#amalur

Non-mainstream RPGs Deserve Your Love Too

The last few years have seen RPGs rise higher and higher, with The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Fallout and Red Dead Redemption all taking out numerous game of the year awards. Despite the action adventure titles and shooters still scattered around, and the odd puzzle game like Portal 2 spicing things up a bit, the RPGs still seem to be the ones getting everyone’s attention. With the fires of Skyrim being rekindled periodically with the DLC packages, it might be hard for a more mainstream gamer to branch out into slightly murkier territory, but there are plenty of amazing stories to be told if you just look a little deeper than the top 10.

I’ve spent the last few weeks playing Dragon’s Dogma and despite getting solid reviews almost across the board, virtually none of my friends have played it and it’s getting almost no attention on the major gaming sites. I never know if these things are due to my habit of playing games to completion and as such waiting a few months to play new games (I still have Dishonored and Borderlands 2 wrapped up nicely and ready to play!) or if people have genuinely missed out on it.

For those that aren’t aware of it, it basically plays like a more accessible version of Dark Souls, keeping the epic, challenging encounters with enormous enemies and minimal hand-holding without resorting to insane difficulty spikes and needless complexity (hydra boss fight, I’m looking at you – if the game doesn’t give me any indication that I need to find the giant crow so that I can go back to the prologue level to get an item that lets me walk in knee-deep water, chances are excellent I’m not going to head back there). There’s a touch of Shadow of the Colossus in some of the bigger enemies, and while scaling a chimera is not quite on the same scale as the SotC bosses, you still feel a sense of achievement when it comes crashing down.

The world is richly detailed and enormously expansive (though the lack of reliable fast travel may be a turn-off to some), and the versatility within the combat is outstanding. The pawn system is just icing on an already delicious cake, allowing you to bring minions built by other players into your realm to aid you in your journey, in addition to giving you the chance to craft a permanent companion of your own. The game has some flaws, yes; graphically it struggles at times and the voice acting is not outstanding, occasionally not even close to synching up with the mouth movements. Yet despite everything it has to offer, it hasn’t managed to break into the top tier of best-selling games. Why?

Another victim of this is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. While mostly known today for the abrupt and messy dissolution of its parent company, it did an excellent job of crafting a detailed backstory and creating an entirely new world without relying too heavily on existing fantasy tropes (while fae and elves abound, I don’t think anyone was prepared for the crudok).

I honestly think the main reason these games aren’t talked about any more is not because of any shortcomings on their part, but due predominantly to brand loyalty. Even if you avoided the advertising, it’s hard to overlook something like Skyrim if you’ve played anything else in the series and enjoyed it, and the games have been around long enough to have garnered enough loyal fans to survive. It’s almost impossible for a new game series to build up enough of a following to convince people that it’s worth investing in a sequel. One of the only RPGs in recent memory I can think of where a sequel didn’t expand and improve on the first game was Dragon Age II, which, while offering much the same as the original, was still an enjoyable game to play. I think looking at sales of Call of Duty over the years, it seems apparent that gamers are willing to buy a very similar game again and again if it comes from their trusted favourite developers.

I guess all I can ask is that you skim over the best-sellers of the month and have a look at the games off to the side. Gaming for me is all about uncovering and delighting in new experiences, so dive in and you might find something truly memorable.