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Critic Reviews
"Literally no game has ever looked this good. It’s strange to even write that, but The Order: 1886 raises the bar so far above its contemporaries that it stands in a class by itself. Joined by a soundtrack that perfects the mood, The Order is a cinematic masterpiece."
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"Ready at Dawn has reached a new level when it comes to graphics. As for the plot, although it's not really innovative, it will keep you playing. There is a good balance between plot and action sequences, although we miss some depth in the interactive parts, as well as in gameplay mechanics."
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"Despite some very minor misses in gameplay, Ready at Dawn sets a very high bar in terms of both presentation and story offering up one of the best experiences to date on your PS4."
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"A brief, but very cinematic experience, that blends intense shoot-outs, an interesting story and amazing visuals. We mentioned it was brief as well, right? Cause it is."
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"The game is not without faults – it’s very linear, leans a little too much on quick-time events, and gameplay is merely average – but the experience is elevated by excellent storytelling, compelling characters, stunning graphics and art design, and sublime sound design."
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"The Order: 1886 is the best looking console game ever. Behind those excellent visuals there is an old-fashioned but steady third-person shooter to enjoy. The storyline has the right tempo. This game is not perfect, but it's goal of being a blockbuster works really well."
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"It may not have the most well-rounded strengths, but it’s a remarkable game nonetheless."
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"The Order: 1886 presents nice storytelling and new game methods. Characters move as if breathing and you feel the atmosphere. But all this amounts to eight hours in total, and gameplay is very linear."
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"Yes, it’s pretty short. Yes, it’s pretty linear. But the varied action is great, the visuals peerless and production values off the charts. In terms of a pure showcase for what PS4 can really do, look no further."
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"Just like mustaches, not everyone can appreciate what The Order 1886 was trying to accomplish, but if you know what you’re going into, you just might walk away loving it as much as I did flaws and all. "
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"The Order: 1886 is an interactive work with extraordinary sound, visuals and a thrilling story - work you watch, experience and play equally. It will be appreciated mainly by those who prefer strong story over a freedom of play; or by gamers who want to spend few nights in a fantastic world of steam-punk England but have not much time to spare."
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"You can fault this game for a number of things, as I’ve done here, but you can’t criticize because you haven’t the inclination to appreciate the product for what it is."
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"The Order 1886 is a game that divides in the same way David Cage's games do. Some will say it's too short, and way too linear to retain the gamer. But some others will love the tight story, the intense gunfights and the jaw dropping graphics. And despite the flaws, we think you should give Ready at Dawn's latest title a go."
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"You will probably not find any PlayStation 4 game that looks better than The Order: 1886. The game offers an exhilarating script that is presented in a very impressive way. The gameplay seems to be holding the game back a bit, but once you are shooting The Order: 1886 is a blast. It is a pity that the game does not last that long."
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"The Order: 1886 feels like the perfect balance between story, gameplay, and atmosphere as Ready at Dawn has struck gold with its first attempt at an original IP. There may not be much to do after the credits begin to roll, but once they do, you’ll be met with a unique story told within an absolutely gorgeous game."
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"This is an immersive game for people who want to sit back — or on the edge of their seat — and let themselves become engrossed in the story of a Knight in turmoil fighting against a supernatural force...It may not be perfect, but The Order: 1886 is an immersive cinematic experience and a damned good ride worth going back to. "
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"Ready at Dawn brings out the best-looking title we've ever seen on a PS4 so far. The Order: 1886 delivers a great gameplay experience, wonderful art direction and a compelling storyline that unfortunately ends too abruptly, leaving us wanting for more."
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"The Order: 1886 doesn't do much to bring anything new to the already well known formula in high budget games, but it delivers a really interesting world and a well written story. For those of you that have waited for a cinematic game with high production values for Playstation 4, this is a really good choice."
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"The Order 1886 is an incomplete masterpiece, a splendid introduction to a new world. And, despite its limits, an experience to live."
