The Order: 1886‑producenten: "PS4 var sista riktiga generationsklivet"

När Ready at Dawn släppte {The Order: 1886} för drygt ett decennium sedan visade det sig vara ett ganska kontroversiellt spel, en titel med mycket höga ambitioner som kanske inte riktigt lyckades uppfylla alla mål som på förhand utlovats. Resultatet blev en lansering där spelare var osäkra på vad de skulle tycka, med vitt skilda åsikter och recensioner.

Sedan dess har synen på The Order: 1886 mjuknat, och spelet har blivit något av en kultfavorit bland dem som spelade det och minns det. I takt med att uppfattningarna förändrats fick vi nyligen möjlighet att prata med Andrea Pessino, som var exekutiv producent för The Order: 1886 under hans tid på Ready at Dawn, för att höra tankarna om spelet över tio år senare:

"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 berörde också hur generationsskiftet med Playstation 4 påverkade produktionen av The Order: 1886, och menade att den eran var det sista riktigt stora tekniska språnget för spelhårdvara:

"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."

Han avslutade med att tala mer om The Order: 1886 och uttryckte en önskan om att spel i framtiden ska ta fler kreativa risker:

"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."

Du kan se hela vår intressanta intervjun med Pessino nedan, där vi också pratar om vad som väntar för {God of War}, läget för virtual reality inom spelbranschen, vad han planerar härnäst på sitt nya företag och mer därtill.