Nikola Tesla to Make Appearance in The Order: 1886

[Esmeralda Portillo]

Nikola Tesla to Make Appearance in The Order: 1886

The latest addition to the PlayStation exclusive The Order: 1886 is inventor Nikola Tesla.


The Order: 1886 is a game made up of an interesting array of details: it takes place in 19th century London, it features futuristic weaponry, there are half-breed monsters like Lycans [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/135754-Lycans-Are-the-Latest-Enemies-Revealed-for-The-Order-1886] that are looming in the shadows, the protagonists carry the names of the Knights of the Round Table, and now we've learned that Nikola Tesla plays a pivotal role in the game's narrative.

Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest inventors of human history, will bring his genius as well as his inventions with him to The Order as their chief scientist. He's responsible for the creation of the Arc Gun, a high-voltage weapon that creates a Jacob's Ladder and zaps hostile enemies, and the Thermite Rifle [http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2013/08/21/building-a-new-london-for-the-order-1886-on-ps4/], the gun prominently featured in demos of the game that shoots clouds of inflammable thermite that can then be ignited with a flare or spark.

"The inclusion of Tesla is a great example of how we have integrated real figures into our fiction to create an original universe," states the PS Blog [http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/08/12/the-order-1886-at-gamescom-introducing-nikola-tesla/]. Tesla will soon realize that "...with great power comes great responsibility... and in the wrong hands, these weapons may prove to be as much a threat as an advantage."

The Order: 1886 is a third-person shooter game currently in development by Ready At Dawn, creators of the 2006 Daxter, and SCE Santa Monica Studio. It's set to release on February 20, 2015. Read our hands on preview [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e32014/11505-The-Order-1886-Hands-On-Worth-the-Delay-Update].

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[Something Amyss]

And I'm betting all he will have in common with the real Tesla is the name and electricity.

Anyway, kinda neat. I guess. I'm not sure how this is all that exciting, though. Historical properties do this all the time, whether they do fact, fiction or complete fantasy.

 

[Cowabungaa]

And I'm betting all he will have in common with the real Tesla is the name and electricity.

And the craziness, because every 19th century steampunk-y game needs the Paragon of Crazy Inventors; Nikola Tesla. I mean, is anyone really surprised at this?

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I guarantee it's going to be idealised internet version of Tesla, not the actual, eugenics-supporting ball of crazy that he really was.

*snip'd*

I would love an Assassin's Creed-esque moment where the order guys storm his room:

"Hey! Look! It's Nikola Tesla! He's with his pigeon and is actively being racist!"

I enjoy games with no self-awareness, they make for better punching bags :O

 

[kailus13]

Not particularly surprising. They have a lightning gun in there and it's set in the right time period.

I'm hoping they include the earthquake machine that he claimed to have made. I know it was proven false on Mythbusters but if they have a lightning gun they can include the earthquake machine as well.

 

[ColaWarVeteran]

Not particularly surprising. They have a lightning gun in there and it's set in the right time period.

I'm hoping they include the earthquake machine that he claimed to have made. I know it was proven false on Mythbusters but if they have a lightning gun they can include the earthquake machine as well.

If they do it will probably be part of a mission where you have to set it up to destroy an enemy lair or something.

 

[Ferisar]

"The inclusion of Tesla is a great example of how we have integrated real figures into our fiction to create an original universe," states the PS Blog [http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/08/12/the-order-1886-at-gamescom-introducing-nikola-tesla/]. Tesla will soon realize that "...with great power comes great responsibility... and in the wrong hands, these weapons may prove to be as much a threat as an advantage."

So, Nikola Tesla is Spider-Man in this universe?

But more seriously, I imagine he'll be nothing like Tesla actually was, just carrying the name and the stereotypical inventor caricature. I don't have very high hopes for a game which tries to pass its low frame rate and technical specs off as a "feature" instead of just admitting that it's a technical limitation of the consoles they're developing on.

On that note, I'm personally pissed that they are saying that when their game looks fucking gorgeous. You don't have to be all "no guys really we had to do it for the MOVIE EFFECT", just say you're limited by your hardware. There's no shame to be had when you still make the visuals impressive and the framerate consistent enough to play. We've lived with 30 before, we'll live with it again.

 

[Westaway]

Bizarre how one of the most obnoxious fan groups to ever exist is for a Serbian inventor. Not surprised they're being thrown a bone here.

 

[Me55enger]

I thought this was one of the most interesting titles coming out of E3, only to have it relegated into the mindless realms of importance oblivion by it being a console exclusive.

