Wish we got a sequel, such a great foundation that could’ve really been expanded upon with the player feedback had they got a second chance, still an absolute stunning game.
The only flaws that this game has is that A. It is too damn short (it ends right when the story gets to the most interesting parts), and B. There was no sequel 😢 Otherwise, it is an awesome experience while it lasts.
When I saw it the real time cutscenes in The Order 1886, I was shocked that they were not pre-rendered. Even today in the world of Unreal 5, this game looks stunningly incredible.
It’s crazy to me that 8 years and a generation later that games don’t look much better than this does. I was always a fan of this one. I would love to see the story continue one day. 🤞🏻
The devs asked me to make a prop for them and I was lucky enough to go to the press launch and meet them. Such a great studio with bags of talent. A sequel should have happened long ago.
For the sake of advancing game graphics it was great, but don't delude yourself into thinking it was actually a good game. I'm really sick of this trend of taking terrible games and making them out like they were actually good in retrospect because they almost never are.
@@Thicc_Boyo I played it last year for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I love these types of games with a linear focused narrative, no side quest bullshit, lavish set piece moments and slick simple gameplay. If the game isn't your taste that's fine, but just because you don't like it doesn't make it a bad game that everyone is just lying to themselves that they actually enjoy it.
Aesthetics only go so far. This game came out at the peak of cinematic game popularity. Glad the trend died but the practices followed. Full price games should not be 4-7 hours worth of gameplay
The visuals for this game, AC: Unity and Driveclub are just insane. I wish these titles succeeded so the devs involved could push this industry forward with their graphical wizardry.
Yeah, games during the early console life cycle are always super ambitious to a fault and then toned down. Sadly, those games and ideas got axed, just wasted potential. I'm hoping to see similar stuff for this gen, but given the scalability of game engines and the fact that a lot have moved to Unreal it probably won't come about
I was waiting for someone to mention AC: Unity, what is it about the lighting and materials of that era of ps4 games that just allowed them to stand the test of time?
AC Unity was awesome, but it runs like crap on PS4 and even worse on Xbox One, I don't think it's worth focusing so much on graphics when you end up hurting performance.
It feels like this always happens with new IP that launches with new consoles. They never get sequels. The same with the Rome game that launched with Xbox one or Heavenly Sword that launched with PS3.
This game breaks my heart. Because I love the Victorian era with a dash of Van Helsing. Galahad is an awesome protagonist. I would have loved this series to carry out because it would have been amazing.
As someone who’s always struggled finding time to manage the insane lengths of modern games, The Order 1886’s brief duration was a selling point for me even when it released. The fact that I LOVE its setting and that it was a landmark title in terms of rendering tech made it even better. As unlikely as it is, I would love a sequel to this game.
We were still in the heyday of "more is more" era of content offering. We are just barely starting to move away from that. I really wish games like this and Alpha Protocol were looked at as an opportunity to do right by the material.
@@gellisterit definitely feels like we are moving away from that now, with even the new Assassin’s Creed proudly announcing it will be smaller than the last couple.
I had an absolute blast with The Order 1886 from beginning to end it was a short game but i literally enjoyed ever second of it and the gun play was extremely solid
@@vorkzen4767 RE3 remake is another short game i absolutely loved. I really dont care about a game's lenght long as its an enjoyable game because there are some games that just get boring because they never get to the point story wise
@@vorkzen4767 it all depends on the quality lf the games because a game that is short and sweet will always be better than a game that is long and it drags for no reason by giving you repetitive side quests like ubisoft gamed
@UnjustifiedRecs no it's not better. It's just a different flavour of cookie in the cutting machine. 3rd person cover based corridor shooters was the most generic type of game a decade ago and I'm glad that genre isn't mainstream anymore
@@wile123456 It "kinda" still is for Sony... unfortunately. Even if it's not "corridor" they're still very generic linear 3rd person shooters. Almost copy/paste but change just enough to make it different lol.
@@ChrisClemmons absloutely false. Most of their games now are open worlds and the ones that are linear like naughty dog games, still have open ended level design that gives a lot of player choice in how to tackle encounters.
Definitely a sequel could have fixed a lot of what people had problems with. Even now if they were to update this game and announce a sequel I think people would be excited.
Senior 3D artist: 1886 is still one of the most impressive games - as mentioned here by John, the PBR rendering was truly unlike anything out at the time and still looks very good even today. Today all modern engines have support for it (and for 3D artist, unbiased rendering using offline engines have PBR as a standard), but back in 2015, having it in the realtime 3D game running on ps4 was kinda magic. While the game was rather underwhelming, the visuals and the cinematic presentation is nothing short of breathtaking.
No way is this unbiased rendering. That means no cheats.bwhat he described in this review is realtime engine specs like screen space reflections and using those bake maps. Unbiased is like using path tracing, way to taxing and impossible, even today
Wow, this game's visuals are absolutely stunning. I'm seriously kind of blown away that this visual quality was available in 2015. Thanks for sharing this beautiful title with us John!
@@GGMatttit probably wasn’t worth full price but it was much more than just a tech demo. The story was really intriguing and the acting was good as well and it was a decent cover-based shooter. The game had the foundation for something really special and I enjoyed the 8 or so hours I put into it
Consoles have been capable of generating these images for a long time, but developers have had to spend more money and spend more time on optimization. Something that companies flee do not want to do at all.
Man, The Order still looks so good this many years later. It's use of light and shading, especially in that sunset shot, is better than most modern games that don't handle visual subtlety well at all. Between badly used HDR and overall harshness-for-impact-sake, even big AAA games don't have this good of results. This was a very cool subject for a standalone video, good stuff!
It still looks incredible to this day. Hard to believe it's from 2015! Materials are super impressive and poly counts are sky high for that time period. They definitely developed some great tools, but that would be nothing without great artists making use of it.
I've just replayed it on PS5 recently and no, it doesn't look stunning anymore. Resolution was very low, the game was very blurry and the amount of post processing was overkill.
@@budyll1 Well the base art still looks stunning. I'm sure it would look much better at 4K native if it didn't get its FOV cropped like John explained.
This is what happens when u actually put time and work into your games. Still, it came out in an era where video games wasn't at its best, but fairly good!.
@@electrikoptik Forspoken isn't cross gen and looks like ass, and Jedi Survivor is that big of a leap on PS5 imo, though apparently it's going to get old gen ports now.
@@redwaldcuthberting7195 Forspoken looks like ass because it's running on last-gen engine. It's using Square's Luminous Engine which was developed for the PS4 era and is about a decade old. And Jedi Surviver will be getting a last-gen port because it runs on unreal engine 4 on current-gen.
@@ItsAkile I disagree. Visuals will take a hit when you have a graphics engine where the dev's need to make sure it can scale back to last-gen. Imagine if unreal engine 5 supported last-gen. Thankfully it does not.
The Order's visuals hold up so well. It's also great to know that they shared all their progress. This is what the industry needs; more freely shared knowledge to make games better for everyone.
This game has always interested me, but it's now 2023 and I still haven't played it. I don't understand much of the technical wizardry behind it all, but it definitely looks gorgeous and holds up extremely well today. The locations are very nice and atmospheric too. Easily one of the most graphically satisfying games I've ever seen, especially considering it was made for the base PS4.
I'd highly recommend it but take it more as art/ a movie than any deeper in-depth gameplay. I think the reason it failed is because people were expecting a lot more customizable gameplay and action. I was always a fan of this game.
I honestly think it's worth going back and playing. It's a great setting, good characters and a generally enjoyable campaign (with a bad stealth section or two) and comes in under 5 hours. It also looks Every. Bit. As. Gorgeous. as you see here and, frankly, putting most modern games to shame.
It's more like Uncharted 1 compared to Uncharted 2, which in this case we've never got. The game is short and the story ends abruptly, and in a very anticlimactic way.
The one underlining reason behind many of the (valid) complaints is that this game released shortly after PS4 launch, and for those itching to utilize their new console, felt ripped off paying $60 for a six hour game.
