Gears of War producer Cliff Bleszinski has played through the first hour of Ready at Dawn’s The Order: 1886, labelling the game’s visuals as ‘f***ing gorgeous’ while pointing out some of his pet peeves with the PS4-exclusive.
While highly complimentary regarding the game’s visuals, it seems the man formally known as Cliffy B had a little trouble with The Order: 1886’s narrative, as he explains in a lengthy write-up:
“I want to f#@!INg like it, but the narrative is just forced on me so much. I’m like "Dudes, let me experience the combat You can have QTEs." It’s not always a bad thing, but it’s so heavy in this.
I don’t know, It’s f#@!INg gorgeous, the animations are great. But as a developer who has a studio, I’m always thinking about games costing money to make. I just see this as a f#@!INg big experience that the money could have been spent in some other places to get a better bang for buck.
But you know, Sony needs to sell consoles. I always call it a system justifier. Look at these looks. It clearly looks better than PS3. That’s what they’re gunning for.
I just can’t do all the cutscenes guys. Call me jaded. I’ll probably go back to it, give it a go. A lot of people really worked their a$$ off, and I hope I didn’t offend anybody with my commentary here. I just had a little bit of fun with it, and don’t punch me in the nuts at GDC if you see me.”
Bleszinski then touched on the general gameplay mechanics and the industry’s penchant for producing Hollywood-esque blockbusters.
"I mean, the shooting mechanics are pretty good for what it is. The problem with the AI is that… we had a timer with the Gears franchise that if the enemies turtled, eventually they would come running for it, so there was a certain amount of tension.
This industry is fundamentally insecure about Hollywood and wants to be Hollywood… The only way to convince executives to release the money to greenlight productions is to do movie-like productions that impress them. That’s honestly why this stuff happens.
TLDR first hour of the Order. Right as I started to dig the shooting got overwhelmed with cutscenes. QTEs not that bad. Gorgeous game. Cover controls felt solid."
The Order: 1886 is out now. Read our review here.