Ever since it first appeared at E3 in 2015, ReCore has intrigued a lot of people in one way or another. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the joint effort between Armature Studio and Comcept for the Xbox One and PC showed us the adventures of Joule, a human awakening after two hundred years of cryogenic sleep to discover that the planned utopia of Far Eden became a wasteland seemingly inhabited solely by corrupted robots, and now she has to team up with a few metal mates of her own to survive. Now, being a completely new video game IP, there are obviously several obstacles to pass when it comes to getting the public interested in it, making sure that the initial gameplay, world, characters, graphics, et cetera shown all make a good impression. Any notable flaw in these areas could doom a new game like this early on.

And yet somehow, the biggest sticking point among gamers when it comes to ReCore is the fact that the game costs forty dollars.

Indeed, ReCore has a retail price of forty dollars as opposed to the traditional sixty dollars for triple-A games these days and several folks are questioning this decision (despite the fact that Ratchet and Clank was released this year at the same price without any issue). Yes, we are now actually mad at video games for costing less, apparently. Microsoft's official stance is that since ReCore is a new IP, they thought that they'd test the waters a bit and lower the price to help try and introduce the game to a wider crowd. However, this has not stopped folks from labeling Recore as a "budget" title, accusing the game of being too short and having a lack of content and generally saying that it will be lacking in quality.

Now, why do we still find ourselves coming back to these arguments? Just as a game's length, while a factor, is mostly non-indicative of the overall quality of the experience it can provide (for a recent example, see FRU), the price of a game should mean absolutely nothing when it comes to judging how it plays out. Heck, some of our most acclaimed games this year - Severed, Enter the Gungeon, Hyper Light Drifter, the aforementioned FRU - only cost fifteen to twenty dollars. But since ReCore carries the "triple-A" title, apparently it isn't allowed to have a low price, like how The Witness apparently can't have a high price. And why Recore being a supposed "budget" title is bad boggles the mind. After all, if you get just as much fun out of a game for a cheaper cost, why does it matter?

ReCore_preview_1

The other obstacle that others tend to focus on is that ReCore is being produced by Keiji Infaune and co-developed by his company, Comcept. After the Mighty No. 9 fiasco earlier this year, you have those who are extremely wary of anything bearing his name, believing in the philosophy of "If they screwed up once, then they are never allowed to succeed again." Considering that this is an entry in a completely different genre co-developed with a completely different studio and with completely different circumstances behind pretty much everything, comparing the two games is a complete apples and oranges scenario, and is more about lingering backlash than any actual concerns about the game.

Mind you, those are "obstacles" only in the sense that shallow internet commenters wielding megaphones and incapable of spelling Microsoft without a dollar sign will attempt to try and convince others that they're obstacles. Concerning actual obstacles the game has to face, more than few have accused ReCore of feeling generic. While personally, the game still looks quite action-packed and impressive, it is possible to see how others can view it as nothing special. After all, third-person action games are a dime a dozen these days, and so far most of what we've seen from the gameplay basically just consists of having Joule run around and shoot robots.

Indeed, it does feel a bit like what's holding ReCore back slightly at the moment is what we haven't seen. It's mentioned that each of the game's "dungeons" will be found in a giant overworld to explore, but aside from some glimpses in the latest trailer, we haven't seen much of this overworld. Will the surface of Far Eden have interesting sights to behold and secrets to discover, or will it end up being another case of fatigue found in current games with open world elements such as this?

ReCore_preview_2

We also have yet to hear more about the game's story beyond the initial setup of Joule seemingly being the last human who has to fight off a bunch of evil robots and get to the bottom of of mankind's disappearance, which seems like a slightly odd approach. Of course, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially in a time when modern entertainment is all too happy to show as much as possible in trailers. And the game's story is being crafted by Joseph Staten, who has picked up large amounts of praise for his work on such games as Halo 3: ODST.

It appears that ReCore, somewhat appropriately, is choosing to sell itself based mainly on its core elements. Considering that the combat looks frantic and fun, the robot sidekicks are charming and look like they'll be a hoot to pay with, and the Ikaruga-style color-matching combat seems like a blast, it's a smart, simple and effective move to only show what you need. That said, it definitely does feel like at least a little more needs to be seen to properly convince people of ReCore's true potential, if only to to reassure those expecting the next Metroid Prime that we truly will be getting something that can match it in terms of quality.

But even if ReCore ends up being no Metroid Prime, it still looks like it could end up being an amazing game and a promising new IP indeed, one we highly look forward to when it comes out on September 13. But the challenge to properly get modern gamers attracted to it is there, so here's hoping Joule's adventures overcome them.