Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is made by a no name, no game company but it has some serious talent behind it. With people like Todd McFarlane, writer R.A. Salvatore, and Elder Scrolls III and IV lead designer Ken Rolston then you would think this game would rival Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Not only is there a lot of talent behind this game but the game also takes some gameplay strategies from games like God of War, Skyrim, and even Dragon Age. While it does not hold a candle to Skyrim, it is still quite a beautiful and lengthy game to be enjoyed by any one who plays RPG’s.
The Unbiased, Meat of the Game
The main story line of Kingdoms of Amalur is where the game shines. At the start of the game, you are dead, deceased, six feet under ground. You are laying on a piece of wooden slab being pushed around by some gnomes. You are shortly resurrected and then the rest of the main story is trying to explain why your character can defy fate in a world where everyone else is imprisoned by it. In other words, some people will have their fates changed when you are resurrected.
Similar to games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, some decisions that you make will altar the fates of some people and even whole races. There will be negative and/or positive changes made when transgressing further into the game. Because Kingdoms of Amalur plays a little like an MMO, a lot of quests are thrown at you at once and you will progress into different areas of the map when your level challenges those of the enemies in the area. Some quests hold little to no value in story, they just help you get some XP points awarded so you can level your character. Other lengthier quests for instance, faction quests, hold a bit more of an interesting story with lots of XP and weapons to be awarded.
The gameplay is meant to be the game seller and it’s true. The combat is very action packed with a multitude of weapons and armor. You will have bows, faeblades, daggers, longswords, and greatswords along with many others. It’s good that there are so many weapons since it completely destroys boring hack and slash combat. With the amount of weapons in the game, 38 Studios added stylistic moves with these weapons. In some games, you can equip a main hand weapon and/or an offhand weapon or shield. Not in this game. You can equip a dagger in one hand and a faeblade in the other hand. Your shield is always equipped. This also made the combat more enjoyable as well.
One cool thing about the combat is Reckoning mode. When you kill an enemy then it fills up a portion of your fate meter. Once it fills up then you can unleash Reckoning mode. While in Reckoning mode, your attack power is greatly increased. At the end of a fateshift, the game sets up for some good old-fashioned button-mashing to determine the experience bonus you’ll receive as your character does a brutal, stylish kill.
Leveling up is fun as well. There are three different trees to choose from and veterans of RPG’s know which ones they are. You have the choice of being a mage, rogue, or warrior. You don’t have to level up in only one tree though. The other trees stay open for you if you decided to level them up a little bit as well. Putting a certain amount of points in any tree will also unlock destinies. These destinies give some attributes a little bit of a jump in gameplay. Another cool thing about leveling up is that you can change it at certain points in the game. Rare in action RPG’s but it’s there in Kingdoms of Amalur. You can pay a Fateweaver to undo all of your points so you can respec your points.
The standard skills you find in other RPG’s are here as well. You can level up your blacksmithing, alchemy, persuasion, and others. There is a new concept called dispelling in the game. In my opinion, it’s too hard and I didn’t do much with it at all. Dispelling allows your character to break into a chest that has a spell intertwined with it making it quite difficult to get into. Essentially, it’s locked and instead of using a key or picking the lock to unlock it, you have to remove the spell. Failure to do so will result in a curse that could either kill you or give you a damaging status effect.
Todd McFarlane did a really good job at making the game visually gorgeous. Every stone you turn over, every leaf that falls, every sleeping bear is made to shine. Because Kingdoms of Amalur plays a little bit like an MMO, every thing can be explored close to the beginning of the game. There are no time restraints so you are free to explore this expansive, beautiful world to your leisure. Of course, no game is made today without any kind of technical difficulties. I did run into some framerate hitches and slow-loading texture . It’s nothing that will make or break the game though.
The only other issue I had with the graphics is that when exploring caves then the game got incredibly dark. The rest of the world was so colorful but once you step foot into a cave, it looked bland and dark. Again, not a game breaking issue.
Issues I Had
There weren’t too many issues that I encountered and the ones that I did encounter weren’t exactly game breaking. As I stated above, exploring caves was dark and it was hard to see treasures that would glitter if the glare in my TV was bad.
The main character does not have a voice whatsoever. Not only does he not have a voice but the main character, male or female, doesn’t have any facial animations. The face is always stoic and makes me believe the character doesn’t care.
There is way too much dialogue in the game that I just don’t care about. The dialogue is the failing point of this game. I found myself skipping through most of it unless it dealt with the main quest.
I think the combat was a little too easy most of the game. There are a couple of areas where I had some real issue but most of the game was too easy. Just slash away and never look back.
Final Verdict
If you are wanting something after you have completed Skyim but you’re waiting for Mass Effect 3 and/or Diablo 3 then this game is it! With over hundreds of hours of gameplay then this game will keep you entertained for quite some time. There are different factions that you can join, different ways to level up your character, and a mountain of weapons and armor that you can collect. If you really get into the game then it’s definitely has high replayability.
