The Order 1886: nieuwe details over het verhaal, exotische wapens en meer

Dankzij de nieuwste editie van Game Informer zijn verse details omtrent The Order: 1886 opgedoken. In het magazine verschijnt een exclusieve preview van 12 pagina’s, waardoor we weer wat meer weten over de aankomende PlayStation 4-exclusive van Sony Santa Monica en Ready at Dawn.

The Order: 1886 speelt zich af in een alternatief verleden. Om preciezer te zijn een mix van Victoriaans Londen, moderne technologieën, mythologische monsters en belangrijke, historische personen en gebeurtenissen. In 2009 begon Ready at Dawn al te werken aan The Order: 1886. Volgens de preview van Game Informer kent de game de meest indrukwekkende in-game visuals ooit en moet alles heel filmisch, als een ware Hollywood-blockbuster worden gepresenteerd. Het verhaal van The Order is te zien als een combinatie van geschiedenis, fantasy, sci-fi en mythologie.

Qua wapens wil Ready at Dawn spelers echt verrassen. Bijzondere namen uit het artikel zijn onder andere de multi-purpose combo gun en een lightning-spewing arc gun. Veel wapens zijn unieke prototypes en behoorlijk heftig en gevaarlijk. Zo is er de Thermite Rifle. Dit wapen vuurt gecondenseerd aluminium-ijzeroxide (thermiet) dat in de lucht uit elkaar valt, waardoor vijanden flink gaan hoesten. Na enkele schoten wordt een extreem hete fakkel afgevuurd, die alle thermiet-wolken extreem laat ontbranden.

Hieronder vind je een overzicht van alle details die uit de preview zijn gehaald:

General
The Order is Ready At Dawn’s “most ambitious project” to date
The studio began work on its own new engine in 2009, which “takes full advantage of the new capabilities of the PlayStation 4”
GI states The Order: 1886 has “the most stunning in-game visuals we’ve ever seen”
All of the visuals shown in the reveal trailer represent The Order’s in-game visual fidelity. The characters seen in the trailer are in-game models, as are the weapon effects and other visual effects
Ready At Dawn showed the same trailer but dynamically altered the light sources on the fly and moved the camera to new angles
“Filmic presentation” is a central focus for the studio, so the player’s view is very much like it would be in a third-person shooter, but it’s closer to something used in a big-budget movie
The studio is aiming to capture a more “organic” feel using the camera style to better represent the setting
Everything in The Order is modelled with soft-body physics, which means it reacts authentically to external forces
Soft body makes effects such as “bending and morphing a metal beam in reaction to a powerful magnetic force, or making boards of a ramshackle wall buckle before splintering when pressure is applied” possible
The Order’s script is written by the studio boss Ru Weerasriya and Kirk Ellis, script writer of John Adams

Story
The narritive is a mixture of history, fantasy, sci-fi and mythology and particular emphasis has been placed on creating a rich world
Hundreds of years ago humanity splits and a small group of people become “genetically different”, taking on bestial traits and being dubbed “half-breeds”
The half-breeds are given names after mythological creatures and folk-tale characters, but are actually a new species of sentient Earth creatures
The differing breeds engage in conflicts which eventually spark a war changing the course of history
Centuries later, a man name Arthur brings together a group of individuals to serve as an Knights of the Round Table for the otherworld
The group seeks to save humanity by fighting the half-breeds
The Order discovers a substance called “Black Water” which can be used to give themselves longer lives and the ability to recover from injuries
Black Water also slows ageing, allowing them to wage war across multiple centuries, but these effects are also somewhat of a curse since they come at the cost of humanity
By the 19th century half-breeds are winning the war, but in the industrial revolution humanity develops technology such as airships, wireless communication and thermal imaging, changing the tide of battles
New weapons are also developed, allowing users to “spit out clouds of thermite” and “shafts of lightning”
When the game begins the half-breeds are trying to find a different way to survive, but the knights have suffered many losses
The round table and the knights are at the centre of the House of Lords and protect the realm under orders of the Lord’s Chancellor
Sir Galahad, the protagonist, is the most renowned of the knights, but his long life has taken its toll and he has begun to question his role

Setting
London is described as being “rife with conflict”
A rebellion from humans is stirring, fuelled by inequalities present in the different layers of society
The knights support the rich, but the poor struggle to survive
The rebels are very much aware of the war against the half-breeds, but won’t allow themselves to be oppressed by the government
An demo shown takes place in Whitechapel, a “seedy and gritty district”

Gameplay
Familiar gadgets are featured in the game; Galahad is shown speaking into a “bulky but functional” communicator
Combat follows the third-person shooter formula
Galahad moves from cover to cover, firing shots from his semi-automatic pistol
Galahad pistol whips an enemy, showing off a simple close-quarters melee attack
When a surprise enemy attacks, a more complicated melee system described as a “unique variation on the familiar quick-time event” is shown
Galahad’s experience allows him to predict how different actions play out, so players can move the camera to different objects and interaction points to dictate how the character engages his enemy
Weapons are “unusual and surprising”
The feature mentions a “multi-purpose combo gun” and a “lightning-spewing arc gun”
Many of the weapons are prototypes, so feel a bit of “wild and dangerous”
The Thermite Rifle fires condensed aluminium iron oxide that scatters into shards, making enemies cough. After several shots a super-hot flare is fired into the clouds igniting them
During an escape sequence, Galahad and Percival come across an injured man and drags him into a building, the camera zooms in close and the player is still fighting off rebels while the sequence of saving the man continues to play out, this is one of the game’s “interactive cinematic moments”
During battles Black Water is used when the odds are stacked against them, although it can be used to regenerate health, “anything that would mortally wound and kill a person” will still kill one of the knights
Ready At Dawn wasn’t willing to speak about multiplayer, or if the game will feature it. It said: “We love multiplayer games, and when we took on this project it’s definitely something we kept in mind… We want to do right by the IP first; build this right”