Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky – The Order: 1886

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 122020
 

When The Order: 1886 was announced, I almost ordered a PlayStation 4 that night.

In the end, I resisted the urge and in fact never ended up buying the game… until this year. With the PlayStation 5 on the horizon, I thought it was fitting to finally pick up The Order: 1886 on sale and see how it stacked up against my initial excitement.

The story premise is fantastic. Steampunk knights fighting werewolves and vampires? How could I not love it?

For starters, the game could do everything in its power to keep me away from its supernatural foes in favor of fighting waves of ordinary humans.

You play as Sir Galahad (or Grayson, his real name), a member of an order of knights that has carried on the names and traditions of the Knights of the Round Table in order to fight the shapeshifting monsters known as half-breeds. Yet despite this awesome premise, you spend so much time fighting humans as Galahad uncovers a conspiracy related to the half-breeds that I started to wonder if The Order: 1886 was even “spooky” enough for our theme.

It’s a cover-based third-person shooter, with a general gameplay flow that reminded me a bit of Uncharted – you walk through levels and climb specific marked areas while getting some dialogue with whichever character you’re with at that point in the story, maybe examine a few collectibles, and then you shoot waves of enemies. There are a couple of cool steampunk guns, but in general it plays like a standard third-person shooter when I really just wanted to see more of the lycans (werewolves) we were supposedly devoted to stopping.

Then again, maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t get my wish for more monster fights, because the handful of times you do fight lycans, they have such terrible AI that they quickly went from being creepy to the most boring fights in the game.

There are also some QTE fights, because The Order: 1886 is absolutely in love with QTEs.

The pacing is a bit strange, since there are entire chapters that are just cutscenes, and occasionally even multiple cutscene-only chapters in a row. It shows how devoted they were to making The Order: 1886 a cinematic, story-based experience, which I didn’t mind. I like story-heavy games.

And despite my disappointment that it didn’t have as much horror as I expected, I was genuinely enjoying the story. Sure, there are some plot contrivances, and some conflicts seemed to exist solely because characters didn’t communicate with each other, but it was exciting. I liked the plot’s twists and turns, I felt for Galahad in all his stubborn insistence on making terrible decisions, and I was invested in the unfolding conspiracy.

Until it stopped.

The Order: 1886 ends on such a cliffhanger, I couldn’t believe the credits were rolling. In the past, I’ve complained about the ending of Knights of the Old Republic II, but at least that felt like they wrote a full story and just never bothered to give it an ending scene. The Order: 1886 feels like it’s just the setup of a larger story. It is blatantly obvious that they were counting on a sequel.

So many loose ends are unresolved, with only one important part being wrapped up at the end – in such a way that it actually brings up more questions and potential plot points.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had a lot of unanswered questions about the world, too, particularly when it comes to the half-breeds. Vampires seem straightforward enough, but what about the lycans? They don’t follow the typical werewolf idea of transforming into mindless monsters under the full moon, so how exactly do they work? Why do they attack people? What is their goal?

Click for major The Order: 1886 spoilers
This wouldn’t be so important except for what happens near the end. The game tries to make Lucan sympathetic, and he claims the Order and the half-breeds aren’t so different. So what exactly are the lycans trying to do? What does Lucan gain from his alliance with Lord Hastings, whose general motivation appears to be “evil”? Do lycans need to kill people to survive? Do they just want to hide from the Order (which would raise a lot of other questions)? Do they simply hate humans much like humans hate half-breeds?

If a sequel to The Order: 1886 existed, I’d be less bothered by the cliffhanger. But this was presented as a full game on its own, and there’s no sign of The Order: 1887 (or whatever The Order: 1886’s sequel would be called) in sight. To end the story like it did, with so much unresolved, is just frustrating.

I’m happy I finally played The Order: 1886. Even if it feels like I spent most of this review complaining, I really did enjoy parts of it. And if a sequel is ever released… well, I’ll probably wait to make sure it has a full story this time and then play it, but I’d be interested. This is Ready at Dawn, the developer who made one of my favorite God of War games; I want to believe in their vision! I want to help Galahad and take down the villain!

But I have to say, I’m glad I didn’t get The Order: 1886 at launch.

How did you feel about The Order: 1886? Do you think there is any hope of the sequel being made? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Dino Crisis

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 092020
 

Sometimes I wonder if the name of this celebration should be changed, since we often talk about horror games where “spooky” isn’t exactly the right word… such as today, with Dino Crisis.

Although I got into the Resident Evil series quite a while ago, I never actually tried Capcom’s other classic survival horror game until this year. Dino Crisis always struck me as being Resident Evil with dinosaurs instead of zombies, and that’s the general impression it left me with.