 

[Captain Anon]

And I'm betting all he will have in common with the real Tesla is the name and electricity.

And the craziness, because every 19th century steampunk-y game needs the Paragon of Crazy Inventors; Nikola Tesla. I mean, is anyone really surprised at this?

*slowly raising hand* I know there would be a character who made all that possible but I don't think it would be Tesla, now that I think about it yeah it does make sense but it's still a surispe

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Eh, they should've gotten David Bowie. He played Tesla before and has been in a video game too. The eccentric inventor by the eccentric self-reinventor.

 

[putowtin]

Bizarre how one of the most obnoxious fan groups to ever exist is for a Serbian inventor. Not surprised they're being thrown a bone here.

Why am I obnoxious?

OT: Interesting, but so far this seems to be another shooter... okay it's set in steam-punk Victorian England, but their gonna have to up the ante to make this a must buy

 

[Therumancer]

And I'm betting all he will have in common with the real Tesla is the name and electricity.

And the craziness, because every 19th century steampunk-y game needs the Paragon of Crazy Inventors; Nikola Tesla. I mean, is anyone really surprised at this?

Actually I'm not, and a little disappointed, simply because nowadays I'd actually be surprised if he wasn't involved. I mean they seem to throw him out everywhere and anywhere nowadays, especially when it comes to alternate history and steampunk type stuff.

See, while Tesla was a genius and responsible for a great many things, I tend to think he's given way too much credit, and his insanity is majorly downplayed.

Today it seems to be hip to pretty much present Tesla as some kind of forgotten luminary that did all of these cool things and had them stolen from him, and guys like Thomas Edison who previously got a lot of the credit being increasingly represented as thieves and hacks. Largely because of the fact that Tesla *DID* have a moment in providing that Alternating Current was far superior to Direct Current and outdid Edison there. A point which does sort of dismiss that Edison did have some points about Alternating Current being dangerous, and also to be fair Edison did have a lot of money going into the establishment of Direct Current based technologies. AC was of course worth the risks.

At the end of the day though I do think that people tend to forget that Tesla was this crazy guy who was just as interested in psychic phenomena and the occult as science, and we're not talking serious parapsychology, this was a dude who if I remember claimed to talk to aliens, and went running around with a Pyramid had claiming it gave him psychic powers which he could never demonstrate and all kinds of other bizzare, dysfunctional, stuff. I think the reason why he wound up where he did and forgotten was that he actually took a lot of ideas from his contemporaries, and while he had at least one major success, the rest of the time he was pretty much running around barking at the moon and that's the reason why nobody wanted to deal with, or invest in him. Basically Edison didn't need to discredit this guy because he feared his genius, Tesla did that himself, and managed to hang out on the fringes of history until recently where people increasingly realized how amazing his few successes actually were.

That isn't to say the fantasy version isn't fun, but I find that it's getting overdone. It sounds silly, but I'd actually like to team up with Edison who seems like he should be the stereotypical one, rather than Tesla, because it seems like Tesla pops out of the woodwork constantly. Also given how utterly mad Tesla was, it occurs to me that he would actually work best in a villain role, especially if you had him about to unleash Azathoth or something (the voices he hears through the pyramids are older than time... and those aren't really aliens...). That could also explain why he wound up a shattered man in the end.

All this rambling aside, Tesla isn't a deal breaker, I don't mind him, it's just not a selling point anymore. As I have a PS4 I'm desperately waiting for games to come out for it... and this is a game for the PS4.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I remember when Assassin's Creed did this with Leonardo da Vinci. And while it's always nice to talk to historical figures, I get the feeling this game will lack the 'historical accuracy' of AC, and the interesting historical revisionism of games like Wolfenstein (whose surprise inclusion of Jimi Hendrix brought me quite a bit of joy). So Tesla will probably just be another white guy walking around, talking in an accent, and making gullible fools put down money for preorders.

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

Oh but the looks beautiful! I'm still not sold on the gun play but the story could be very interesting

-M

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I remember when Assassin's Creed did this with Leonardo da Vinci. And while it's always nice to talk to historical figures, I get the feeling this game will lack the 'historical accuracy' of AC, and the interesting historical revisionism of games like Wolfenstein (whose surprise inclusion of Jimi Hendrix brought me quite a bit of joy). So Tesla will probably just be another white guy walking around, talking in an accent, and making gullible fools put down money for preorders.

Jimi Hendrix was in a Wolfenstein game?! Seriously? When? That's amazing!

Yeah, it was in The New Order, in the Wyatt timeline. They never refer to him by name, but it's pretty obvious.
http://wolfenstein.wikia.com/wiki/J