Always thought this game was way ahead of its time rendering-wise. It really stands out. I hope we eventually are able to have multiplayer games that look this good. I also think there’s minimal light-bleed here and it looks so solid because of it.
I'm simply stunned by the fact that the developers at Ready At Dawn decided to implement different solutions to certain graphical aspects such as the GI for example, in a way that they just seem so focused on finding the best workaround on the platform's hardware limitation in order to maximize the end result. They may be lacking in the extra dedication over the gameplay design attention but you can't deny they're very, very committed to what they're trying to make here!
I LOVED this game from when I played it on my Playstation 4. I was awestruck and knew it was special, because I had never seen such a game with its graphical fidelity before, running on a console of that time. And, here I now learn about the work behind the final product - truly impressive. A shame if it flew pass people back then.
I love this game so much. Its short length is exactly why I still play it from time to time to this day like watching an good old movie. The stunning steampunk art style is my favorite part of the game. The dark sci-fi victorian cityscape, the highly detailed character design, and the various cool weapon concepts are all truly marvlous to look at. I bought its artbook and the concept arts in it have become one of my main reference sources whenever it comes to steampunk themes. Really wish Sony could give it a second chance for a sequel. No open world, no tons of side quests to clear, just a fun linear shooter with a good story and a beautiful visual style will be more than enough.
@@mindrover777 It's not horror at all. Think more action horror like Underworld. The lycans are a very small part of the game. You mostly just shoot random dudes.
This entire game for me was such a visual showcase, it honestly baffles me that we are still not at this level as the norm today. That in itself is a testament to the game technical prowess. A scene that still blows my mind today is the Blimp inflitration and how the blimp cloth deforms under the shoes of the characters so you feel the weight of it all. Also, lack of clipping in most outfits and gear deserves a special mention considering how much of their clothes and belts move. Its shortfalls are valid, but it was too harshly crticised and is honestly a solid 7/10 game.
It's not exactly the norm because people expect longer experiences with more agency. AAA Games tend to be huge nowadays, but any linear game made by a AAA dev is absolutely at this level or better. This game was also in development for way longer than usual at the time. It's also much easier to achieve this level of visuals when you basically make small linear levels, lower the native resolution, cap the game at 30 and don't really focus on the game part at all.
@@Ayoul Considering that this was early PS 4 era and most of the techniques like PBR were not an industry standard at the time is more along the lines of what I mean. Its totally understandable when you look at the animation, acting and choreography that it requires a lot of effort and budget in those departments, but for comparisons sake, PS3 games, counting backwards from the PS4 2 years in where nothing close to this, whereas as now, we are still basically playing last gen games outside of a few games like Demon Souls, or FF 16. My point was more on the visual fidelity and asset quality. The fact that they could pull of this level of detail so early in gen and actually run at 30fps on what was already an underpowered system for the time is amazing. Ideally, right now, even without UE5, this should be close to the norm in terms of visual quality.
@@Ayoul Am personally tired of long bloated games (looking at you ubisoft). A 6 hour game would be fine at the right price. As long as it looks as good as the order and has a good story, l would be in. Think a game similar to the until dawn or the quantic dream games. Mostly narrative and top tier graphics.
@@alispeed5095 Agreed. I am drawn to games like Uncharted, where every square inch is crafted with love and the cinematics, story and gameplay are so expertly intertwined that it truly feels worthy of my time. I am over the grind man.
I loved the explosions in this game, explosions and fire haven’t looked better in any game since. I also loved the world. Wish it got a sequel or at least a remaster
Replayed it this Spring on a rainy afternoon. If taken as a cinematic action game, it feels great! Excellent cast overall. It's only a few bucks when on sale! I highly recommend it now that the dust has settled.
This is one of the few games I remember during PS4 when it came out being visually super impressive and still looks gorgeous to this day. I also feel the internet kinda ruined any potential of a sequel because of how much negative attention in got with; how short it is (which in retrospect I don't mind, knows when to end and doesn't overstay it's welcome), it's 30 FPS, interviews of devs defending this decision etc. I really dig the world it has and think a sequel could have addressed major feedback and been great.
I loved the little details in this game. It really was ahead of its time. Real time physics when looting through book shelves and drawers. Outstanding folly work and sound mixing, You could hear the characters breathing in tense scenes.
This game was transformative for me back then. And I'm not even working in game dev but in offline rendering. I still send people the slide-shows ready at dawn made with their technical presentations. It's just a shame that the youtube video doesn't quite do the visual quality justice... maybe it's the compression. It was a huge technical achievement back then and we still feel the ripples today, I'd even say many development teams still can learn a lot from it. Thanks for the video!
1886 was a highlight of the PS4 era. The criticisms were all valid - too short, too linear, not replayable - but even on underpowered PS4 hardware it was gorgeous. It did feel a bit like an extended tech demo but what a demo!
@@ltw126 Linearity isn't an issue by itself, it's more so that you'll pass through the same encounters no matter how you replay it. You cannot experiment with enemy encounters, or attempt to go off the set path. Other games are also considerably linear but very replayable, such as Super Mario World. Branching levels, hidden secrets (incl. secret levels), multiple paths within the same level allow for very varied playthroughs. I'm not saying that a story focused game should try to achieve such diversity, but some of it would still be very welcome. An example of a more modern game with more story that achieves a good level of variety within its levels is the new Hitman trilogy, with the various approaches to assassination and escape methods. It's clearly different from Mario World, but you're guaranteed to replay a level a few times with distinct approaches.
Funny thing is those criticisms are positives for me. Length was just right, in this day and age of so many games I don’t want to replay games as backlog is already massive and I enjoy linear story games. Maybe it’s because I am older now and haven’t got time to pump in hundreds of hours on one game.
The Order was an excellent game, such a shame that there was no follow up games. I remember this being one of the first games I played on the Ps4 and I was blown away by the level of detail
It was not underrated it was rated correctly as a CGI movie it was very pretty as a game it sucked. If I remember correctly there were huge black bars at the top and bottom of the screen so they actually did not have to render a normal output, I assume this is how they pulled off such impressive visuals in 2015
They added black bars to add 4x MSAA. They could have rendered the game at native 1080p with TAA or something but then image wouldn't have looked as good@@Valhura77
Ive wanted this game for awhile now, i finally got it and started playing today. It looks incredible, the graphics are so good and just insanely realistic and smooth on my ps5. 🖤
I absolutely adore this game - the visuals, the story, the performances, the atmosphere, I even enjoy the combat. The only thing that annoys me in this are the sections where movement is limited to a slow walk. ;) It's a real shame this never got a sequel, especially after ending on a cliffhanger. Still, I replay this game every couple of years. Also, when I played it originally it was on a 42" mid-level, edge-lit LCD and recently I played it on a 65" high-end oled and the difference was tremendous.
The sound design in this game is among the best I have ever heard. Whoever did the sound understood the assignment of making the guns sound like they are quite possibly more dangerous to you than whoever is downrange.
A visual feat game like this is the main reason why many ppl still don't find the current-gen game to ever feel "next-gen" compared to the last-gen games. Hell, even a few titles from the 7th-gen era such as MotorStorm Pacific Rift, running on unlocked settings through RPCS3 of course, still manage to hold up pretty well too!
They made a new amazing IP- for VR that is. Lone Echo 1 and 2, and the multiplayer spinoff Echo Arena are considered some of the best VR games ever made. They were bought by FB, and it seems to me like FB is ruining the studio like all big corporations do to their acquisitions.
@@HH-zh2os Goddamn it that sucks if FB were to shut down their studio , I hope Sony atleast tries to hire some of those Dev's and merge them with Sony Santa Monica or Sucker punch .
I literally just started playing this game for the first time only 2 days before this video dropped. What are the chances? Such an amazingly pretty game. It's a shame it never got a sequel, it definitely felt like the groundwork was there for something bigger and better.
