February 2015 was a weird time for the PS4. Sony was winning the "console war" on paper, but we were all still waiting for that one game to justify the $400 we’d dropped on hardware. Then came Ready at Dawn with a cinematic behemoth. The Order 1886 didn't just look good; it looked impossible. Even now, over a decade later, you can boot it up on a PS5 and it’ll still put some modern "next-gen" titles to shame with its lighting and material physics.
But looking good isn't the same as being a good game.
Whenever you bring up The Order 1886 PlayStation fans usually split into two camps. There’s the "it was a five-hour tech demo" crowd and the "it was a misunderstood cinematic masterpiece" crowd. Honestly? They’re both right. It’s a game defined by its contradictions—stunning yet narrow, atmospheric yet restrictive, and a story that ends just as it finally gets interesting.
Why the Victorian London Setting Actually Worked
Most steampunk games go for a bright, brassy, "cogs and gears" aesthetic. Ready at Dawn went the opposite direction. They gave us a London that felt damp, soot-stained, and genuinely oppressive. You aren't playing a whimsical inventor; you’re Galahad, a Knight of the Round Table who has lived for centuries thanks to "Black Water," a substance that heals wounds and extends life.
The lore is surprisingly deep. You're caught in a three-way war between the Order, the lower-class rebels, and "Half-breeds"—which is basically a fancy name for werewolves (Lycanthropes). The developer used a customized engine called RAD Engine 4.0, which allowed for things like physicalized cloth and soft-body physics that were unheard of at the time. When Galahad moves, his coat reacts to the wind and his movements in a way that feels heavy. It feels real.
The weapons were another highlight. Since Nikola Tesla is basically the Q to your James Bond, you get these wild prototype weapons. The Thermite Rifle is still one of the coolest guns in gaming history. You shoot a cloud of magnesium strips at a group of enemies and then fire a flare to ignite the whole mess. It’s satisfying. It’s visceral. And sadly, you only get to use it a handful of times.
🔗 Read more: Magic Thread: What Most People Get Wrong in Fisch
The Controversy: 5 Hours for 60 Dollars?
We have to talk about the length. This was the "Great Internet Debate" of 2015. Several leaked playthroughs showed the credits rolling in under six hours. For a full-priced $60 game with zero multiplayer and no branching paths, people lost their minds.
The industry was shifting. Open-world games like The Witcher 3 were about to set a new standard for value-per-hour. In that climate, a linear, cinematic experience felt like a relic. The game used massive black cinematic bars (letterboxing) to achieve its filmic look and reduce the rendering load, which annoyed players who felt like their 1080p TVs were being wasted.
Ru Weerasuriya, the creative director, defended the length by saying they prioritized "quality over quantity." He wasn't lying about the quality. Every asset in the game looks hand-crafted. There’s no "copy-paste" environment design here. You can walk into a room and see individual textures on a tea set or the grain in a wooden table. But once you finish the story, there is absolutely no reason to go back. No collectibles that matter, no New Game Plus at launch, nothing.
The Mechanics: Great Ideas, Dated Execution
The gameplay is a standard third-person cover shooter. If you’ve played Gears of War, you know the drill. Duck behind a wall, pop up, shoot a guy in a top hat, repeat.
Where it faltered was the over-reliance on Quick Time Events (QTEs). Even the boss fights—which should have been epic showdowns with terrifying werewolves—were mostly just timed button presses. It felt like the game was constantly taking the controller out of your hands just when things got exciting. You’d have this incredible build-up, a tense atmosphere, and then... Press X to not die. It was a bit of a letdown.
💡 You might also like: Is the PlayStation 5 Slim Console Digital Edition Actually Worth It?
The stealth sections were also notoriously "instant-fail." If a guard spotted you, it was game over. No recovery, no frantic shootout to fix your mistake. Just a loading screen. In a game meant to feel like a seamless movie, these hard stops broke the immersion.
What Modern Developers Can Learn from Ready at Dawn
Despite the flaws, there is so much to admire. The "seamless transition" from cutscene to gameplay is something God of War (2018) eventually perfected, but The Order 1886 was the pioneer. You’d be watching a cinematic and suddenly realize Galahad is standing still because you are supposed to be moving him. It removed the "video game-ness" of the experience.
The voice acting remains top-tier. Steve West’s performance as Galahad is weary and grounded. He doesn't feel like a superhero; he feels like a man who has seen too much war over too many centuries. The chemistry between the four main knights—Galahad, Perceval, Isabeau, and Lafayette—is better than most 40-hour RPGs.
The Sequel That Never Was
The ending of the game is a massive cliffhanger. It sets up a world where Galahad is an outlaw, London is in chaos, and the real villains are finally revealed. It felt like a Prologue rather than a full story.
For years, rumors swirled about a sequel. Fans hoped that since the engine and assets were already built, a second game could focus entirely on expanding the gameplay and world. Unfortunately, Sony owned the IP, and after the lukewarm critical reception and the "length-gate" controversy, the project was shelved. Ready at Dawn was eventually acquired by Meta (formerly Facebook) to work on VR titles like Lone Echo.
📖 Related: How to Solve 6x6 Rubik's Cube Without Losing Your Mind
With the developers now focused on the Oculus/Quest ecosystem, the chances of seeing The Order 1887 are basically zero. It remains a beautiful, lonely island in the PlayStation library.
Why You Should Still Play It Today
If you can find it for $10 or $20—which is easy to do since it’s frequently on sale—it is absolutely worth a weekend.
It’s a "palate cleanser" game. In an era where every game wants 100 hours of your time and has a battle pass and a map cluttered with icons, there’s something refreshing about a game that just wants to tell you a story and get out of the way. You can start it on a Saturday morning and be done by dinner, feeling like you just lived through a high-budget HBO miniseries.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Playthrough
- Turn off the HUD: The game is so pretty that the UI actually gets in the way. Turning it off makes the experience feel even more like a film.
- Listen to the Phonograph Cylinders: These are the game's audio logs. They provide a lot of the world-building that the main cutscenes skip over.
- Take your time in the hospital level: This is where the horror elements really shine. The lighting in the basement sections is still some of the best in the industry.
- Photo Mode is your friend: If you’re into digital photography, this game is a goldmine. The character models have more detail than some modern games' cinematic assets.
The Order 1886 isn't a failure, but it is a cautionary tale. It’s a reminder that visual fidelity can't carry a game if the systems underneath it aren't robust enough to keep players engaged. It’s a gorgeous, flawed, atmospheric journey into a London that never was, and it deserved a second chance it likely won't ever get.
Actionable Insights for Players and Collectors
- Check the PlayStation Store Sales: The game regularly drops to under $10. At that price point, the "value per hour" argument disappears.
- Physical Copy Value: Because it was a major release, physical copies are everywhere and cheap. It’s a great addition to a physical shelf for the cover art alone.
- Performance on PS5: The game runs via backwards compatibility. While it hasn't received a 60fps patch (it’s still locked at 30fps for that "cinematic look"), the stable frame rate and faster loading times make it the definitive way to play.
- Lore Research: If you find yourself wanting more of the story, look up the "The Order: 1886 - Blackwater" ARG (Alternate Reality Game) archives. Much of the deep history of the Order and the Rebellion was hidden in these pre-launch marketing materials.