➤ The epic of a Knight 🎮

The 2015 videogame started better than many other years as far as laptops are concerned. In our homes, the situation has been a bit quieter, with several multi-platform or "low-budget" titles that ideally serve as a link between those large productions that, willy-nilly, are expected by most players, beyond the their actual qualities. To open the dances of the exclusive weight we thinks PlayStation 4, which in the first part of the year seems more ready from this point of view and which sees The Order: 20 in the pipeline on February 1886, except for day one breaks that are increasingly sadly frequent. Just peek on the main page of Resources4Gaming.com these days, but also on many other sites, to see a real media massacre, made up of dozens of more or less interesting news, more or less truthful, that if you look in a 'positive optics denote a very high attention around the title of Ready at Dawn. On the other hand we are talking about the first new intellectual property of this developer, who after having made his bones on PSP immediately catalyzed the attention for a technical sector that seemed out of this world, as well as for the setting that was nothing short of fascinating. The analysis that needs to be done around The Order: 1886 is decidedly more complex than its linear structure and duration suggest, because in addition to the specific judgment it is clear that this production is part of a larger project, destined to materialize in subsequent chapters and to treasure, especially from a gameplay point of view, the feedback that players will publish in the coming weeks.

Do I shoot or don't I shoot?

As soon as Blu-Ray was inserted and the game installed, we downloaded a small patch of 66MB which should be the only update available at launch, which is good news in light of the dangerous trends of recent months. The minimalist menu offers a handful of options related to audio and video; the difficulty is instead calibrated on three levels that are interchangeable at any time, which do not affect the conditions for obtaining the trophies. London in the late 1800s was the backdrop to the events of the game; a bit Victorian, a bit steampunk, a bit disastrous, reinvented from a technological point of view thanks to the presence of double-chamber airships and advanced weapons, which may have never seen the light of day but which are always based on really existing projects. This is because the world created by Andrea Pessino and Ready at Dawn is the result of a great work of historical and photographic research, which has allowed us to create a credible and fascinating setting, certainly among the most inspired that we have seen in recent times. .

In this context we have a series of factions that play a prominent role in the economy of the game: the Knights of the Order of the Queen first of all, an Order created to maintain order (pun too greedy, we apologize) over time. dark, inside which there is Sir Galahad, the protagonist who controls himself throughout the adventure of the game and around which most of the narrative attention is centered. In the background, but not so much, the canonical police, the rebels, the Lycan half-bloods, each of which will cross the path of Galahad and his companions at least once.

The narrative is divided into chapters, including a prologue kept well hidden by the developers: despite all the news leaked on the net, they have been quite good at hiding most of the implications of the story, and this translates into a constant learning of new information, which gradually put together the puzzles of a larger drawing and demonstrate the talent they have had in creating a "full-bodied" and fascinating historical background. We stop here to avoid spoilers and we catapult ourselves towards the first chapter of The Order: 1886, which at first glance is a third-person shooter but in reality recalls the great classics of the "only" genre in the pure combat phase, since it leaves ample space for narration, dialogues and moments of advancement without taking up the artillery. There is the Council Room in which a lot of discussions take place, there are the twists that introduce new characters; there is, as mentioned, the construction of a much larger story than the events narrated up to this point: we switch to arms when the word fails to hurt more than the sword and the situation must be resolved with lead. Some chapters are therefore dedicated solely to the advancement of history and exploration, for a guided structure that in practice does not provide for backtracking or the possibility of going back if you have lost some collectibles on the road, represented by audio cylinders, documents, photos to inspect. In this sense, the settings are all rather linear, but there are small deviations to reach the extras, and some clash or stealth phase of greater breadth, despite continuing constantly between one fight and another.

The Order: 1886 comes with force on PlayStation 4, with a new universe to be discovered

Downgrade my balls

The rhythm is not lacking, therefore, and the technological side is a small masterpiece that manages to completely involve the player on a visual level, for a result that probably, to date, represents the peak of videogame productions in the mixture of all the factors that make it up. Transitions from non-interactive and quick-time sequences to those where Sir Galahad is fully controlled are virtually unnoticeable - net of an even more sensational realization of the faces, in the first case - and sometimes it is really difficult to understand if you are playing at all or not.