Not really. I agree that the game is good and I enjoyed it, even when I played it at launch and platinumed it within hours, but the gameplay aspect of games are just important as visual presentation. Note how 99% of this video is about the visual and audio, and the "negatives" part talk about the gameplay. It's short, it's a basic cover shooter, it has QTEs. Its basically a movie, and to most gamers, they want to play a game, not play a movie. Again, I personally disagree, some of my favorite games go the "cinematic" route, but it's no surprise people didn't like this game. It's not underrated just because it got a cult following. That's literally the opposite of underrated.
@@Dorraj I disagree. I was there for the launch too mate. The backlash was pretty much exclusive to how short it was. That was the catch frase. If this game had been released nowadays when people are actually craving for shorter games, look at stray for exemple, this game would have won awards and be a critical success at the very least. And sure the game is very linear but the gameplay is actually very solid. The story is also very good. Again, the vast majority of the criticism came down to it being too short, and not not fun.
I want a sequel. This game was underrated because of how short and linear it was but the story and gameplay was good and the graphics were ahead of its time.
@@harrasika it looks like a movie because there are a ton of effects covering the "game" part. Like I said, it looks good and it looks like a movie, but that doesn't make it look better than anything else. All I did was point out an exaggeration.
Its base ps4 tech, not even the ps4 pro nor has it received any graphical updates. The game hold up today and thats not due to "4k update packs or mods" so there arent many games that come close to this game Youll never find a PC game at 1080p that looks as good as this and youll never find a console game at 1080p that looks close to this neither except maybe Driveclub and Ryse Son of Rome, thats about it lol. Show some respect. @@Dorraj
@@tebander956 Once again, this game has a ton of post-processing effects that blur the game to incomprehension, that does not make a game look timeless. It's a major over exaggeration. "Cinematic" does not equal "looks good".
The Order: 1886 is one of the most underrated game of its time. I played the game approximately 6 years after its release, knowing full well that it was generally viewed as a failure. To my surprise I actually had an amazing time with it. Even at the end of the PS4 generation the game looked fantastic. Even today, seeing this video, it looks better than some recent PS5 games. The story was also excellent. I was expecting the cliffhanger everyone was talking about the whole time. But then again, I was quite surprised that the game's story actually had a proper conclusion. Sure, it was open to a sequel, but there was nothing that would spoil the story experience for me. And don't even get me started about absolutely stunning environments. The game certainly isn't flawless, it's mostly lacking some of the quality of life improvements we are used to in games these days, I wished the environments were more open, but even so, the game is still great. Even today. If you haven't played it yet, I'd recommend you to do so.
I have never stopped loving this game and I have never stopped hoping Ready at Dawn will return to the franchise and finish the story. This and Bloodborne were my favourite games back in 2015/16
The fact that it holds up using the BASE Ps4 tech makes me want to have a conversation with all the devs apparently putting their "heart and soul" into these games. It's only 1080p lol no hdr
It hurts me to no end that we will probably never see another installment to The Order universe. The game was absolutely masterful, stunning, concise for the time it came out. Still plays like a dream too.
I played this game when it released, and just recently bought it again. I was shocked at how well the graphics held up. This game has a special look and was curious what it was, so this video is excellent timing, thank you!
I always loved this game and I was hoping for years that they secretly were working on a prequel 😢 Looking at it now I feel like someone should make a VR mod for it. Walking around those environments would be so lovely and the fairly slow and static gameplay would be perfect for it…
I absolutely loved this game! I mean, it was essentially Gears of War with Werewolves, but it was such a fun ride. The graphics and audio were absolutely mind-blowing! I'm guessing Ready at Dawn wanted to make this a franchise given where the story ended, so it's a shame that they never continued with it. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, DF!
One of the best examples of the "style over substance" approach. I really wanted to love this game, but it felt like an engine showcase. I was like "yeah, these assets are gorgeous, I get it, now give me something fun to do".
When this came out it was early on in the gen and I think alot of people were impressed by the visuals but were also expecting this kind of fidelity to be the norm for the generation and kind of took it for granted. Thus, they focused on some of the less flattering elements of the game. Little did they know it was one of the best-looking games of the entire gen.
One of my all-time favorite games, thanks for this, John! I recall Andrea Pessino, the founder and CTO of ReadyAtDawn, mentioning in an Italian interview that the outcome of The Order: 1886 was only about 10% of the complete game they had initially planned. Absolutely mind-blowing. Another game that left a strong impression on me back in the day was Driveclub. I hope there will be a patch for it on the PS5, giving you the opportunity to create a proper DF retrospective.Your amazing work continues to impress; keep up with it.
A underrated thing about this game is it arrived super polished on release on disk, solid framerate with no bugs to speak of and absolutely not a microtransaction in sight in THE GEN of half-broken on release with tons of abusive microtransactions along with tons of game affecting bugs where the disk was half useless in some cases completely worthless and you were effectively paying THEM to be a beta/alpha tester for their game and they'll fix it in a years time mentality ( Cyberjunk still holds the record for a released game that is STILL in ongoing development by the way in case anyone forgot ).
Can we stop for a moment to appreciate how INCREDIBLE this game looks? I mean to put it simply, it looks better than 80% of PS5 games! And it's from the early PS4 era... Mind blowing stuff. Also really shows you how ray tracing and brute force isn't enough to make wonderful graphics (look at Elden Ring or Fortnite.)
Of course, ray tracing and brute force are not only enough, but ray tracing is the future of game lighting design that gives the most realistic result and simplifies the workflow of the developers. It was not possible on the PS4 at the time of this game's development phase, so it was not even considered, but it would've been great. However, we both agree the studio did a fantastic work anyway.
Such terrible examples. Elden Ring is an open world game with 100 times the scope of The Order and Fortnite has a gigantic map with 100 players and can run on phones. Both games also support higher frame rate and higher native resolution.
@@Ayoul No one cares if they are open world or not. Any next-gen game should be way more impressive (I do understand that these are cross gen.) Notice that by your argument, the first Crash Bandicoot should have better graphics than Elden Ring as well, since CB is linear. Made by a talented developer, a nextgen game should always have way better graphics than a previous-gen one REGARDLESS of genre. The thing is (as this game shows us precisely) high resolution and high framerate are bullshit terms in themselves, they are a comfy blanket for lazy developers.
Such a beautiful game. I was so upset there was no larger follow up. It feels like a movie more than a game. One of the few I've managed to platinum as well. I hope we get a sequel someday.
I replayed this recently to finish getting platinum. It's definitely I game to try, especially if you are burnt out in open world games. I would have loved to see what a sequel would have been. The story got very good towards the end.
I remember being hyped for this game and buying a copy at launch. I think the problem I found with The Order 1886 is that, like many games especially these days/ modern ones, it prised visuals over interactivity. I distinctly remember the palpable disappointment I felt while walking around beautifully rendered environments and trying to hit or shoot objects, only to find that everything, right down to glass and other brittle objects, didn’t so much as flinch. It’s at that point that I often lose connection with a game and its environment. I think that first and foremost games should be interactive - and I suspect that part of why the game didn’t do so well in sales is that other gamers, like me, also want a world they can affect change in, move and interact with the scenery and leave their mark. Otherwise it’s just too close to a movie where you’re just watching things. And that’s where game devs often get it wrong in my eyes - games are interactive, movies aren’t. And when you make your game a little too like a movie, where it looks good but you can hardly do anything in the game world, I think gamers lose interest.
I love the Universe they wer'e going for. This dark and gritty London combined with Knights, combined with Steampunk and a bit of lycan / vampire. The Materials of your cloth, or the wooden stairs, all looked so real and classy. I remember when first playing the first mission, and the Cutszene let you out on this balcony, i didnt realised it was finished and i could move. Stood there for 3 minutes in awe of the site until i noticed, this was ingame and not a cutszene. This looks still good today, and i would wish for a more defined Gameplay experience in a sequel. Plus i Love Tesla in this game ^^
This is a looker for sure! Nice stuff! I actually enjoyed this game a lot back in the day. It got a ton of flack, but when I picked it up I got my moneys worth and then some. That said, got the game quite cheap lol.
