One of the most ill-fated PlayStation 4 games, The Order 1886, was intended to kick off a trilogy. When the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were first announced, just about every developer was out there trying to show off cutting edge graphics, which is fair given they were trying to demonstrate the power of the hardware. Of course, in the case of games like Watch Dogs this backfired. Other games like The Order 1886, however, managed to stick the landing in terms of astonishing visuals, but critics felt like it lacked all of the other important pieces of a good video game.
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Just a little less than two years after its initial reveal, the highly anticipated The Order 1886 made its debut on the PS4 in February 2015. It was meant to be a big moment for the console and for developer Ready at Dawn, which was mostly known for making PSP spin-offs of God of War. This was a big moment for the company, but unfortunately, it was revealed just prior to its launch that the game was about five hours long. This put a lot of people off from buying it, as they felt $60 for 5 hours wasn’t a good value and then reviews weren’t exactly kind toward the rest of the game. As you might imagine, this resulted in any plans for future Order sequels being canned.
The Order 1886 followed the Knights of the Roundtable in an alternate history version of London as they battled supernatural creatures like werewolves. It was a really interesting game and gorgeous to look at. It probably had a lot of good potential for sequels too. As reported by VGC, Ready at Dawn founder Ru Weerasuriya and creative director on The Order 1886 told Julien Chieze that he had planned a trilogy for the PlayStation IP. Of course, the sequel was cancelled and a third game never actually entered development, but he had a story mapped out. The two games would’ve been The Order 1891 and The Order 1899, respectively.
The sequel would’ve included multiplayer and much bigger fights, though he didn’t go into much more detail. Multiplayer was planned for 1886, but it was ultimately shelved with plans to include it in the second game. It’s unclear if this would’ve been a traditional 6v6 PVP type of multiplayer or something more cooperative. Either way, it’s interesting to imagine what could’ve been. I was personally a fan of The Order 1886, as someone who picked it up years later for $5. I thought it was good fun and would’ve liked to see where Ready at Dawn could’ve taken it.
Ready at Dawn ended up being acquired by Meta years later and was unfortunately shut down in 2024. As a result, it’s highly unlikely The Order franchise will ever make any kind of return, but at least the first game still exists. If you’ve never played it and own a PS5, I highly recommend trying to snag it on sale and giving it a go. It’s a fun game to play over a weekend.
Would you have wanted to see sequels to The Order 1886? Let me know in the comments.
