Fortunately, third-party developers are here to pick up the slack, releasing games that attempt to ape the best ideas of PlayStation’s forgotten masterpieces in order to offer even a sliver of their original brilliance. We’ve had clones of Jak, Ratchet and Clank, and many of Sony’s other abandoned mascots. However, crucially, we now have a spiritual successor to the PS4’s legendarily overlooked and underrated title, The Order: 1886, in the form of the upcoming third-person shooter, Artificial Detective.
Artificial Detective Is Set To Be A Cinematic Marvel
Image Courtesy of VIVIX Inc.
Artificial Detective from developer VIVIX INC. looks set to be a rather stylish cinematic third-person shooter, and I couldn’t be happier. PlayStation has long since dominated this genre, especially since Xbox largely abandoned it with the untimely death of Gears of War. While that series is making a comeback, few studios have attempted to capitalize on this specific brand of third-person action titles, ones that put a premium on cinematic spectacle and fully animated cutscenes, the likes of which used to be all the rage during the PS2 era.
Crucially, Artificial Detective feels very similar to the QTE-heavy underrated masterpiece, The Order: 1886, a game so swiftly abandoned by its publisher, PlayStation, that one would be forgiven for having forgotten about it. Developed as a showcase for the PS4’s impressive visual prowess, The Order: 1886 was an incredibly linear cinematic third-person shooter that saw players sneak and fight their way through a litany of combat encounters peppered with fully-animated cutscenes the likes of which most modern AAA games still haven’t come close to beating in terms of quality.
It isn’t hard to see the similarities between it and Artificial Detective in both gameplay and presentation. It isn’t simply the focus on narrative and use of a third-person perspective, but also the button-prompt pop-ups during combat resembling the heavy usage of QTEs in 1886’s melee fights, the mix of stealth and action-packed encounters, and even the futuristic spin on period-specific architecture. Sure, Artificial Detective certainly won’t be as linear as The Order: 1886 and hopefully won’t also end up a forgotten third-person shooter, but it is hard, at least for me, not to see the glaring similarities and get excited.
Artificial Detective feels like a natural evolution of The Order: 1886’s formula, taking the high-quality presentation and penchant for flashy visuals and applying them to a more refined combat model and larger, sandbox combat arenas. It is exciting to see, especially considering The Order: 1886’s sequels were cancelled, and we’re unlikely to ever see it return, despite the obvious cliffhanger tease at the end of the game. If Artificial Detective is what it takes to get more games like The Order: 1886, then I’m ready and waiting, especially considering, beyond PlayStation, it feels like a part of a dying breed.
We Need More Games Like The Order: 1886
Image Courtesy of Ready At Dawn
It almost feels like the gaming industry is allergic to the linear, single-player third-person shooter, or indeed first-person shooter, these days. While they used to be the proverbial bread and butter of the industry during the Xbox 360 era and the PS4’s early days, they’re all but extinct now, destined to fade into obscurity as open-world titles and multiplayer experiences dominate the charts. This is, supposedly, due to their relative simplicity, the idea that they don’t cater to the freedom players expect from video games, nor do they allow for lengthy main stories.
However, I’d argue that not only is there nothing wrong with a short, linear campaign, but they are desperately needed. Games within the AAA space are becoming too long, too bloated, and too dependent on player retention, opting for larger and larger worlds filled with endless activities to lure you in and keep you going until the next game comes out that does the exact same thing. In this era of excess, linear single-player campaigns represent not just a simpler time I’d wager we’re all a little nostalgic for, but also an efficient and effective vehicle for impactful storytelling and refined gameplay.
The type of set pieces and spectacle that one can deliver in an experience like The Order: 1886 or Artificial Detective is simply unachievable or, at the very least, difficult to execute in a much larger open-world adventure. Additionally, while player freedom is certainly robbed in linear adventures, that is more or less the point, as they’re designed to tell a specific story the player shouldn’t have agency over. Were the player to have much control over Spec Ops: The Line, for example, it would have been substantially less effective. Linear games can alleviate the responsibility of telling grand, cinematic narratives in open-world games, much like how open-world titles ensure that linear single-player experiences don’t need to offer vast environments or player-led exploration. They can co-exist, help one another achieve their primary goal, and offer players everything they want out of a video game without sacrificing what ultimately makes them special.
The Order: 1886 was misunderstood largely because of its lofty price tag, but also because it was launching during the open-world revolution. Everything was getting longer, more ambitious, and bigger, and The Order: 1886’s short, cinematic campaign, as beautiful as it looked, didn’t cut it. However, as is evidenced by Artificial Detective and the likes of Kena: Bridge of Spirits before it, perhaps there is now room for that type of experience, especially as everyone becomes increasingly fatigued by the endless onslaught of 100+ hour open-world experiences. While I doubt PlayStation will ever make a sequel to The Order: 1886, perhaps Ready at Dawn’s masterpiece can serve as the catalyst for the resurrection of the sorely missed linear, single-player, cinematic adventure.
Do you think we should get more games like The Order: 1886? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