Thank you so much for this video. I thought I was the only one in the world who appreciated the game for what it was. Now I see there's other people too. I lt is very unfortunate that RaD never got the chance to expand on the rich world of the Order 1886.
Excellent video, what a still beautiful game. Can't believe it's 8 years old. Maybe do similar retrospective/tech review with games such as Driveclub or Assassin's Creed Unity ? Would be awesome.
It's wild how a game as visually stunning as Order 1886 never really got its flowers, partially due to how fans perceived the processing power of that generation. Prior to its release, the PS4 still considered a graphics powerhouse, so casual fans cynically assumed that Ready at Dawn's unwillingness to pursue 60fps was due to laziness rather than technical hardware limitations and artistic direction. As a first-party studio, Ready at Dawn obviously couldn't throw the PS4 under the bus and say "the console simply can't handle 60fps with the amount of detail we're throwing at it." And thus, the cinematic framerate meme was born, a term that would become inextricably tied console gaming for years to come. Looking back now, it's amazing that a game this incredibly detailed could even manage 30fps on the original PS4's dinky APU. The quality of nearly every asset showed the level of detail and love the developers put into creating one of the consoles truest early showcases. Unfortunately, all the love and detail they put into the graphics came at the expense of content. At a time when even single-player experiences like Uncharted and Last of Us had multi-player content tacked on, its conspicuous absence only fueled further claims of "laziness" by the casual masses. Thus, The Order 1886 was never appreciated for what it was, and was forgotten for what it wasn't.
Such an underrated game and IP. People complained so much that it was too short but it's only about the same length as Gears of War or other game campaigns of the 360/PS3 era. It took me almost exactly 10 hours to beat, granted I probably spent over an hour of that time in photo mode taking pictures and just looking at how gorgeous it is. This IP had such great potential, really sad to see what happened to it. Two words for the sequel... Paris. Gargoyles. Make it happen.
It's hours shorter than Gears of War... which came out years prior and had a state of the art online on top of the campaign that you could play coop locally and online. People defending this game tend to forget that it was not just "short", but the game got such bad reviews because it was also extremely bland. It's one thing to make a great short game, but The Order was a mediocre short game that happened to have good graphics.
So glad you looked at this. This is one of my favorite games ever - flaws and all, I've never had such an immersive, realistic, impactful experience playing a game. It's cinematic style always made it feel so real, like I was inside the game world. Too bad it did not sell well, I would have loved to see what would have come of the evidently planned and canned sequels.
Great video. Love these retrospectives! Gotta think that John has to be thinking about a Killzone 2 retrospective especially since he brought up a few screen grabs on Twitter. I can’t tell you how impressive that game looked to me in 2009 on PS3.
I remember that I was stunned back in 2015 by The Order 1886. The setting and story were very immersive, there was so much care, love and detail put into the world... I had a blast with this game. I can count just a few current gen games that can match such high visual fidelity. Too bad it got such bad reception and we won't see sequel.
Unbelievable how this still holds up 136 years later.
Damn i feel old now.
1886 years later.
No need, I'll show myself out.
The best comment
I wonder if somebody will make a game called 2023 in the far future.
That would be a big NOPE.
1886 was 137 years ago...
You still get a like for the joke, though. :)
Wish we got a sequel, such a great foundation that could’ve really been expanded upon with the player feedback had they got a second chance, still an absolute stunning game.
The only flaws that this game has is that A. It is too damn short (it ends right when the story gets to the most interesting parts), and B. There was no sequel 😢 Otherwise, it is an awesome experience while it lasts.
Its a great looking walking simulator. Even the Quick Time Events are always the same they reused so many assets that its just a shadow of itself.
Yup! Between this and Days Gone. Idk who is in charge over there... But we've got two franchises that can make a huge comeback.
Unfortunally Ready at dawn got bought by META
The only problem was the gameplay. They just needed to copy Gears. They focused too much on realism.
When I saw it the real time cutscenes in The Order 1886, I was shocked that they were not pre-rendered. Even today in the world of Unreal 5, this game looks stunningly incredible.
This is less of a game than Asura Wrath or Anthem!!!!!!
@@christiandauz3742Bringing up Anthem here is weird, Anthem's moment to moment gameplay was never an issue and got praised as a highlight.
Sure, but its a game so no one gives a shit if the gameplay is bad.
@@t19890204
Uh... the Order, Asura's Wrath and Anthen all flopped
@@christiandauz3742 dude that's what I said. They bombed...
It’s crazy to me that 8 years and a generation later that games don’t look much better than this does. I was always a fan of this one. I would love to see the story continue one day. 🤞🏻
Not much better and badly optimized lol
Basically starfield
@@azizurrahman1136at least this one runs at 60fps on current gen hardware
let's be honest but until we completely cut off last gen consoles there wont be a lot of games looking much much better.
@@azizurrahman1136completely different
The devs asked me to make a prop for them and I was lucky enough to go to the press launch and meet them. Such a great studio with bags of talent. A sequel should have happened long ago.
which prop ?
@@SDRIFTERAbdlmounaim The stick grenade. I made the Arc Gun for a cosplayer too.
@@dakaraius n o i c e
@@SDRIFTERAbdlmounaim If you would like to see them, do a search for Landstalker Props. They should pop up.
Nice
Finally, a worthy retrospective The Order 1886 deserved.
You got taste
GVMERS video is also pretty good
For the sake of advancing game graphics it was great, but don't delude yourself into thinking it was actually a good game. I'm really sick of this trend of taking terrible games and making them out like they were actually good in retrospect because they almost never are.
@@Thicc_Boyo I played it last year for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I love these types of games with a linear focused narrative, no side quest bullshit, lavish set piece moments and slick simple gameplay. If the game isn't your taste that's fine, but just because you don't like it doesn't make it a bad game that everyone is just lying to themselves that they actually enjoy it.
Aesthetics only go so far. This game came out at the peak of cinematic game popularity. Glad the trend died but the practices followed. Full price games should not be 4-7 hours worth of gameplay
The visuals for this game, AC: Unity and Driveclub are just insane. I wish these titles succeeded so the devs involved could push this industry forward with their graphical wizardry.
Yeah, games during the early console life cycle are always super ambitious to a fault and then toned down. Sadly, those games and ideas got axed, just wasted potential. I'm hoping to see similar stuff for this gen, but given the scalability of game engines and the fact that a lot have moved to Unreal it probably won't come about
I was waiting for someone to mention AC: Unity, what is it about the lighting and materials of that era of ps4 games that just allowed them to stand the test of time?
Yeah especially drive club blew my mind
AC Unity was awesome, but it runs like crap on PS4 and even worse on Xbox One, I don't think it's worth focusing so much on graphics when you end up hurting performance.
@@MoonSarito yes I played it still remember the buggy game
I just wish this could somehow get a sequel. There was immense potential in this game and some really cool ideas to expand upon.
It feels like this always happens with new IP that launches with new consoles. They never get sequels. The same with the Rome game that launched with Xbox one or Heavenly Sword that launched with PS3.
@@wertywerrtyson5529 at least the discontinution of Heavinly Sword led to Enslaved :-)
@@jeromenguyen3367 I’ve never played Enslaved. I remember it having severe frame rate problems at least on PS3 and getting very mixed reviews.
@@wertywerrtyson5529 Well apparently Ryse: Son of Rome is getting a sequel finally so you never know
@@jeromenguyen3367 still, enslaved led to nowere, you don't have a sequel to, like the 3 resistance games unfortunatly started and ended with the ps3
This game breaks my heart. Because I love the Victorian era with a dash of Van Helsing. Galahad is an awesome protagonist. I would have loved this series to carry out because it would have been amazing.
what makes Galahad so awesome?
2004's Van Helsing. I wish that film got a sequel...
@@seanbirch9663 Because he was basically the cloest thing we got to a Van Helsing type protagonist.
@@seanbirch9663his glorious moustache of course
I would've loved to play as the rogue excommunicated Galahad
As someone who’s always struggled finding time to manage the insane lengths of modern games, The Order 1886’s brief duration was a selling point for me even when it released. The fact that I LOVE its setting and that it was a landmark title in terms of rendering tech made it even better.
