Reviews - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Review - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Pros: Rich and well written storyline, open ended game play style, lots of content to experience.

Cons: Nagging camera bugs and invisible walls are jarring to play experience.

Final Judgement: Not an instant classic, but a decent RPG that’s worth the purchase price.

http://reckoning.amalur.com/

Available for: Xbox, PS3, PC

Riddle me this! What does Todd McFarlane, R.A. Salvatore, Ken Rolston and Kurt Schilling have in common?  The likely answer at first glance, absolutely nothing. There is nothing that these four men have in common, they didn’t grow up in the same town, they didn’t all have the same stallion of a father and they don’t form up like Voltron and fight space monsters on weekends. They are, however all working at a game studio called 38 Studios, and are the creative team behind a new entry in RPG market Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a game which I am admittedly enjoying, although I have some nagging reservations.  Before we get into the review however, it occurs to me that a better question for me to lead with would have been: Do you know who Kurt Schilling, Todd McFarlane, R.A. Salvatore and Ken Rolston are? No? Well, let me tell you.

Ken Rolston is a game designer, one of the old school types that would appear in a Rat Pack-esque show if you were to gather together the so called “fathers of gaming”, you know the ones. The champions of years of pen and paper games gone by, working He has worked on such games as RuneQuest and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I can see it now, he’d be up there along with Gary Gygax , Bryan Ansell and that  math dudewho created Magic the Gathering. More recently Rolston is responsible for stealing days, if not weeks of your life as you trundled around Tamriel buying houses and picking herbs. That’s right, Rolston is the mad king behind Elder scrolls games Morrowind and Oblivion. For his retirement Rolston became the senior designer at 38 Studios and Lead Designer for Kingdoms.

Robert Anthony Salvatore, or R.A. Salvatore, as he likes to be called (I assume because it makes him sound more scholarly and sophisticated) is best known for his work on the Dungeons and Dragons “Forgotten Realms” campaign setting as well as the ubiquitous super hero/kind hearted rouge/brooding figure with a troubled past/walking argument for nature vs nurture guy Drizzt Do'Urden. Oh Drizzt, I can’t think of a single adolescent male who read the Ice Wind Dale trilogy and didn’t come away from it thinking Drizzt was the bees knees. I’ve got to give it to Salvatore, the man knows how to spin a good fantasy yarn. A skill which he brought to Studio 38 as the (and I can’t make this up) “Executive Creator of worlds” wow. Did Salvatore make up that title himself because that is creative. Anyway, in Kingdoms, Salvatore wrote all the story and dialogue.

So brooding and way awesome with his swords and shit, this guy is like elf batman.

Todd McFarlane, or Toddy-McF as he is called by no one, is not only a fellow Canuck but is also, according to my friends at Wikipedia, a “Comic Book Superstar”.  He has worked on a few small run comics… you know the type that nobody has ever heard of such as Batman, and Spider-man. M.C. F-Bomb is also the guy that created Spawn, the undead solider guy from hell sent back to earth to, I dunno, get revenge or something. T.G.I.McF. has a unique art style that is easily recognizable and defines the comics of the 90’s. He comes to Studio 38 as, you guessed it, executive art director. His fingerprints are all over the creatures you face in Kingdoms.

Finally, Kurt Shilling is the chairman of 38 studios.  A former major league baseball pitcher (links to Kenny Powers on standby) and by all accounts Shilling probably shoved dudes like McFarlane, Salvatore and Rolston into lockers back in high school. I’m not sure what Shilling’s contribution to Kingdoms is, I mean aside from him owning the studio, I don’t know what he contributed directly to Kingdoms. Unless there is a baseball mini-game I haven’t encountered yet. That being said at least I solved the mystery of the studios rather odd name, 38 was Shillings jersey number back in the glory days when everyone wanted a piece of his shit.

So now you know what it boils down to -  a proverbial super group of talent coming together to make a fantasy RPG the likes of which we have never seen. With this roster, I was fairly excited to give the game a whirl. Any who, after a solid twenty hours of game play and no end to the game in site I think I’ve seen enough that I can at least begin to review this game. Kingdoms has a lot of good in it, there is a lot that will bring a smile to the face of any RPG’er that being said, it also has nagging issues that won’t stop bothering me.  Rolston, Salvatore and McFarlane all do great jobs in their specific areas of design but I found that the good brought by the three is compartmentalized. The end result is a game that has some absolutely brilliant parts but overall lacks the consistency to make it a classic. As it is, it is fairly easy to see where their influences of Rolston, Salvatore and McFarlane begin and end. Let’s start off with Salvatore and the story:

Well written story and characters, yet as in all fantasy settings, less still equals more for females.

