Video game review: 'The Order: 1886' is like an overstuffed popcorn flick

"The Order: 1886" (Sony, PlayStation 4, $60) wants to be a popcorn flick as badly as it does a video game. It's a hybrid of interactive and cinematic techniques. The game tells old tales — the Knights of the Round Table and werewolf-like creatures make appearances — and it does so with new twists, such as transporting the medieval and the supernatural to a technologically advanced Jack the Ripper-era London. Within "The Order" is a gun. It fires bullets that leave clouds of smoke that could be ignited into glorious flames. "The Order" is a lot like this gun. It takes its ambitious aim and then blows it up. This is James Bond meets the Arthurian legend — that is, if the latter were initially set in Britannia under a full moon. The plot has too many twists, and too many characters that eventually muddle the populist message of this politicized tale.