KoA: Reckoning - OXM Review: 8/10

A few magazines have hit various parts of the world with scores for Reckoning but this is the first time there's been something solid to link to. CVG has some snippets from the Official Xbox Magazine, which apparently scored Reckoning at 8/10:

According to the review the joys of Reckoning are in its freedom and emphasis on narrative, which the mag calls "fantastic, even in its side quests."
Although Reckoning has three main 'Destinies': fighter, rogue, and mage, "you can commit to one path or dabble in each," says OXM. "Just like in The Elder Scrolls, this system lets you determine your playstyle."
The game's flaws "come in trying to fit too much into its package" and "some quests grow tedious, especially those that involve fetching X of this or killing Y of that."

More information.

No shit, thats what you get when you have a goal set to create BIG HUGE games.
You get bored somewhere in the middle and forget about it. Quite a huge risk

The game's flaws "come in trying to fit too much into its package".

So are they complaining there is too much to do in the game?

Also, the freedom and narrative is "fantastic, even in its side quests.", except that "some quests grow tedious, especially those that involve fetching X of this or killing Y of that."

Was the review written by more than one person????

No, just a schizophrenic.

8/10 is a massive fail on the current 9 to 10 hyperactive-child-on-a-sugar-high scale.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Also, the freedom and narrative is "fantastic, even in its side quests.", except that "some quests grow tedious, especially those that involve fetching X of this or killing Y of that."

Was the review written by more than one person????

narrative != quest design

Though, as someone who played a good number of side quests in the demo, personally I´m inclined to call bullshit on side quests´ narrative being fantastic .

Pretty much the nature in sidequests in any game you mean

Originally Posted by azarhal
So are they complaining there is too much to do in the game?

No, I think they mean that the game has tried many different things and gone in many different paths. This is actually quite different from having too much to do in the game.

In this case, I totally agree with the author. A good example of how they have tried to fit too much in this game would be the way dialog works in Reckoning. Reckoning has two different types of dialog. First, traditional TES dialog that you'd expect to see in a game like Morrowind or Oblivion, where a list with a series of topics are displayed and you can choose different topics and unlock new topics by exhausting available topics.
The second type of dialog is Bioware's dialog wheel (a feature that I hate, because practically cripples the developer and limits dialog choices). I'm not sure why they have used two different types of dialog in this game (I suspect Bioware's supervision may have had something to do with it, but that's of course my speculation and I have no evidence to support it), but I'm sure that list dialog was more than enough (and definitely more effective) to get the job done and addition of the dialog wheel was absolutely unnecessary. Having two different types of dialog in a single game is a mood breaker and completely absurd.

Originally Posted by redman5427
Pretty much the nature in sidequests in any game you mean

I´m not completely sure what´s your point, but I guess name dropping
Planescape: Torment may be of some relevance here.

I love RPGs, esspecialy HUGE some what open world to explore. I want to like this game but for the first time in a long time i cant pre order this game for 60 dollars.I would buy it for 25 . The game just feels immature. I cant decide if its the art style or the writing or if the game is really just an MMO fighting game with rpg elements. Its not a terrible game it just reeks of console quality. I wish all that play it hours of etertainment.

So 8 out of 10 is bad for this? Am I missing something?

From my impressions of KoA, I'd say 8 out of 10 is a good score. Maybe even a little generous.

Originally Posted by rune_74
So 8 out of 10 is bad for this? Am I missing something?

It's a fine score. They're saying it's fairly decent, but not a blockbuster. For a supremely early review, it's not a buzzkill. I'm waiting for some impressions from our Watch members that buy early. I was thinking that it might be a fun game to pickup after my Skyrim addiction runs its course. I'm not paying $60 for this title though, maybe $50 if it gets praised here universally.

Is that the entire review? Or am I missing something?

I don't know, but 8 of 10 for a first game by a company is pretty good in my books. From the demo I would say it's about there or a 9 for me. I noticed that there is a lot of lore background in the conversations if you want to read it.

Remember that on oxm uk Risen got 4 out of 10 from them as well two worlds 2 got 7 out of 10 and on the OXMonline site got 5.5 out of 10. So yeah, for that magazine and these types of games 8 of 10 is pretty good. They did however give skyrim a 10 out of 10. Dragon age 2 though got 9 hehehe. so all over the place really.

Originally Posted by CountChocula
Is that the entire review? Or am I missing something?

It's a website quoting a sister paper magazine review by selecting certain parts of it and taken them out of context. You are not really missing anything.

Originally Posted by rune_74
Remember that on oxm uk Risen got 4 out of 10 from them as well

I assume that review was for the horrible Xbox port. If not, that would destroy any credibility in my eyes.

Giving Dragon Age 2 a 9/10 is already reason to be skeptical of that site.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I assume that review was for the horrible Xbox port. If not, that would destroy any credibility in my eyes.

Giving Dragon Age 2 a 9/10 is already reason to be skeptical of that site.

oxm stand for Official Xbox Magazine and they are known to give good score to anything made by popular studio or from a popular franchises…

But so far, seems the game average a 8.0-8.5 "score", negatives being wildly different from reviewers though, but all of them seems to think the story is good…

Originally Posted by blackcanopus
A good example of how they have tried to fit too much in this game would be the way dialog works in Reckoning. Reckoning has two different types of dialog. First, traditional TES dialog that you'd expect to see in a game like Morrowind or Oblivion, where a list with a series of topics are displayed and you can choose different topics and unlock new topics by exhausting available topics.
The second type of dialog is Bioware's dialog wheel (a feature that I hate, because practically cripples the developer and limits dialog choices). I'm not sure why they have used two different types of dialog in this game (I suspect Bioware's supervision may have had something to do with it, but that's of course my speculation and I have no evidence to support it), but I'm sure that list dialog was more than enough (and definitely more effective) to get the job done and addition of the dialog wheel was absolutely unnecessary. Having two different types of dialog in a single game is a mood breaker and completely absurd.

I was wondering why there are two different ways of presenting dialog. I figured it would get explained with the full game. Never did understand the difference while playing the demo.

*shrug* I thought it was pretty obvious.

A dialogue wheel is used wherever there are branching decisions. Lists are used when there is not. After a wheel is used, there is often a list to access general - but not branching - information topics.

As in:

<wheel>
- OMG, you are the evil, I shall smite you!
- Ooh, sounds like fun - can I join your evil operation?
</wheel>

<list>
What was your name again?
Where is the tavern in this town?
Where are the public toilets?
</list>