What Keith's Playing: The Order: 1886

I didn't read any reviews of The Order before diving in. The game looked so beautiful and I loved the idea of a steam punk London full of knights and werewolves, I knew I wanted to play it. But now that I have played the game and read the reviews, I agree with them. Gameplay is a big issue. But that isn't my main complaint.

The Order follows Sir Galahad, a member of the Knights of the Round Table, as he defends London against both a rebellion and what are called half-breeds - or as we call them, werewolves. Sir Galahad and his leader, Sir Perceval, think there is more than what appears going on in Whitechapel and the rest of London. The game follows their investigation, the questions, and the turns that it takes.

The game really does play more like an interactive movie. The benefit of this, is that the game looks as good as the cut scenes and keeps you invested in the story. The downside is, there's not much to do. The shoot outs are limited, there's only one path through everything, no inventive ways to take out enemies or complete tasks. Most of the time is spent waiting to find out what button to press.

But really, the biggest problem is that they created this beautiful world, this amazing story world with Knights of the Round Table living centuries, supernatural beings, zeppelins, and Tesla building machine guns, and we only get this little story. A small story in this massive world. You don't get to explore anything else. You don't get an idea of the world that they live in except through brief glimpses of things as you travel through the main storyline. I want to be able to explore the world and see how beautiful it is. I want to see the ramifications that this world has. I want to know more about the Knights of the Round Table. The world that the story is told in is wasted on this single linear tale.

Not to mention that the single linear tale is too short. Maybe it's not a rip-off for $60 the way that Metal Gear Solid prequel was, but it's not too far off. I MAY replay this game once, but I have a feeling I'll try to soak up more of the world and just be annoyed that I can't.

I hope there's a sequel to The Order. I really, really do. I hope there is one and they learn from their mistakes. They get rid of repetitiveness and they open the world up a little bit more. Ideally, there would be a little more free running in there and options for both stealth mode or full-out action. The end credits certainly leave it open for that, and we can see more of the amazing world these creators built. It'd be nice if the series became a little more like Assassin's Creed in openness. Maybe even travel to the past and see how The Order survived from King Arthur to The Industrial Revolution and battled through the centuries with werewolves.