The story of Kingdoms of Alamur begins thusly: The Faelands region, where the game takes place, has been plunged into a war. A war that has been raging for years and pits the mortal races of the world against a powerful sect of the immortal Fae creatures known as the Tuatha Deohn, the Tuatha can die but they always come back to life reborn exactly as they were destined to be. This is a problem for mortals, because it’s tough to win a war when the bad guys just keep coming back progressively more pissed off at you because your spawn camping them. Which by the way, is a legitimate strategy.  The game begins with your character dying and being resurected in the well of souls, essentially a work around of death that the Gnomes came up with. Almost as soon as you begin to draw breath after resurrection, the Tuatha show up and destroy the well because immortality is their thing and they don`t like to share. You narrowly escape and in the process learn that as a by-product of your resurrection, your character no longer has a pre-determined destiny and that can now change the fate of others.

Now that’s some heavy stuff. Essentially you are an agent of change, an injection of chaos into an otherwise perfectly ordered universe where everyone’s life is pre-determined. By far, the best part of Kingdoms has to be the story and dialogue. Salvatore is a New York Times bestseller and shows us why with the Kingdoms story line. The story is engaging from the beginning and is well paced.  Even the side quests and optional faction quests are well written and engaging. My only question - what is with fantasy authors and the plight of immortal fae creatures?

He looks pissed off because now that he's seen you he needs to go throw himself off a cliff.

Fae also known as the fairy folk or fay folk seem to perpetually be in a state of decline whenever they rear their nature bound heads in any novel, show or video game. Think about it, movies like Hellboy, Lord of the Rings, Princess Mononoke and even fucking Fern Gully include Fae as a dying race. Every time mortals (ie humans) get anywhere near Fae they suddenly start falling apart, or running away or dying off. It makes me wonder if its symbolism for societies damage to the natural environment or just unoriginality on the part of the authors. It’s like a god damn literary rule like “I before E, except after C, or when sounded as A, like in neighbor or fey who must always be dying off when in close proximity to humanity.” This is the only place in the game where I felt Salvatore took the easy road out. As soon as I saw the first Fae in the game I thought: “I wonder how long it`ll be before they tell me that were killing them and destroying the forest?” The answer: About five minutes. Oh well, such is the way of Fantasy games I suppose.  

Speaking of fantasy games and people who know their way around them:

Rolston also plays to his strengths, several game mechanics from the Elder Scroll series crop up in Kingdoms (blacksmithing, collectable resources, houses to buy). In addition, Rolston also creates a destiny system for Kingdoms which can be selected and changed at any time to customize play style, much like in elder scrolls you decide your characters role organically as you play, not by selecting one of a handful of classes at character creation.  On innovation by Rolston is the “fate shift” game play mechanic, allows you to score huge experience bonuses by taking large groups of enemies to the edge of defeat before ending one of them off with a finishing move that would make Kratos proud. Well done Rolston, Fate shifting is way cool. There is nothing like finishing off a tough enemy in Kingdoms then by fate shifting them as a parting ‘fuck you’ because not only did you beat them, you just unmade them, they don’t even exist anymore once you’re done with them.

I like to imagine this was taken right in the middle of screaming "FUCK YOU DUDE!"

The gameplay in Kingdoms is solid; the combat is a lot more stylized and entertaining and plays more like an action game then what one would normally expect from an open ended RPG. Rolston also included a number of different skills, spells, abilities and attacks that your character can learn as you go along which keeps gameplay fresh. The experience is not without itsflaws however: Some places in the game suffer from invisible walls which are always jarring, and the enemy AI fluctuates from clever to lobotomized. Furthermore I found that the camera had an annoying tendency to clip through the ground if your character was engaged in combat on a slope. One second I’m watching a Brownie charging towards me down a hill the next all see is skybox. At least it’s a good looking Skybox, which is where McFarlane’s role in this comes in.

Look at these things! LOOK AT THEM!

