Decline The Order: 1886, the new 5 hour movie from Ready at Dawn Studios

[Kem0sabe]

From the lp I have been watching, it's not even an entertaining TPS in terms of story and characters.

Uncharted and the last of us are far superior. I'm thinking this will take the route of many games this gen, second hand market fodder.

 

[Siel]

It begins.

 

[Athelas]

Longer doesn't necessarily mean better. Most games are longer than they have any right to be, inevitably dragging the experience down or even turning it into a slog at some point.

That being said, when the majority of the playing time of your game onsists of unskippable cutscenes, you do have a serious problem.

 

[Perkel]

Sony fanboys are in serious meltdown mode over this game. Get some popcorn ready for when the reviews get released. Oh, who am I kidding? It's a linear, cinematic TPS--the press will eat this shit up. The game's abysmally short length will only serve to please them, as it allows them to go back to their very, very serious work, otherwise known as dicking around on twitter all day.

Yeah butthurt is amazing and this is not even its final form. Final form will arrive in form of reviews which will butcher game for almost everything ( minus gunplay and graphics). Then meltdown will be complete

Longer doesn't necessarily mean better. Most games are longer than they have any right to be, inevitably dragging the experience down or even turning it into a slog at some point.

That being said, when the majority of the playing time of your game onsists of unskippable cutscenes, you do have a serious problem.

Yes longer doesn't = better but in case of The Order it looks like they literally cut game in critical point in game and it feels like game should have been like good 3 hours longer to properly finish game.

Game literally finishes after killing traitor in rank of the order but mastermind and shit ton of other things are completely unresolved. Game finishes with galahad on top of a building staring at palace and it looks like you are about to play again another 3hours or so but nope credits roll THE END thanks for your 60$ sucker.

Game like The order lives and fails on its story and in this case story doesn't deliver, all characters are flat as in tolkien movies and they have absolutely no evolution.


And this is the most amazing part. Galahad which was like centuries in the order can't convince other dudes from the order that he saw something in docks.

It's like mount everest of shitty story clishes*2.

 

[cfisher2833]

Longer doesn't necessarily mean better. Most games are longer than they have any right to be, inevitably dragging the experience down or even turning it into a slog at some point.

That being said, when the majority of the playing time of your game onsists of unskippable cutscenes, you do have a serious problem.

Yeah, certain genres just really wear out their welcome if they're too long. Case in point: Dead Space vs Dead Space 3. The original Dead Space was the perfect length for a TPS (around 12-15hrs), whereas Dead Space 3 (and 2 as well, but not as bad) was just way, way too long for its own good. This isn't always the case for TPSs or FPSs though. A game like Shadow Warrior (2013) was able to pull off a decently long campaign, because it introduced new guns, new enemies, and just generally mixed things up. From what that youtuber guy who first finished the Order said, it's about half cutscenes, 1/4 QTE cutscenes, and then the rest is shooting galleries/walking that can be padded out a bit by looking for useless collectibles.


^^^^^perfect example of what I was talking about. You can't expect Ben Kuchera to actually spend his days doing his job (ie playing and reviewing games), when he's got 10 year olds on twitter to call shitlords. They LOVE short games, because it lets them get back to doing what they truly love: dicking around on social media.

 

[DraQ]

Who pays 70 Euros for a 5 hour movie with interactive camera panning?

Don't give ideas to the movie industry.

Would be a good way to flush this sort of shit out of game industry, actually.

 

[Jick Magger]

Longer doesn't always mean better, sure. One of my primary issues with Alien: Isolation was that the game felt like a 10 hour game that's had every aspect of it stretched out to make it 20 hours, and there were several parts in the second half where the game could've naturally ended, but instead the game continues for continually nonsensical reasons. But at the same time I think a game only being five hours, and by the sounds of it only half of that consisting of gameplay, there's a certain point where your game simply doesn't have enough substance to be good.

 

[Average Manatee]

It looks so much like a movie* that I can't tell where the gameplay begins.

Someone, somewhere will take this as a compliment.

*A really shitty one that is.

Youtuber PlayMeThrough completed Order 1886 and answered questions about the game.

No spoilers.

1. Took me a little over 5 hours on my first playthrough (including all cutscenes)
   
   
2. Not much replayability. You can't level up any skills or anything and there is no New Game+. And you cannot skip cutscenes either, so it would be the exact same experience I'm afraid. Pretty much the only side thing you can do is looking for collectibles, but that's it. No challenges or whatever.
   
   
3. Well maybe it's 2 hours or 2,5. I didn't measure the time, but the majority of it is cutscenes. So 1,5 hours or 2,5 hours doesn't seem like a big difference either way. Obviously depends on the player.
   
