The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Gameplay
The Order: 1886 is a story-focused action-adventure game played in a third-person perspective. The player takes control of Sir Galahad of the Round Table, an order serving as protectors of an alternate history London. The gameplay mostly revolves around cover-based shooting. The game is structured in a linear manner; the player guides Galahad through the environments, following the story.
Galahad and his fellow Knights battle against multiple different foes, including humans and werewolf-like creatures known as half-breeds. Galahad is equipped with several tools and weapons for use in combat, such as variations of rifles, grenades, crossbows, and pistols.
Story
The Order: 1886 is set in an alternate history 1886 London, where an old Order of Knights keeps the world safe from half breed monsters, which are a combination of animal and human. Around the seventh or eighth century, a small number of humans took on bestial traits, the majority of humans feared these half-breeds and war broke out. Despite the humans outnumbering the half-breeds, their animal strength gave them the upper hand in centuries of conflict.
Humanity finds new hope in King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. King Arthur and his like-minded knights take the fight to the half-breeds, but Arthur realizes it is a losing battle. Through a mysterious turn of fate, the Knights discover Blackwater, a mystical liquid that significantly extends their lifetimes and gives them healing abilities. Despite this advantage, the half-breeds continue to win battle after battle, until the Industrial Revolution turns the tide.
Development
On June 11, 2013, The Order: 1886 was announced at the Sony Computer Entertainment E3 2013 conference as a new intellectual property for the PlayStation 4. In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Ready at Dawn CEO and creative director Ru Weerasuriya reveled that the game was in the works since 2010. The studio's internal proprietary RAD Engine 4.0 was used for the game's development. On August 29, 2013, Weerasuriya revealed that the decision to go ahead with The Order: 1886 was influenced by Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. On February 6, 2014, it was announced that the game would be single-player only and that the game will run at 30 FPS.
On January 17, 2015, Ready at Dawn confirmed that the game had been declared gold, indicating it was being prepared for production and release. The Order: 1886 was released on February 20, 2015.
Reception
The Order: 1886 received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Some praise was particularly directed to the game's production values, graphics and technical achievements, while receiving criticism regarding the game's length, story, gameplay, replay value and the player's involvement in the game.
Daniel Bloodworth from GameTrailers praised its graphics, textures, lighting and facial animation, as he stated that "the look and feel of The Order is powerful enough to be worth a playthrough on its own." He also praised the detailed design of characters, environments and locations.
