When Ready At Dawn revealed The Order: 1886 during Sony’s E3 press conference last year, PlayStation fans instantly became intrigued by the thought of a new IP and have since been feverishly looking for many new game experiences to fall in love with. While it looked as though this action-adventure game might hit stores later this year, that myth was quickly debunked when the title ended up being delayed until February 20th, 2015.
During my time at E3 2014 this week, I had an opportunity to spend some brief hands-on time with the game. Here are a few of my thoughts on the demo and why the future looks bright for this series.
The demo on display at the E3 booth was the exact same gameplay footage that the developers streamed on Twitch a few weeks ago. The only real difference this time around is that we finally got a feel for how cover needs to be used in confrontations to achieve the best results. This dynamic felt very similar to how the Gears of War games implemented it when combat scenarios escalated on the battlefield. I personally think that this is something that fans will love especially if they are already naturally comfortable with going in and out of cover in other third-person shooter games.
When it came to using the highly stylized Thermite Rifle, the controls made the weapon both easy and frustrating to use. While the core shooting element remained intact, firing the flames at adversaries proved to be inaccurrate and somewhat cumbersome. I found myself having to switch weapons at times just to effectively execute all of the enemies that got in my way. With that said, this is still a relatively early build of the game and thus I believe that both Sony Santa Monica Studios and Ready At Dawn will work out all the kinks before the finished product ships early next year.
After having seen The Order: 1886 up close and personal, I must say that this is easily the best looking PlayStation 4 game currently in development. Running at a full 1080p and 30fps, each cinematic cutscene seamlessly transitions into gameplay and succeeds in leaving the viewer amazed from one impressive sequence to the next.
While many may complain about the blueish grey color schemes that we have seen throughout all the footage so far, it is important to take note that there is still plenty more that we haven’t seen yet. It is also worth noting that there is still quite a lot to learn about both the story and characters. While this particular demo didn’t dive into all these areas, it was satisfying enough to peek my interest and I’m confident in saying that I personally can’t wait to hear more about this game in the days and months ahead.
The Order: 1886 launches exclusively on the PlayStation 4 on February 20, 2015. Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the the game leading up to it’s retail debut next year.