   If you really get into finding collectibles I'm sure you can spend much more time with it. Or if you play on hard difficulty (which I wasn't). But my best guess, based on what I have captured it's around 1,5h-2h gameplay and rest was cutscenes. Take the first 4 chapters for example, maybe 35% of that was gameplay. Some chapters consist only of cutscenes. And often times there are these "interactive" cutscenes with QTEs where you need to press some buttons, but I wouldn't count that as gameplay.
   
   It's more of an interactive movie to me, which isn't a bad thing. Hence the film stripes. So calm down everyone. Jesus :D
   
   
4. Well sort of... the game doesn't always tell you where to go or what to do exactly. Sometimes you have to figure that out on your own (like moving a cart to climb up to the next area). Or you have to interact with certain objects or need to wait for your teammates to do something. But all in all it doesn't require too much thinking and all objects you can interact with are highlighted when you stand close to them.
   

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/2vybg8/order_1886_playtime_details_from_youtubers_play/

Best part is the Eurogamer shit:

The Order 1886: Early User Reports Over 12 Hours of Gameplay; Screenshot Shows Gruesome Gore Effects

There have been extreme rumors lately about the duration of the order, including absolutely ridiculous claims on it lasting three hours, already debunked by developers at Ready at Dawn. Interestingly, veteran NeoGAF user OsirisBlack is actually playing the game, and he reports that he hasn’t yet finished the story after 12 hours and a half of gameplay.

So in other words, random user on internet that says 3 hours = absolutely ridiculous claim, random idiot at NeoGAF that says over 12.5 hours = automatically believable, devs who have a vested interest in making their own game not sell like shit are an authoritative word. Average game journalism job at work.

 

[His Majesty]

The 3 hour claim stems directly from the uploaded walkthrough, which contains 3 hours of gameplay and 2 hours of cutscenes. Good job Eurogamer.

The latest buzzword I've seen people use to debunk the 5 hour campaign rumours is 'soaking in the atmosphere'. So the actual game would be 3 hours gameplay, 2 hours cutscenes and if NeoGaf is to believed, 7 hours of soaking in atmosphere.

 

[Tehdagah]

Longer doesn't necessarily mean better. Most games are longer than they have any right to be, inevitably dragging the experience down or even turning it into a slog at some point.

That being said, when the majority of the playing time of your game onsists of unskippable cutscenes, you do have a serious problem.

Yeah, certain genres just really wear out their welcome if they're too long. Case in point: Dead Space vs Dead Space 3. The original Dead Space was the perfect length for a TPS (around 12-15hrs), whereas Dead Space 3 (and 2 as well, but not as bad) was just way, way too long for its own good. This isn't always the case for TPSs or FPSs though. A game like Shadow Warrior (2013) was able to pull off a decently long campaign, because it introduced new guns, new enemies, and just generally mixed things up. From what that youtuber guy who first finished the Order said, it's about half cutscenes, 1/4 QTE cutscenes, and then the rest is shooting galleries/walking that can be padded out a bit by looking for useless collectibles.


^^^^^perfect example of what I was talking about. You can't expect Ben Kuchera to actually spend his days doing his job (ie playing and reviewing games), when he's got 10 year olds on twitter to call shitlords. They LOVE short games, because it lets them get back to doing what they truly love: dicking around on social media.

12-15 hours is too much for a TPS. A 8 hours campaign + multiplayer is a better deal.

 

[Machocruz]

Resident Evil 4 went on too long, I always thought. RE6 felt insanely long, even though it wasn't compared to most games I play.

As far as Teh Whoreder: Double the time and you'd only have 10 hours of what looks like a slow, un-challenging action game (that again, the developers couldn't think of anything more intelligent to do with Tesla then moar gunz), which is a big no-no in my world. It's my arcade background speaking. Vanquish is what? 6-8 hours? But it keeps you on your toes, focused. Good length for single-player, contrary to what reviews claimed. In fact, I found myself thinking "I thought this game was supposed to be short/am I near the end yet?" 5 hours is too long for an action game that requires no effort on my behalf. Old geezers and toddlers buying console games these days. Anyone with moderately respectable hand-eye coordination need not apply.

 

[pippin]

I do believe 10 hours is ok for a tps, but it's still awfully short, because brand new games are always expensive and I'm no really into pirating shit anymore. Not that I would want to play this, though. However I do dislike all those games that promise 300 hours of gameplay because 70% of it will be filler. You don't need more than 10 hours to wrap things up in an action game, but you could throw in some more material if you're willing to divide the story into chapters or that kind of stuff.
The Order always had this obnoxious stench of mediocre elements all over it. The response from the dev was super bitchy as well and worthy of steam shovelware makers. One thing is telling the world how dumb you are via a certain product and another is voluntarily admitting it with your own name and face.
Meanwhile I'm going to make more popcorn.

