Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
KoA Reckoning Logo.png
Studio United StatesUnited States Big Huge Games
Publisher United StatesUnited States Electronic Arts
Senior Developer Ken Rolston,
R.A. Salvatore
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 United StatesUnited StatesFebruary 7, 2012 February 9, 2012
EuropeEurope
platform Windows , Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3
Game engine Big Huge Engine
genre role playing game
Game mode Single player
control Keyboard & mouse , game controller
medium DVD-ROM , Blu-ray Disc , download
language German
copy protection Origin or Steamworks (PC)
Age rating
USK from 18
PEGI from 18

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an action - RPG for Windows , Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 . The world of Amalur was created by Ken Rolston , RA Salvatore , Todd McFarlane and Grant Kirkhope . The game was developed by Big Huge Games and 38 Studios . It was launched in North America on February 7, 2012 and in Europe on February 9, 2012. The first public demonstration was at Penny Arcade Expo East 2011 on March 11, 2011. In 2018, the trademark rights to Kingdoms of Amalur were purchased by THQ Nordic . For September 8, 2020, the publisher announced the release of a remaster entitled Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning , which will also receive an expansion called Fatesworn in 2021 .

action

The action takes place in the so-called Feienlanden, a region of the fantasy world Amalur. The Feienlands are inhabited by the eponymous people of the magical and immortal Feien, various human and Alfar races, gnomes and others. The fairies themselves are divided into the so-called court of summer and the court of winter. The ruler of the Winter Court is the aggressive and ambitious Gadflow, who believes that a new god will grow under his palace. He is in league with an ancient power and sweeps the country with his supporters, the so-called Tuatha Deohn, with war. Since the Feien cannot be killed, the mortal inhabitants of the Feienlands find themselves in an increasingly desperate situation after ten years of war. The fate of the mortal races seems sealed, until one day the lifeless body of the player character can be brought back to life in a research facility of the gnomes. From that moment on, all hopes of being able to stop the apparently inevitable downfall and defeat Gadflow lie on the returned man, also known as the hero without fate (English: Fateless one ).

Gameplay

As is typical for the genre, the game begins with the creation of your own player character. The player can determine the gender, race and class of his character. There are two types of people and two types of alfa to choose from, and a distinction is made between warriors, villains and magicians in the classes. There are also 3 different skill trees with 22 individual skills. The battles are fought in real time and are action-oriented, with occasional Quicktime cutscenes, similar to the God of War series. The player can interact with all NPCs and with most elements of the environment.

development

In 2007, the then independent game developer Big Huge Games began work on an independent role-playing game under the direction of Ken Rolston. It represented a reorientation for the studio that had previously mainly developed real-time strategy games for PCs . At the beginning the game was developed under the project name Crucible . After the interim takeover by publisher THQ, Big Huge Games was sold to 38 studios on May 27, 2009. At that time they were already working on an MMORPG with the project name Copernicus , whose fantasy scenario was designed by the book author RA Salvatore. Big Huge Games' role-playing game, now renamed Ascendent after some fundamental concept changes , was included in this concept after the takeover and the plot was also developed against the background of the Amalur game world. The game was subsequently developed under the new project title Mercury . In March 2010, 38 studios announced that Electronic Arts would take over the release of the game. According to their own information, 38 Studio invested 30 million US dollars in the project over a development period of 30 months.

According to 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling , the game is a combination of the battle system of God of War with the open-world aspects of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion .

Extensions

  • The legend of the dead Kel
  • Teeth of Naros
  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Online Pass
  • "Weapons & Armor" bundle, consisting of the DLCs also available separately
    • Sophistication bonus package
    • Magic Power Bonus Package
    • Power Bonus Package

reception

Rating mirror
German-speaking area
publication Rating
4players 79%
GameStar 80%
GamePro 85%
Eurogamer.de 8 of 10
PC Games 81%
International
GameSpot 7.5 out of 10
IGN US 9.0 of 10
Meta-ratings
Metacritic 81% (Win)
80 (Xbox 360)
81 (PS3)

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning received good ratings from the trade press (Metacritic 81% (PC) / 80 (Xbox 360) / 81 (PS3)). According to the market research institute NPD Group, 410,000 units of the game had been sold in the US by April 2012 , which was considered a good result for a new franchise, especially since sales via digital distribution and outside the US were not included. In May 2012, 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling announced that a total of 1.2 million copies of the game had been sold within the first 90 days. However, the income from the sale was insufficient to cover the expenses. In early May 2012, 38 Studios ran into arrears with the US state of Rhode Island , which had granted the company a $ 75 million loan. According to Governor Lincoln Chafee , sales of three million copies would have been necessary to fully cover the costs of the project. 38 Studios COO Robert Wester contradicted parts of Chaffe's statements in July 2012, according to which the game would have been profitable for the studio after just two million copies sold. However, he confirmed that the title had not met internal sales expectations and doubted that 38 studios would still make a profit from the game after sales had only increased slightly to a total of 1.3 million copies since May.