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"It's a promising opening chapter of what could become a great saga from Ready at Dawn. When credits will roll, you will have the distinct feeling of having witnessed something special and different, the rising of a new and interesting character surrounded by a fascinating background. It's still a shame that gameplay doesn't go beyond what's given for granted, many narrative aspects remain untouched, and the hour count itself remains thin, but that doesn't diminish the value of this debut."
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"The Order 1886 tells an interesting story with gorgeous visuals and good gameplay. But it has no replayability whatsoever."
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"The visuals are marvelous and the game has the potential to grow as a franchise but several flaws and its basic gameplay keep it from becoming a masterpiece."
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"The Order 1886 is an unexpected disappointment. Its technical exhibition is just amazing, but the unbalanced gameplay, the poor plot and the extremely short length manage to ruin the experience. It was supposed to be the grail for PS4, but, unfortunately, it is not."
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"The technical and artistic talent on display is astounding, but it comes at a price. The clear desire to embrace the cinematic experience comes at the cost of player agency; The Order: 1886 often places you in the passenger seat instead of letting you steer."
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Pelit (Finland)
"This is a sublimely beautiful masterwork of presentation, but is sorely lacking in meaningful gameplay or compelling storytelling, and it's narrative is cut short all-too abruptly. It's a game that's cinematic in all the wrong ways. [March 2015]"
"A missed opportunity by Ready at Dawn. This one is a game that could have been much better in terms of it's history and on it's gameplay and possibilities. As it is, it's a huge but vain spectacle. "
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"In general, The Order: 1886 reminds me of almost every super hero film franchise. The first movie is frequently decent but has a few significant issues, and it’s not until the second entry in the franchise that things get more polished and interesting."
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"A stunning action game that relies on story and performance over padding and tacked-on game modes, The Order: 1886 will nonetheless divide gamers with its short run time and reliance on cinematic dazzle."
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"Like Resistance: Fall of Man, The Order: 1886 comes early in a console lifecycle to set new visual benchmarks and give us creative, compelling fiction. As a game, it’s significantly less ambitious."
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Playstation Official Magazine Australia
"You’ll not find a prettier AAA game on PS4. Unfortunately, you'll probably not find a shorter one either. Doesn't reinvent the wheel, just affixes the blingest steampunk spinner rims you can imagine. [April 2015, p70]"
"The "original sin" of The Order: 1886 is that it never manages to open up and share its wonderful world with the player."
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"If The Order: 1886 released at launch as it was originally intended, it most likely would have reviewed far differently because at that time, it would have showed us things we’ve never seen. However, with this generation of consoles, we’ve already seen how visually stunning the PlayStation 4 can be, we’ve seen better third-person shooters, and we’ve had more in-depth stories. "
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"With a focus mainly on story, cinematics, directing and technical implementation, The Order 1886 leaves you with a sense of hunger and a feeling that you spent your money only to get a short portion of this stunning spectacle."
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"The Order: 1886 is a great game, as long as you treat it as a mindless shooter and not the bevy of innovation we were all led to believe it was. Graphically appealing, the title shows us once again, we should not judge a book by its cover."
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"When you experience a sense of repetition in game that is only five to seven hours long, you know that the actual game design aspect wasn’t the priority for the project."
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"We had approached the title with very low expectations, but seeing it break up our initial preconceptions just before falling miserably due to a horrible ending, a limited duration and some choices of game design that are anything that brilliant, it was very painful."
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"A visual masterpiece, but dragged down by some pacing problems, some questionable design decisions, and a lack of additional challenges outside of the campaign. Sill, a fun ride with some great moments."
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"The Order: 1886 is a good game and a great interactive movie. Not revolutionary in terms of gameplay, it offers fantastic art direction, good storytelling and, more generally, a true sense of elegance. It just lacks a bit of substance and some unforgettable scenes to make it a great game."
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"The Order: 1886 has exceptional graphics which give the player a totally cinematic experience with a thrilling story. Ready at Dawn shows us what the PlayStation 4 is capable of, but the game has minor flaws that influence the overall experience negatively."
