• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Order: 1886 |OT| Gears of Yore

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
That doesn't mean anything. The guards are doing their job. They weren't torturing him for fun. They were torturing him for answers, and he wouldn't open his mouth. Any knight who has seen centuries of war would expect this after being arrested for insubordination. You are making it seem like the guard's are villains and deserved to die.

I was just speaking toward his mental state and perception at the end.
 

Hoje0308

Banned
That makes no sense though. If you think his character "unravelled", then his dialogue with the chancellor made no sense. He was pleading him to admit everything at the council and set everything right. He wanted to be part of that story. And when the chancellor asks him to vanish, he complies with no resistance. If he didn't care for the order, why would he bother? There was no moment where he lost his sanity, except after Percival's death. But he abruptly snapped out of it after killing dozens of rebels with a rocket launcher. He was portrayed as the good guy through and through. This anti-hero stuff is some rationalization that people here have come up with to explain what is essentially a badly written second half

That's my point. Through it all, despite the fact that both he and Percival seemed very weary of The Order, they both obeyed commands. When
Percival died, he suddenly didn't care for his duty and went about murdering as many of the rebels as he could.
He does come to his senses abruptly, I will admit that. But, it makes sense that he would fairly quickly come to realize that he can't kill every rebel by himself when the entire Order has failed to do that. His best course of action is to uncover the mystery and find those directly responsible.

Revenge because they beat him up? o_O

C'mon now, it went far beyond merely being beaten up a bit. He had been nearly drowned multiple times by men that had malice in their voice the entire time.
 
I remember them saying there are no good guys or bad guys but they did a very poor job of showing it.

The character assassination of Ise in the second half is pretty indicative of their poor handling of this. I especially dislike the implication that her 'turning' on Galahad is at least partly motivated by her being jealous of Lakshmi.

The rebels actions are also quickly forgotten about. I guess the brownie points earned for exposing a vampire conspiracy negates the whole blowing up an airship.

Also apparently working for a company that does dodgy shit makes you guilty by association and therefore it's okay to be slaughtered by the dozens, unless you are Galahad and have unknowingly been working for a corrupted organisation for years.
 

viveks86

Member
That's my point. Through it all, despite the fact that both he and Percival seemed very weary of The Order, they both obeyed commands. When
Percival died, he suddenly didn't care for his duty and went about murdering as many of the rebels as he could.
He does come to his senses abruptly, I will admit that. But, it makes sense that he would fairly quickly come to realize that he can't kill every rebel by himself when the entire Order has failed to do that. His best course of action is to uncover the mystery and find those directly responsible.

Right. So where's the part where his character unravelled into an anti-hero? He meekly accepted the death penalty with no resistance. Then when he is tortured to cough up info, he must have been like "fuck it, I'm gonna kill everyone in my way, escape, and then come back and kill everyone in my way again so that I can expose Lucan"?

C'mon now, it went far beyond merely being beaten up a bit. He had been nearly drowned multiple times by men that had malice in their voice the entire time.

I was being a little facetious. Of course they will have malice in their voice. The man colluded with rebels who have been killing people of the order and police officers for a while. And then refuses to explain himself. His torture was an expected consequence.
 
I especially dislike the implication that her 'turning' on Galahad is at least partly motivated by her being jealous of Lakshmi.

Really? I thought it was painfully obvious that she was, in fact, quite jealous of Lakshmi. That green eyed monster blinded her and caused her to set aside her loyalty to a man that saved her life on at least one occasion, likely more.

What's to dislike? I appreciated that she's a flawed character.
 
Just got the Platinum. I was going through trying to figure out which of the collectibles I missed. I was starting to get scared because I was running out of things that it could have been. But it turned out to be
the document hidden between some crates in the Chapter 9 warehouse
. Once I grabbed that, the final three trophies popped.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
I enjoyed my time with the game, I finished it in two chunks. This is unusual for me because singleplayer games don't typically hook me for more than 90 minutes per session. I played mostly on hard, until I couldn't clear the last chapter but I was always engaged.

The game was mostly what I expected based on what they showed pre-release and what I saw in trailers.
The core shooting beat my expectations based on what I've read. It's definitely above competency.
As an example Spec-Ops: The Line is competent and The Order: 1886 feels better.

