Finished The Order 1886. My overview
For those wondering about length, I used my iphone to clock it. Had two playing sessions, each 5 hours with a 30 minute break for restroom, refreshments and getting a breather. So, it was about 9 hours. I did not rush through, but I did miss some collectibles. Will have to replay some chapters to see if I can find them. One cool thing is that mission select lets you choose not just chapters but also any checkpoint in the game. So it's great for replaying certain parts, specially if you've already seen the cutscenes several times and want to avoid going through them again. And also makes it easier to pick up missed collectibles. You also unlock an armoury, which right now seems to only house skins for Galahad and for his weapons. I don't know if they'll add anything else down the line.
Oh and I played it on Normal.
Getting into the game, I'll start with the gameplay. The gunplay is very enjoyable, the guns have a lot of kick, recoil and visual feedback to them. Not just in using them, but also in their impact on both the enemies and the scenary. Everything breaks, and gore flies out of bodies when using powerful weapons. There's a lot of them too; i haven't made a final count yet but it seems to be about 20. And I had the most fun with it playing almost as if there was no cover, basically moving a lot, stunning enemies, taking them down with melee. Getting close instead of sitting behind cover in the distance popping in and out. Only used cover when I needed to regen a lot of health. Overall, the combat is great, and I haven't felt so satisfied using handguns in a game since a long time, these revolvers and pistols really are something. Pulling off a flawless blacksight moment is gif worthy and looks/feels about as good as making one of those memorable, violent God of war moments.
As others have said, the game is more like TLOU than Gears. There's a lot of downtime and calm moments, where you explore some linear locations, have conversations, cutscenes, moving around platforms and going through them with an AI companion (think Joel pulling up Tess/Ellie).
Are there problems with the gameplay? Yes, one in particular. The stealth...is bad and shouldn't be there. Thankfully it makes up very little of the game (around ~30 minutes in total) but I expect reviewers to dock a lot of points for it. Generally, weak tacked on stealth hurts review scores a lot. See Lords of shadow 2 as a recent example. I don't know how RAD thought this was okay, considering it completely pales in comparison to the rest of the game. This might sound like a weird comparison but it's like what the Gummi ship was in the first Kingdom hearts. Wtf is it doing there??
Another slight disappointment is that an early encounter was pretty awesome and I expected there to be more similar ones, but unfortunately there weren't. I don't want to give more away than that cause it'd kinda spoil it. You'll see what I mean when you play through it. Most of the game gets even better in the second half but this one specific thing does not. I'm talking about boss-like encounters.
Now to the stuff most people already know.. When someone tells you the production values are through the roof, they are not kidding. and they're not talking about the graphics either. Soundtrack is amazing and pumps you up for combat. Voice acting nails it and so does the storytelling direction. The story gets really gripping and, after doing great with Ghost of Sparta, shows they are really good at this.
It's better than the other PS4 exclusives, IMO. For the future of the IP, they have to either ditch the stealth or improve it.
Yes I liked it more than the Uncharted games. No, not as much as TLOU.
And I think that's all. I'll be taking a break from the Internet cause right now things are unbearable. Both haters and hardent defenders are lying about the game, it's disgusting. It's pretty much impossible to have a public discussion, the haters will label you a fanboy, the fanboys will label you a stealth troll if you don't positively exaggerate things, so I'll stick with doing it with RL people until the Internet moves on from pissing each other about this game to another game. There's been a lot of shit in the past with these fanboy wars but I never saw something like this, it must be a new peak. I'm out! Bailed.
Essay Pro