When it debuted over a decade ago, Ready at Dawn's The Order: 1886 proved to be a rather controversial game, a title that had very lofty ambitions but perhaps failed to deliver on many of the goals it set out to achieve. This led to a launch where fans were uncertain of what to think about the game, with wildly differing opinions and reviews of the project.
Since then, thoughts on The Order: 1886 have softened and it has become a rather adored video game amongst those who played it and remember it. With the opinions deviating from what they once were, we recently had a chance to speak with Andrea Pessino, known for being an executive producer on The Order: 1886 while at Ready at Dawn, to gauge his thoughts on the game over ten years later.
"Well, it's been interesting in the past 11 years now - which since we met actually is kind of crazy - that a lot of things have changed, you know, even in the reception of the game. It was definitely a controversial title when it came out and the criticism was also kind of a product of its time in many ways. There were certainly... I'm the first one to admit, there were aspects of the game that deserved the criticism. It was a bit of a struggle, a lot of the development we prioritised certain things and the audiovisual part clearly was the target. We built the technology completely from scratch for this title and it was a huge endeavour."
Pessino continued to also touch on how the PS4's generational leap played into the production of The Order: 1886 and how the console era was the last major generational change from a gaming hardware perspective.
"I think that sometimes when you go a little too far in terms of the way you plan and you prioritise games that are very much, you know, we were very much at the crossing point of a generation. The PlayStation 4 represented a real opportunity to explore new technical limits. It was the last... I believe it was the last real generational leap that could happen in the world of video games. These days it's much more, you know, proportional. I don't expect to see really big jumps anymore, because the hardware has really unified a lot, has become a lot more homogeneous."
Pessino signed off by talking more about The Order: 1886 and how he wishes games could and should take more creative risks in the future.
"So it's been really interesting to see how there's been a bit of a cult following that has built around this game. I think a lot of people appreciated some of the things that we tried to do, and particularly what our artists and designers tried to do that were very unique and continue to be very unique. I think these days games are starting to look a little bit too similar. I miss a little bit the time where you could take those risks and try to explore different, particularly in our case, it was particularly an artistic and audiovisual experiment. But it's encouraging to see that the general attitude towards it has changed somewhat from the controversial release time. And I think there is a more healthy discussion about the merits and the non-merits of this game."
You can see the full interview with Pessino below where we also touch on what's next for God of War, the state of virtual reality in gaming, what he has in store next at his new company, and more.
