KoA: Reckoning - The Most Disappointing Game Ever

Dhruin

SasqWatch
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
Digitally Downloaded doesnt think Reckoning is a bad game - but they do think it's the "dictionary definition of disappointing". The score is 4/5 and here's a sample:
Rolson doesn’t escape criticism either. He’s envisioned a big world, but a world of corridors. The massive open plains of Skyrim are almost non-existent. The room to deviate from the beautifully cobbled pathways is limited. There’s a lot of sidequests, but they’re almost always glorified fetch quests, and I’d argue they’re anything but “sidequests” – a slow levelling system means you’re going to have to complete a lot of them if you want to make it through the more difficult stuff later in the game.
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
The article seems to cross critique the game with the perceived capabilities (from the author's viewpoint) of the designers. Giving a game 4 out of 5 stars with the title 'Most Disappointing Game Ever' is odd to say the least.

I agree with some of his criticisms but I was never expecting a Skyrim type experience with this particular title. The game measures up with the features it touts on the game box and while not my favorite type of RPG I can think of a lot more games worthy of 'Most Dissapointing Game Ever.' I find KoA to be fun and makes for good entertainment between my Skyrim marathon sessions.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
I think the article erroneously attributes issues to the wrong people (I'm sure Todd McFarlane had absolutely nothing to do with the draw distance) but 38/BHG referenced Skyrim at every possible opportunity - one quote from Rolston was "they are the same game". They deserve any flak they get from people who didn't see through that.

I think it's an OK game but I can get "disappointing".
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
I think the article erroneously attributes issues to the wrong people (I'm sure Todd McFarlane had absolutely nothing to do with the draw distance) but 38/BHG referenced Skyrim at every possible opportunity - one quote from Rolston was "they are the same game". They deserve any flak they get from people who didn't see through that.

I think it's an OK game but I can get "disappointing".

I think it's a good game, I don't see disappointing at all.
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
5,749
The article seems to cross critique the game with the perceived capabilities (from the author's viewpoint) of the designers. Giving a game 4 out of 5 stars with the title 'Most Disappointing Game Ever' is odd to say the least.

I agree with some of his criticisms but I was never expecting a Skyrim type experience with this particular title. The game measures up with the features it touts on the game box and while not my favorite type of RPG I can think of a lot more games worthy of 'Most Dissapointing Game Ever.' I find KoA to be fun and makes for good entertainment between my Skyrim marathon sessions.

I don't see an issue with a score of 4/5 and dissapointing.

It's the not bad but not as great as expected view. It's the same feeling I had with Dragon Age 2, although some people persist in calling it plain bad, I was just massively dissapointed with it compared to Origins.

Their (BHG) promotional fluff always touted Open World RPG, but pretty much from the first time I saw a map of the world I knew that yes it was 'open' but only by the most simple definition of open.

The article contradicts what I've heard in other media. It says the leveling is slow, but from several podcasts I've come to understand that according to them there is too much to do and doing all the quests will make the end-game to easy. In essence they said there are so many sidequest that doing them all unbalances the game.

I'm trying to avoid that and try to limit so I roleplay my character and only pick quest that make use of the archetype I'm focussed on, so with my warrior I won't do thieves' quests or mages' quests and hope I can self-balance it.

Anyway, I think it's fair of them to not let dissapointment weigh down the score more than it should.

It's a matter of how you think a review should be, should you not consider the PR stuff at all or still have thought on it. They chose to give the numerical score on the games own merrit but also not to give the PR fluff a pass.
 
Joined
Oct 22, 2006
Messages
409
I don't know about the most disappointing game "ever", but it's not surprising that a lot of people are finally realizing KoA didn't meet the hype. I never understood all the excitement to begin with, and I knew where this was headed as soon as I played the demo.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,138
Location
Florida, US
The score makes sense to me as well, but I would have scored it a more appropriate 3/5. The game as a whole is just so-so, but what's really dissapointing is the potential lost. Everyone was expecting a kick-ass RPG, because of all the big names behind it, but it just doesn't live up to the hype…

I read in some article that Curt Schilling is big into WoW and that is one of the reasons for it's look. Personally, I don't like the WoW cartoonly style and hope they go with a different direction in the next game.
 
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
350
Location
USA, New Jersey
Disappointing games to me were DA 2 and ME 2. KoA, while not perfect, beats the both of those hands down. It's no Skyrim, but at least it is fun. I don't care for the cartoon look at all, but the combat is at least entertaining and some of the quest lines are quite good, imo. The title of the article and the subsequent score do not make sense.


-Carn
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
It may not have been perfect but it did a lot of things good and it is a solid first effort from a company. It has recieved on average a score of 8, which no matter how hard you try to swing it, does not say a bad game. A lot of people are having a lot of fun with it, I know I am. It definately is not a failure like so many of you hope.
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
5,749
Pretty much every game that comes out that does well in sales is disappointing based on the hype that preceded it. If you pay attention though that hype that precedes a game usually amounts to a large amount of sales whereas a game that doesn't have that ends up having from low to decent sales. Because of the hype surrounding this game even though it is surly not the greatest game ever it will probably have very good sales.

