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The Order: 1886 |OT| Gears of Yore

the shoot out with the rebels in white chapel was a complete bitch during chapter 3 or 4. The instruction "fight through the rebel ambush" made me think you weren't just supposed to kill them them all, so I kept looking for places to "fight through" to.

They seemed never ending on hard difficulty tbh!

That bit was ridiculous, and I dropped down to medium! I kept thinking I was missing a COD-style push-forward-to-trigger-cutscene bit, but nope, gotta kill 'em all :)

Edit: Delivered. My penis is ready.

It's in for a treat! (another penis).
 
This makes me wonder what the game would have looked like if it ran in 1080p

But it IS 1080p, pixel-density wise. The only difference you get from a full-1080p display are filler where the horizontal bars are placed. You won't get any IQ enhancements as the developers designed it so that it looks as if it was shot through a camera lens, so unless you can "hack" that feature out, this is the best you'll ever get. Frankly, it kinda works for me; too many uninspired AAA graphical photo-realism art style.
 

Daffy Duck

Member
Zavvi haven't delivered me my forgotten pre order today, I was going to blast it tonight and tomorrow and sell it on Monday.

God damn it.
 
Glad I took advantage of the BB gamers unlocked membership. Got this game for $26 with a dragon age trade in (Didn't like it at all). So far I really cant see the huge issues these "reviews". Im on chapter 4, and I'm really liking it so far. The pacing is great, and the shooting itself is amazing. I'll be surprised If they don't add Mulitiplayer for the sequel, based on the shooting alone. So far so good, gotta keep playing for a final verdict though...Side note:Black bars aren't noticeable, then again I'm playing on a 65-inch 4k.
 

JoeFenix

Member
Finished the game on Hard with Aim Assist off in about 6h30mins.

Amazing visuals both artistically and technically and the lore has potential but the encounter design and total lack of enemy variation really killed my enjoyment once I reached the halfway mark.

You create a game about werewolves and all you make me do is fight human rebels wearing bowler hats. It's unbelievable really, throw me in a room with random cover strewn about and call in the bowler hats. There was no room for any sort of tactics beyond headshot everything and sometimes throw a grenade or activate blacksight.

I can't believe how poor the werewolf encounters were too, utterly devoid of any sort of creativity or craftsmanship. I kept expecting the game to mix things up and surprise me but it never did, from start to finish it never really changed at all in terms of encounters. Baffling, truly baffling. Feels like a game designed entirely by a bunch of artists who just didn't care much for the moment to moment gameplay as long as things looked and sounded good.

They knocked it out of the park on that front but that's about it. I really hope that the studio gets the chance to create a more substantial sequel, something that doesn't feel so empty and hollow.

And for the love of god let me fight some fucking
vampires!!!! What the fuck was that? Introduce them but never do anything with them... Just terrible.
 
I think several of the reviews I've seen are hilarious now that I've played just a handful of chapters. Cutscenes half the time? Maybe in the first 30 minutes or so. Gameplay is totally mild and boring? Maybe on easy. This is the most technically stunning, well presented, amazing example of the new-gen.

Last night had me and my friends trying to figure out if what we were seeing was all real time, because at points they didn't want to believe it was in engine, or that I was even controlling the character.Basically my brain would see what was going on, decide it was a CG movie, then my fingers would report in that it was wrong, and the other half of my brain had to maintain order between the two so there wouldn't be an overload.

Cannot wait to finish up and to dissect the technology for Infinite Medium. The game is not without some flaws and not without some minor pacing issues in the first hour or two, but damn if it isn't exactly what I was looking forward to.
 

Skux

Member
Cool little easter egg

WX5u5Sk.png
 
Just started, really, REALLY pretty game, everything looks FUCKING GREAT, but it plays like something from five years ago, going from TLOUR to this is like going back in time, so many things have already been figured out by ND but it's like RAD ignore everything and decided to reinvent the wheel.