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"The Order: 1886 is outstanding as a cinematic experience, with some of the best graphics we've ever seen. However it's very short, with quite simple shooting sequences, and there's no reason to replay it once finished."
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"The Order is thrilling and frustrating. I should make it very clear that I did enjoy my time with it. I didn’t want to put the controller down because Ready at Dawn did such an exquisite job of doling out the action. And that, combined with its decent concept, story, and gameplay, would’ve been enough a long time ago. But in 2015 it left me feeling discontent. Is this what I bought a PlayStation 4 to play? Is this what Sony is passing off as a bold new experience? A different shade of Resident Evil 4?"
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"The Order: 1886 features a wonderfully crafted and realistic alternate history setting with the greatest visuals and production values so far on the PS4. While the first half or so of the story really works, it’s let down by the final few hours, which abandon things shouting out to be explored in favour of introducing forced plot points which do the world and the main cast a disservice."
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"The Order 1886 is an amazing rollercoaster ride with beautiful graphics, and a creative setting. If you're looking for a fun third person shooter, you've come to the right place."
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"When it's about to get better, The Order: 1886 ends abruptly and leaves us with a bitter taste. Its unimaginative level design, boring lycan combat and substandard pacing almost ruin the whole experience, had it not been for the best visuals on the console right now and great weapon design. The IP has potential, and we hope that Ready at Dawn learns from its mistakes. They've got something interesting here."
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"It would be a kind of justice for The Order to have its assets stripped from its skeleton and put into service of a more deserving project."
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"Even with the development delay and push into 2015, The Order: 1886 isn't exactly the action-packed, cinematic masterpiece we were hoping for. On the bright side, it's a mostly enjoyable ride while it lasts and is most certainly one of the best looking console games released thus far, so it’s worth a playthrough during the winter game release lull."
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"The Order: 1886 is a pretty good game, nothing else. Almost every part can be criticized: the story flows nicely but is extremely predictable, the fights are good, but only the ones with people in them (lycan fights are boring), graphics are gorgeous, but the world feels empty. Sir Galahad's adventure is yet another bit of proof that beauty isn't enough. You should see The Order in motion but do so only after some significant discounts."
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"When it allows itself to focus on action, it can provide a stimulating round of pop-and-fire combat, at least before it allows itself to drown in common distractions and intellectually insulting button prompts. While clearly assured in itself as a concept, it doesn’t extend that same faith to the player, so eager it is to hold its audience’s collective hands and guide them through corridors of patronizing tutorials and arbitrary gates to progression."
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"Its best aspects are its stunning looks, atmosphere, and style – which are truly fantastic – and entertaining fiction. But the shallow, slow, and generic quick-time event-riddled gameplay make it feel like an experience that would've been better served by a non-interactive movie than a game. "
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"The premise is solid, the graphics are great, the voice casting is excellent, but in the end you have to ask yourself, are we buying games to watch them or to play them? This is something you need to ask yourself before picking up The Order. It’s a shame, too."
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"During the development someone probably should’ve raised an alarm when it turned out that the game about monster-hunters doesn’t have interesting fights with monsters. [April 2015, p.54]"
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Games Master UK
"A limp story, repetitive combat and lack of agency take the shine off a great technical achievement. [May 2015, p.64]"
CD-Action
"I like games that let me know that what I do matters or at least build a believable illusion of my indispensability. The Order: 1886 did not need me at all. It seems it was made by people who would rather do movies than games and the player is a hindrance for them. When it becomes available for free on PS Plus though, it will be worth downloading because it looks great and offers 5-6 hours of decent, even if derivative fun. [04/2015, p.60]"
"Visually astounding throughout. Graphics fans will adore every grimy nook and cranny of the Victorian London setting. Sadly though, the game around it is crushingly average. The shooting sections are fun enough but far too few and far between, and much of the game is spent watching cutscenes or being forced to walk through one, so much so that it rarely feels like you're 'playing' the game at all."