It is the best looking game I've ever seen and has a great sense of place.

The details in this game are just absurd. They clothing physics when there are very few scenes in the game where they can be even noticed.
(To contrast: Some male faces were very noticeably repeated. ;-))

One has to see if they get to make another one after the critical reception it has received but there have been quite a few disappointing things enumerated that are conceptually compatible with their cinematic ambitions.
 

Ricker

Member
My god the werewolf fights are all identical... enter a room of shelves with crates on them... machine gun 3 werewolves and stab them. Zero tension, absolutely no variance in the encounters... bums me out.

They should of made more sections like when you chase one down the streets,that part was great but so short,people tend to forget about it lol...
 

viveks86

Member
Anyway, I think I've said everything that needs to be said. It seems like some you truly believe that the story is plot hole free. I don't want to belabor my point any further. Good debating! :)
 
Just got the Platinum. I was going through trying to figure out which of the collectibles I missed. I was starting to get scared because I was running out of things that it could have been. But it turned out to be
the document hidden between some crates in the Chapter 9 warehouse
. Once I grabbed that, the final three trophies popped.

Heh both the items I missed were there too :)
 

Hoje0308

Banned
Right. So where's the part where his character unravelled into an anti-hero? He meekly accepted the death penalty with no resistance. Then when he is tortured to cough up info, he but have been like "fuck it, I'm gonna kill everyone in my way, escape, and then come back and kill everyone in my way again so that I can expose Lucan"?

I'd say he lost it on the bridge when he went about trying to kill every rebel in sight single-handedly. This is the unravelling part that I mentioned earlier, seemingly out of character for a usually duty bound man. What were his choices during sentencing? He had no proof and Lucan played his part very well. His closest ally was Izze, who is brother to Lucan. Who was Galahad to think she'd believe? A man in handcuffs, or her father and brother? At this point I saw a man that had lost hope and was resigned to his fate. Cliche, but understandable. And what was he supposed to say while being tortured? "Hey, here's a bunch of shit you guys won't believe which will probably only make the beatings worse." And there's no way in hell he was going to put up much of a fight during that escape. He had no reason to think he would make it through while fully healthy, but certainly not in his injured state. The anti-hero bit comes when he accepts his banishment from The Order and it becomes clear that he will be fighting a much different kind of war now. He's a flawed character and will not be fighting on the side of anyone that's easily identified as morally clean.


PS: Going offline for the night, so I hope you don't think I'm ducking out on you. Maybe by the time I wake up there will be a spoiler thread so we can stop using these damn tags.

Anyway, I think I've said everything that needs to be said. It seems like some you truly believe that the story is plot hole free. I don't want to belabor my point any further. Good debating! :)

I don't think it's even close to being free of plot holes. We are in full agreement as to the overall inconsistency of the story, but we apparently disagree over some of the details within. Have a good night, sir.
 

hydruxo

Member
Just got the Platinum. I was going through trying to figure out which of the collectibles I missed. I was starting to get scared because I was running out of things that it could have been. But it turned out to be
the document hidden between some crates in the Chapter 9 warehouse
. Once I grabbed that, the final three trophies popped.

That's where I got my last 3 trophies too haha.
 
Exactly. That's where I lost interest in the story. After Mallory's death, we were essentially playing a madman going on murderous rampage after murderous rampage, just to feed gamers' power fantasy and lust for gratuitous violence. Everything stopped making sense from a narrative standpoint. We weren't playing the hero anymore, though a lot of players would not recognize this at all. Pretty sure RAD doesn't either. Wait till the sequel where you play as the hero again. If, as you said, he is portrayed as an anti-hero, I'll gladly accept that I'm wrong
Really?
Galahad had one mission in mind after Percival's death, to discover the truth and deliver justice...he didn't come off as a madman at all to me at least...what didn't make sense?
 

viveks86

Member
PS: Going offline for the night, so I hope you don't think I'm ducking out on you. Maybe by the time I wake up there will be a spoiler thread so we can stop using these damn tags.

