STACK Feb Issue 124

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GAMES
FEBRUARY 2015 JB Hi-Fi
FEATURE
032
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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.