February 2012
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
There’s a fascinating story behind the making of Kingdoms of Amalur, a story of former baseball star Curt Schilling, 38 Studios, Big Huge Games, and the State of Rhode Island. It’s detailed in great degree in Jason Schreier’s latest book, “Press Reset” and I’d recommend it for those interested in the gaming industry. Despite all the issues surrounding the creation of this game, what released was surprisingly good.
Kingdoms is a third person Action-RPG, comparable in some ways to the Fable series but with more focus on looting, slaying, and RPG elements. I’d go as far as to say I’d rather play this than Fable I-III. I don’t think the game is remarkable, but it does everything pretty well. Nothing is broken or bad, and I wouldn’t say I was ever bored playing. I have no idea what the story was at this point, but that was never the driver for me with most generic high fantasy themed RPGs. The appeal here is the great combat system coupled with loot that creates a gameplay loop and journey that’s easy to see to the end. I’ve not played the rerelease, but the fact that it received one is quite neat and I think that’s likely the best way to play it now. And play it you should, maybe you can refresh my memory as to what made it so appealing. It was mindless fun and I can’t point to anything bad about it from my recollection, a win in my book!
Shoutouts to The Darkness II, Double Fine Happy Action Theater, Shank 2, Binary Domain, Syndicate, Asura’s Wrath, and SSX. Lots of excellent “B-Tier” games to check out. I think all are worth a shot.