But as soon as I was inside, things quickly devolved into standard cover-shooter fare. I followed my fellow compatriots through the airship, who led me down the correct path and opened locked doors for me and told me who to shoot when I had to. Where there were doors that my partner couldn't open, I was tasked with opening them via a hacking minigame. And where there were enemies that threatened to raise the alarm, I was tasked with performing stealthy kills. It's the latter that proved to be the most grating aspect of The Order, not because they were hard as such, but when I did make an honest mistake and peek from behind cover a tad too early, I was treated to a frustrating insta-death before being sent back to the last checkpoint.
There's always going to be a battle between presenting a compelling story and giving the player freedom, but this level of enforced stealth in a game that's built upon such a rich (and dare I say realistic-looking) world just sucked me out of the moment. Sure, I shouldn't have alerted the guard, but why not give me a way to fix my error instead of sending me back to the last checkpoint in shame? With the Order it's very much its way or the highway. Later, after making my way through the ship's galley, I was tasked with assassinating rebels disguised as official guards, who, I was told, could be identified by the lack of a shoulder patch on their uniforms. Easy enough, but the game refused to let me go out on my own, instead pre-highlighting the guards I needed to inspect, and sapping all the fun out of the mission.
This would all be somewhat forgivable if the shooting itself was especially exciting, which sadly, it wasn't. The feeble weapons and slightly iffy cover-system didn't make the shooting bad as such, but after running through the corridors of that airship, trying to chase down a rebel assailant while fighting off a stream of armed guards, The Order so far just wasn't hitting the tight, mechanical joys of say a
Gears Of War, or a
Vanquish. Maybe the drive of the story (obviously not part of an isolated demo) will be enough to push players through the combat. Certainly, I want there to be more to The Order: 1886 than what I've seen so far, because it really is a beautiful thing to behold. A lot of love has been poured into those visuals, let's just hope by the time it sees release the same can be said for the rest of it.
