Do you ever play a game, like it, and then find out that apparently, just about everyone who else played it hated it? For me, that was Ready At Dawn’s, The Order: 1886. A 19th century London thrust into a civil war between knights, rebels, vampires, and werewolves, this game had it all. Mixing in some gorgeous visual graphics and a team of bad-ass hunters acting as Arthur’s Knights of the Round table, there was no way that this game could have failed. Or so I thought.
You see, The Order: 1886 had an immense amount of hype as it reached its release date. Unfortunately for Ready At Dawn, however, the game could not live up to the majority of its fans’ expectations. The worst offender to its critics was that its duration was less than stellar, its loose ends left open, and its combat, ho-hum. But were these issues really enough to kill this game and a possible sequel?
Does Time Change The Industry?
2015, the year this game was released, was a very different time for gaming. Games as a service weren’t really a thing, microtransactions were still only evident in a few titles, and plainly, most games were $60. I’d also argue that The Order: 1886 was doomed to fail as 2015 was packed chock-full of heavy-hitting games that offered players a substantial amount of value behind that $60 entrance fee.
Games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Bloodborne, and even GTA V was also making its way onto next-gen consoles at the time. If I saw all of these games on a Game Stop shelf together, we all know that it would be hard not to choose any of the others, knowing how prolific they’d become.
Unanimously, one of the main complaints about 1886 is the fact that it is too darn short. HowLongTopBeat has the game clocked in at 7 hours on average, meaning that for $60, players didn’t get a whole lot. But I’d argue that since 2015 there’s been a shift in what players are looking for in their titles and how they should be sold.
Personally, I love a game that I can wrap up in under 10 hours. It gives me the escape I need yet doesn’t make me feel trapped. Don’t get me wrong, I love a collect-a-thon as well but as I get older, fewer games seem to capture my attention the moment I realize that it’s open-world. To my surprise, the more gamers I speak to these days also agree with this stance and avoid those types of games altogether even. So what made The Order: 1886 such an egregious gaming atrocity? Its price tag.
These days, while there are a number of $60 and even one or two $70 games released, you will find that most come in under $40 a pop. Going back to 2015 though, this really wasn’t the case. Unless it was a movie-tie-in title, a super indie title, or just something that wasn’t getting enough pre-orders, games really never sunk below $60. Moving forward into today’s market, we can see that has finally leveled a bit with games from across various ranges going for different prices.
So my question is; would 1886 have done better if released in today’s gaming space with a $40 price tag? Without saying yes right now, there are a few other factors worth mentioning. As I said, some people weren’t really into its combat or its handling of storytelling.
Was It All A Bed Of Roses?
Thinking back on 1886, I loved how gritty, brutal, and relentless its combat was. Not only in how the game controlled but in how it was depicted. Blowing people away at close range was nightmarish and sizzling rebels on balconies using that pulse blasting rifle was like something out of a horror film. Sure, it wasn’t perfect but it felt great for the time and a change of pace when compared to everything else releasing at that point.
Even the game’s setting felt wholly fresh to the eyes. It managed to scratch an itch that was being overlooked by most developers at the time. There’s nothing really as cool as chasing werewolves through the foggy streets of industrial-era London with a literal laser in your hands. Talk about feeling empowered.
When it comes to the way that it handles its story, I can see why folks would say that it lacks. It’s obvious that this game was setting up a sequel from its opening moments. And while I’d love to argue and say that the story makes sense, it doesn’t, in the grand scheme of things. This title has yet to receive a sequel and there’s no guarantee that it ever would, leaving a bunch of loose ends flapping in the wind.
Did Players Enjoy It?
It’s been seven years since the game was released and my thoughts on it have been the same since then. While there are grievances that I can at least acknowledge and level with, it still bugs me that this title, at least following its release, was dragged so harshly. The game currently sits at a 63/100 on Metacritic with 30 positive reviews, 53 mixed, and 11 negatives.
But when you look at the user scores, the numbers change a bit. Though its score is only slightly higher with a 6.8/10, its user reviews tell a different story. Currently, this title has amassed 3,985 scores from users with 2,129 being positive, 986 being mixed, and 870 being negative. That is a lot of positivity for a game that reportedly wasn’t well received. Was it just the critics who didn’t like it?
So now as we have some evidence and a theory or two about why this game “failed”, we can kind of see how this title could rise from the dead. It’s pretty clear that most folks that complained about it were the critics. And even though it wasn’t a large group saying it wasn’t great, just hearing that is enough to make any gamer question whether $60 is the threshold for experimentation in their gaming library.
What’s Your Point?
Finally, I can get back to my question; would The Order: 1886 survive in today’s gaming market if it had been released at $40? The answer of course is, yes. Though it has some complaints aside from its duration, this title is stellar overall. Its atmosphere, characters, gunplay, and visuals still hold up today and I think that Ready At Dawn needs to reintroduce this to players. I’m still holding out for a sequel and if they want to do it right, they have to approach it differently from how they did it back in 2015.
So that’s my argument. This is a game that I love and will always think about every so often due to everything it is and everything that surrounds its being. I’m constantly asking Ready At Dawn when the sequel is coming out over on Twitter, and I’m just hoping that it sees the light of day sometime soon. I finally found the strength to put this article together thanks to YouTuber, Jake Baldino, who put together his own video voicing his opinion on this underappreciated gem.
The last thing I want to mention; something that I find odd, at least online these days, is that when it comes to games, movies, and TV series, you either have to love them and cover for their flaws or not enjoy them at all. Personally, I think that no matter how much you love something, you should be able to accept it, even with its flaws. I’m looking at you, Star Wars sequel trilogy!