As unlikely as it is, I would love a sequel to this game.
We were still in the heyday of "more is more" era of content offering. We are just barely starting to move away from that. I really wish games like this and Alpha Protocol were looked at as an opportunity to do right by the material.
The fact that you weren't able to say nothing good about the gameplay says a lot from the game xD
@@SpanishSebasI like the game but the gameplay felt off and unrefined.
@@gellisterit definitely feels like we are moving away from that now, with even the new Assassin’s Creed proudly announcing it will be smaller than the last couple.
Its not just short, the gameplay is not good at all.
Titanfall 2 is a short game with incredible gameplay for example.
I had an absolute blast with The Order 1886 from beginning to end it was a short game but i literally enjoyed ever second of it and the gun play was extremely solid
sad people say is scam 70€ and hate game. but nobody ssay same for 4 h RE3 Remake....
@@vorkzen4767 RE3 remake is another short game i absolutely loved. I really dont care about a game's lenght long as its an enjoyable game because there are some games that just get boring because they never get to the point story wise
@@ChrisThePlayer777 good short game > mid long game
@@vorkzen4767 it all depends on the quality lf the games because a game that is short and sweet will always be better than a game that is long and it drags for no reason by giving you repetitive side quests like ubisoft gamed
We deserve a sequel. This game was awesome, highly underrated!
I've been waiting for a retrospective feature for this game. It truly was and still is stunning. The fabric detailing still blows me away.
The game is the definition of "good visuals can't save bad game design"
@UnjustifiedRecs no it's not better. It's just a different flavour of cookie in the cutting machine. 3rd person cover based corridor shooters was the most generic type of game a decade ago and I'm glad that genre isn't mainstream anymore
@@wile123456 It "kinda" still is for Sony... unfortunately. Even if it's not "corridor" they're still very generic linear 3rd person shooters. Almost copy/paste but change just enough to make it different lol.
@@ChrisClemmons absloutely false. Most of their games now are open worlds and the ones that are linear like naughty dog games, still have open ended level design that gives a lot of player choice in how to tackle encounters.
@UnjustifiedRecs ? We have great games coming out all the time.
I’ll never stop loving this game and what could have been. Wish we got a full sequel
still love playing this game on my ps4 emulator. its gorgeos.
There isn't a PS4 emulator..
@@mal-avcisi9783 okay bot
whats bro saying
fpps4.and rpcsx exists@@mitsuhh
Some of those early PS4 games looked incredible for their time. The Order, Uncharted 4, and Driveclub were all ahead of their time.
A hidden gem that I really wanted and still want a sequel to. Even in 2023, it's one of the best looking games out there.
This game had so much potential! A sequel with better and longer gameplays would be a bless.
Definitely a sequel could have fixed a lot of what people had problems with. Even now if they were to update this game and announce a sequel I think people would be excited.
and skippable cutscenes. It really spoil the replayability.
Senior 3D artist: 1886 is still one of the most impressive games - as mentioned here by John, the PBR rendering was truly unlike anything out at the time and still looks very good even today. Today all modern engines have support for it (and for 3D artist, unbiased rendering using offline engines have PBR as a standard), but back in 2015, having it in the realtime 3D game running on ps4 was kinda magic. While the game was rather underwhelming, the visuals and the cinematic presentation is nothing short of breathtaking.
Have you seen the dev showcase where they show the models on Zbrush? That was an amazing showcase
No way is this unbiased rendering. That means no cheats.bwhat he described in this review is realtime engine specs like screen space reflections and using those bake maps. Unbiased is like using path tracing, way to taxing and impossible, even today
By 2015 PBR materials have already been a standard, in 2013 it was a novelty.
Wow, this game's visuals are absolutely stunning. I'm seriously kind of blown away that this visual quality was available in 2015. Thanks for sharing this beautiful title with us John!
That's what happens when you prioritise visuals over every other aspect of a game. It was a PS4 tech demo
@@GGMatttit probably wasn’t worth full price but it was much more than just a tech demo.
The story was really intriguing and the acting was good as well and it was a decent cover-based shooter. The game had the foundation for something really special and I enjoyed the 8 or so hours I put into it
Battlefront 2015 also has great visuals like this
Consoles have been capable of generating these images for a long time, but developers have had to spend more money and spend more time on optimization. Something that companies flee do not want to do at all.
@@GGMatttIt is no less of a game than your run-of-the-mill Gears of War.
Man, The Order still looks so good this many years later. It's use of light and shading, especially in that sunset shot, is better than most modern games that don't handle visual subtlety well at all. Between badly used HDR and overall harshness-for-impact-sake, even big AAA games don't have this good of results. This was a very cool subject for a standalone video, good stuff!
It still looks incredible to this day. Hard to believe it's from 2015! Materials are super impressive and poly counts are sky high for that time period. They definitely developed some great tools, but that would be nothing without great artists making use of it.
I've just replayed it on PS5 recently and no, it doesn't look stunning anymore. Resolution was very low, the game was very blurry and the amount of post processing was overkill.
@@budyll1 Well the base art still looks stunning. I'm sure it would look much better at 4K native if it didn't get its FOV cropped like John explained.
@@RidgeRiderMTB I basically said what I've felt when playing it right now.
This is what happens when u actually put time and work into your games. Still, it came out in an era where video games wasn't at its best, but fairly good!.
I have to agree, actually it still looks better than 95% of the games today
Dude this is better than a lot of releases these days. Very impressive
We can thank cross-gen support for this madness.
incorrect, that has little to do with it@@electrikoptik
@@electrikoptik Forspoken isn't cross gen and looks like ass, and Jedi Survivor is that big of a leap on PS5 imo, though apparently it's going to get old gen ports now.
@@redwaldcuthberting7195 Forspoken looks like ass because it's running on last-gen engine. It's using Square's Luminous Engine which was developed for the PS4 era and is about a decade old. And Jedi Surviver will be getting a last-gen port because it runs on unreal engine 4 on current-gen.
@@ItsAkile I disagree. Visuals will take a hit when you have a graphics engine where the dev's need to make sure it can scale back to last-gen. Imagine if unreal engine 5 supported last-gen. Thankfully it does not.
The Order's visuals hold up so well. It's also great to know that they shared all their progress. This is what the industry needs; more freely shared knowledge to make games better for everyone.
This game has always interested me, but it's now 2023 and I still haven't played it. I don't understand much of the technical wizardry behind it all, but it definitely looks gorgeous and holds up extremely well today. The locations are very nice and atmospheric too. Easily one of the most graphically satisfying games I've ever seen, especially considering it was made for the base PS4.
I'd highly recommend it but take it more as art/ a movie than any deeper in-depth gameplay. I think the reason it failed is because people were expecting a lot more customizable gameplay and action. I was always a fan of this game.
I honestly think it's worth going back and playing. It's a great setting, good characters and a generally enjoyable campaign (with a bad stealth section or two) and comes in under 5 hours.
It also looks Every. Bit. As. Gorgeous. as you see here and, frankly, putting most modern games to shame.
shots from guns and specialy from shotgun - still best ever made in the game.
The game looked great and the story, the world and the gameplay had so much potential that could be expended too greatly in a sequel.
Nearly everyone cried and complained when it came out. So now we have bloated 40-100 hour games
The graphics is awesome for a game that came out in 1886. I hope when cyberpunk finally releases in 2077, It will have amazing graphics too!
just maybe
cyberpunk will still be sh(t
Sooo funny
At least Cyberpunk has a gameplay
@@WhyDoINeedOneOfTheseno it’s not
I never understood why the game was not received well. I loved it! Great video, John! You never fail to impress!
It's more like Uncharted 1 compared to Uncharted 2, which in this case we've never got. The game is short and the story ends abruptly, and in a very anticlimactic way.
Because the gameplay was tedious and boring, just like the story and characters.
It offered little gameplay. It's takes around 6 hours to finish it, and we are talking about a game filled with cinematic.
