Disappointed when I read this:
I'll probably get it anyway, but I hate to say it just seems like a bomb waiting to happen. The way it's been presented you have to go out of your way to inform yourself about things like crime and jail or skills in general. At a glance it's just a third-person action game with a garish, cartoony style with technically average, overly bloomy graphics and a bunch of wierd names. And I can't help but think all the talent behind the game is a complete waste. Having R. A. Salvatore write the lore is a nice bullet point but will anyone know the difference or care? Same with Todd McFarlane. I'm sure they don't come cheap.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean, if your not paying much attention to the game, or news about it I suppose I could see some confusion, but it's always been discussed as being an open world high fantasy RPG, and the names with the exception of maybe Curt will probably be known by most fantasy nerds(count myself here). There is plenty of information out there on stuff like skills, crime, combat, crafting, the destiny and leveling system, and most of this stuff is presented in their offical gameplay videos, Heroes Guide trailers, they even have a section on the reckoning website where you can see clips of various skills for each tree in video form .
Sadly I don't think EA has done a very good job when handling marketing for the game when it comes to somethings, but 38 and Big Huge has done an amazing job interacting with the community, answering questions, and informing people of lots of different things. I could see them doing very well for themselves if they can get the backing to go independant.
The one thing I would like to see more of is that narrative stuff because I'm a fan of ol Bobby Sal, and with this whole 10,000 years of lore that he's written for this universe there could be alot of great stuff in there, but I also don't want to be spoiled so i'm ok if they remain alittle tight on this one. Feeling like Todd has been alittle under utilized I can understand to a point, but he's already explain why he has toned down his normal style for Reckoning and while it's alittle disappointing I can understand it. I do think props should be given to him for being so focused on good animation though, it's not the best in the industry at this point, but I think reckoning looks to have some of the best animations in RPGs, especially when it comes to combat.
Keep in mind that they are planning a Demo of some kind though, Curt said there should be some news on this front soon.