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"The Order: 1886 is such a great looking game, and it’s sad that the gameplay couldn’t be just as impressive. The game falls victim to the old cliche “All flash, no substance”. The cinematic experience is overshadowed by the boring gameplay leading to a visually stunning game but unimaginative, monotonous overall experience."
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"As a story, it’s all deeply unsatisfying. And that’s a real shame, because a cogent narrative could have papered over some more of The Order’s cracks. As it is, that job is left to visual splendour, decent shooting and a marvellous, if squandered, setting. And, while it lasts, The Order is a game that entertains almost as much as it frustrates. But not quite enough to shake the feeling of a wasted opportunity."
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"What I have a problem with is inconsistent narratives, and "gameplay" that has been so compartmentalised from the "story" that they may as well be in different products."
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"We need more game developers and publishers willing to gamble on made-from-scratch worlds and ideas, but The Order: 1886 feels like it might have fared better as a film, graphic novel or TV series. As a game, there’s just not enough propping up this shining suit of armour."
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"The Order: 1886 is bland gameplay wrapped in admittedly gorgeous next generation graphics. It's not bad through and through, it's just disappointing."
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"As you may have heard, The Order is also short. How short? Well, on normal or hard difficulty it should take the average gamer roughly seven hours to complete it -- a little less if you rush through and don't explore any other hallways, a little more if you check every inch. While the length doesn't bother me on principle, keep in mind that there's very little in the way of replay value, and there's no multiplayer -- not even co-op -- to speak of."
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"A middling and short title that is almost more of a movie than it is a video game. It’s relatively enjoyable while it lasts, but you won’t keep fond memories of it with you for years to come, nor will you want to revisit it once the credits roll."
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"The Order: 1886 is an amazing visual experience, but it has not become the game we all expected it to be and it's because of the bad execution of what looked like a bunch of great ideas."
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"The Order is a beautiful dud. Instead of building the core mechanics and then wrapping everything else around it, instead it appears Ready at Dawn made a movie and wondered how to put a game into it. By all accounts it still hasn't worked it out."
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"For all its derivative nature, The Order: 1886 falls well short of classic status; yet the premise here could definitely serve as the groundwork for a more creative, more substantial series. It's one of the most convincing steampunk/alternate history worlds video games have offered up. Now Ready at Dawn just needs to bring the script and mechanics up to that same standard."
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"An antique that's aged ungracefully. The presentation is sublime from the release's rousing start right the way through to its anticlimactic finish, but several shoddy design decisions detract from its otherwise exemplary gloss."
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" It's by no means a bad game, but it's hard to say it ever drags itself out of mediocrity. Yet at the same time it's an experience that's hard not to recommend."
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"It looks awesome and the borders between movie and game get blurred once again. But the linear, very simplistic game design doesn’t even scratch the surface – be it in the firefights, the stealth or the useless interaction. Overall: A tremendous amount of potential gone to waste."
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"There are brief moments throughout The Order: 1886 when it’s clearly striving for excellence, which only makes the end result more tragic. It’s easy to toss aside a game that looks bad or is full of bugs, but The Order feels like it should be a good game."
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"Great visuals alone do not a great game make - and there's unfortunately very little in The Order: 1886 to elevate it beyond being a pretty, but shallow and insipid shooter. It commits the one sin no interactive entertainment should: it's painfully boring."
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"It's amazing the mileage The Order gets from its incredible presentation and world, but that goodwill is squandered by a title that's middling to poor in most other areas."
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"Though it nails some of the fundamentals, The Order: 1886 has been released without answering the essential question of what it offers that other games aren't already doing better."
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Playstation Official Magazine UK
"Visually it's everything you could have hoped for, but the compromises required to reach that fidelity, and moments of narcissism as a result of it, are hugely damaging. [Apr 2015, p.81]"
"It is as beautiful and visually majestic as any video game you will ever play. But it just isn't much fun."
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"It’s what the PS4 and this generation needed then, something to show off, but it’ll be gone as quickly as it came, and forgotten in half the time."
