Though absolutely gorgeous and wonderfully atmospheric,

The Order: 1886 is a deeply conflicted thing. Even more

than its secret battle against the monsters of legend, The
Orders greatest struggle is ultimately its own internal tugof-war between telling a beautifully presented story and
granting the level of interactivity we've come to expect
from a game. In the end, a lopsided commitment to
perfecting style and plot comes at the cost of sluggish
pacing, a look-but-don't-touch world, and paint-by-numbers
gunplay.
On the surface, that approach pays off. The Order is thick
with exquisitely detailed environments that showcase the
grand opulence of London built atop poverty-stricken
slums. Its populated by characters that are generally welldeveloped, motivated, and believable. And theres a
concerted effort to extend that fantastic polish into a
seamless experience, merging gameplay with its many
lengthy cutscenes as it delivers a generally good historicalfantasy story.
In seven hours in developer Ready At Dawns alternate
version of London, I rubbed elbows with historical figures
like legendary inventor Nikola Tesla, who serves as the The
Orders gadget guy. His involvement allows for fantastic
Victorian super-weapons that never were: the Arc Gun, the
Thermite Rifle, and the bazooka-like Shoulder Cannon. I
investigated the dealings of the famed East India Company,
and heard stories of a new serial killer called Jack the
Ripper. And I did all this as the strong and reserved Sir
Galahad, a member of The Order the Victorian-era
incarnation of the Knights of the Round Table. By pulling

these threads from history and myth, The Order: 1886

weaves an engaging and convincing patchwork of historical
fiction that I want to spend time in. But I was genuinely
surprised when the story abruptly ended leaving multiple
characters and secondary arcs dangling in the wind in an
obvious sequel setup. It left me wanting to know whats
next for this world.
However, maintaining its scripted, linear storytelling means
that when The Order must relinquish control outside of
combat, it does so only enough to allow for the most basic
of interactions with its world. Between lengthy cutscenes,
there are long periods of restrained movement where youre
meant to simply walk, taking in the sights and listening to
character dialog. Its an issue thats somewhat mitigated by
the fact The Order: 1886 is just so damn polished, so there
is plenty to keep the eye occupied, but this too suffers from
diminishing returns as the super-scripted segments strip
you of any freedom. Constantly being ripped from
gameplay to cutscene to restrained walking segment back
to cutscene is a pervasive whiplash of false starts.
Even when youre specifically instructed to touch
something, theres rarely a moment of interactivity that
isnt expressed with a quick-time event. Theyre at their
best when youre trading slashes with hulking monsters
where slow reactions or imprecision will find you watching
Galahads throat ripped out in some impressive horrormovie gore. But these moments are the exception, rather
than the rule, and most of it is simply pushing carts, pulling
ropes, turning levers, or flipping over carts to climb ledges
or continue down the set path.

When a quick-time event wont do, were pushed into

disappointingly generic cover-based shooting and stealth
segments against equally generic, human enemies. And
though these sequences are certainly interactive, The Order:
1886 does little to elevate them beyond their most basic
elements. The encounters in which you actually fight the
monsters that are billed as such a large part of the game are
dwarfed by those in which youre simply whack-a-mole
shooting goons. I lost count of the times I traded smallarms fire with waves of hapless guards and fodder until an
ally says Thats all of them, and it was time to move on.
Cover shooting falls into the old comfort zone where lining
up the camera and popping out to kill an enemy becomes a
rinse-and-repeat cycle of near invulnerability thanks to
your vial of Blackwater The Orders secret serum you can
drink (via a quick-time event) to revive yourself from the
verge of death. While the weapons look great and pack
some creative punch, its unfortunate were not given a lot
of interesting tactical situations to shoot our way out of.
Though its not especially challenging, the whole process
of shooting is made more annoying by the ever-present
black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. They're
intended to create a letterboxed, cinematic look. But
when I was behind cover, I was much more interested in
being able to see what was happening in my limited vertical
screen space than having a wider aspect ratio. That
frustration led me to avoid crouching behind cover as much
as possible, which in turn led to the majority of my deaths
occurring when I left cover looking for insta-kill, quick-

time melee takedowns.

Rare fights against werewolves are absolutely the best parts
of The Orders action, mostly because their hit-and-run
attacks are fast and less predictable than trading shots with
the cookie-cutter guard, shotgunner, or sniper.
Unfortunately, the knights of The Order are part-time
monster hunters at best.