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
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