The one underlining reason behind many of the (valid) complaints is that this game released shortly after PS4 launch, and for those itching to utilize their new console, felt ripped off paying $60 for a six hour game.
The game played like ass.
Game was crazy beautiful.
It also had AMAZING sound scape design. It was a real treat on surround sound.
The materials are so good. Also the fabric sleeves moving and not clipping with the rest of the character is so cool to see.
Yes, the cloth physics look amazing. Not sure how they pulled that one off with Radeon graphics chips . Collisions are spot on.
@@mindrover777 This is something games had for years already by then. Assassin's Creed for instance had this a gen prior.
@@Ayoul true but the quality is top notch, especially on a Radeon chip
Always thought this game was way ahead of its time rendering-wise. It really stands out. I hope we eventually are able to have multiplayer games that look this good. I also think there’s minimal light-bleed here and it looks so solid because of it.
I'm simply stunned by the fact that the developers at Ready At Dawn decided to implement different solutions to certain graphical aspects such as the GI for example, in a way that they just seem so focused on finding the best workaround on the platform's hardware limitation in order to maximize the end result. They may be lacking in the extra dedication over the gameplay design attention but you can't deny they're very, very committed to what they're trying to make here!
I LOVED this game from when I played it on my Playstation 4. I was awestruck and knew it was special, because I had never seen such a game with its graphical fidelity before, running on a console of that time. And, here I now learn about the work behind the final product - truly impressive. A shame if it flew pass people back then.
Can you believe it's been so many years? 2015 still feels like it was yesterday
Masterpiece of coverage and recognition. This channel is awesome, unparalleled.
I love this game so much. Its short length is exactly why I still play it from time to time to this day like watching an good old movie. The stunning steampunk art style is my favorite part of the game. The dark sci-fi victorian cityscape, the highly detailed character design, and the various cool weapon concepts are all truly marvlous to look at. I bought its artbook and the concept arts in it have become one of my main reference sources whenever it comes to steampunk themes. Really wish Sony could give it a second chance for a sequel. No open world, no tons of side quests to clear, just a fun linear shooter with a good story and a beautiful visual style will be more than enough.
Never played it. How's the horror element in the game? The trailer shows some werewolf interaction.
@@mindrover777 It's not horror at all. Think more action horror like Underworld. The lycans are a very small part of the game. You mostly just shoot random dudes.
@@Ayoul wow. So it was just a tech demo I guess
This entire game for me was such a visual showcase, it honestly baffles me that we are still not at this level as the norm today. That in itself is a testament to the game technical prowess. A scene that still blows my mind today is the Blimp inflitration and how the blimp cloth deforms under the shoes of the characters so you feel the weight of it all. Also, lack of clipping in most outfits and gear deserves a special mention considering how much of their clothes and belts move. Its shortfalls are valid, but it was too harshly crticised and is honestly a solid 7/10 game.
It's not exactly the norm because people expect longer experiences with more agency. AAA Games tend to be huge nowadays, but any linear game made by a AAA dev is absolutely at this level or better. This game was also in development for way longer than usual at the time.
It's also much easier to achieve this level of visuals when you basically make small linear levels, lower the native resolution, cap the game at 30 and don't really focus on the game part at all.
@@Ayoul Considering that this was early PS 4 era and most of the techniques like PBR were not an industry standard at the time is more along the lines of what I mean. Its totally understandable when you look at the animation, acting and choreography that it requires a lot of effort and budget in those departments, but for comparisons sake, PS3 games, counting backwards from the PS4 2 years in where nothing close to this, whereas as now, we are still basically playing last gen games outside of a few games like Demon Souls, or FF 16. My point was more on the visual fidelity and asset quality. The fact that they could pull of this level of detail so early in gen and actually run at 30fps on what was already an underpowered system for the time is amazing. Ideally, right now, even without UE5, this should be close to the norm in terms of visual quality.
@@Ayoul Am personally tired of long bloated games (looking at you ubisoft). A 6 hour game would be fine at the right price. As long as it looks as good as the order and has a good story, l would be in.
Think a game similar to the until dawn or the quantic dream games. Mostly narrative and top tier graphics.
@@alispeed5095 Agreed. I am drawn to games like Uncharted, where every square inch is crafted with love and the cinematics, story and gameplay are so expertly intertwined that it truly feels worthy of my time. I am over the grind man.
@@alispeed5095 That's the problem, it cannot be low priced if you want the creme of the crop graphics.
Truly mindblowing how much the game could accomplish during its time. Even holds up high to today's standard
I loved the explosions in this game, explosions and fire haven’t looked better in any game since. I also loved the world. Wish it got a sequel or at least a remaster
then you live under a rock. there are many games with better explosions
@@indian_crocodilenope
yes there is.@@Prohass
@@indian_crocodileno there isnt
YES THERE IS. u just live under a rock. just cause series, madmax, far cry and more. @@Prohass
Replayed it this Spring on a rainy afternoon. If taken as a cinematic action game, it feels great! Excellent cast overall. It's only a few bucks when on sale! I highly recommend it now that the dust has settled.
This is one of the few games I remember during PS4 when it came out being visually super impressive and still looks gorgeous to this day. I also feel the internet kinda ruined any potential of a sequel because of how much negative attention in got with; how short it is (which in retrospect I don't mind, knows when to end and doesn't overstay it's welcome), it's 30 FPS, interviews of devs defending this decision etc. I really dig the world it has and think a sequel could have addressed major feedback and been great.
I loved the little details in this game. It really was ahead of its time. Real time physics when looting through book shelves and drawers. Outstanding folly work and sound mixing, You could hear the characters breathing in tense scenes.
I don't know how this game went under my radar. It was so far ahead of it's time. Crazy. The material scanning alone is impressive.
It was critically bashed, but the game was nice, weapons quite satisfying and the graphics just amazing
This game was transformative for me back then. And I'm not even working in game dev but in offline rendering. I still send people the slide-shows ready at dawn made with their technical presentations. It's just a shame that the youtube video doesn't quite do the visual quality justice... maybe it's the compression. It was a huge technical achievement back then and we still feel the ripples today, I'd even say many development teams still can learn a lot from it. Thanks for the video!
1886 was a highlight of the PS4 era. The criticisms were all valid - too short, too linear, not replayable - but even on underpowered PS4 hardware it was gorgeous. It did feel a bit like an extended tech demo but what a demo!
I wish more games were linear. Every game doesn’t have to be an open world rpg.
Bro PS4 games graphics looks so good compared to PS5 games
@@ltw126 Linearity isn't an issue by itself, it's more so that you'll pass through the same encounters no matter how you replay it. You cannot experiment with enemy encounters, or attempt to go off the set path.
Other games are also considerably linear but very replayable, such as Super Mario World. Branching levels, hidden secrets (incl. secret levels), multiple paths within the same level allow for very varied playthroughs. I'm not saying that a story focused game should try to achieve such diversity, but some of it would still be very welcome.
An example of a more modern game with more story that achieves a good level of variety within its levels is the new Hitman trilogy, with the various approaches to assassination and escape methods. It's clearly different from Mario World, but you're guaranteed to replay a level a few times with distinct approaches.
Funny thing is those criticisms are positives for me. Length was just right, in this day and age of so many games I don’t want to replay games as backlog is already massive and I enjoy linear story games. Maybe it’s because I am older now and haven’t got time to pump in hundreds of hours on one game.
@@thameezgamer6332 incredible
The Order was an excellent game, such a shame that there was no follow up games. I remember this being one of the first games I played on the Ps4 and I was blown away by the level of detail
The RAD Engine was superb and visually stunning on the PS4. I remember having problems distinguishing between gameplay and cinematic
Kind of crazy how underrated this game was back in 2015 with how amazing it looks... how is a game like Gollum released today is beyond me.
