The Order 1886 Dev: People Are Looking For Reasons To Hate Our Game

The Order: 1886 finally launches on the PlayStation 4 this Friday and, at this point, the rare console exclusive is carrying quite a bit of weight on its shoulder. With a long media campaign and lots of hype at its back over the past year, the development team has noticed an unusual trend here in the new year: Folks are trying to find reasons to trash it before it even launches.

Ready at Dawn game director Dana Jan and technology director Garret Foster recently had a chat with Develop, discussing the upcoming The Order: 1886 and how the gaming community has treated the title up to this point.

At one point in the interviewer, the duo is asked about “value judgments and video games.” Using the fact that you can beat Dark Souls in an hour if you’re good enough (Like, really, really, really-really good enough) and comparing that experience to, say, an RPG that clocks in at 100 hours, Jan and Foster were asked at what point do you know you’ve made something of value. In other words: Can a short game be worth 60 bucks?

In recent weeks, rumors and speculation has started popping up around the internet that The Order will only take about five hours to beat. Of course, even if it can be beaten in that period of time, a game’s length is dependent on the person who is playing it. When I see a game being touted by critics as five hours, for instance, it usually takes me closer to 8-10. I’m an explorer who likes to take my time, see everything the game has to offer and really enjoy the environments. At my lackadaisical pace, I usually end up stretching play time quite a bit more than the “average.”

When asked if their game was worth the price tag, the Ready at Dawn folks said that The Order has been unfairly judged by some folks in the audience.

“It's really the strange dilemma of video games right now, but I don't think you can have a discussion of quantity without quality,” Jan said. “So our game is extremely focused on the gameplay to the story-telling to pretty much everything. Frequently I'm saying when you play our game you're going to be on a rollercoaster of variety, twists, turns, there's no filler, you're never grinding in our game.”

Jan goes on to say that game length was not a primary concern, so much as telling the story they aimed to tell.

“We have this uncanny 'haterade' for our game no matter what,” he added. “People are looking for something to throw at our game, some reason to hate it. I'm excited to hear what people who have actually played the game think about it, how do they feel about the quality and the quantity?”

Gamers will, of course, finally be able to weigh in on those very questions once The Order: 1886 launches for the PS4 this Friday.