STACK #124 Feb 2016

GAMES

FEATURE

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• The Order: 1886 is out Feb 20

Developer Ready at Dawn delivers its first game for the PlayStation 4.

A fter spending nearly ten years on the PSP circuit for Sony, California-based studio Ready at Dawn finally earned a promotion to work a new IP for the publisher; they were handed the development reins to the PlayStation 4 exclusive, the third-person shooter The Order: 1886 . The game was first announced at E3 2013 during that Sony press conference, and STACK spent a little time with a playable demo at last year’s E3. We’re a sucker for an alternative history yarn, and on paper, the plot behind The Order: 1886 sounds intriguing. While the majority of the story is understandably vague leading up to release, the game follows a centuries-old battle between an ancient order and a vicious and powerful enemy known as the Half- Breeds: humans mutated with beasts. Co-written by Kirk Ellis, who won an Emmy for his work on HBO show John Adams , The Order: 1886 taps into the King Arthur mythology with quotes from Le Morte d’Arthur featuring in the E3 2013 announcement trailer. In fact, in the game, The Order is actually descended from the Knights of the Round Table, formed to deal with the Half-breed. It’s an amalgamation of historical figures, myth and legend. However, the setting for this particular battle with the Half-Breeds is a technologically advanced steampunk Victorian London, replete with dark, damp gas-lit streets and the obligatory blanket of pea-soup fog. In the single-player only game, four knights battle not only the Half-Breeds, but a group of rebels

who also declare war on The Order. Utilising cover mechanics not too dissimilar to Gears of War and Sony’s own Uncharted series, the third-person shooter features weapons with full artistic license taken. The Thermite rifle fires pellets of aluminium iron oxide above the enemy. This curtain of metal is then ignited, showering those below in a cloud of burning metal. An Arc gun effectively charges and fires a bolt of electricity. The game demonstrates the extraordinary visual excellence we can expect as the PS4 moves into its second year. Drawing on cinematic inspiration, the game runs at 30fps, and similar to The Evil Within , even employs a theatrical aspect ratio. Much has been written about the studio’s emphasis on ensuring that the seamless visual clarity remains identical when the cutscene becomes gameplay, and to their credit, with what we played at E3 last year, this has been achieved. With The Order: 1886 being the first big PlayStation 4 exclusive release for the year,

there are legions of PS4 fans eager for a new game to play. The test now will be to see if the gameplay matches its incredible veneer.

The pedigree and experience behind the co-founders of Ready at Dawn is certainly impressive. Formed in 2003 from ex-members of Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment, the studio focused their skills on the PlayStation Portable, releasing the excellent Daxter three years later in 2006. A Wii port of Okami followed, before Ready at Dawn reaffirmed its exceptional ability with working on the PSP, by turning its attention to the God of War franchise. In 2012, the studio embarked upon its first new IP, The Order :1886, for the as yet unannounced PlayStation 4.

FEBRUARY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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