It was not underrated it was rated correctly as a CGI movie it was very pretty as a game it sucked. If I remember correctly there were huge black bars at the top and bottom of the screen so they actually did not have to render a normal output, I assume this is how they pulled off such impressive visuals in 2015
Yeah? And your point is? It's a great game dude.@@Valhura77
@@Valhura77sure but id still rather have a couple games like this come out than gollum and redfall…
There are plenty of games that look like Gollum. They just don't have a major franchise attached to them.
They added black bars to add 4x MSAA. They could have rendered the game at native 1080p with TAA or something but then image wouldn't have looked as good@@Valhura77
Still waiting for a sequel. The Order was an awesome game.
Ive wanted this game for awhile now, i finally got it and started playing today. It looks incredible, the graphics are so good and just insanely realistic and smooth on my ps5. 🖤
I absolutely adore this game - the visuals, the story, the performances, the atmosphere, I even enjoy the combat. The only thing that annoys me in this are the sections where movement is limited to a slow walk. ;)
It's a real shame this never got a sequel, especially after ending on a cliffhanger. Still, I replay this game every couple of years. Also, when I played it originally it was on a 42" mid-level, edge-lit LCD and recently I played it on a 65" high-end oled and the difference was tremendous.
The reason they had you do a slow walk is because it was so incredibly short....
And I agree with everything but the game play.... It sucked
The sound design in this game is among the best I have ever heard. Whoever did the sound understood the assignment of making the guns sound like they are quite possibly more dangerous to you than whoever is downrange.
I still play this game just to enjoy the fantastic visuals and art direction. Many modern games don't look as good as this.
The most underrated game of the last generation.
A visual feat game like this is the main reason why many ppl still don't find the current-gen game to ever feel "next-gen" compared to the last-gen games. Hell, even a few titles from the 7th-gen era such as MotorStorm Pacific Rift, running on unlocked settings through RPCS3 of course, still manage to hold up pretty well too!
Ready at Dawn was such a great studio , such a shame that they'll never get a chance to make a new IP like this again .
wish sony bought them.... now we would have a ... another IP of a GaS/openworld junk :D :(
maybe if the game wasn't so forgettable. its pretty, but its just another "cinematic" tps
They made a new amazing IP- for VR that is. Lone Echo 1 and 2, and the multiplayer spinoff Echo Arena are considered some of the best VR games ever made. They were bought by FB, and it seems to me like FB is ruining the studio like all big corporations do to their acquisitions.
@@chimingito clearly it wasn't. how many cinematic tps gets a df retro episode? read the comments as well. you are clearly wrong.
@@HH-zh2os Goddamn it that sucks if FB were to shut down their studio , I hope Sony atleast tries to hire some of those Dev's and merge them with Sony Santa Monica or Sucker punch .
I literally just started playing this game for the first time only 2 days before this video dropped. What are the chances? Such an amazingly pretty game. It's a shame it never got a sequel, it definitely felt like the groundwork was there for something bigger and better.
It’s quite outrageous how underrated this game is.
Not really. I agree that the game is good and I enjoyed it, even when I played it at launch and platinumed it within hours, but the gameplay aspect of games are just important as visual presentation. Note how 99% of this video is about the visual and audio, and the "negatives" part talk about the gameplay. It's short, it's a basic cover shooter, it has QTEs.
Its basically a movie, and to most gamers, they want to play a game, not play a movie. Again, I personally disagree, some of my favorite games go the "cinematic" route, but it's no surprise people didn't like this game.
It's not underrated just because it got a cult following. That's literally the opposite of underrated.
@@Dorraj I disagree. I was there for the launch too mate. The backlash was pretty much exclusive to how short it was. That was the catch frase. If this game had been released nowadays when people are actually craving for shorter games, look at stray for exemple, this game would have won awards and be a critical success at the very least. And sure the game is very linear but the gameplay is actually very solid. The story is also very good. Again, the vast majority of the criticism came down to it being too short, and not not fun.
@@johnraw98 it was that it was short, and the gameplay was generic. Again, it's not underrated, you just like it. That doesn't make it underrated.
Astonishing how incredible this still looks
It's such a great game, and it's a shame it didn't do better. I was really hoping for a sequel.
We definitely need more games like these. Badass, supernatural adventures. Evil West kinda scratched that itch.
Would love to see a sequel to this game!
Nailed this one man.Its the way you use the techniques.This game felt like a real next Gen game at the time
I want a sequel. This game was underrated because of how short and linear it was but the story and gameplay was good and the graphics were ahead of its time.
These might be the best graphics I've ever seen in a game. Absolutely incredible.
It's pretty but bro you have not seen many games if you think this is the best. He even explains that.
@@Dorraj Name some, then. This game looks literally like a movie. I know few games that look this good.
@@harrasika it looks like a movie because there are a ton of effects covering the "game" part. Like I said, it looks good and it looks like a movie, but that doesn't make it look better than anything else. All I did was point out an exaggeration.
Its base ps4 tech, not even the ps4 pro nor has it received any graphical updates. The game hold up today and thats not due to "4k update packs or mods" so there arent many games that come close to this game
Youll never find a PC game at 1080p that looks as good as this and youll never find a console game at 1080p that looks close to this neither except maybe Driveclub and Ryse Son of Rome, thats about it lol. Show some respect. @@Dorraj
@@tebander956 Once again, this game has a ton of post-processing effects that blur the game to incomprehension, that does not make a game look timeless. It's a major over exaggeration. "Cinematic" does not equal "looks good".
Underrated title, that felt the smack of the after-QTE era sentiment. Real care went into its creation. The world-building was on-point as well.
The Order: 1886 is one of the most underrated game of its time. I played the game approximately 6 years after its release, knowing full well that it was generally viewed as a failure. To my surprise I actually had an amazing time with it. Even at the end of the PS4 generation the game looked fantastic. Even today, seeing this video, it looks better than some recent PS5 games. The story was also excellent. I was expecting the cliffhanger everyone was talking about the whole time. But then again, I was quite surprised that the game's story actually had a proper conclusion. Sure, it was open to a sequel, but there was nothing that would spoil the story experience for me. And don't even get me started about absolutely stunning environments. The game certainly isn't flawless, it's mostly lacking some of the quality of life improvements we are used to in games these days, I wished the environments were more open, but even so, the game is still great. Even today. If you haven't played it yet, I'd recommend you to do so.
I have never stopped loving this game and I have never stopped hoping Ready at Dawn will return to the franchise and finish the story.
This and Bloodborne were my favourite games back in 2015/16
This game still feel modern even after 5 years from now. Truly ahead of its time.
More than 5 years.
The fact that it holds up using the BASE Ps4 tech makes me want to have a conversation with all the devs apparently putting their "heart and soul" into these games. It's only 1080p lol no hdr
Great video John. Would love a driveclub video too. Both graphical powerhouses today
And knack you can't forget about knack
It hurts me to no end that we will probably never see another installment to The Order universe. The game was absolutely masterful, stunning, concise for the time it came out. Still plays like a dream too.
I played this game when it released, and just recently bought it again. I was shocked at how well the graphics held up. This game has a special look and was curious what it was, so this video is excellent timing, thank you!
I always loved this game and I was hoping for years that they secretly were working on a prequel 😢
Looking at it now I feel like someone should make a VR mod for it. Walking around those environments would be so lovely and the fairly slow and static gameplay would be perfect for it…
I absolutely loved this game! I mean, it was essentially Gears of War with Werewolves, but it was such a fun ride. The graphics and audio were absolutely mind-blowing! I'm guessing Ready at Dawn wanted to make this a franchise given where the story ended, so it's a shame that they never continued with it.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, DF!
One of the best examples of the "style over substance" approach. I really wanted to love this game, but it felt like an engine showcase. I was like "yeah, these assets are gorgeous, I get it, now give me something fun to do".
I absolutely love this game.. It deserved better, and it deserved a sequel..
I never played this because I heard it was way too short. Man, it is stunning. I might just check it out.
Do IT..and enjoy it
When this came out it was early on in the gen and I think alot of people were impressed by the visuals but were also expecting this kind of fidelity to be the norm for the generation and kind of took it for granted. Thus, they focused on some of the less flattering elements of the game. Little did they know it was one of the best-looking games of the entire gen.
