Update: The length of the playthrough is closer to six hours, according to the timestamps on YouTube. This article originally said five. I apologize for the error.
Yesterday, a YouTube account uploaded an entire video play-through of Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive shooter The Order: 1886 — and this has shed some light about some of the game’s details.
Most notably, gamers who have watched the 18-part series have found that The Order took this particular gamer around six hours to complete. The clips also show a heavy reliance on storytelling and timed-button presses during cinematic moments (which are also known as quicktime events). Sony plans to release The Order: 1886 on Feb. 20, and it is one of the company’s most important releases of early 2015 as it represents one of the first major exclusives to debut only on the PS4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wPf_9kmmQs&list=PLlBoxwve3-ZEy3pPYBI4xlQ6dCcXmWwfX
Gamer reaction to the play-through videos has led to some criticism. Primarily, the comments on YouTube are overflowing with people complaining about the supposed length of the game. Many are shocked to hear The Order might take less than a half-dozen hours to complete.
We are playing the game for review right now, but we cannot say whether this is a fair criticism until our review on Thursday. We’ll have plenty to say on the subject at that point.
At this point, it’s worth pointing out that this is only one person’s experience with the game. Someone who was likely rushing through it to get videos up online to make money from ad-revenue sharing on YouTube. Also, campaigns that last somewhere in the single-digits in terms of hours to complete is not uncommon for action titles like this — although it is on the short side.
Here’s how long some similar games take to beat, according to the helpful website HowLongToBeat.com:
- Gears of War: 9 hours
- Gears of War: Judgment: 7.5 hours
- Resident Evil 4: 16.5 hours
- Resident Evil 5: 12 hours
- BioShock Infinite: 12 Hours
Developer Ready At Dawn, which is producing The Order: 1886, also has a history of publishing short-but-dense games. The PlayStation Portable release God of War: Chains of Olympus only takes around 5.5 hours to finish — yet many consider it one of the best games for the PSP. Ghost of Sparta, the 2010 PSP sequel, was also well received even though it only takes approximately 6.5 hours to complete.
The lesson here is that Ready At Dawn has delivered satisfying games that are quick to complete — and that it’s difficult to judge whether a game is worth your time and money until you can play it for yourself.