PS. People that base whether a game is going to be good or not based on big names that have nothing to do with gaming are stupid. A person that made their name based on baseball that is making a game because they like games probably won't be the best at making games. An author or a cartoonist even though in industries related to gaming who have very little experience in making games won't be the best at it. It's like a 2d artist going into 3d modeling or a fan of 3d models going into 3d modeling and finding out they have to start from scratch since it is totally different.

PPS. You can use FXAA Injector for Skyrim with KOA and can get rid of the bright cartoony feel of the game if you don't like it. Someone on the KOA forum made a configuration specifically for KOA.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
1,596
...it is a solid first effort from a company.

Not really, at least not when you consider the huge amount of resources available to this team (massive budget, 100+ developers, EA's massive marketing exposure/bought reviews ;)) and also the fact that several long-time veterans are attached to the project. Quite a huge advantage compared to other "first-game" companies, no? It's certainly a massive stretch to make it seem like this project was created by a bunch of rookies with little to no experience or operating on a shoe-string budget. In that regard, I'd say it's perfectly fair for some to be disappointed with the end result being little more than occasionally simple "fun" from a team with this much experience and a wealth of resources at their disposal.
 
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
1,022
Not really, at least not when you consider the huge amount of resources available to this team (massive budget, 100+ developers, EA's massive marketing exposure/bought reviews ;)) and also the fact that several long-time veterans are attached to the project. Quite a huge advantage compared to other "first-game" companies, no? It's certainly a massive stretch to make it seem like this project was created by a bunch of rookies with little to no experience or operating on a shoe-string budget. In that regard, I'd say it's perfectly fair for some to be disappointed with the end result being little more than occasionally simple "fun" from a team with this much experience and a wealth of resources at their disposal.

That's your opinion, a lot of people like the game a lot. You denegrating down to an occasional fun….is writing it off short. I think it's funny how this site views games…

they sold 569,000 in their first week, which I would say is a pretty successful launch…number one in games sales for that week. And this being an rpg.

Developed by 38 Studios and Big Huge Games, Kingdoms of Amalur is the first new IP to lead the UK charts since Dead Island's release in 2011, and the first original RPG to dominate the competition since the release of Pokemon Red in 2000.
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
5,749
With the talent and dollars that was brought this project, the game should have been as good or better than Skyrim. Instead it brought MMO gameplay to the single player experience.

EDIT: I was hoping for deep gameplay and story, and I see neither...
 
Joined
Aug 18, 2008
Messages
15,679
Location
Studio City, CA
I don't see an issue with a score of 4/5 and dissapointing.

I don't either. But when the author stuck the word 'ever' in his statement, it seems a little off.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
I don't see an issue with a score of 4/5 and dissapointing.
But this article is a different case.
Its conclusion is that Amalur is a highly entertaining and enjoyable RPG, which just isn´t as good as the author expected. You don´t call such a game the most disappointing ever, unless it was second or third game you´ve ever played.
But then again, the author apparently thinks that Amalur´s characters are universally interesting, dialogue wonderful and the overall plot gorgeous, so it just as well may be the case :).
Personally I think the title is there just to generate more hits. A classic example of claiming "BANG!" in the title and then effectively filling the article with "not really".
 
Joined
Apr 4, 2008
Messages
2,437
Location
Prague
I don't know about the most disappointing game "ever", but it's not surprising that a lot of people are finally realizing KoA didn't meet the hype. I never understood all the excitement to begin with, and I knew where this was headed as soon as I played the demo.

I agree its not the most disappointing game but the game when halfway through feels like it lacks a soul. It promised much than failed to deliver. It's an average fantasy rpg among many others.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,185
Location
Spudlandia
The Most Disappointing Game Ever and 4/5???
they are just crazy or the reviewer was drunk during writing the review...
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Messages
40
Hyperbole ftw! :rolleyes:

Still after the game was out, and reading some comments here, I went and replayed the demo and I must say I came out of it with an even lesser desire to ever get this one (i.e not even in a steam sale). Its not a matter of money (which it should in this day and age) but not really worth the time investment. Definetely not my cup of tea, although I cannot really say that the game is particularly bad, just average and mmoish feeling…
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
1,734
With the talent and dollars that was brought this project, the game should have been as good or better than Skyrim. Instead it brought MMO gameplay to the single player experience.

EDIT: I was hoping for deep gameplay and story, and I see neither…

It's all a matter of taste, I don't like Skyrim that much so for me Reckoning is a way better game, for you it's the other way around apparently.

Still calling a game the most disappointing game ever and give it 4/5 is idiotic.
 
Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
441
Location
The Netherlands
Back
Top Bottom