Gun. The latter is pretty fun to use, as you shoot thermite and then set it on fire. You can make use of fire to just shoot thermite nearby and have it instantly catch on fire. All in all, while there's nothing groundbreaking here, what it does it does well. Sticking-in-and-out of cover works great and the controls never get in your way.

 Regenerative health is in, as is to be expected, but if you take too much damage you'll be downed. While downed, you can crawl to a safe space, and if you manage to avoid taking damage, you'll get one second wind. The game is not too hard, so even if you die the game will load your previous checkpoint very swiftly. Sir Galahad has one more ability, Blacklight. By killing dudes you'll fill a gauge on the bottom of the screen, pressing L1 will slow down time allowing you to pelt your enemies with bullets from your secondary gun.

 As with any other cinematic game there're plenty of QTEs, but they are not too horrible. Sadly, the game only has two boss fights, against Elder Werewolves and they are pretty much simple glorified QTEs. They looked amazing, but 'playing' those scenes felt lame. The game is pretty much a straight-line through to the end. There's very little exploration involved, and if you are so inclined, you'll only be rewarded with objects you can pick up and... examine in first person. They really wanted to show off their graphics, shame they forgot about adding reflections on mirrors!

 If the game has something going for it is how amazing the graphics are. Not only are the knights' uniforms brilliant, but every environment looks very realistic. While it doesn't run at 60 fps, the framerate is pretty stable, so it's a very smooth ride. There're some standout pieces, namely, invading the Zepellin and the sunset when you sneak into the docks.

 While it's not the gamiest game around, while it's story is nothing special and while its mechanics are as by-the-book as they can get... I can't lie, I had a fun time with the game. Gameplay is basic, but solid, and while the story won't arrest your attention, the environments will.There's something so appealing about these characters wearing victorian-era clothes and primed mustaches, slaying monsters and the such. That said, the game will be remembered for how good it looked rather than for what it brought to the table... but at least it will be remembered.
 7.0 out of 10