The Order: 1886 review

Recommended

by Graham Kaletsky

Not even a worthy tech demo

I’m really pleasantly surprised as to just how solid this game was! After all, it doesn’t exactly have a great reputation. But as far as I’m concerned, it was a concise, unique and masterfully put together third person shooter, with rock solid gunplay that felt weighty and very enjoyable, with some pretty unique weapons, and it had actually enjoyable and smartly used quick time events. The atmosphere helped to recreate the feeling of being in a different era, and the unconventional aspect ratio nicely complemented the setting and the story. 
I really hope that we get a sequel for PS5, it’d be a shame for this solid foundation to go to waste.

This is a game with great potential and poor execution. I feel the devs struggled to tell their story outside of cutscenes, which results in a lot of walking, watching, walking some more than watching some more. It's a shame because when it does open up and let's the player have some fun there's a lot to like here. The story is intriguing but needs fleshing out, and the ending is extremely lacklustre. Also, the game is pretty short especially when you consider a lot of it is simply watching cutscenes.