There are gameplay differences between the two (and I liked how you have separate inventories for key items vs. consumables, although I prefer Resident Evil’s item boxes), but the general format of solving puzzles and unlocking doors has a flavor very similar to that of the classic Resident Evil games.

So of course I loved it, because that’s one of my favorite parts of survival horror. Some of the puzzles are pretty fun, too.

Dino Crisis might not be exactly scary in the same way as a zombie game, but it definitely had tense moments. I tried to avoid combat whenever possible, so I always felt dread whenever I entered a room and heard the telltale signs of a dinosaur nearby.

Story-wise, it’s basic but entertaining enough, and I liked the characters.

Click for Dino Crisis spoiler
Although I kept expecting Gail to be a traitor, so I felt a little bad by the end for mistrusting him for the entire game.

Overall, Dino Crisis left me with a single question: why did Capcom leave this series to die? There has to be a market out there for Resident Evil With Dinosaurs.

I know the later games shifted more toward action, which is disappointing, but as I played through the original, I couldn’t help but imagine it remade RE2make-style or with a new Dino Crisis entry that returns to the classic survival horror gameplay.

Dino Crisis is one of the major classics I missed, so I’m happy I finally had a chance to play it. How do you feel about this seemingly-forgotten (by Capcom) survival horror game?

Celebrating All Things Spooky 2020: Top 5 Upcoming Horror Games

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 072020
 

This month we’ll be talking about lots of horror games that are already out, but what about those that haven’t been released yet? Here are the five upcoming horror games I’m looking forward to the most.

5. Abstraction

All we really have for Abstraction so far is a tiny teaser trailer and a Steam page, but it’s enough for me to keep my eye on it. Abstraction is an old-school survival horror game with retro graphics, fixed camera angles, and puzzles. It follows a young woman named Vi who wakes up in an abandoned house with no memory of what happened.

It’s specifically inspired by the classic Silent Hill and Resident Evil games, which is the main thing that caught my attention. I love those games, so I hope this one comes along nicely as development continues.

4. Resident Evil Village

We have to talk about Resident Evil Village, aka Resident Evil 8. What is a huge title like Resident Evil doing so low on this list? Well, I still have some misgivings about it. After how much I loved the Resident Evil 2 remake, I want to believe Resident Evil Village will be another true survival horror game, but they did say there will be more action than there was in Resident Evil 7.

Of course, I’ll have more to say about that once I actually play Resident Evil 7 to catch up… which should be very, very soon.

(Resident Evil 7 was actually supposed to be the first horror game I played this October, but then I ran into hard drive troubles.)

3.The Medium

Bloober Team’s games have been somewhat hit-or-miss for me, but I really like the look of their next game, The Medium. It has a really creepy and unsettling vibe that leaves me hopeful it will fill some of the void left by Silent Hill.

Over the summer, I interviewed Bloober Team about the game, and everything they’ve shown since then has increased my interest. The Medium is about a medium with the power to see the spirit realm, which will come into play for puzzle-solving as well as using psychic abilities for combat.

Somehow I got it into my head that The Medium was due out in October, but it actually has a “holiday 2020” release window, so it looks like I’ll be waiting a little longer…

2. Amnesia: Rebirth

You know what is coming out this month, though? Amnesia: Rebirth!

I was thrilled by the announcement of Amnesia: Rebirth, especially since it should be a return to the unsettling horror of Amnesia: The Dark Descent since Frictional Games is handling it directly again.

You play as a woman named Tasi, who wakes up in the desert of Algeria and must retrace her journey and survive the horror facing her. Amnesia: Rebirth is due out on October 20, and I can’t wait to play it.

(However, I still need to play Soma and the Penumbra games… perhaps this month?)

1. Forgotten Memories (Switch version)

Once upon a time, I heard about an upcoming survival horror game called Forgotten Memories. It was about a woman named Rose searching for a missing girl in an abandoned asylum, and it notably included Silent Hill voice actors in its cast. Forgotten Memories was planned for mobile devices as well as PC and consoles, but unfortunately the latter versions were cancelled.

This year I finally decided that mobile or not, I was going to play Forgotten Memories – only to discover that my tablet is too old. On a whim, I sent the developers an email asking if it will ever come to other platforms… and they responded to say the Switch version is in development right now!

The official Facebook page has some screenshots of the Switch version, although it’s unclear when it will be ready. Nevertheless, I can’t wait, and I’m looking forward to finally playing Forgotten Memories.

Conclusion

These five upcoming horror games have my attention. Which are you looking forward to the most?

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