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Assassin's Creed 2 vs Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Assassin's Creed 2 is an action-adventure open-world game from Ubisoft Montreal (2010) while Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an action-RPG open-world game from Big Huge Games.

Quick answer: Assassin's Creed 2 rates higher, 8.1 to 7.6 on the GamingPickz Score.

Assassin's Creed 2

2010 · Ubisoft Montreal

8.1GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Very Positive

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

· Big Huge Games

7.6GamingPickz Score

Not listed

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Assassin's Creed 2 is filed under Action-Adventure and Open-World. In contrast, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning under Action-RPG and Open-World.

Assassin's Creed 2

An epic story of family, vengeance and conspiracy set in the pristine, yet brutal, backdrop of a Renaissance Italy. New low price!

Description from its Steam store page

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

The minds of New York Times bestselling author R.A. Salvatore, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston have combined to create Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a new role-playing game set in a world worth saving.

Description from its Steam store page

Story, characters and reception

Assassin's Creed 2
Plot

Following the events of Assassin's Creed , Desmond Miles ( Nolan North ) is rescued from Abstergo by undercover Assassin Lucy Stillman ( Kristen Bell ) and taken to a safehouse, where he meets her team, consisting of historian and analyst Shaun Hastings ( Danny Wallace ) and technician Rebecca Crane ( Eliza Schneider ). They have constructed their own Animus, which they intend to use to train Desmond as an Assassin through the "bleeding effect," which… (Wikipedia)

Reception

Critical reception Reception Upon release, Assassin's Creed II received universal acclaim on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with generally favourable reviews on PC. Review aggregator site Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version a score of 91 and the Xbox 360 version a 90, making it the highest-rated game in the franchise on the site. In an exclusive review by Official Xbox Magazine , Assassin's Creed II scored 9/10. (Wikipedia)

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Plot

Setting and characters Reckoning is set within the world of Amalur, with the game's events taking place across the Faelands, a land separated into two distinct territories by a great river. All things in the Faelands follow a destined path dictated by the Fate Weave, which can be read and reported by gifted individuals dubbed Fateweavers. The current age is referred to as the "Age of Arcana", a time when unknown magic is beginning to manifest. (Wikipedia)

Reception

Reception Over its first two months on sale, Reckoning sold over 400,000 copies not counting digital sales, a figure referred to by NPD Group as impressive. In the United Kingdom during its first week, the game reached the top of sales charts, surpassing the previous lead Final Fantasy XIII-2 . By July 2012, the game had sold 1. (Wikipedia)

At a glance

Assassin's Creed 2Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
GamingPickz Score8.1/107.6/10
Steam ratingVery Positive (89%, 61,327)Very Positive (88%, 13,009)
Critic aggregate86/10081/100
Price$19.99Not listed
Install size
Steam Deckplayableplayable
Released2010
DeveloperUbisoft MontrealBig Huge Games

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Assassin's Creed 2 vs Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Assassin's Creed 2Action-adventure open-world game
    Kingdoms of Amalur: ReckoningAction-RPG open-world game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Assassin's Creed 2Action, Open World, Parkour
    Kingdoms of Amalur: ReckoningRPG, Fantasy, Open World

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Assassin's Creed 2Score 8.1 · 89% on Steam · 86 critic
    Kingdoms of Amalur: ReckoningScore 7.6 · 88% on Steam · 81 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Assassin's Creed 261,327 reviews
    Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning13,009 reviews

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Assassin's Creed 2$19.99
    Kingdoms of Amalur: ReckoningNot listed

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Assassin's Creed 2Playable
    Kingdoms of Amalur: ReckoningPlayable

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Assassin's Creed 2 takes 1 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Assassin's Creed 2 and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

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How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: Assassin's Creed 2 (GamingPickz Score 8.1)
  • The safer bet by weight of reviews: Assassin's Creed 2 (61,327 reviews)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

ActionOpen WorldAdventureThird PersonStory RichSingleplayerGreat SoundtrackAtmospheric

Where they differ

Assassin's Creed 2 is also

ParkourAssassinStealthHistoricalAction-AdventureConspiracy

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is also

RPGFantasyAction RPGLootMagicCharacter Customization

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Assassin's Creed 2 is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 0 accessibility features for Assassin's Creed 2 and 1 for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Assassin's Creed 2 and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in scope?

Assassin's Creed 2 has drawn 61,327 Steam reviews. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has drawn 13,009 Steam reviews.

Is Assassin's Creed 2 or Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Assassin's Creed 2 rates higher (8.1 to 7.6). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Assassin's Creed 2 or Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning?

One or both do not have a current listed price, so a straight comparison is not possible. See the table above.

Should I get Assassin's Creed 2 or Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning?

Assassin's Creed 2 rates higher, 8.1 to 7.6 on the GamingPickz Score. It also depends on what you want: the "which to pick" section above calls out which is cheaper, lighter on storage, better on a Steam Deck and the safer bet by weight of reviews.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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