Nah. I'm done too. We are kind of stuck in a circular debate. Will revisit this if there is ever a story discussion thread. Good night! :)
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Anyway, I think I've said everything that needs to be said. It seems like some you truly believe that the story is plot hole free. I don't want to belabor my point any further. Good debating! :)

I think the answer is probably somewhere in the middle but I definitely don't think it's as flawed as you think. We're not going to get a definitive answer in here unless Ru himself chimes in or we get get a sequel so agree to disagree until a later date.
 

ChawlieTheFair

pip pip cheerio you slags!
Really?
Galahad had one mission in mind after Percival's death, to discover the truth and deliver justice...he didn't come off as a madman at all to me at least...what didn't make sense?

I wouldn't say madman, but definitely rage fueled, and perhaps not properly thinking through his actions.

On a separate note,
I felt like the bond between Perceval and Galahad wasn't explored enough before his death. Really made his death pretty uneventful to me as a player. Because his death is sort of the tipping point for Galahad, but I didn't feel like I appreciated any of the emotion displayed by Galahad after that point. I think the same could be said for a lot of the characters, with the exception being Lafayette.
 
I wouldn't say madman, but definitely rage fueled, and perhaps not properly thinking through his actions.
Yea I can agree with that. But I liked that personally, I think anyone would've been pretty angry in his shoes. It humanized him to me. I was happy to see that he was still human inside and not just a machine of war.
 

nib95

Banned
Yea I can agree with that. But I liked that personally, I think anyone would've been pretty angry in his shoes. It humanized him to me. I was happy to see that he was still human inside and not just a machine of war.

Agreed.
I also liked his Batman "SWEAR TO ME?!!" type moment when he was pummelling that guard lol.
 

hydruxo

Member
Okay i can't find the link but i will keep on looking .
But i did find one where they said they want to tell the story from different sides which was handled poorly .

http://business.financialpost.com/2...he-insists-it-isnt-steampunk/?__lsa=13f7-d3e5

Also anyone remember this interview and he him talking about how the lycan battle would be different and they would be harder to kill.
when the they easiest enemy in the game lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEvtdP80qcc

From the article:
Unlike most video games, in The Order, the player seems to take the role of the oppressor.

“You aren’t actually defending the under dog. So yes, it’s a different take on everything, but we wanted to tell a story that has different sides. The plot itself is to show in 1886 what the world could have become,” said Weerasuriya.

I think they did a pretty good job of that.
First half of the game was against the rebels, second half was against the knights / redcoats.
As for the other link, I think you're just grasping for straws at this point, things are going to change in development. Go look at any game and read interviews and I'm sure you can find quotes from devs that don't quite match up with the finished product. It happens.
 

Palocca

Member
I just had an idea for one of the boss fights in the game. SPOILERS:
During the first elder lycan fight with Igraine, I think it would've been cool to have a more traditional fight in a larger room with places to hide and take cover. Lycans are understandably fast and powerful, so I thought the game would've been too frustrating for the player if the boss was aggro'd on Galahad the whole time. So instead, we could have the ability to tell Lady Igraine to provide support/be a distraction (maybe use triangle?). This will give you the time to regroup and chip away at the boss. When the lycan is solely focused on wrecking the player, we could use a smoke grenade and shoot using blacksight to stun.

In theory, I think it could work really well and it would've been a way to integrate some of the cooler things you could do in the game.
 
From the article:


I think they did a pretty good job of that.
First half of the game was against the rebels, second half was against the knights / redcoats.
As for the other link, I think you're just grasping for straws at this point, things are going to change in development. Go look at any game and read interviews and I'm sure you can find quotes from devs that don't quite match up with the finished product. It happens.

Not really grasping for straws but i think they did a poor job of showing the different sides .
In a lot of interviews they talk how great the story was suppose to be and i don't feel like it was.

Also the lycan fight being the worst fights in the game saying something when they were talking up them so much .
Saying things change in development don't make up for how poor they are .
 

viveks86

Member
Really?
Galahad had one mission in mind after Percival's death, to discover the truth and deliver justice...he didn't come off as a madman at all to me at least...what didn't make sense?

