mattysemo247

And sure enough they are, just reserved a copy today. Despite all the bad things I've heard about this game, I'm still looking forward to checking it out.

Decker

You'll like it. I don't think it's really worth buying at full price but like Ryse, it's a fun ride and worth playing. Being a short game with limited replay-ability are actually pluses when you rent a game.

chess

Yeah, I'm looking forward to a rental as well.

It's probably not going to be for me any more than Heavy Rain was, but I don't think that makes it a bad game...just a game that's not necessarily made for me.

mattysemo247

I also swung by Best Buy today and didn't see my canceled collector's edition sitting on the shelf anywhere, so I guess someone else got stuck with it

Decker

Just played a little more of this. Chapter VI lasts maybe five minutes and the only player involvement in it is pressing Triangle once to flip over a dead body, mashing X one time to move some debris and rotating the right stick once to inspect a pocket watch. Really, that's it - that's the whole Chapter. I would have been mighty pissed if I'd waited in line for ninety minutes to play that chapter.

K&AJones

I got my Collectors Edition last week but with the bad weather today I'm finally opening it. i'll post my thoughts later tonight.

starseed1981

Just wrapped this up. Definitely not worth $60.00. The time to completion didn't bother me at all...but the legitimate lack of gameplay did. It felt like an FMV movie that I got to do some quicktime events with. And I didn't mind the blatant copying of Gears Of War's gameplay mechanics but with so little of it I kinda felt slighted. Oh well. If you can get it at $20.00 I'd say go for it. Otherwise it's a solid rental.

Decker

I wrapped it up this morning after about four extended play sessions I suppose. Short, but on par with Ryse, I'd imagine. I was dead-set on beating it last night but the final big battle with NPC troops kept beating me over and over and over again (once with only ONE GUY LEFT!). After about thirty attempts and closing in on 1 AM I gave up (would have been sooner if I'd known there was DST coming that night ). Anyway, I must have been tired because the next morning I beat it on my first attempt and from there the game was over in a half hour or less.

Overall I kinda liked it. It's unspeakably gorgeous, just breathtaking sometimes. So many cool little touches like reflections in puddles, distortion through Victorian glass, wonderful sound effects. That amazing score and memorable main theme. I wish we got more time with the cool futuristic guns, but I barely got a taste of them (and always with super-limited ammo). It wouldn't have killed them to let you carry two rifles either -- but at least I can respect that in every pre-rendered cutscene you're shown carrying whatever actual weapon you've equipped slung over your shoulder and your current handgun in your holster. I do wish Galahad moved faster, there was a lot of lumbering around while walking around. And the shooting, while not terrible, was pretty repetitive and unimaginative. Guys pop out from cover, you shoot them until there are no more to shoot, then you move on. Sometimes I'd die from getting overwhelmed or trapped with no cover, but there's none of the clever AI movement you see from enemies in a Halo or Uncharted game and this game takes a big hit as a result. Hopefully, they'll fix all the things that hold this game back and make a killer sequel in 2-3 years. They have a very solid foundation to build on, have crafted an interesting story with memorable characters and certainly set themselves up for a sequel with that ending.

TLDR: I liked it, I'm glad I rented it. I have no desire to play it again and will return it in time to get Battlefield Hardline next Tuesday from Gamefly.

mattysemo247

I picked this up from the library last night and played through chapter 5. Overall I'm enjoying it for what it is. Game play is very generic but looks absolutely stunning. There were a couple times I was waiting for the cut scene to finish just to realize that it already had and my guy was just standing there waiting for me to do something . So even though the game doesn't introduce anything groundbreaking, it's not as bad as reviews were making it out to be. I would have regretting picking it up at full price, knowing that it's not something I'm going to play through again, but I would recommend it at $20 - $30. It's nice to know that the system can produce graphics on this type of level.

mattysemo247

I'm on chapter 10, which means I should be able to finish this one before flying out for business on Sunday. I still like it, and the length seems good for this game.

Also worth mentioning here, The Order 1886 is part of a two day sale at Best Buy. $39.99 (or $31.99 for GCU). Honestly, it's probably worth picking up for that price, blowing through it, and trading it back in within a week and getting all your money back.

K&AJones

I've been trying to get around to play this and this weekend I intend to since Bloodborne arrives next Tuesday. I got the update and extra DLC loaded up (got the S.E with the statue). I did listen to a bit of the musical score and it's impressive.

I seriously believe they have a solid foundation for a next The Order game. the characters, story, details....everything is there. I just hope they really expand it.

Music

If there even is a next one...

Decker

The Collector's Edition and Premium Edition are both 50% off at Amazon Lightning Deals right now ($39.99 & $74.99 respectively). Never have I been happier that I didn't buy a CE when I had the chance at launch. The CE statue alone is worth at least $40, but I'll pass since I've beaten the game and don't need it. They're selling very slowly at this price (3% sold), so I might wait to see if they go much lower in the upcoming months

mattysemo247

After finishing it this weekend, it definitely wasn't as bad as reviews said. So as long as you don't mind the length I would still recommend it. But yeah, no replayability.

