"The Order: 1886" Review

     

     Amidst The Order: 1886's long, unskippable cut scenes, embarrassingly high amount of quick time events and a lack of other things lies a game that could’ve been so much more. The Order: 1886, developed by Ready at Dawn Studios is Sony’s newest exclusive on PlayStation 4. Taking place in Ready at Dawn’s painstakingly well-crafted 19th Century London, “The Order” is the best looking console game I have ever played. You play as Sir Galahad, one of the Knights of the Roundtable. Along with your comrades, it is your sworn duty to uphold the order and fight against the supernatural as well as other threats. “The Order’s” story doesn’t quite always follow a straight path, instead changing direction frequently. Essentially, you and your comrades are dispatched to fight against the supernatural, but soon a nefarious plot unravels; leading Galahad to question those around him.
     Graphically, as I stated above, “The Order” is the best looking console game I have ever played. The game is letter boxed as well, which I actually enjoyed because it added a certain cinematic touch. Cut scenes are almost indistinguishable from gameplay. However, graphics can only get a game so far. Environments, albeit linear, are beautifully designed. If you explore, you can inspect photos, among other things to immerse yourself more into the game’s world. Every hair can be seen on the characters’ heads, every crease in their clothing, every fiber of their clothes, even the reflections of light in their eyes.         
     Most of the weapons seem standard except for the ones invented by the young and great Nikola Tesla such as the Arc or Thermite gun. The Arc gun fires a charged electrical blast inflicting serious damage on anybody who stands in its way. The Thermite gun fires a flare which is then ignited by a smoke shot from the gun. I only wish that these scientific guns were utilized more throughout the game’s campaign. The futuristic elements of "The Order" are what made it so fascinating. For instance, when injured in combat a knight can drink from a special bottle to heal their wounds. Gore effects when shooting enemies were unbelievable. Detailed red mists of blood spurting into the air caught my eye in numerous instances. The camera is pulled in tightly to Galahad making for some tense moments during combat. While shooting bad guys is always fun, at a certain point, the fire fights just became mundane. It became a simple act of sticking to cover, popping your head in and out while picking off the bad guys.
     “The Order’s” main problem is control. It is constantly taking control away from the player with its far too many QTE’s. The QTE’s made me feel like I was watching a movie instead of playing a game. When executing a takedown the game always decides for you whether it will be a lethal or non-lethal takedown, even in stealth sections of the game. You’d take cover behind a corner, wait for an enemy to approach you and then wait for a QTE circle to fill, timing your attack. Boss fights are even reduced to simple button mashing or pushing the stick in a certain direction. It became so bad that I actually sighed each time a button prompt was displayed on screen.
     “The Order” is not open world; it confines the player to a lot of relatively tight spaces with not a lot of wiggle room. This is not a bad thing though. In today’s generation of games, all I see is open world. Playing a linear game again made me kind of happy. The game may be linear, but there were definitely some cool set pieces such as rappelling down the side of a zeppelin then fighting your way through it. The characters in “The Order” are well voiced and I really got a sense of what they were feeling while playing through the story. Certain characters could have been developed more, such as Galahad’s partners Isabeau, Sir Perceval and Marquis. Isabeau was clearly a love interest of Galahad and I just wish that Ready at Dawn had done more to build a relationship between the two of them instead of a few little moments here and there. On an awesome side note, kudos to Ready at Dawn for working Jack the Ripper into the story.
     Remember how I said, “It is your sworn duty to uphold the order and fight against the supernatural”? Well… you do fight the supernatural; werewolves or “Lycans” to be exact. However, these fights are reduced to dodging the werewolves with the press of a button, shooting them a bunch of times and then finishing them off with your knife with a one button press. Oh, and did I mention the fact that you fight more humans than supernatural? Lame. Why entice with such a cool idea then barely expand on it? You fight about 80% humans, 20% supernatural. A quick backtrack to the QTE’s; the developers clearly recycled an almost exact boss battle from the beginning of the game for the end of the game; talk about lazy.
     The Order: 1886 isn’t a bad game; it just could’ve been so much more. Let’s put it this way, I believe that this game was merely a test of the PS4’s power. Having seen the so blatantly obvious sequel bait left at the end of the game, I’m excited to see where Ready at Dawn Studios takes “The Order” next. 
PROS:
- Best looking console game to date
- Science Guns
- Bringing linear back
- Voice Acting
CONS:
-  Frequently changing story
- Not enough Science gun use
- Mundane fire fights
- QTE’S
- Lack of Supernatural enemies

Final Score: 6/10

"Dying Light" Review

     

     Dying Light is by no means perfect; however it would not be too far off if Dead Island developer, Techland had just worked a bit harder to really make “Dying Light” in a league of its own. Instead, what we get is a combination of many other popular games equaling a still very impressive AAA title. Having never played “Dead Island”, I didn’t quite know what to expect going into “Dying Light”, but I came away thoroughly and unexpectedly pleased. Here’s the gist; you are Kyle Crane, a government agent dropped into the Middle Eastern-esque city of Harran. Your job? To secure a file for your government employers, the GRE. You parachute into Harran in a vertigo-inducing cut scene. As soon as you hit the ground a few thugs surround you and you “cleverly” pull out your gun and shoot them even after they tell you not to shoot because it will alert zombies. A zombie comes rushing down the street and immediately bites you. You are given "Antizin", medicine that suppresses the symptoms of the infection.