I can't stay low because there's no crouch, exiting cover is a bit clunky, they never showed me how to switch shoulder when aiming, every time I see an icon I KNOW they're going to turn it into a FUCKING CUTSCENE, going down a ladder? Cutscene! Opening a fucking door? Cutscene! Stealth takedown? Cutscene! Meeting up with a character? Cutscene! Going up an elevator? Cutscene! Cutscene! Cutscene! Cutscene! I can't go five seconds of gameplay without being FUCKING INTERRUPTED all the fucking time with fucking cutscenes! All these real time cutscenes, at least let me move the camera! Moving through a plaza? Let me at least jog instead of being forced to walk, I don't need to be able to sprint but come on.

I'm having fun with the game, just a tad frustrated, so much lost potential, one has got to ask why Dana Jan decided to make these kinds of decisions. They could have run out of time with content but you can't fuck up controls.
 
On fifth episode now. Hard mode. Game is beautiful. I just miss music, it's disturbingly quiet game. Cover system is ok, guns are pretty good, fighting can get hectic on hard mode.

Editing or "directing" is really slow. I mean it doesn't move fluently. It's really, really slow and I can see how every ADD generation (CoD/BF) gamer will get bored fast. Better director would've done wonders with this one. I don't mind that though, I can keep my interest for 2 minutes or more if the story is decent enough.

All in all I quite like it so far. Solid 8/10 at least.

Will come back later.
 

RDreamer

Member
Damn, it's my birthday tomorrow and I was really kind of looking forward to this game, but I got a sudden bout of conscience on spending $60 for a short game. Not sure why since I've been pretty ok with it in the past. Possibly because I have such a backlog right now. Anyway, I got the smart idea to go rent it instead, but the only rental place literally just rented out their last copy a half hour before I got there.

I'm probably way more depressed about this than I should be. :(
 

antitrop

Member
I'm playing on Hard with the Aim Assist off.

Chapter 1 was super easy, and super enjoyable. I think I headshotted every single guy. They're just basic "thugs", though, so you would always expect the generic grunts at the beginning of a game to be pushovers.

Gunplay feels fantastic. Weapon sounds are good, if lacking just a bit of "oomph". Not a fan of the melee system, would have been better if they went with something like The Last of Us' melee mechanics, instead of just running up to a guy and pressing Triangle.

The absurd amount of slow-walking didn't really bother me, as I was taking in the pretty scenery, but I imagine this game would be dull as a bag of hammers on a second play.

Love the characters, the dialogue and voice acting are very good. Sometimes I'm so entranced by the detail of The Order's uniforms that I forget to pay attention to the dialogue. RAD do a good job of making the setting and characters interesting enough to want to know more about. I can't believe the cutscenes are in-engine, it straight up looks pre-rendered, most of the time.

Good stuff, looking forward to getting back to Chapter 2 after lunch.
 

Radec

Member
On fifth episode now. Hard mode. Game is beautiful. I just miss music, it's disturbingly quiet game. Cover system is ok, guns are pretty good, fighting can get hectic on hard mode.

Editing or "directing" is really slow. I mean it doesn't move fluently. It's really, really slow and I can see how every ADD generation (CoD/BF) gamer will get bored fast. Better director would've done wonders with this one. I don't mind that though, I can keep my interest for 2 minutes or more if the story is decent enough.

All in all I quite like it so far. Solid 8/10 at least.

Will come back later.

I find the music abit low until I wore headphones.

Game changer for me.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Indeed, missed opportunity to add movable camera during cutscenes (MGS2/3 style) and the radio comm sound coming though the controller speaker.
 

Alucrid

Banned
It blows my mind that people bought this game with the intention of mowing through it and selling it back within a day or two. Why the hell would you not just rent it??? Seems idiotic to me.

Anyway, going to pick up my copy during lunch in a few and proceed to stare at it on my desk all day :| Looking forward to playing it tonight!

I'm paying like $10 when all is said and done
 

antitrop

Member
tesla gun >>

these graphics are awesome, I despise the sprint system though especially because my L3 is getting touchy these days.