The proprietary graphics engine of Ready at Dawn is simply incredible, and the guessed artistic side allowed for an exceptional stylistic realization of the environments, always beautiful to look at and topped with a phenomenal attention to detail. Just look at the faces of the characters, the minute details and the aesthetic quality of their armor, the continuous night and day glimpses of London, with an infinite visual distance, structures of all kinds and textures always of exquisite workmanship, which stand out when the perspective is the lighting system manages to perfectly render the differences between bricks, ceramics or fabrics. But also details such as the hair that moves in the wind, the reflections on the windows, which show their contents and what is on the opposite side of a street; the lights always and only dynamic, which "affect" any object on the screen and even in the distance, the deformation of metals, fabrics and objects that react to bullets, up to the ultra-detailed realization of gadgets and weapons, including the their operation. It would be a crime, therefore, to hurry through the various settings of connection between the fights without dwelling on everything else, as the narrative and technological aspect are the backbones of the Ready at Dawn production., and already excellent in this first chapter. Everything is sealed by an artistic sector that offers a soft, "adult" and pleasant trait, certainly full of charisma. Regarding the black bands and the visual filter used: we cannot speak for everyone but we completely forgot about them after a few minutes and the filter is perfect; surely this is more noticeable on small monitors and no one would have to complain, indeed, if he played in full screen. There is one aspect that remains out of this technological riot: the interaction and physics with the environment, beautiful with the props but quite standard in everything else. The musical sector enjoys the same excellent care as the graphic one; the sound of the shots of each weapon is extremely accurate and peculiar, the effects in general follow the same lines and the soundtrack manages to underline the most important moments well, proposing some very inspired songs. , The game is completely dubbed in Spanish, with Sir Galahad entrusted to Silvio Pandolfi, an eclectic artist of films, TV series and animated series that we heard for example in Borderlands, where he voiced Marcus. His tone of voice is excellent but it didn't always seem right for the situation. On the other hand, we saw an excellent Claudio Moneta in the interpretation of Alastair, a knight of the Order who is often met during the game. To select English dubbing, perhaps of higher average quality, you need to change the language of the console.

PlayStation 4 Trophies

The Order: 1886 can be counted among the "easy" to platinum titles. We finished the game by getting 68% of the trophies, and in general it is enough to make a certain number of kills, perhaps in a specific way, or to collect all the collectibles present. Nothing difficult, indeed, only that as far as the latter are concerned, it is not written in which chapters those not yet inspected / collected are found, and therefore one is forced to replay the title at least one more time by moving in a meticulous way among the small deviations available.

Ghémpley

We have come to the core of the gameplay and shootings, which are present in good numbers but at the service of everything else instead of the other way around: when the story requires it, we explore or perform in short platform phases together with the different characters with whom Sir Galahad interacts - in particular the Marquis de La Fayette, Sir Percival and Isabeau D'Argyll - or there are phases in which it is necessary to eliminate the opponents in a silent way, pressing the triangle button at the right time to give the sense of perfect synchronization between the movement of Sir Galahad and the actual action to slaughter the enemy. In other situations, a remote crossbow is used, and in general the game is always very raw, not skimping on blood or heinous kills. The firefights have a typical third-person shooter setting: there are the covers, which are connected with the circle button and from which you can exit with the same pressure or simply by moving away; the classic combination of triggers for aiming and shooting, the melee always with the triangle and so on.

The variety of weapons is excellent as well as the pleasure of using them thanks to the different types of ammunition and recoils. There are single and multi-shot pistols, automatic rifles - including one with the secondary power (by pressing R1) to generate a shock wave - but also sniper rifles, carbines and various exotic weapons such as the one that fires the termite and then a rocket to ignite it, or the pulse rifle capable of emitting an incinerator beam. All thanks to Nikola Tesla, who needs no introduction (... right?) And who plays an important role in history, making his laboratory available also for some gadgets that are used through short but elaborate minigames. Unfortunately, this great work on weapons and physicality collides, it should be said, with fights that lack dynamism because they are rather flat and "dry", amusing enough but never able to involve for their grandeur and above all for the somewhat anonymous opponents. The degree of challenge is above all at the highest level of difficulty, but the artificial intelligence is, so to speak, old school, with types of enemies that move, that repair themselves, that throw grenades, as well as the so-called riflemen who they announce their arrival verbally and present themselves with sawed-off shotguns. This scholastic division slows the dynamism, therefore, and unfortunately the clashes with the key characters follow the same trend, alternating quick time sequences (certainly spectacular) with mechanics recycled between them in the case of werewolves. The same weapons often do not have equal time and dignity of use, which is a shame because they are a lot of fun to use. All these "clues" made us suspect that perhaps the developers did not have time to implement all the ideas they had in mind - even in light of a satisfying, but clearly open ending, and the lack of some connecting sequences - postponing the speech to future chapters. We completed The Order: 1886 in 7 hours and 50 minutes timed by hand, on a normal level and with 68% of the trophies obtained, collecting a good part of the extras and focusing every now and then on the setting. In our view it is the best way to enjoy the game; certainly playing faster the counter decreases quietly, but it doesn't even make much sense to do so. At a higher difficulty level, the enemies become more difficult and the energy, which recharges without being hit for a certain amount of time, is shorter: in this way you can "gain" a couple of hours on total longevity.

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The Order: 1886 offers a wonderful synthesis of the technical sector, artistic research and attention to detail, that is the best that can be found today in the videogame field, which must be tried and appreciated at least once, because even the eyes (and the ears) want their share. The world created by Ready at Dawn is fascinating; the background story offers several insights and is clearly part of a larger design, which will materialize in the next chapters. What has not fully convinced us is the gameplay, which beyond the exploration and gathering of documents offers a rather dry and not very dynamic combat system, with situations that never manage to involve the player and some important clashes. subdued. And that's a shame, because the construction and variety of weapons are excellent. We do not feel like criticizing the duration in an absolute sense, given the absence of downtime and expedients to lengthen the stock, but the lack of any extras or other that deepen the title, together with the gameplay made of ups and downs, go to negatively affect the price of the game.