 

[Night Goat]

Also, (or maybe ) for being reaminded of some by something by the most author alive.

I mean,

FFS.


...

Commisar DraQo

 

[felipepepe]

Some arguments on this are just retarded. Erik Kain said:

Either way, judging a game based on its fastest possible run is silly: I mean, players are finishing Dark Souls in half an hour. My first playthrough of that game was nearly 100 hours.

Because a speedrun done years after release based on glitches is totally the same thing as playing a game for the first time.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Eric Kain is so fucking retarded, holy shit. I mean couldn't he just watch the shit an check if it's really the fastest possible run. You'd expect as much from someone who is a gaming journalist and not a shithead like Kuhera.

 

[Jick Magger]

These days he just seems so dedicated to being a neutral force in regards to everything that he'll stick to no side even when one side has clear and obvious ulterior motives for disagreeing with the other.

 

[Kem0sabe]

From neogaf:

Some guy went to the trouble to time the gameplay elements of the posted long plays.

Prologue - Total | 12:28 --> Gameplay | 3:39 - QTE | 1:58 - Cutscenes | 6:50
Chapter 1 - Total | 29:23 --> Gameplay | 20:20 - Cutscenes | 9:03
Chapter 2 - Total | 16:33 --> Gameplay | 6:43 - Cutscenes | 9:49
Chapter 3 - Total | 46:00 --> Gameplay | 32:36 - QTE | 0:54 - Cutscenes | 12:30
Chapter 4 - Total | 24:25 ---> Gameplay | 12:20 - QTE | 2:21 - Cutscenes | 9:46
Chapter 5 - Total | 32:41 --> Gameplay | 24:17 - QTE | 0:32 - Cutscenes | 7:52
Chapter 6 - Total | 7:32 --> Gameplay | 1:42 - QTE | 0.18 - Cutscenes | 5:32
Chapter 7 - Total | 6:41 ---> Cutscenes | 6:41
Chapter 8 - Total | 21:37 --> Gameplay | 9:30 - QTE | 0:07 - Cutscenes | 12:00
Chapter 9 - Total | 43:07 --> Gameplay | 31:13 - QTE | 1:13 - Cutscenes | 10:41
Chapter 10 - Total | 4:07 --> Cutscenes | 4:07
Chapter 11 - Total | 44:15 --> Gameplay | 33:13 - QTE | 1:07 - Cutscenes | 9:55
Chapter 12 - Total | 5:37 --> Cutscenes | 5:37
Chapter 13 - Total | 5:17 --> Gameplay | 0:04 - Cutscenes | 5:13
Chapter 14 - Total | 5:31 --> Gameplay | 1:47 - Cutscenes | 3:44
Chapter 15 - Total | 10:48 --> Gameplay | 9:24 - Cutscenes | 1:24
Chapter 16 - Total | 9:23 --> QTE | 2:33 - Cutscenes | 6:50

Walkthrough - Total | 325:17 --> Gameplay | 186:48 - QTE | 11:03 - Cutscenes | 127:26

Percentages
Gameplay | 57,43%
QTE | 3.4%
Cutscenes | 39.17%

 

[Tehdagah]

Chapter 7 - Total | 6:41 ---> Cutscenes | 6:41

Chapter 10 - Total | 4:07 --> Cutscenes | 4:07

Chapter 12 - Total | 5:37 --> Cutscenes | 5:37

 

[Kem0sabe]

Gameplay :
Very simple but efficient action scenes, a large amount of QTE and some poor sneaking levels.

Graphics :
Top notch textures, mind blowing effects and no transition between game and cinematics. Awesome.

Sound :
Really good ambiant score, good dialogs, and good feedback from the weapons.

Duration :
Almost 7 hours, without running, which is a bit short (knowing that cinematics is half the duration..).

Global :
A lovely object, between a movie and a game. Some can considers it half-win or half-fail, it is the way you love Videogames that will be decisive.

First "official" review seems to confirm the short play time, 7 hours without speed running and only enjoying the game, half of those are made up of movies.

 

[Minttunator]

A developer weighs in:

 

[omega21]

QTE omnipresents

 

[Tehdagah]

A developer weighs in:

Is this from /v/?

I can't take them seriously since they tend to lick Telltale's balls.

 

[DraQ]

"It looks so much like a movie that I can't tell where the gameplay begins".

In other words: "I'm not even sure if my input does anything most of the time".

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Who cares how long does it take to finish it ? Not every title needs to end up like first playthrough of Skyrim. For a good AAA popamole like Binary Domain or MGR it doesn't matter that you can beat them in a fairly short time. It's the replayability that makes them shine and be a good examples of TPS games.

Order could have 50 hours of gameplay and it still would be a bad game.

 

[MapMan]

Why is the game even discussed here if it's PS4 excloosive?