My first Sony game of the event and what I’m easily going to call my game of the show (for Friday at least). My lengthy hands on began two or three chapters into the game. A small three man team that I was apart of arrived to the aid of a female team member and a local police officer who were under heavy fire.
I was quickly introduced to the cover mechanic (that is exceptionally similar to that of Gears of War or even Fuse) as well as an interesting weapon. Oh my it was a blast to use. First I will share a quick history of the game. A reinforced feature of the game is that it takes an alternate history approach to the Industrial Revolution. Giving our team or Order access to weapons and artillery the likes the world has never seen, even for today’s day and age. There has been murmurs of a centuries old battle but Ready at Dawn Studios are remaining exceptionally tight lipped.
This weapon I used had two firing methods, one was a peppering system where I overwhelmed the opposition with pellets that produced a gas cloud, the second method is the igniting system that essentially ignites the gas and scours your enemies. I also found an exceptional tactic of firing a small amount of pellets, igniting then firing more pellets to engulf the flames and take down larger groups of adversaries.
Whilst this game did feel very linear as you were funnelled down a narrow corridor from point A to B as other journalists have it crucified for, it didn’t bother me one bit. Yes, the narrow corridor system is there but to me it was quickly forgotten as I lost myself in this games well crafted gun play but most of all exceptionally vivid presentation. There were times when I couldn’t tell that the cut scene had ended and that gameplay had begun. As I stood still there for a moment thinking the game may have froze it was actually my inability to realise it was game time. (What time is it?! GAME TIME!) A true testament to the fidelity of the visuals. Not to mention that also during game play the only indicator that it is in fact gameplay is the crosshairs and ammo count. I discovered as I patiently waited for my turn, this game just looks that good.
As I progressed I learned a little bit more about the characters but I wont got into detail for the sake of spoilers along with experimenting with more skills and abilities that are available to my character. One form of focused kill mode that is purposely demonstrated towards the end of the hands on actually bugged out my game and caused a hard restart. The restart only gave me the opportunity to confirm my initial thoughts and once again engulf myself in what I believe is currently the best looking current gen game.
The Order: 1886 comes out Feb 20th, exclusively on PS4.