McFarlane’s presence is definitely felt in the creatures and monsters you encounter as they have a classic monstrous flare to them that McFarlane is known for. Do bears need help looking ferocious? Toddy-boy thinks so, and the rats are downright terrifying, they’re like a cross between and Angler fish and leper. As well, much like in Spawn, there is blood… lots of blood, and impaling and tearing asunder. The Blood and violence which doesn’t really fit with the cartoonish fairy tale-esque setting that appears whimsical and definitely not the Hyperrealism that other RPG’s like Elder Scrolls try for.  Not that there is anything wrong with that. I actually like this art style when it comes to fantasy setting games.  It gives the game a  “Fable” like feel. As well, the varied and colourful setting compliments the rich fantasy story that Salvatore weaves.  

So, should you buy Kingdoms? If RPG’s are your thing, sure. Best RPG ever? No. Evidently it takes more than a boat load of big names to make an awesome game. Make no mistake, Kingdoms is definitely a good game, it’s a solid RPG and the talents of McFarlane, Salvatore and Rolston are definitely seen in the overall structure of the game. The action oriented style of the game is enjoyable and the world is colorful and fitting with the fantasy tone of the game. While some of the gameplay mechanics could definitely use polish, the excellent story and great dialogue will help to dull the sharp edges of some of the nagging gameplay issues. If you’re an RPG fan grab this title, you’ll get your money’s worth, and it won’t leave you disappointed.

Reviews: S.P.A.Z.

S.P.A.Z. (Space Pirates and Zombies)

Pros: A fun, value priced title that will bring back memories of classic games.

Cons: Repetitive game play and a lack of variety in content.

Final Judgement: SPAZ lives up to what it’s trying to be and will entertain most gamers, definitely worth the download price.

Available for: PC (Steam)

Does anyone remember the old Star Control series from the early 90's? Or more to the point its follow-up title Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters? That, my friends, was a game that was air tight and dipped in gold. Pull up a stump children, and let's rap about this for a minute. In this diddy of a game, you found yourself in a galaxy made up of hundreds of stars and planets. You were the captain of a ship that was completely customizable. Your job was to fly around this galaxy meeting aliens, building alliances, and forming an unstoppable armada of ships which often resembled the end result of an out crazying contest between Gene Rodenberry and Disney. All this so you could tear down an evil empire made up of evil squid like creatures who’ve enslaved the human race. Why did the evil octopi do this you ask? Because, once they were enslaved, and they didn’t like it very much and after emancipating themselves they figured they should try the whole Overseer gig. Now that I think of it, the plot of Star Control II actually makes a compelling argument for the whole “Learned behavior theory” in violence.

As I said... Out crazying contest.

Star Control was awesome. It was an excellent mix of role playing, resource management, and arcade action. The story was spiced with humor, the characters were original and the plot was entertaining. What’s more, though its graphics were simple, it was chalked full of content. Every system you explored had something unique about.  Whether it be mineral rich planets, earth like moons teaming with life or the colony of one of alien races populating the galaxy there were endless means to exploit them all. Star Control II just had plenty for you to do. Provided, of course, that your idea of a good time was exploiting the fuck out of everything you laid your eyes on. Come to think of it, in the Game you, the hero, use the fact that your race is enslaved as an excuse to exploit, lie and more or less weasel your fellow sentient races into destroying each other and dying at your whim. I gotta say, in retrospect, this game kinda goes to a dark place.

Although Bio Wares Mass Effect series comes close to replicating the feel of Star Control even making that comparison still feels like a stretch. Star Control was a completely unique experience. One that would only really work in the way it was originally presented - a 2D top down space fighter game. It’s unfortunate so few people that I talk to have ever heard of the game let alone played it. That being said I know of at least two brochachos that have not only heard of Star Control II but quit their day jobs and spent countless hours crafting a game that was a love letter to it. Two hombres who if they continue on their current path may prove to be for video games the next incarnation of the Buddha. Two pillars of digital justice who created the game which is the focus of this week’s review. Richard Clifford and Andrew Hume who created SPAZ or Space Pirates and Zombies.

Richard Clifford and Andrew Hume, two guys who worked together for several years at RadicalEntertainment.( the studio behind the Prototype series).  After working on two projects that were cancelled half way through development and seeing sixty of their co-workers and friends get laid off, the two decided that working for Radical and its cancel-happy ways was not for them. Their response? Stick it to the man by quitting and working for free from the dim and dank basements of their respective homes. The two decided that they wanted to take gaming back to its roots and to create a game that was in the same vein as Star Control and Master of Orion.

I have a lot of respect for these dudes, what they did took a lot of balls... So much so that here is a link to the slow clap from Cool Runnings to help underscore their achievement. Respect.

The results of the efforts, exactly what they promised... A 2D top down shooter that takes a hugechunk of inspiration from Star Control and Master of Orion.