     You are saved by a couple of free runners, Jade and Amir. After the opening sequence, the game makes you participate in an hour long tutorial of learning the basics. Firstly, parkour is a central aspect of “Dying Light” and its open world. You can run, jump and climb on almost 100% of everything around you. It’s not as fluent as “Mirror’s Edge”, but it is quite impressive. Later on in the game, you can obtain a grappling hook for easier travel. Think Just Cause. A couple of unlockable skills pertaining to the game’s parkour are the ability to vault off of a zombie while running or run up walls to reach a high ledge. There are three skill trees; Survival, Agility and Power. Agility and Power upgrade points are simply earned by running, jumping and climbing while Power points are earned by just killing zombies. These points are also doubled during night time. Survival points are earned through campaign missions, side quests, etc. Though three skill trees might seem daunting, Techland did an excellent job in balancing them and by the time I reached the end of the game’s campaign I had unlocked almost all of the available skills. I would recommend that you purchase the skills based on your preferred playstyle.

     The zombies in “Dying Light” are well, how do I put this? Dumb. When I say dumb, I mean almost brain-dead. However, here’s the catch, daytime consists of mainly “chump zombies”, but night time is where the zombies put on their big boy pants. Besides your average dumb zombies during day time, there are a few different, more challenging types. Brute zombies, acid spitters, bombers and runners present a decent if not greater challenge depending on your weaponry and unlocked skills. The runners were perhaps my favorite type of zombie in the game because of their little bit of humanity they still had left. If you hit one and then backed away, 9 times out of 10 they’d scream at you, “NO! PLEASE… AAAAGHHHH!” I almost didn’t want to kill them at first, but my mind quickly changed as soon as I started slicing them up like Swiss cheese. Combat is clunky and unprecise, but that's what it makes it fun. Guns can be used, but are ill-advised due to their high likelihood of alerting zombies.

     “Dying Light’s” day and night cycle is the game’s main selling point. At day time, your objective is to complete quests and scavenge for supplies, while at night your objective is to run OR sneak back to an unlocked safe house as fast as you can. Safe houses can be unlocked simply by clearing out zombies from the select areas and turning on the safe house’s power. Night is when the Volatiles come out; the fiercest and most relentless of the undead. If they spot you, they will chase you down like a pack of wolves. Plus, they can pretty much instantly kill you. Night time is definitely a success in the scary department considering the fact that I would always be frantically looking around using my “survivor sense” to scan the environment for them. I gotta say, if I couldn’t control my bladder, my bed would be ruined from each time I experienced night time in “Dying Light.”

     Story-wise, “Dying Light” is severely lacking. The story is bland and unoriginal and just barely scrapes by on a couple of decent characters and cool set pieces. The voice acting for the main characters is pretty darn good, but the good voice acting compliments stop there. Many of the other characters that you’ll meet along the way doing sidequests make for some of the drollest voice acting and lip-syncing work I have ever seen. These characters look like parts of their lips were stitched together when they talk. Not to mention how bored they sound, devoid of all emotion. Once you actually get into the sidequests though, they will pull you in. Some will make you laugh while others will make you cringe with their dark tones. I wish that developer Techland had just tried a little bit harder to really make the game’s story their own instead of relying on stereotypes like the obvious villain and a main character working for a secret government agency trying to secure a file. I mean seriously, come on guys.

     Graphically, “Dying Light” succeeds environmentally with its design of the game’s building structure and beautiful lighting effects followed by a spectacular dismemberment system with lots of detailed blood and gore. Character models look like early PS3, but considering that the game was first person and I couldn’t see what Kyle Crane looked like except for his legs and arms, I didn’t care too much. “Dying Light” has two maps. “The Slums”, exactly what it sounds like and “Old Town”, a more city-like map. Both offer a different aesthetic and that’s what I like the most about the maps. On a side note, “Dying Light’s” soundtrack is excellent. It’s sci-fi, it’s omniscient, it’s pulse pounding. It’s the perfect combination of music.

     Crafting in “Dying Light” is kept simple. You don’t need to find a workbench or anything like that to craft items. To craft, you simply tap the touch pad on the PS4 controller and the crafting menu will be brought up so you can craft on the fly. A few items that can be crafted are Molotov cocktails, throwing stars, fire crackers, medkits and upgraded weapons. Weapon crafting is where the game’s crafting system is at its strongest. Throughout the game, either by completing certain campaign missions or side quests, weapon blueprints are obtained. Each blueprint will work with a specific set of base weapons. Each blueprint adds a variety of different level effects to your weapon ranging from toxicity to fire and electricity with quite a few more effects. If you want better weapons, your best bet is to level up your character’s survivor rank as much as possible.

     “Dying Light” also features a co-op mode that allows for 4 player story mode exploration and the ability to be a zombie and invade other players’ games. Due to server issues I’m assuming, I have been unable to experience co-op. However, I did play the tutorial for the “Be the Zombie” mode and I have to say, it’s quite the creative feat. You take control of a “Night hunter” and hunt down other players using your super speed and agility. You can pounce on players and essentially just devour them… Well, I’m not quite sure what you do when you catch someone; you either eat or smash them to pieces. Regardless of the means of death, it is gruesome and beautiful at the same time.

     I’m glad I never played “Dead Island” so I could go into “Dying Light” with a clean slate of expectations. Techland certainly borrowed a lot of things from other popular game series, but they implemented what they borrowed extremely well. “Dying Light” is a new take on the zombie genre and each time I played it, I grew fonder of the game and the developers who had put so much passion into this new title. I hope for more zombie-parkour adventures from Techland in the future.

Final Score: 8/10

PROS:

-          Parkour

-          Well divided skill trees

-          Day/Night cycle

-          Beautiful environment design

-          Crafting

-          Solid game series rip-offs

-          Highly satisfying blood and gore

-          Excellent Soundtrack

CONS:

-          Daylight zombies are a little too dumb

-          Lame story

-          Emotionally lacking side characters

-          Relies too heavily on video game stereotypes

-          Broken co-op