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"There was so much potential surrounding The Order, yet it hasn’t lived up to the expectations."
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"I simply wish there was more of it. Not necessarily in terms of length, but more combat, a more fleshed out story and more player agency. It has the ingredients to be great but it’s too restrictive and those aspects of its design are used so sparingly or aren’t yet fully formed, that it’s simply disappointing."
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"The game shoves and commands me around as if I'm some mindless observer, while continuously bragging about the stunning but hollow-feeling visuals. The simple do-as-you're-told mechanics make no leeway for anything, and despite the game's alright shooting action, the result is overall quite forgettable."
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"Worthy in its (assumed) intent, and visually spellbinding, The Order’s archaic, player-detached approaches to interaction and narrative nonetheless make it a dated and instantly forgettable experience."
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"This is a showcase for the graphical power of the PlayStation 4 and nothing more. Rudimentary gameplay, a poorly executed story and an unwelcoming visual palette make it come off as cold, uninspired and most importantly not all that fun."
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"It is, at best, perfectly playable, and lovely to look at and listen to. But it is also the face of mediocrity and missed opportunities. A bad game can make a case for itself. A boring one is harder to forgive."
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"The issues, large and small, just pile up, and The Order ends up feeling like a game where plenty of manpower went into making sure it looked good—but no one bothered to check if it might actually be any fun. Outside of its admittedly superlative visuals, The Order doesn’t do a single thing well. Not one gameplay element stands out as superb—merely mediocre or substandard."
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"Although the storyline invokes weighty subjects like colonialization and socioeconomic inequality, it fails to address these topics in any substantive way. Ditto the game’s dialogue, which contains flourishes of eloquence that founder because, as pleasing as the words are to the ear, the actions they affect have no bite."
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Edge Magazine
"Despite the obvious talent at work here, the studio has chosen to bury The Order's potential under a fug of dissociative, QTE-focused game design that's as stifling as the smog that creeps through its Victorian streets. [Apr 2015, p.106]"
"Regardless of quantity concerns (which is a valid complaint), where The Order more crucially falls apart is in regards to quality. It does not matter if a game is one or one hundred hours long, you need to enjoy playing it, and The Order fails at that most crucial of tasks. This is unforgivable, and instantly makes it impossible to recommend."
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"It’s just a massive disappointment that failed to break new ground. It’s a shame because you can tell that a great deal of effort went into building this alternate version of 19th century London, and boy is it gorgeous. But are the beautiful visuals enough to justify the purchase of a game with a clichéd story, uninspired gameplay, and boring werewolves? I don’t think so."
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"Perhaps some day, Ready at Dawn could develop a sequel that's gorgeous and fun, and lives up to the promises of The Order: 1886, fingers crossed. But today is not that day."
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"It's a technical showpiece, a graphical powerhouse that, in some ways, is almost without equal. It's also a short and disappointingly straightforward cover-based shooter that offers little to no variety in its encounter design, a lackluster story that fails to make good on its initially compelling premise, and a set of jarring Quick Time Event setpieces that aren't especially interesting from a gameplay or a storytelling perspective."
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"Beneath the technical wonder this is just a dull, aimless Gears Of War clone – where the attempts at storytelling are just as boring and lifeless as the action."
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"The Order clearly sees itself as some sort of bridge between the world of games and cinema, but it fails miserably to create the essence, tones or rewards offered by either medium."
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"The game is our best example that we can play a movie. The fact that the movie in question is a leaden, unimaginative waste is almost incidental."
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"The Order: 1886 is a terrible game. Not because it’s broken or made without skill. Certainly not because it’s an average-length, story-driven shooter with minimal replay value. It’s just a bad game, forgettable in every conceivable way and safely ignored by all but the most ardent Trophy hunters."
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In Progress & Unscored Reviews
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"It's not that The Order leaves room for a sequel—it's that The Order leaves space for an ending. More than the combat, more than the quick-time events, more than the time spent watching the game rather than playing it, this calls into question whether the few hours spent playing The Order are worth it."
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