Decker

It's a great rental. Just like Ryse (or Chronicles of Riddick some ten years ago). Easy to knock out in a single rent, very enjoyable, gorgeous to look at, plenty of trophies to collect, and no reason to keep it around.

The Questyen

Redboxed and platinumed this over the weekend. I like story driven single player experiences so I figured I'd give it a shot even with the mediocre reviews. The core gameplay is decent and it looks amazing my main problem is this is a game built around it's story and the actual plot of the game isn't very good (although to be fair it picks up about 2/3 of the way in once you're introduced to the rebel leader). The characters are for the most part uninteresting and it's got one of my least favorite story devices where almost all the drama in the story could be solved by one of the characters saying one sentence to the other one. The collectibles are lame and consist of items that you examine (which have no interesting or story reason for you do so), newspapers or pictures that you can examine (which again serve almost no interest to you), and audiologs which unlike pretty much every other game that has them you can't listen to them as you play you have to go into a seperate menu and stare at the screen while listening to them (they are boring anyways).

I don't regret the playthrough especially since I only paid $6 to play through it but yeah not worth even the $40 it's on sale for at the moment.

dsa_shea

I went back and got 8 bucks and change back from Best Buy for the price drop from my day one purchase. I'm glad I have the Elite plus that extends my window quite a bit. I also have the receipt from getting a copy for a friend so I will be returning to get another price match difference return.

Dan

Finished it this afternoon. Decker and The Questyen have covered my own thoughts, though. Not a bad game (glad my wife bought it ), but not a keeper. I can't be bothered to get all the trophies for this one. As the game I was most looking forward to, it was very good, but not great. It's kind of hilarious and disappointing that, nearing the end, there's two full chapters in a row where you don't have to press a single button.

For what it's worth, I'd gladly accept more games with a 2.35:1 ratio, at least as an option.

LorenzoL

This is the first PS4 game that I regret buying at launch. I should have waited. It's not as bad as Heavy Rain but it's along the same lines.

Dan

I recently (like, within the last three weeks) bought Heavy Rain at Target for $6. Haven't opened it yet, but I remember kind of sort of liking the demo many years ago...

maxfisher

In reference to the gameplay or story? I was fine with the 'interactive story' gameplay of Heavy Rain, except for the fact that it was used for such a cheap, terrible story.

LorenzoL

The gameplay because it felt like I was watching a movie with the exception of pressing a few buttons in between scenes. And thus why I was disappointed with this game too.

Adam Tyner

I think I've found a pattern that works for me. After 30+ hours in Far Cry 4, I dove into the campaign for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, thinking a short, relatively straightforward, cinematic experience might be a nice palette cleanser. After 50+ hours in GTA V (hundred percent-ed!), I gave The Order: 1886 a shot.

I think I would be up for a sequel if the right changes were made. The graphics and animation are surreally gorgeous, the voice acting is phenomenal, I really enjoyed the score, the steampunk-werewolf-hunter premise is tailor-made for me, and every millimeter of the game is teeming with atmosphere. The Order isn't as embarrassingly short as a lot of people made it out to be. I don't feel cheated, anyway.

The biggest problem for me is the pacing. There are three chapters, I think, where you literally do not have to touch the controller at all and one or two others that are pretty close to that. A few others only take a few minutes, but then there are a couple that drone on for an hour. I didn't really find the gunplay to be that compelling, and the longest bursts of it felt mind-numbingly repetitive since it's just wave after wave in the same couple of locations. There are only a handful of lycan encounters, and the non-QTE ones are wildly unengaging, with the werewolves just running up to you, attempting to scratch you, and then running away. Laughably simplistic and unsatisfyingly easy to complete. The most interesting weapons are too few and far between, the finale is totally anticlimactic, and QTEs and I just don't get along. Storywise, I have no idea why Galahad didn't just tell his brethren what he'd uncovered; you'd think an accusation like that would have to be followed up on, anyway. There's nothing worth exploring or discovering. There are so many rooms, alleys, and corridors that seem like they ought to have something rewarding, but there's rarely anything, and even the items to investigate are pretty much always devoid of interest. The cover system is a bit of a mess, making me cover when I didn't want to, not covering when I wanted to, and putting me in harm's way during the whole red-screen-blackwater-mash-X deal. Not a fan of Blacksight either. I only used it when gunning down the armored guys who are seemingly impossible to beat in close quarters otherwise.

Flawed but enjoyable enough. Definitely glad I paid less than thirty bucks for it, though.

Also:

<iframe width="765" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wk-u0tCQBdE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

fumanstan

Ready at Dawn hired former Blizzard COO Paul Sams to be their new CEO and run the business side of things from Austin. From this interview it seems like they may no longer be Sony exclusive and will be trying to stand up their own publishing arm. Ready at Dawn offices is just down the street from Blizzard in Irvine too

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...awn-as-new-ceo

The Order's IP is owned by Sony though it seems. Wonder if Sony would continue on with that franchise elsewhere.

slop101

Pretty sure since The Order underperformed, Sony isn't continuing their exclusivity deal. Maybe this means their next game will have some meat to it...