In SPAZ, you play as a Space Pirate in command of a cobbled together star ship called the Clockwork. The galaxy has been populated by humanity and most of our efforts as a species revolve around the mining of a special element known as "Rez". The goal of the game is to escort the Clockwork to the galactic core where rumors abound of a "Rez" mother lode. The only sticking point is that the Galaxy wide authority, known as the UTA, has closed down interstellar travel by blockading the various warp gates that connect star systems. The UTA's reasoning?   “To prevent the spread of interstellar sicknesses through careful inspection and stringent regulations.”  As you are a Space Pirate, your response to the UTA is a big Yo-Ho! And YARRR! as you mercilessly blast your way through the many blockades between you and the galactic core. Now as this game is called Space Pirates and Zombies, I suppose it is no surprise that as you wind your way towards the core you discover the interstellar sickness the UTA is concerned about containing is a parasitic alien that turns humans into brain munching Zombies and ships into Zombie carrying spores of doom. Zombie carrying spores of doom which quickly transition from being a novel distraction from blasting the UTA into “those fucking things that make every mission a hundred times more difficult then they need to be.”

The Clockwork just kinda floats around, it would be nice if it helped out a bit more often.

That is more or less the plot of the game. Some nifty features of SPAZ include a randomly generated galaxy that you define the size of as well as a plethora of ship designs which you pick up through the game. The ship designs have a number of slots and systems that can be customized and reconfigured which allow for a fair amount of experimentation and play. For example, I found myself playing around with various weapon configurations in an attempt to find the optimum mix that would allow me to burn through an enemy space stations shield while still having the armor piercing punch to crack its hull open.

The game play itself is fairly straight forward, you command a fleet of three ships. You personally pilot one of them while the other two are controlled by AI. You use your mouse to target and orient your ship and you use the "WASD" keys to control its Thrusters. Combat is an arcade slugfest where you basically trade fire until one ship explodes. There isn't a lot of strategy involved as the Space you do battle in is more or less devoid of any meaningful terrain. The combat in SPAZ doesn’t require a heck of a lot of thought, but that’s not such a bad thing. Sometimes you just want to blow shit up, not agonize over the details of how you're going to do it. More to the point however, the quick paced combat in SPAZ is fun, so who cares if it’s simple. 

As for the graphics in the game, MinMax did an excellent job of sprucing up the 2D style of play by adding 3D backgrounds and layers of space debris, clouds and other effects on to the 2D gameplay. The background is full of, planets, nebula, ship wrecks and space junk which adds eye candy polish to the presentation of the game.

Engaging in battle with the aforementioned fucking zombie ships.

For all of the good to be found in SPAZ, after a few hours of play players are likely going to start feeling that the title lacks variety. At this point players will have seen everything that SPAZ has to offer. Every mission in the game involves blowing up enemy ships. Enemy ships which are all the exact same design as ships that you have access to. Aside from the Zombies, which only appear in the last third of the game, the only other things you encounter that you can meaningfully interact with are the two factions: The Civilians and The UTA. Both factions are in every system and more or less fly the same ships. The only change from star system to star system is the randomly generated relationship level of the two factions in relation to you. I would have liked to see a bit more variety; maybe some missions where you need to assist with research or transport items between systems or maybe a couple of more factions such as Pirates and local governments. As it is, the SPAZ galaxy feels a bit empty and incomplete. Yes you have a giant and nearly endless galaxy to explore, but when it’s all the same, why would you want to?    

And they will all look almost exactly the same.

To be fair, Hume and Clifford acknowledge this short coming in SPAZ and have even said that they had wanted to include four factions and more types of ships but as the game grew in complexity and the release date got pushed back they were unable to add in all the content they had originally intended. Given the nature of how SPAZ was developed. I have to say I can’t be too upset with their decision to release the game without all the brainstormed content.

I picked up SPAZ off of steam on sale for four bucks and it gave me a good few days’ worth of nostalgic game play. When I last checked its regular price was ten dollars. I can guarantee you that even at twenty dollars SPAZ would be a good investment of your time and money. Yes it lacks variety, but it makes up for it with its simplistic charm and fun, fast paced arcade style.

In closing I would also like to mention that while I was researching for this article, I came across a website entitled “The Ur-Quan Masters”. A port of Star Control II which was developed by a group of guys who had gotten together to re-master and re-release the original game which I believe is now considered abandon-ware. It’s ready to go and it’s completely free! Check it out and let the good times roll.