I modded my Dualshock 4 with XB1 sticks and they're much easier to click in than the default ones.

But yeah, why isn't Sprint just mapped to L1, like The Last of Us? Or X, like Gears of War? L1 and R1 don't seem to have much function.
 
So even though I would say I'm a fan of Ready at Dawn's past work--I think that Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta were better God of War games than 3--I haven't really paid The Order much mind. At least not until the controversy around it sort of caught my attention. Admittedly I only bought The Order out of morbid curiosity and know next to nothing about it beyond that it's supposedly short length and the fact that it has more cinematics and quick time events than actual gameplay.

I've been playing for nearly an hour and so far it's not at all what I expected. It's kind of like Heavy Rain and, I guess, Beyond Two Souls. Nu-Adventure Game-y. So far, I'm really digging it.

Edit: Even though the two games are vastly different, I'm getting a Remember Me kind of vibe off of The Order in that I just want to sort of stop a gawk at all of the world art and take screenshots.
 
it plays like something from five years ago, going from TLOUR to this is like going back in time, so many things have already been figured out by ND but it's like RAD ignore everything and decided to reinvent the wheel.
This is a very popular opinion in reviews. I'm still figuring out what to think of it.
The mechanics are fin imo. The levels just aren't very memorable (untill now for me, but i'm not that far)
 

Anarion07

Member
Indeed, missed opportunity to add movable camera during cutscenes (MGS2/3 style) and the radio comm sound coming though the controller speaker.

Absolutely. I also remember seeing a video where they demonstrated motion controls for panning items.
Seems they didn't use that after all :/
 
But it IS 1080p, pixel-density wise. The only difference you get from a full-1080p display are filler where the horizontal bars are placed. You won't get any IQ enhancements as the developers designed it so that it looks as if it was shot through a camera lens, so unless you can "hack" that feature out, this is the best you'll ever get. Frankly, it kinda works for me; too many uninspired AAA graphical photo-realism art style.
Huh? It is 1920x800. That saves them from having to render 280 lines, which surely would have eaten up performance
 

Aceun

Member
4) At the heart of the issue, I think, is the 'pile on' feeling this game received. I haven't bought this game, though do want to play it... but it's been clear for the past year that this was one game plenty of people loved to hate on. All the time. Any chance they got. The leadup to Driveclub and Ryse were quite similar, but in general, it's a fairly rare phenomenon where tons of people who have never experienced the game in any significant way 'pile on', as if they want the game to fail from the outset. And it's clearly happening here too, with people trashing the game that have never played it. They defend the reviewers, despite they themselves never having played the game.

And if you're going to pull psychology into the conversation, and try to dismiss positive user reviews as 'confirmation bias', then certainly you also need to call into question many of the negative reviews as well as part of the pile on. Right? It's only fair, because it's just as true -- some people want to burn everything down, especially, for some reason, exclusive games like this or Ryse, and others are just jumping on a bandwagon and assuming it's trash for whatever reasons they do these things.

So if we're going to discount positive reviews based on 'confirmation bias', let's also throw out many of the negative reviews as well.

I think this articulates exactly how I feel about the way things have unfolded for the game. It definitely feels like an excuse to pile on and it does a disservice to both types of players.

Regardless of reviews, the players who will ultimately enjoy the game or are even excited to experience the game will feel the need to defend against the droves of criticism. Players who find this outside of their interest or will not enjoy the game will feel vindicated because the criticism was "right." And this is despite it all being subjective.

The reality is that the developer chose a style and approach to their game that is going to resonate with some, and not with others. Where they have succeeded is creating a relatively tight experience within their framework and where they have failed (based purely on conjecture) is a strong ending.

Okay. Time to derail my own point.

To me the weak ending is the only valid and consistent criticism in all the reviews. First impressions are important, but in narrative based media, the ending is what players will remember most. In reading impressions, it sounds like everyone who likes RADs approach is immediately drawn to the world, gameplay within the first few hours. After that, opinions radically change and it mostly centers around the ending.

