The Order: 1886 is a single-player action game from Ready At Dawn, in development since 2010 and due out early next year as a PlayStation 4 exclusive. It takes place in an alternate history London, and follows an order of knights who represent the first line of defence in a centuries-old war between mankind and the werewolf-like Half-Breeds.
People have been hungry for details about this game since it was first announced. Ready At Dawn have earned some high expectations due in part to their acclaimed God of War games, and many gamers (if the YouTube comment threads are to be believed) are expecting The Order: 1886 to be a showpiece for the PS4 – but I’m not Ben Kuchera and this isn’t an analysis of the game marketplace. I’m here to get hyped about the werewolves! Check out this trailer (more of a featurette really) showing the lengths Ready At Dawn have gone in creating the Half-Breed antagonists.
I like the creature design a lot, but what I love is the attention that went into making the Half-Breeds intelligent and biologically plausible. Good characterization is important in any story-telling medium, so it was nice to hear art director Nathan Phail-Liff’s comment about avoiding “transformation from specific guy to generic scary creature”. I’m very impressed by the technical effort put into achieving seamless transformations, too – changing the character geometry, rigging and textures on the fly without any cuts away to “cheat” is obviously no easy feat. I don’t know if I’m in the market for a PlayStation 4, but if one does come my way, I know which game I’m picking up first!