I’ve been trying to avoid this for some time now, passing this game off as just another RPG with a couple different bells and whistles. Believing that the attention to the little details in it all would be left to a general state of “whatever”. A funneled experience pretending to be a sandbox pretending to be in a world that you can actually affect on any truly visible or near invisible scale. My issue stems from knowing a lot of the source material involved within making the series.
R.A. Salvatore is fine. No issues there. I’ve always enjoyed Salvatore’s work and as long as it stayed in the hands of a decent group of people I’d probably love it. Then I was informed that Todd McFarlane was taking that ball and running with it. Now, I’ve read a lot of McFarlane’s work and there was a time when it was impressive, but over time its become very stale so this already had me worried. Then it hit Big Huge Games and I was willing to walk the other way entirely. You see, I went to an art college and took a major that was partially linked to this gaming house. We got occasional visits from them as talent scouts and we were even given news of things they do. I knew Kingdoms of Amalur was under-way back in 2008, just didn’t know the name. I knew some of the people working on it before THQ dropped them and most of the interns had to get let go (I called this half a year before it occurred as a warning to a friend of mine). EA and 38 Studios picked it up, and I lost whatever shred of interest I had left.
Think about it. A company that hasn’t released anything big enough to really be known outside of a niche group gets dropped by a publisher then picked up by a company(38 Studios) that, for a while there, wasn’t really releasing anything. This story being written by some one who seems to have hit a wall in the past. How could I not be afraid for R.A. Salvatore’s brain-child. But now bold claims are being made. A truly interactive world. A living system of many possibilities that can all be directly affected by you, the player. I can see why they would need such bold claims seeing as how even on PC, a place where most AAA titles go for $50, they are attempting to make us believe that its worth $59.99. To me that has always been a number reserved for the assholes at Activision. Hell, on the same day of release the Darkness II is landing with a $49.99 price tag.
It just feels like the massive losses incurred by the creation of this game have forced to many hands to just “get it done” and possibly trick enough people into buying it to try and make back what EA and 38 studios has lost already on this bet. Sadly there is only one way to find out and that is to pony up and buy something that could just be recycled and disappointing. Having recently made several large purchases, I will not be among those that give it a go. I hope that the mainstream media gives it a legitimate look and doesn’t just cop out and 8 out of 10 it because that is what they think would make the masses and EA happy. Time will tell.
Join in next week for “Bold claims from The witcher 2″ and the following week for “Bold claims from Madden 2013″ and the follwing week for “Bold claims from Midget Kicker goes to France”. Must be nice to have you job security Kimerex. To single out one game for their bold claims is pretty lame. Im pretty sure the headline you read from the article you skimmed over was supposed to say “A LEVELING system of many possibilities that can all be directly affected by you”. With KOAs fate system which I got a taste of in the demo, I could see why that “bold” statment could be decently justified, not any less that any other title trying to draw attention to its self any way. The claims that big huge has made that stick out to me was the intuitive combat system; those who have played the demo a couple times know that for an open world rpg they deliver on that. Also they promised a massive map, looks pretty massive to me and weve only experienced a 10th of it. If I had to guess, I would say that Kimenx either doesnt like this studio or is mad because Salvatoire doesnt make him moist anymore or he thinks Ken Ralston is cheating on bethesda to help with this. The colors are pretty freaking sweet so good job spawn comic guy. Anyone whos actually played this or had a hands on, and doesnt have it in their mind that this game is claiming to be more “revolutionary” than a skyrim or mass effect, has said goof things about this game. That its fun (it is) and it does a lot of things that other games have done better. Hope this helped someone sift through Kimenx’s biased opinion or deadline crunch or whatever. Any question about the game? Download the Demo for any platform and youll see what its all about.
The thing about Witcher 2 is I know the claims are valid. Madden never really claims anything. Job security? Look I’m sorry I poked your bear but even in your own statement you’re saying you don’t know all of it because you’re stuck with just the demo as well. Colors are good so McFarlane did a good job. Now who is skimming? Hes a writer. The art direction was mostly covered by Big Huge Games by people I went to class with. I couldn’t care less about Ralston. I don’t even know. And which studio. The one that was nearly snuffed out of existence by lack of quality products or the one that has been surviving off the funds of a former major league baseball player, all the while having a mysterious project in their back pocket for the better part of six years. It would be fantastic if this debut game was incredible but I can’t exactly put faith in the company that started it, seeing as how they were founded on the principles of making great RTS games and never really made it even near the forefront of the market on that. I have played Rise of Nations. There is a reason they were “niche”.
Bold claims in the title but none in the article. How typical for today’s gaming journalism.
They’re claiming that the game has a massive amount of stuff to do that interacts with the world and story greatly. I’m claiming they’re pandering in hopes to at least recoup some lost capital. I mean I guess its not bold exactly. More of a “how it always goes ” type thing.
I respect your response kimerex. You seem to know quite a bit about the studio. I personally was sold after watching the hour long play through from pax east. I guess well know for sure soon enough whether or not this game lives up to the statements.