After the financial difficulties became known, 38 Studios was no longer able to attract investors for the company. As a result, at the end of May 2012, all employees at both the Providence branch and Big Huge Games had to be laid off, and work on a successor to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning that was already in preproduction had to be stopped. 38 Studios closed after bankruptcy and the company's brands and technologies were auctioned on December 11, 2013 on behalf of Rhode Island. However, the rights to Kingdoms of Amalur , which in addition to the brand and the finished game also included the rights to the unfinished MMO Copernicus and the accompanying software / technology developed for it, did not receive a sufficiently high bid and were therefore not auctioned. In September 2018, THQ Nordic finally announced the acquisition of the trademark rights. The marketing rights remained with Electronic Arts.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Just: Kingdoms of Amalur - Publisher THQ Nordic acquires trademark rights, what can we expect? In: GameStar . September 7, 2018, accessed July 8, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Max Doll: Action RPG: Kingdoms of Amalur gets a remaster. Update 07/08/2020 9:14 p.m. In: ComputerBase . July 8, 2020, accessed July 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ David Martin: New RPG in collaboration with Big Huge Games . In: Videogameszone . Computec Media Group . February 9, 2007. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  4. ↑ a b c Mike Friedly: Postmortem: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM plc . July 30, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
  5. ↑ Tor Thorsen: THQ buys Big Huge Games ( English ) In: GameSpot . CNET . January 15, 2008. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  6. ↑ Andre Linken: Big Huge Games - Purchased by 38 studios . In: GameStar . IDG . May 27, 2009. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  7. ↑ a b Alexander Sliwinski: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2 was in 'pre-production' ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . May 28, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
  8. ↑ 38 Studios: Developer Diary: The Reckoning ( English ) In: Video developer diary . GameTrailers.com . February 16, 2012. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
  9. ↑ Jeff Cork: EA To Publish 38 Studios' 'Project Mercury' ( English ) In: Game Informer . Game stop . March 9, 2010. Retrieved June 8, 2012.
  10. ↑ a b c Ted Nesi: Game sales missed 38 Studios' forecast ( English ) In: WPRI . LIN Media . July 10, 2012. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 17, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wpri.com
  11. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.1up.com
  12. ↑ Mike Schramm: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning preview: The path of promises ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . March 7, 2011. Retrieved March 28, 2011.
  13. ^ Mathias Oertel: Test: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning . In: 4Players . freenet AG . February 7, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  14. ^ Daniel Matschijewsky, Benjamin Kratsch: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning im Test - Fable Age: Darksiders . In: GameStar . IDG . February 7, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  15. ↑ Benjamin Kratsch: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in the Test - Fable Age: Darksiders . In: GameStar . IDG . February 7, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  16. ↑ Martin Woger: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Test . In: Eurogamer.de . Eurogamer Network . February 14, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  17. ↑ Viktor Eippert: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in the test - Lots of action in the role-playing game, but lame story - Immediately available in stores . In: PC Games . Computec Media Group . February 9, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  18. ↑ Kevin VanOrd: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review ( English ) In: GameSpot . CNET . February 7, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  19. ↑ Colin Moriarty: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . February 3, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  20. ↑ a b Metacritic : Average rating of the PC version , based on 25 articles. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  21. ↑ a b Metacritic : Average rating of the Xbox 360 version , based on 71 articles. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  22. ↑ a b Metacritic : Average rating of the PS3 version , based on 34 articles. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  23. ↑ Alexander Sliwinski: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning sales surpass 410,000 ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . April 18, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
  24. ↑ Ben Gilbert: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning had to sell 3M 'just to break even,' RI governor says ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . May 24, 2012. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  25. ↑ Tom Curtis: 38 Studios, Big Huge Games lay off their entire staff ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM plc . May 24, 2012. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  26. ↑ http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/207020/38_Studios_auction_raises_320000_fails_to_sell_Amalur_franchise.php
  27. ↑ Kingdoms of Amalur - THQ Nordic buys brand, what can you expect? ( gamestar.de [accessed on September 11, 2018]).
  28. ^ A THQ Nordic Kingdoms of Amalur remaster would require the go-ahead from EA . In: Eurogamer.net . ( eurogamer.net [accessed September 11, 2018]).