The Order: 1886‘s Plot Holes Need to Go
Most individual’s biggest complaint about The Order: 1886 revolved around the story. Granted, when you’re gearing up for a sequel you need to leave the individuals playing your game wanting for more. There are many ways to go about achieving this. You can make the gameplay so addictive that they’ll line up in front of video game stores everywhere years before you even formally announce your sequel. You can create characters that gamers just can’t help falling in love with. Or you can dangle a carrot in front of their faces as you weave a masterful story and just before they get to the end the carrot finds its way over the edge of a steep cliff.
The Order: 1886 valiantly attempts to achieve the last of the above option but unfortunately comes up a bit short. This is because they leave way too much unanswered. Having a loose end is a great thing, but when every single rope in the game seems to be frayed then things start to fall apart. While trying to create that sense of “stay tuned for more” they failed to give a big enough taste to keep The Order: 1886 in the back of your mind.
The developers did an amazing job at creating interesting characters, and creating their own history around a great setting but you didn’t begin to grasp what they had accomplished until well within the game. By that time it was all over. No story arc was complete, you were left just as confused as you were before even playing (if not more), and you must now sit and wait for an unknown length of time. If this were an episodic game then there would be no issue, fans of Telltale’s recent titles are no strangers to pulling out their hair for a few weeks before getting their next fix. But, for larger AAA titles a bit of finesse is required.
Ready At Dawn could perhaps take a look at another PlayStation exclusive for help, Uncharted. The Uncharted series is coming up on its fourth installment and nobody has batted an eyelash, do you know why? While each installment has left you with the sense that there is something more, something that will require you to purchase the next game in order to find out, they manage to tell a complete story. Each entry has a beginning, a middle, and usually a satisfying end with just the right amount of cliffhanging to have you looking forward to the next adventure.
While Ready At Dawn manages to introduce the proper elements they fail to make good on their deal to provide that great story when they opt to leave everything unexplained. In essence The Order: 1886 ends up feeling like a glorified prologue when with a bit of explanation it could’ve been so much more.
