News
‘The Order: 1886’ Was Designed to Become a Series
The version of Victorian era London that developer Ready at Dawn has built around their upcoming PS4 exclusive The Order: 1886 sounds incredibly exciting, so long as you’re not actually living in it. An ancient order of soldiers armed with steampunk weapons, human “half-breeds” who can turn into monsters at will, and the centuries long war the two sides have waged sounds exactly like the kind of video game I’d fancy spending an evening with.
Making a world as rich as this requires a tremendous amount of work. Too much, according to The Order: 1886 creative director Ru Weerasuriya, who told Polygon in a recent interview “It takes too much work for this to be for a single title.”
“We have other games in mind, other things that could be done,” Weerasuriya explains. “The reality is that we never build a world with the mind set of ‘There is one story and that is that.’ We build a world purely for the purpose of making more than one game.”
So the universe The Order is set in was built with ample room for sequels. I’m ok with that.
The Order: 1886 is slated to hit PS4 on Feb 20.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
You must be logged in to post a comment.