The Order: 1886 has made full use every instrument in Sony’s hype-generator, and it predictably went gold last week. That should be considered of no thanks to its generic, quick-time-event-infused, third-person shooter gameplay, which many have already pointed out as a potential Achilles heel in an otherwise interesting game. A new trailer for The Order: 1886 released today (seen above), and it’s not proving anything different.
Forbes predicted The Order: 1886 as 2015’s biggest disappointment, analyzing previews of the game, and what has been shown thus far. This new trailer is not convincing anyone who’s not already convinced. Its claim to fame is its graphical quality, which admittedly is stunning. But as we’ve learned the past couple years a presentation can only carry a game so far. It doesn’t help that it’s latest footage relishes in its cinematic elements, rather than gameplay elements.
Related: The Order: 1886 Hands-On Preview
This dichotomy comes straight from the developer, who early in 2014 said that the story of The Order: 1886 was emphasized over gameplay. To their credit, the story does look interesting, with werewolves and different factions fighting against each other in the name of justice, all set in a dark, aged London. The myth that story and gameplay are mutually exclusive, though, is a powerful trap to fall into, and developer Ready at Dawn should have taken a lesson from a few other story-driven games of the past few years.
Murdered: Soul Suspect was one such story driven title, which only featured gameplay element was a quick time event to destroy demons. The game tanked, and the company that developed it, Airtight Games, closed its doors soon after. The Last of Us, however, many call a story-driven game, but it still featured heart-pounding stealth gameplay and avoided falling into the generic third-person cover-shooter formula that The Order: 1886 appears to be equipped with.
Only time will tell what category The Order: 1886 will fall into, but it’s too late to change it now. What ever the game will be, it already is, and the recent trailer is just the latest of troubling signs of things to come.
