Reception
Upon its release, Kingpin received generally favorable reviews. High praise came from PC Zone, who awarded the game 92% and gave it a "classic" award, praising it for opening the floodgates to more adult orientated games. Reaction from GameSpot was also positive, with the game being given a rating of 7.3. GameSpot were particularly impressed at the way that Xatrix had used the then two year old Quake II engine, calling the game world a "beautifully depicted metropolitan nightmare". IGN enjoyed the game, giving it a score of 8.3, noting its excellent level design, and the advanced NPC interaction.
PC Gamer UK scored the game highly, giving it 90%, describing the game as "an incredible achievement in terms of graphics, AI and level design and a nasty, bloody, swear-fest". Incidentally, the most scathing reaction to the game came from the publication's US edition, where the game received a 53% rating. It was felt that the game was too shallow, offered nothing new to the genre and was peppered with bugs and oversights.
Kingpin would prove to be Xatrix's last game; on the day that Kingpin shipped, Xatrix Entertainment ceased to exist. Many of their team reformed later to create Gray Matter Interactive Studios.
A sequel to Kingpin was in production at Interplay in 2004 for the PC and Xbox with a 2005 release date. It is assumed the sequel has been cancelled.
Read more about this topic: Kingpin: Life Of Crime
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)