The Order 1886

I think it was Ghandi or George Washington that once said it's important to build your game around fun mechanics first before applying your aesthetic touches and finishes. Not sure how sourced that quote is, but I read it on the internet once and I'm just gullible enough to believe anything I read online.  

Regardless, the statement does hold truth to it since pretty things do not a good game make, and if that were the case then  Beyond Two Souls wouldn't have been such a steaming dollop of shit. But hey, at least it was a pretty steaming dollop of shit. 

So, here's The Order 1886 and it's a game I've looked forward to since I saw gameplay trailers so far back that I can't even recall when. Picked it up over the weekend and sunk over 10 hours into it, taking my time and trying to get to grips with this Steampunk world I'm pitted in to. 

I was planning on posting my impressions of the game once I completed it, but I think these 10+ hours I've put into it have been plenty enough to give me a clear indication of what I'm in store for, and it's not impressive. It's actually quite confusing. 

Not the game itself which is a pretty straightforward 3rd person cover shooter, but the confusing part comes in when you try to wrap your mind around the thought processes behind the development of this game. It's beautifully crafted in intricate detail. The character and model designs are spectacular. Architecture and lighting that was gorgeous enough for me to stop what I was doing and screenshot that shit. It's a really pretty game, no doubt. 

But looking beyond that...beyond all the plastic surgery, makeup and designer clothing is something very average. Not only average, but I would go far as to say it's subpar in today's cover shooter market, and that's what confuses me. You, the developer, spend all this effort meticulously crafting an admittedly gorgeous world and you build that upon the framework of these crappy mechanics that lack any real fun or engagement. 

And hell, maybe Ready at Dawn were keeping with the theme of it being in the past, because the game oozes shitty old mechanics that were okay even by 2003 standards. Shitty half-crouch cover systems straight out of Gears of War, a Bullet Time system much like the one used in Shadow of Mordor and a weapon system that looks like a cut and paste from the Uncharted series. 

Granted, the weapons are pretty innovative, but c'mon, you can't base your whole game on the premise of pretty graphics and cool weapons any more. This isn't 1999, bra. It's like you're running an autoshop, spend all your budget buying the Lamborghini body and decide "Fuck it boys, stick a Golf engine in there." and call it a day.