I do think that there is a element of love for the studio. I love RAD, we all love RAD. We want them to do well. So it adds a layer of emotion to the whole thing.
 
The first gunfight in Chapter 3 was extremely enjoyable for me, atleast with my style of run and gun. Was pretty hectic, I died a few times but the gunplay really stood out and made fight great.

Here's my run at it, minor spoilers for Chapter 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TsncB0L1pw


If the rest of the fights play out like this and the game maintains its pacing, I'm in for a treat.
 

LuuKyK

Member
Oh my God I snatched the last copy of my local retailer. lmao That made a little bit nervous.

I am actually quite surprised, I had other things to do so I went to get the game after my other appointments and there was a considerably big stand for the game there so I was not worried at all. Considering the game costs a hundred dollars here in Brazil this is quite something. Anecdotal and all but whatever. Cant wait to start it when I get home.

I think I will start on hard, but I am really not that good at shooters in general so if I see its not going well for me I will change it back to normal. :p
 

gadwn

Member
I'm in the beginning of chapter three, no real complaints so far, I love these types of games and RAD has done a great work. I kinda expected the control to be sluggish though but they are actually really good. And yes, holygodfuckinggoddamn does it look AMAZING.

Will play it more later tonight.
 
This is a very popular opinion in reviews. I'm still figuring out what to think of it.
The mechanics are fin imo. The levels just aren't very memorable (untill now for me, but i'm not that far)
They could have stolen the entire TLOU control scheme and people wouldn't fault them for it because everything works so well already.

The mechanics are serviceable, but not great, not intuitive, level wise it would work way better if they have the TLOU control scheme which means you can crouch and going from cover to cover or around cover without using a cover button, cover would be functional and simple, flanking would work alot better because you're not forced to pop your whole body up when you're moving from cover to cover and it's easier to break line of sight, it makes fighting the AI more dynamic and would make the level feel more open.
 

Dunan

Member
Quick question; I'm trying to avoid spoilers: there's a character named Sir Lucan. It can't possibly be a coincidence that (possible spoiler)
Lucan is just another Romanization of the same Greek word λύκος that "Lycan" comes from (upsilon can be written with 'y' or 'u' or even 'i')
, can it?

The language buff in me will probably let this tip the scales on whether or not I like this game. I'm anxiously awaiting a fellow wordsmith telling me to "just play the game".
 
Driveclub club is amazing. Best racer since Project Gotham.

IMO.
Yes... But in response to what?
They could have stolen the entire TLOU control scheme and people wouldn't fault them for it because everything works so well already.

The mechanics are serviceable, but not great, not intuitive, level wise it would work way better if they have the TLOU control scheme which means you can crouch and going from cover to cover or around cover would be functional and simple, flanking would work alot better because you're not forced to pop your whole body up when you're moving from cover to cover and it's easier to break line of sight.
Ah yes. I agree with you on that. I wonder why they didn't. There is no crouching at all, is there?
 
Someone mentioned that even on hard mode the game is pretty easy. I'd like to disagree. Every new game that comes out I always start it on hard as I find normal or medium setting too easy, this game does not feel that way... At least the fight sequence that I'm in. The enemies cut you off and actually come towards you.
 

raphier

Banned
Quick question; I'm trying to avoid spoilers: there's a character named Sir Lucan. It can't possibly be a coincidence that (possible spoiler)
Lucan is just another Romanization of the same Greek word λύκος that "Lycan" comes from (upsilon can be written with 'y' or 'u' or even 'i')
, can it?

The language buff in me will probably let this tip the scales on whether or not I like this game. I'm anxiously awaiting a fellow wordsmith telling me to "just play the game".
Hahaha ;). There is a dialogue that offended me more.
 

shmoglish

Member
I am at the end of Chapter IV and got the "Take 200 Screenshots" Trophy


;)

I really like it so far. AI may be dumb, but shooting is fun and the bigger fight in Chapter III felt intensive.
 
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