Okay. I'll document all the plot holes with the story one last time. Spent way too much of my day talking about this.
* Galahad flying off the rails and murdering rebels was contradictory to his character. He is a knight and has seen death for centuries. Mallory dying has no reason to affect him so profoundly. The game never gave us a reason to be convinced that it would.
* After all that rage and killing dozens of rebels with overpowered guns, he decides to waltz into the brothel with no fuss or resistance from the rebels
* The queen presents nothing for Galahad to be convinced that he should trust her. She has no reason to trust him either. But she asks him to come along on a dangerous mission without revealing anything and he obliges
* He says he won't kill anyone at the docks. But the moment they start firing, he throws all his moral code away
* So now in addition to killing rebels, he is killing guards, because "something is afoot"
* Igraine followed Galahad all the way to the brothel, but stopped following him when it really mattered
* Galahad finds out he needs more evidence from the United India Company, so he goes on an "infiltration mission". But instead of "infiltrating", he stealth kills all the guards, who are roaming the courtyard for minimum wages with no clue about any grand conspiracy
* Alistair follows him, never making any attempt to take him down or impede his progress
* Lord hastings hides in his room, while there is a war in his own house. Doesn't bother to escape till the last minute, because that will ruin the scooby-doo-style "shocking revelation".
* After Galahad's escape, he comes back for Tesla, even though he was in no immediate danger. He kills all the guards in his way. These are people working for the order. The good guys.
* Even though there was no urgent threat, he doesn't bother contacting Lafayette or Igraine or find any alternative method that doesn't involve going rambo on his own people. He does it anyway
* But no, he is not a madman. Just an anti-hero. Everyone is just collateral damage. Plot holes solved!
 

antitrop

Member
Finished it up.

The end of the game is pretty subpar, compared to the rest of it. Encounter design especially. Last boss is what it is. Story feels incomplete, but potential for a sequel is high.

7.5/10
 
Those guys with shotguns that come charging at you during a firefight are frightening. They shoot and reload so quick. I've died a lot because of them but I doesn't bother me re-doing a checkpoint because I like the shooting sections and the guns feel great.
 
Those guys with shotguns that come charging at you during a firefight are frightening. They shoot and reload so quick. I've died a lot because of them but I doesn't bother me re-doing a checkpoint because I like the shooting sections and the guns feel great.

The secondary function of the M2 is great for dealing with those guys.
 

Apt101

Member
I was watching my GF play, she was complaining loudly about "the big machine gun does nothing!". I showed her how to ignite the thermite with R1. She wanted to immediately replay that level.
 
Finished it up.

The end of the game is pretty subpar, compared to the rest of it. Encounter design especially. Last boss is what it is. Story feels incomplete, but potential for a sequel is high.

7.5/10

That's about the score I would give it, and about the score I would expect from a gunplay enthusiast. RAD has a hell of a foundation to work with on the player's side of combat. They really just need to work on the enemy's side.
 
Finished it up.

The end of the game is pretty subpar, compared to the rest of it. Encounter design especially. Last boss is what it is. Story feels incomplete, but potential for a sequel is high.

7.5/10

7.5 is actually pretty good. At least, compared to the consensus among a lot of reviewers.
 

viveks86

Member
Yup, sounds about right. At the end of the game, the encounters just become endless waves of enemies in tiny little rooms.

I'm okay with high numbers of enemy waves, as long as the battleground is interesting enough. It was at the beginning of the game, but not by the end.

Finally! Was hoping at least you would agree that the combat design was poor towards the end! Was starting to feel lonely!
 

nib95

Banned
I agree with a few of your points, but here's my take on them.

Okay. I'll document all the plot holes with the story one last time. Spent way too much of my day talking about this.
* Galahad flying off the rails and murdering rebels was contradictory to his character. He is a knight and has seen death for centuries. Mallory dying has no reason to affect him so profoundly. The game never gave us a reason to be convinced that it would.

Dude, Mallory was his mentor and closest friend, over the course of more than a normal life time. Of course he's going to go off the rails, especially when Mallory died trying to be understanding and kind towards the rebel that killed him. I do agree Mallory's character was undercooked though.

* After all that rage and killing dozens of rebels with overpower guns, he decides to waltz into the brothel with no fuss or resistance from the rebels

The Brothel is the unknown hide out of the resistance leader, which he beat out of the guard because he even knew the Indian girl as he put it, existed and was one of the leaders.

