Moustached steampunk shooter targets success next month
It’s been a long old while since we were first forced to pick our eyes up off the floor and sluice them clean in the wake of Ready At Dawn’s steampunk action adventure’s initial reveal. Aside from brief hands-on demos at E3 and Gamescom we’ve had very little time to get to grips with how this ridiculously good-looking game actually plays. But after an extensive dissection of the fifth chapter we’ve now plenty of thoughts to share, so strap in as we rappel down the most salient slices of our assault on the Agamemnon.
No, not the Greek king. The Agamemnon is a huge, skyline-dominating zeppelin, replete with first class decor so highbrow it’d have passengers on the Titanic harrumphing through their lip bristles and indignantly spilling their brandy. As Galahad – alongside his fellow members of the titular Order, Lafayette, Isabeau and Sebastian – we climb down the side of the ship in a slow, measured QTE that makes for a poor first impression.
As expected, it looks unbelievably swanky, with Galahad’s coat tails flapping upwards in the breeze. But it’s awfully slow. Little did we know upon entry how deliberate The Order is with its pacing. This ponderous start has a purpose, as from here we’re rushed through a rapidly escalating scenario with all the drama of a matinee popcorn muncher.
The first task of the day is to take control of the cockpit and to do this Galahad and Lafayette split from the group. As we sneak between jutting ironwork and canvas hammocks, we’re drawn into the reality of the ship itself. There is no mini-map clutter or objective waypoint marker guffing up our screen. Instead we’re told in passing where we need to head and must actively navigate the ship, following signage to pass through the crew’s quarters.
Said stealth feels rudimentary, although the snug camera and brutal close-quarters kill animations that play out, each requiring a timed tap of w to execute, are powerfully cinematic. The action ratchets up moment-by-moment, piece-by-piece as we head into a glamorous ballroom gallery.
Battle of hastings
Here a political type dubbed Hastings, whom our band of Order-ites is pledged to protect, stands between several guards. We’re told that some of them, marked with particular insignias on their right shoulders, are secretly rebels gearing up to take out Hastings. Not on Galahad’s watch. Our moustachioed hero lifts the canvas bag from his back, pulls off the kind of sniper rifle assembly that would make John McClane blush, then prepares to take fire.
And here’s where the switch gets flipped and we’re finally treated to some rigorous gunplay. The weapons we’re handed aren’t of the high falutin’ steampunk type, instead they feel more grounded in reality. Bullets thud home with meaty thwacks as the gallery erupts into an all-out gunfight. The rebels who we fight against actively attempt to flank us and we’re forced to act, jogging between cover with the camera so close it’s almost bashing into Galahad when we move.
The effect is a style of gunplay that resides somewhere between Resident Evil 4’s measured and tactile outing and Uncharted’s physical scene-stealing cojones. As Galahad moves to reload his M85 Automatisch rifle (the animation here is show-stoppingly cool) the used shell cases audibly pop and fizz into the air. This is a cover-based shooter, there’s no getting around its tried and tested foundations, but it’s one with a startling sense of creative and cinematic flair.
Now we’re cooking
Our playthrough culminates in a kitchen shootout, with pots and pans clattering around us. A foolhardy rebel breaks cover as we’re reloading and we’re forced into some up-close melee. Again, the animation shines, brimming with energetic physicality and filling our headphones with grunts of exertion.
All through our demo, we can’t help but notice how well-delivered the world is. It’s steampunk, but not over-cooked. Things that exist in this universe, from the shoulder pads which act as Star Trek-like communicators, or the lock-picking machines that trigger a quick-fire, stick-clicking mini-game, are delivered without fanfare; allowed to exist and flesh out the world without feeling like desperate attempts to ground the fantismal. This place simply exists and the matter-of-fact way its characters engage within it drives home this believability.
We already knew that The Order was a consolebreakingly handsome shooter. Now we know that while it won’t smash gameplay expectations and reinvent the genre, it’s got satisfying gunplay breeze blocks to back up those looks with substance.