PAX PRIME 2014: Getting hands-on with The Order: 1886

here’s been plenty of buzz aimed at Ready At Dawn’s upcoming PS4 exclusive, The Order: 1886, and considering the debut it made last year, the hype is more than understandable. However, hype is one thing though, and impressions are another—so color me impressed; The Order: 1886 is geared in the right direction, and has all the makings to reset the standard for third-person shooting for the better.

While the gameplay run was admittedly short, the content represented spoke volumes of what the next-gen shooter plans to bring to the table next year. As I took control of the dashing English marksman and leader of the troop, Galahad, the demo immediately threw me into foxhole situation, pinned down under heavy fire with only a handful of destructible posts and pillar to shield me from enemy assault. The cover dynamic can admittedly be a bit too fiddly when you’re attempting to move Galahad into position to return fire, but this issue mainly arose when my AI companions crowded alongside me in the same area since, you know, we can only assume they’re not big fans of taking a bullet to the face either.

The default means of artillery was also pretty strange when I first pulled the trigger, as it only seemed to spray bursts of gunfire that clearly hit the enemy, but didn’t damage them at all. It wasn’t until I experimented with the secondary firearm option on the rifle, in which I understood what the gun was meant for, and why it was one of the best weapons I could’ve ever had on hand when it came to my present predicament.

Those bursts of gunshots that I initially perceived ineffective, were exactly that because they were never meant to be used as a direct assault, more like a deceptive catalyst that my rifle could ignite into multiple explosions when shot again with the other variety of ammo that was loaded into the rifle. When shot in succession with the reactive blast, the impact of the two create a powerful attack of concussive blasts that made crowd control a breeze.

When I finally got a chance to breathe after the last rebel militia man was taken out, the atmosphere and striking visuals of The Order truly flooded the senses; everything from the articulation of texture and lighting to the animation that brought it all together, The Order is primed to be one of the most graphically impressive games that the PS4 hardware has allowed us to play in so far.

The fidelity of the graphics on screen seamlessly broadcasted an immersive extension of action and cinematic flair to a degree that I haven’t seen since the release of Uncharted 2. Ready at Dawn has a very cognitive sense of the direction they’re wanting to take their upcoming Victorian era shooter and it only bodes well for the fledgling IP.

If the final game is as consistent and deliberately sharp in play as the demo wanted us to believe, The Order can easily be one of the top reasons to buy into a PS4 next year—it’s dated for release on February 20^th, 2015, keep an eye out for it.