Part of the challenge of creating a story set in a displaced alternate history, like Fallout, BioShock, or The Order: 1886, is developing reasonable motifs or a backstory that can explain technology ahead of or behind its time. The latest developer diary for the PlayStation exclusive provides insight into Ready At Dawn's concept for how Victorian-era firearms could have the lethal force of modern day.
Of course, if you're going to open the ball for this kind of weapons technology in the past, you have to allow for innovation we haven't seen in the present. Ready At Dawn's got some of that in the arsenal for The Order: 1886.
The game is due to release on PlayStation 4 in February. For more, see Polygon's preview from E3 2014.