While playing Skyrim, I found out that there is a very active community on Reddit. It’s a good source of laughter and frustration that players share while playing the game. One fine day, I noticed that the Skyrim Reddit was sporting an Ad … of Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur.
Another RPG. Hmmm, tell me something new!
Well, what grabbed my attention was that the game was the creation of Todd McFarlane, the creator of the hit cartoon character Spawn. Add to that the game sports Ken Rolston as its executive designer, the one who is famous for The Elder Scrolls series. Initially, I made the mistake of thinking that the game is going to be an MMORPG, pitting itself directly against leaders such as World of Warcraft and the fast catching up series, Rift.
Normally, I would ignore such games, however the superb online marketing that the good folks from Reckoning were doing ensured that I try out the demo of the game. A massive 2.8 GB download of the demo later, I started playing this game.
Immediate things to note is that Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur is made by Big Huge Games (also the creators of Dungeon Siege III). A lot of the game play and cut scenes seemed a mix of Mass Effect series (also an EA title) and DS3 (which flopped due to bad controls). A lot of artwork and creatives seem to be simply lifted and reused from these titles.
Having said that, the demo was a good experience. The story was riveting (good lore!), game play wasn’t cumbersome (I could easily shift from melee fighting to spell casting) and more importantly, I was having fun playing the game (2 runs so far and about to start my 3rd!). One good thing about EA titles is that they have differential pricing, so the game priced for USD 59 in the US is available for a cool INR 1000 in India. Finally a company which values India as a definite revenue generating segment!! Kudos EA, my congrats to you :-)