The first of many AAA PS4 titles arriving in 2015 is upon us. Titled The Order: 1886, it looks to not only showcase the PS4’s processing power, but offer gamers a deeply interesting story to immerse themselves into.
The Order: 1886 is in some ways a mystifying game. Little has been said about its dark tale that features knights and beasts, although a 10 minute demo has found its way into the hands of many. We’ve played it and talked about it, and are ready to set you up with the information you need.
Related: The Order: 1886 Hands-On Preview
Below you can get the jist of what The Order: 1886 is all about.
The Order: 1886 - Everything You Need to Know
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Welcome to London
Set in alternate history London, The Order: 1886's setting stands out among other AAA games. Its real-world influenced environment is inhabited by knights, peasants, the elite, and even monsters that threaten the population.
You play as a knight named Galahad, the right-hand man to King Arthur. Galahad is an expertly trained killer with his wits about him. Along with other Order knights, you will combat beasts using powerful weapons and Black Water, a mysterious liquid that provides powerful healing to those who employ it.
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There's cover, and lots of it
The Order: 1886's gameplay is simple in style, and similar to other action-adventure games you've been playing for the past few years. It's a cover-based third-person shooter where you spend most of your time behind cover carefully timing your shots. The main character doesn't have much health on Normal and higher difficulties, so being tactical about where you engage from, and reacting quickly to the location of enemies is important to avoiding death.
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Classically inspired futuristic weapons
The Order: 1886 features a very cool library of weapons. The game is set in the year 1886, and you can see that the physical design of the weapons follows accordingly. However, a few of them have futuristic qualities, such as the Arc Gun which can throw bolts of high voltage at high range, or the Thermite Rifle that fires pellets of aluminum iron oxide into the environment before hitting them with with a hot flare igniting the area within an instant. Ready at Dawn has been careful to make the weapons realistic in design while allowing for a level of creativity in the weapon design that makes combat playful.
Here are the weapons you'll encounter:
- M86/FL Thermite Rifle
- M2 Combo Gun
- Arc Gun
- M74 Marksman Carbine
- Coach Gun
- M72 Selfloader Carbine
- M85 Automatisch
- C-78 Autoloading Pistol
- C-81 MaschinenPistole
- M4 Dragoon Revolver
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An absolutely beautiful game
A lot of work has gone into making The Order: 1886 a visually impressive game. Running at 1080p and 30 FPS, it pushes the PS4's hardware with high resolution textures and some of the best lighting and shaders you'll see. It's the PS4's first visual showcase of 2015, and could very well outperform the bar that inFamous: Second Son set last year. Though you could say it's beautiful, its setting is very dark and mature, so maybe handsome is a better choice of word.
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A five-year creation by Ready at Dawn
The Order: 1886 has been crafted by Ready at Dawn, the studio responsible for the God of War PSP games as well as Okami's Wii port. This is its first foray into a console AAA experience, but they have a development team assembled that knows what it has to do to make something special.
Even with its large size, The Order: 1886 required five years of development for Ready at Dawn to complete. Speaking of which, the game was supposed to be released last year but was delayed into 2015.
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You will play alone
The Order: 1886 is a game that focuses all of its energy on the single-player cinematic experience. There is no multiplayer, and there is no co-op. There isn't a leaderboard, either. So, you will have no other option than to play alone. On the plus side, you know that Ready at Dawn didn't spend resources on game modes that you possibly wouldn't have played anyway.
