KoA: Reckoning - Retrospective @ The Rec Room

The Rec Room has a short retrospective for Kingdoms of Amalur.

So what’s my point? Why am I wasting almost 800 words about a middling game that’s almost two years old? Well, there’s a lesson to be learned from Kingdoms of Amalur, one I hope all the developers who complain about the cost of making modern games pay attention to. 38 Studios proved to the industry that bigger isn’t always better and that constantly adding more often leads to less of a coherent whole. Amalur’s biggest failing is that it tried to do too much. It’s a sixty hour game loaded with crummy dialogue and frustrating crafting systems, burdened by a tedious interface and a presentation that feels incomplete. Had 38 Studios narrowed its vision and focused on doing just a few things and doing them well, we might remember this game and its developer very differently. After all, a new AAA game costs $59.99 whether it’s sixty hours long or twenty hours long, whether it’s written by a big name like R.A. Salvatore or some starry-eyed intern with an associate’s degree and a bunch of new ideas.