• 10 Games That Satisfy Without Taking Up All Your Time
    3 replies, posted
[url]http://www.shacknews.com/article/89307/10-games-that-satisfy-without-taking-up-all-your-time[/url]
[quote]Although The Order: 1886 received quite a bit of criticism for being a short game, we argue that being able to finish the game in an afternoon isn't necessarily a bad thing.[/quote] Of course short games aren't bad, but the gameplay looks extremely dull and unimaginative, and the game was $60 at launch.
The Order isn't a good game though. I finished it Yesterday after about 6 hours. The story isn't good and only gets mildly interesting in the last few minutes. The characters are almost completely undeveloped, Galahad is a generic good guy, the Marquis has some hints at being an interesting character in few scenes where he interacts with people, and Isabeau goes from teasing Galahad about marrying her to wanting his head on a plate in the span of 30 minutes. Some of the weapons are good, the semi-auto rifle, the revolvers, and the sniper rifle have good punch, but most of the other guns are either limp (everything automatic) or they are grossly overspecialised and less useful than other guns (the coachgun, the thermite rifle). The standard gameplay is basically on par with Gears of War 1, but with less interesting weapons and only two enemy types (guys who shoot you without armour, and shotgunners with armour). Being short was the least of the least of the game's problems, especially since it felt liked it dragged on forever.
The Order: 1886 caught a lot of flack being being short, very expensive, having little to offer in terms of replayability and just not that interesting in any way except the visuals and art design. Just compare it to games that offer the same kind of short experience at a lower price point, or encourage replays of that same content with things like new game plus and different approaches to take. The same thing often applies to standalone spinoffs of bigger games and DLC in a similar vein, and I've also noticed that games and DLC like this have much better pacing than what they were spun off from. I'd recommend Alan Wake: American Nightmare, which is also supported by a survival mode for even shorter bursts of play than the story. There's also Bastion and Transistor, both even shorter than The Order but also very much built around at least two playthroughs, with lots of combinations for weapons and difficulty modifiers even on your first time playing.
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