How Long is The Order: 1886, And Does it Matter?
The PS4 exclusive The Order: 1886 has certainly had a rough run-up to launch. From not demoing well at early events to criticisms of its heavy use of cutscenes, it seems The Order can’t catch much of a break. The most recent hurdle thrown towards developer Ready at Dawn however, falls on the topic of game length. As more and more gamers look for an ever-increasing amount of bang for their buck, the question of game length has been hefted as a serious consideration when buying any new game, especially ones choosing to go without a multiplayer component. Though rumors of the game’s limited length have been a relative constant, problems arose over the weekend as a youtube user uploaded a run-through of the single-player only The Order: 1886, in its entirety, clocking the full game at just about five and a half hours.Speaking with Eurogamer, the writer/director of The Order, and CEO of Ready at Dawn, Ru Weerasuriya, commented on the game-length debate last week saying, “I know there are numbers out there… I know why the question comes up.” But, “at the end of the day we’re not going to comment on it. We can’t stop people from writing the things they do… We make games. We do what we do for the players. And ultimately, that where I want to leave it.”
The PS4 exclusive The Order: 1886 has certainly had a rough run-up to launch. From not demoing well at early events to criticisms of its heavy use of cutscenes, it seems The Order can’t catch much of a break. The most recent hurdle thrown towards developer Ready at Dawn however, falls on the topic of game length. As more and more gamers look for an ever-increasing amount of bang for their buck, the question of game length has been hefted as a serious consideration when buying any new game, especially ones choosing to go without a multiplayer component. Though rumors of the game’s limited length have been a relative constant, problems arose over the weekend as a youtube user uploaded a run-through of the single-player only The Order: 1886, in its entirety, clocking the full game at just about five and a half hours.
Speaking with Eurogamer, the writer/director of The Order, and CEO of Ready at Dawn, Ru Weerasuriya, commented on the game-length debate last week saying, “I know there are numbers out there… I know why the question comes up.” But, “at the end of the day we’re not going to comment on it. We can’t stop people from writing the things they do… We make games. We do what we do for the players. And ultimately, that where I want to leave it.”
Even while denying the claims that the game can be completed in only a few hours, Weerasuriya made a point of saying, “Game length is important,” but then qualified by adding, “Every game has to take its own time to tell its story.” Speaking about games as a whole, “Any of these games need to pack in what it needs to to deliver the experience you were hoping to deliver when you first tackled it.”
As for players’ concerns however, “I absolutely understand,” he admitted. “To tell you the truth, that’s something we always keep in our heads. We know people want to be entertained and have things they can play longer. But the industry has always had diversity. You go back 10 years, there were a lot of games that were just single-player, one time play. There were some games that were single-player and you could jump back in and get more. That’s what we did in our game. You can jump back and get other things out of it.”
Ultimately however, he emphasized the disconnect between length and quality, saying, “I’ve played games that lasted two hours that were better than games that I played for 16 hours. That’s the reality of it… It’s just like a movie. Just because a movie is three hours long, it doesn’t make it better.”
To see if Ready at Dawn’s quality over quantity approach works out, be sure to look for The Order: 1886 when it hits stores this week on February 20th. Until then, check out the recent story trailer below.