One of my all-time favorite games, thanks for this, John! I recall Andrea Pessino, the founder and CTO of ReadyAtDawn, mentioning in an Italian interview that the outcome of The Order: 1886 was only about 10% of the complete game they had initially planned. Absolutely mind-blowing.
Another game that left a strong impression on me back in the day was Driveclub. I hope there will be a patch for it on the PS5, giving you the opportunity to create a proper DF retrospective.Your amazing work continues to impress; keep up with it.
A underrated thing about this game is it arrived super polished on release on disk, solid framerate with no bugs to speak of and absolutely not a microtransaction in sight in THE GEN of half-broken on release with tons of abusive microtransactions along with tons of game affecting bugs where the disk was half useless in some cases completely worthless and you were effectively paying THEM to be a beta/alpha tester for their game and they'll fix it in a years time mentality ( Cyberjunk still holds the record for a released game that is STILL in ongoing development by the way in case anyone forgot ).
Can we stop for a moment to appreciate how INCREDIBLE this game looks? I mean to put it simply, it looks better than 80% of PS5 games! And it's from the early PS4 era... Mind blowing stuff. Also really shows you how ray tracing and brute force isn't enough to make wonderful graphics (look at Elden Ring or Fortnite.)
The ps5 generation has been a disappointment
Of course, ray tracing and brute force are not only enough, but ray tracing is the future of game lighting design that gives the most realistic result and simplifies the workflow of the developers. It was not possible on the PS4 at the time of this game's development phase, so it was not even considered, but it would've been great. However, we both agree the studio did a fantastic work anyway.
Such terrible examples. Elden Ring is an open world game with 100 times the scope of The Order and Fortnite has a gigantic map with 100 players and can run on phones. Both games also support higher frame rate and higher native resolution.
Exactly
@@Ayoul No one cares if they are open world or not. Any next-gen game should be way more impressive (I do understand that these are cross gen.) Notice that by your argument, the first Crash Bandicoot should have better graphics than Elden Ring as well, since CB is linear. Made by a talented developer, a nextgen game should always have way better graphics than a previous-gen one REGARDLESS of genre. The thing is (as this game shows us precisely) high resolution and high framerate are bullshit terms in themselves, they are a comfy blanket for lazy developers.
This game had amazing world building and aesthetics. The gameplay was alright, but the cinematic visuals still hold up to this day IMO.
Such a beautiful game. I was so upset there was no larger follow up. It feels like a movie more than a game. One of the few I've managed to platinum as well. I hope we get a sequel someday.
Thank you for taking the time to look back on this gem. It really was before it’s time and a sequel would be very welcomed
I replayed this recently to finish getting platinum. It's definitely I game to try, especially if you are burnt out in open world games. I would have loved to see what a sequel would have been. The story got very good towards the end.
been looking for more short games to play love well made open Worlds but i have blast playing games like last of us 1 and Maxpayne 3, RE4 is another.
I remember being hyped for this game and buying a copy at launch. I think the problem I found with The Order 1886 is that, like many games especially these days/ modern ones, it prised visuals over interactivity. I distinctly remember the palpable disappointment I felt while walking around beautifully rendered environments and trying to hit or shoot objects, only to find that everything, right down to glass and other brittle objects, didn’t so much as flinch. It’s at that point that I often lose connection with a game and its environment. I think that first and foremost games should be interactive - and I suspect that part of why the game didn’t do so well in sales is that other gamers, like me, also want a world they can affect change in, move and interact with the scenery and leave their mark. Otherwise it’s just too close to a movie where you’re just watching things. And that’s where game devs often get it wrong in my eyes - games are interactive, movies aren’t. And when you make your game a little too like a movie, where it looks good but you can hardly do anything in the game world, I think gamers lose interest.
Thats a good fucking lamp!!
I love the Universe they wer'e going for. This dark and gritty London combined with Knights, combined with Steampunk and a bit of lycan / vampire.
The Materials of your cloth, or the wooden stairs, all looked so real and classy.
I remember when first playing the first mission, and the Cutszene let you out on this balcony, i didnt realised it was finished and i could move.
Stood there for 3 minutes in awe of the site until i noticed, this was ingame and not a cutszene.
This looks still good today, and i would wish for a more defined Gameplay experience in a sequel.
Plus i Love Tesla in this game ^^
Such an absolutely gorgeous game. I wish they would continue the story. Would love a sequel
This is a looker for sure! Nice stuff! I actually enjoyed this game a lot back in the day. It got a ton of flack, but when I picked it up I got my moneys worth and then some. That said, got the game quite cheap lol.
Thank you so much for this video. I thought I was the only one in the world who appreciated the game for what it was. Now I see there's other people too. I lt is very unfortunate that RaD never got the chance to expand on the rich world of the Order 1886.
it's a crime that sony hasn't patched this game for the ps5 to run at 60hz...it's a masterpiece of cinematic presentation
My first PS4, my first platinum trophy. A really underrated gem.
This game was sooooooooo damn good! Way ahead of its time. Love it! Setting was incredible!
Excellent video John, now I’m itching to try this game out eventually.
Excellent video, what a still beautiful game. Can't believe it's 8 years old. Maybe do similar retrospective/tech review with games such as Driveclub or Assassin's Creed Unity ? Would be awesome.
It's wild how a game as visually stunning as Order 1886 never really got its flowers, partially due to how fans perceived the processing power of that generation. Prior to its release, the PS4 still considered a graphics powerhouse, so casual fans cynically assumed that Ready at Dawn's unwillingness to pursue 60fps was due to laziness rather than technical hardware limitations and artistic direction.
As a first-party studio, Ready at Dawn obviously couldn't throw the PS4 under the bus and say "the console simply can't handle 60fps with the amount of detail we're throwing at it." And thus, the cinematic framerate meme was born, a term that would become inextricably tied console gaming for years to come.
Looking back now, it's amazing that a game this incredibly detailed could even manage 30fps on the original PS4's dinky APU. The quality of nearly every asset showed the level of detail and love the developers put into creating one of the consoles truest early showcases.
Unfortunately, all the love and detail they put into the graphics came at the expense of content. At a time when even single-player experiences like Uncharted and Last of Us had multi-player content tacked on, its conspicuous absence only fueled further claims of "laziness" by the casual masses. Thus, The Order 1886 was never appreciated for what it was, and was forgotten for what it wasn't.
This IP had so much potential of becoming something really special.... Shame that Sony never give it a second chance tho.
Such an underrated game and IP. People complained so much that it was too short but it's only about the same length as Gears of War or other game campaigns of the 360/PS3 era. It took me almost exactly 10 hours to beat, granted I probably spent over an hour of that time in photo mode taking pictures and just looking at how gorgeous it is. This IP had such great potential, really sad to see what happened to it.
Two words for the sequel... Paris. Gargoyles. Make it happen.
It's hours shorter than Gears of War... which came out years prior and had a state of the art online on top of the campaign that you could play coop locally and online. People defending this game tend to forget that it was not just "short", but the game got such bad reviews because it was also extremely bland.
It's one thing to make a great short game, but The Order was a mediocre short game that happened to have good graphics.
So glad you looked at this. This is one of my favorite games ever - flaws and all, I've never had such an immersive, realistic, impactful experience playing a game. It's cinematic style always made it feel so real, like I was inside the game world. Too bad it did not sell well, I would have loved to see what would have come of the evidently planned and canned sequels.
Great video. Love these retrospectives!
Gotta think that John has to be thinking about a Killzone 2 retrospective especially since he brought up a few screen grabs on Twitter.
I can’t tell you how impressive that game looked to me in 2009 on PS3.
It was short, but I really enjoyed it. Loved the world and wanted more.
I remember that I was stunned back in 2015 by The Order 1886. The setting and story were very immersive, there was so much care, love and detail put into the world... I had a blast with this game. I can count just a few current gen games that can match such high visual fidelity. Too bad it got such bad reception and we won't see sequel.