The Order: 1886 Reviews

Adam Rosenberg

Digital Trends

April 24, 2023

“The Order: 1886 is a dull, plodding experience that's beautiful to behold but spends too little time giving players a reason to stick around.”

Steven Burns

Videogamer

June 5, 2021

6/10

Ready at Dawn, finished by the afternoon.

Thomas Nelson

TechRaptor

March 14, 2015

4/10

A playable third-person shooter with a laughably short campaign, pretty visuals and no substance.

Kim Snaith

GameSpew

February 23, 2015

8/10

Overall, The Order: 1886 is a thoroughly enjoyable game. The visuals of the game really are stunning and I was kept in awe of how it looked from start to finish. The story is engaging and well-executed, thanks to good pacing, solid voice acting and great action scenes. The gameplay is excellent, with a good variation of combat, QTEs and exploration. There’s a few minor niggles, but nothing that would put us off playing or make it any less enjoyable.

Krystian Smoszna

GRYOnline.pl

February 22, 2015

6.5/10

This year's bag of exclusive titles for the PlayStation 4 console was solved by The Order: 1886. The first fully original project of the Ready at Dawn studio has already aroused a lot of controversy. Is it right?

Matt_Paprocki

Game Skinny

February 22, 2015

8/10

The Order:1886 is seemingly derivative, but underneath is a blend of media forms which celebrates both cinema and video games inside of an attractive shell.

Anthony Decicco

Attack of the Fanboy

February 21, 2015

The Order: 1886 is a great game, as long as you treat it as a mindless shooter and not the bevy of innovation we were all led to believe it was. Graphically appealing, the title shows us once again, we should not judge a book by its cover.

Wayne Santos

CGMagazine

February 20, 2015

7/10

The Order is, bar none, the single best looking game of this console generation so far. Nothing else on the PS4 or Xbox One is as absurdly good looking as this game.

Daniel Perez

ShackNews

February 19, 2015

8/10

The Order: 1886 feels like the perfect balance between story, gameplay, and atmosphere as Ready at Dawn has struck gold with its first attempt at an original IP. There may not be much to do after the credits begin to roll, but once they do, you’ll be met with a unique story told within an absolutely gorgeous game.

Blair Inglis

TheSixthAxis

February 19, 2015

7/10

The Order: 1886 features a wonderfully crafted and realistic alternate history setting with the greatest visuals and production values so far on the PS4. While the first half or so of the story really works, it’s let down by the final few hours, which abandon things shouting out to be explored in favour of introducing forced plot points which do the world and the main cast a disservice. Despite that, the gunplay is a lot of fun and it’s not a bad story overall, just one which could’ve been far better.

Tom Parsons

Stuff

February 19, 2015

Some people think value and quantity are inextricably linked. They think that if they get anything less than 50 hours of play out of a game they’ve been ripped off somehow.

Matt Miller

Game Informer

February 19, 2015

7.8/10

One of the things I love about speculative fiction is diving headlong into a new world and figuring out the details as the story unfolds. The Order: 1886 is a triumph of world building, ripe to be explored by players who enjoy that sensation of confusion and discovery as the pieces of the fiction fall into place. Ready At Dawn’s first original IP is also a masterpiece of cinematic immersion. Environments feel gritty and authentic, characters exhibit genuine emotions, and every scene looks like it could be a still cut from a thoughtfully crafted film. The technical and artistic talent...

Bill Smith

GamingBolt

February 19, 2015

7/10

The lack of balance between gameplay and cinematics drags The Order: 1886 down. It's not a bad game but you will find better third person shooters on the market than The Order: 1886.

Chris Carter

Destructoid

February 19, 2015

6/10

Outside of the sleek presentation and interesting world building, there’s nothing truly special about The Order: 1886. It’s a shame in many ways, because I’d love to see a more tactical style of gameplay in line with Valkyria Chronicles, or a more in-depth game in general using the same engine and lore. I sincerely hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of this universe, but for now, it’s only worth visiting once, briefly.

Shawn Petraschuk

COGConnected

February 19, 2015

86/100

Long before its release, The Order: 1886 fell victim to the court of public opinion. Evidence submitted to the court was based on internet scraps, screenshots, leaked videos and 10 minute demos but it was enough for the court to play judge, jury and in some cases executioner to Ready at Dawn’s much anticipated PS4 debut. Perhaps it’s because of the recent run of games that have had issues upon release but gamers everywhere were skeptical of just how good The Order would be. Cries over it being too short (so what?), too linear (so what?) and too much like...

Brandin Tyrrel

IGN

February 19, 2015

6.5/10

The basic conflict at the heart of The Order: 1886 is that considerations for a cinematic approach are prioritized above the needs of basic gameplay. Its best aspects are its stunning looks, atmosphere, and style – which are truly fantastic – and entertaining fiction. But the shallow, slow, and generic quick-time event-riddled gameplay make it feel like an experience that would've been better served by a non-interactive movie than a game. With no multiplayer, and no reason to revisit the short and stunted single-player campaign once it’s been completed, there just isn’t a lot to it.

Sammy Barker

Push Square

February 19, 2015

6/10

The Order: 1886 dares to tread where so many others have fallen, by attempting to fuse interactivity with cinematic qualities. And in some ways, it succeeds: developer Ready at Dawn has clearly sipped from the Holy Grail of the graphics gods, as this is arguably the most technologically accomplished title ever released. However, in its attempt to marry movie-like storytelling with more traditional gameplay, it's committed a number of cardinal sins – and it's these which impede the release's pursuit of knighthood.

Jeremy Parish

VG247

February 19, 2015

Its engrossing setting can't hide the fact that this gorgeous PS4 exclusive consists primarily of bits borrowed from other, more daring games.

Anthony Taormina

Game Rant

February 19, 2015

7/10

Everyone else will have a harder time pulling the trigger on a full price purchase, even though the base that Ready at Dawn has created is solid and full of potential. The serviceable gunplay, traversal, and occasional boss fight also show some flashes of innovation, but those elements are so straightforward it’s hard to be fully engaged. The game entertains as a whole, but there are far too many instances where The Order feels like an interactive movie and not a video game. Save this one for a discount purchase or a rental.