‘The Order: 1886’: Is The Game’s Length Really Its Biggest Issue?

If you’re into PlayStation, chances are you’ve recently picked up The Order: 1886. Naturally, being a fan of the game and the platform, you’ve done your research and read reviews, tips, tricks, and other sites in order to figure out if The Order is the game for you.

Well, chances are while searching for The Order, you’ve likely come across mostly articles about the game’s length. With a game, the amount of time you spend in the created world is oftentimes equated to its value. But is The Order: 1886 being judged solely on its longevity and not the quality of content?

Even before The Order: 1886 released, the narrative surrounding the game was about how quickly you could finish the campaign. In a game like this, single-player is the only mode, so obviously time spent with the game is a huge factor. The Order was billed as this highly cinematic game, a marketing campaign that seemed to show a disconnect with its fan base, but the gameplay should ultimately be what a game is judged by. In the end, it is a video game and should be viewed as such.

Many reviews point to more than the game’s length as why The Order: 1886 is not as great of a game we hoped it to be. Many reviewers praised the visual style yet waxed disparagingly on the use of the cinematic bars. Kotaku’s Kirk Hamilton stated that “‘The Order’s’ cinematic aspect ratio puts black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, limiting the player’s field of vision for no appreciable reason.” The aspect ratio also affects the depth of field within the game, making it more narrow than a normal shooter. This has the effect of causing you to not know exactly what it is you’re shooting at, other than it being a “grey blob.”

Polygon’s Justin McElroy laments the fault of The Order: 1886 developer Ready at Dawn for being “unwilling to let go of the player’s hand.” This is a sentiment that is echoed in many reviews, such as the extremely linear nature of the gameplay and the utter lack of being able to improvise on the battlefield. The Order: 1886 has put such an emphasis on creating that cinematic experience that it seems hellbent on having the game play out exactly the same each time you play with no way to mix up the gameplay. However, Ready at Dawn does seem willing to take you out of the gameplay if it suits them.

“Quick-time events” have become a dirty word in the gaming industry, and they really shouldn’t be. If implemented correctly, QTEs can add and enhance the gameplay. Some games are built wholly on QTEs, with Telltale Games really capitalizing on the idea. However, if a game uses QTEs in a way that is completely counter-intuitive to the gameplay device they’ve taught you for the whole game, they feel tacked on and perceived to have been used because the developer was too lazy to come up with something else. The Order: 1886 seems to feel like that latter.

The core gameplay of The Order is its cover-based shooting. You spend the entire game moving from cover to cover, taking down enemies with your Tesla-created arsenal. So when boss fights occur, you’d expect to take all the knowledge and skill you’ve built up with the gun-play in order to overcome the challenge, right? Wrong.

The Order: 1886 is another example of poorly implemented QTEs and perhaps might be the new poster child in the quest to have them removed from games. With no room for error in these reflex-checks, The Order: 1886 rewards players who make a mistake with instant death, causing gamer frustration to rise. In addition, you start the game with an interactive encounter with a werewolf, only to have that same encounter replicated as the final boss.

These are some of the real issues behind The Order: 1886 and its middling success, not simply the length. While replay value on a short game such as this can sometimes be high, because of the way the game “guides” you like a child throughout, many players will feel ripped off by the game as a result. Length is one factor, but it’s all the other issues being brought forth to complete the game that makes the length feel somewhat depressing. If the content within that time was more interesting, had more variety, and wasn’t marred by its own need to feel like a movie, The Order: 1886 could’ve been one of the shortest albeit best games on the market. Instead, it’s just another game that has yet to live up to the massive hype we were all sold on.

What are your thoughts on The Order: 1886? Love it? Hate it? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via The Order: 1886, Kotaku]