* The queen presents nothing for Galahad to be convinced that he should trust her. She has no reason to trust him either. But she asks him to come along on a dangerous mission without revealing anything and he obliges

She is an ex Knight, has the elixir, has a Knights custom blade, and speaks with him earnestly. He has every reason to tag along to try and uncover the truth, and her credentials are beyond the norm, adding more mystery and curiosity.

* He says he won't kill anyone at the docks. But the moment they start firing, he throws all his moral code away

I agree this is silly, but it's a video game. Guy shoots at you, you shoot back, lest a massive chunk of the game just ends up being a stealth simulator. Under fire and threat of death, what exactly is he meant to do in response?

* So now in addition to killing rebels, he is killing guards, because "something is afoot"

See above.

* Igraine followed Galahad all the way to the brothel, but stopped following him when it really mattered

Agreed. Not sure why she did not continue to follow him. Who knows, maybe she just didn't want to know the truth which she feared, but this one definitely doesn't seem as plausible.

* Galahad finds out he needs more evidence from the United India Company, so he goes on an "infiltration mission". But instead of "infiltrating", he stealth kills all the guards, who are roaming the courtyard for minimum ages with no clue about any grand conspiracy

See a few answers above.

* Alistair follows him, never making any attempt to take him down or impede his progress

Why would he? He wants Galahad to do as much damage to his reputation as humanly possible, in order that the framing looks more conceivable, and Galahad's innocence harder to protest.

* Lord hastings hides in his room, while there is a war in his own house. Doesn't bother to escape till the last minute, because that will ruin the scooby-doo-style "shocking revelation".

The whole climax of Galahad's framing was that he intended to kill Lord Hastings. No Lord Hastings, no direct charge of attempted murder on Hastings.

* After Galahad's escape, he comes back for Tesla, even though he was in no immediate danger. He kills all the guards in his way. These are people working for the order. The good guys.

Realistically, what is he supposed to do? Throw stones at them? These are people who are going to kill him, and Tesla is worth the cost. This is the same guy that has presumably been arming the rebels in order to make all this even possible.

* Even though there was no urgent threat, he doesn't bother contacting Lafayette or Igraine or find any alternative method that doesn't involve going rambo on his own people. He does it anyway

I think they were pretty committed to the traitor narrative at that point, at least Igraine anyway. But for them to turn sides and instead side with Galahad, would be massively detrimental to their own reputations and positions in The Order, which I doubt even Galahad wants for them.

* But no, he is not a madman. Just an anti-hero. Everyone is just collateral damage. Plot holes solved!
 

antitrop

Member
7 sounds about right to me. I have yet to complete but I'm nearly there, just a handful of chapters left.

I swear there were a few chapters near the beginning of the game that took me longer to complete than 13, 14, 15, and 16 put together.

The game probably could have been 10 Chapters long, but for some reason, they have some chapters that are just like 5 minute cutscenes.

It's still useless in dealing with dudes with armors though. I keep dying because of those freaking guys.

I saved my Blacksight meter for armored dudes. It's somewhat wasted on normal enemies.
 
Does anyone have any favorite chapters? I thought 3, 5, and 9 are probably the most interesting from an encounter design perspective. 3's atmosphere is also sublime, imo. I'd say it's probably my favorite overall, and certainly the meatiest.
 

steven28

Member
I was watching my GF play, she was complaining loudly about "the big machine gun does nothing!". I showed her how to ignite the thermite with R1. She wanted to immediately replay that level.

hahaha yeah i saw a few people do this at a demo event.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
I'm with nib95 and his comments. Some of viveks's complaints just seem strange while others are fine. The first one is especially presumptuous and feels like padding. ;-)
 

antitrop

Member
Does anyone have any favorite chapters? I thought 3, 5, and 9 are probably the most interesting from an encounter design perspective. 3's atmosphere is also sublime, imo. I'd say it's probably my favorite overall, and certainly the meatiest.

Chapter 3 is the big deal in third-person shooters, now, I guess. Chapter 3 was my favorite out of both The Order and The Evil Within.
 
After having a day to settle it really seems that the reaction to the game would have been significantly more positive if the story a) continued for a few hours past the point it abruptly stops and b) was better written in general.
 
Finished it today, loved it. Hell of a well-polished game, I had a very enjoyable experience.
Hope it gets a sequel.

Would love to have an option to see which collectibles I missed after finishing the game tho. :/
 
Top Bottom