The Order: 1886

The Order: 1886 takes the player to an alternate-history Victorian London, where an ancient order of knights has fought half-breed monsters for centuries while also facing a rebellion in its own streets. Thanks to a mysterious substance, the knights survive unusually long, and they wield inventions well ahead of their time, giving the game a strong steampunk flavor. The gameplay is built on cover-based shootouts featuring striking weapons, the standout being a thermite rifle that sprays flammable dust and then ignites it. Between fights, there's a lot of walking, listening to dialogue, and resolving small interactions, so the game leans closer to an interactive film than a classic shooter.

Technically, this was one of the most impressive titles of the early PlayStation 4 generation. The image is permanently cropped into a widescreen bar, runs in a distinctly cinematic style, with no visible seams between gameplay and cutscenes. The fabric textures, brass, leather, and wet cobblestones of gas-lamp-lit streets still look excellent today. The music is orchestral, restrained, and reinforces the somber mood of a city where disease and poverty are just as dangerous as the monsters.

The contemporary reception was quite mixed. Critics praised the visuals and atmosphere but were harsh about the short playtime, frequent linearity, and sections where the player just watches events unfold or presses an on-screen prompt. The debate the title sparked about the price-to-length ratio of games influenced the way people wrote about games at the time. Its influence on the genre is thus more polemical than direct. Today, The Order: 1886 plays surprisingly well precisely because it's short and tightly focused, and its world remains one of the most interesting to never get a sequel. The idea of blending Arthurian legend with the industrial revolution, airships, and wireless communication could have carried an entire series, but the studio never returned to it. What remains is a beautifully told glimpse of what could have been.