Retawes Review: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning - 18/20


Thinking back on last year's games, Skyrim comes to mind as one of the best action RPG. That being said, can 38 Studios' "fairy tale" inspired RPG steal the title?


Story and Setting – 8.5/10

Comparing me to that gnome...Preposterous

Kingdoms of Amalur's plot is quite detailed and clever. In its world, every creature obtains a fate which is basically there "class" or job in life. You, a resurrected corpse with no past nor future must unravel the mysteries of why you have no fate, which inevitably allows you to "shape" your own future. This also, causes you to help NPCs that wish to have their fate changed. Although as you would expect, this causes chaos.

Speaking of the NPCs, throughout the world there are a variety of races and species to interact with from weird midget sized goblins to humongous vicious ogres. These are all perfectly modelled to act as they would in a fairy tale or chapter in the Lord of the Rings. However, the voice actors sometimes, miss the mark. For instance, near the beginning you meet a Fateweaver (one who can respect you skills) who becomes a recurring character for the main story. His model and movement is well designed and fit for the era/setting, yet his voice feels way off and to put it bluntly, the voice acting in general is awful. Sure they'll be a few characters' voices that match the model but a majority of the time, you'll be skipping or at least ignoring the annoying speeches about "fate" and "doom".

I am listening......*falls asleep

Incidentally, the dialogue is deeply engaging and important if you wish to understand the whole world that Amalur has to offer. Each character, regardless of their importance to the main plot has at least 3 dialogue options to educate the player of their surroundings. Whether it's the history of a certain race, (fae, brownies, etc) an opinion on a certain organisation/guild or even just some basic gossip, the game provides all the information you'd ever need for an rpg of this scale. Taking this into account, the dialogue can still be too informative and detailed that you'll end up skipping or bluntly ignoring most options in the dialogue trees to get to the action in the beautifully crafted world.

Concerning Reckoning's environment, the world is magnificently and spontaneously designed as if it was set in a fairy tale. From the wondrous sky scraping trees of Dalenfarth to the imaginative and surprisingly colourful sandy plains of Derfte, you’ll be overly satisfied with the amount of complex design and artwork. These areas are also astoundingly populated with colourful and unique individuals that each brings a sense of adventure to the world. By the way, the towns’ of Reckoning are each distinctive to their own region and geographical location. For instance, in the desert location I came across a mining village populated with miners (obviously) yet each miner felt irreplaceable and singular to their setting.

I've played 21 hours and have only explored this much of the map.(this photo was basically half of the map)

The music of Amalur is a tad too bland for players that admire most game’s soundtracks. It isn’t on par with classics such as, “One Winged Angel” (Final Fantasy VII OST) or the Halo theme song though, it does set the mood. Despite the fact that the music was recorded live by a real orchestra, (something we don’t see much often, nowadays) the pieces feel unoriginal and déjà vu’d.


Graphics and Gameplay – 9.5/10


Kingdoms’ graphics aren’t much of an eye-opener but they are significant to the world. The range of textures and colours supported by the havok engine, feel and act incredibly lively in this humongous and broad open world.

My character at lvl 20....looking pretty badass eh?

On the subject of the game’s open world, there is a variety of quests and styles of gameplay to utilise. The quests are found in a typical rpg style, where ! means new quests as ? means an incomplete quest. The quests vary but usually involve, killing a group of enemies, collecting materials from plants and dungeon runs with the game’s AI. The AI is intelligent yet at times unresponsive. For instance, when I had to defeat a bunch of fae and ran from the battle zone, the enemy retreated themselves yet I could still attack them without retaliation. Although, this will most likely be fixed by updates in the upcoming months.

On the note of Reckoning’s gameplay, the game provides a combat structure that in my opinion has evolved action rpg’s combat. I’d compare it to the likes of God of War’s sleek and innovative combat mixed with magic, a variety of weapons and items at disposal. This combat never seems to bore me, even when I am battling enemies far weaker than me, I still feel fascinated and betrothed to continue playing.

Speaking of the enemies encountered, throughout your play through you’ll come across several bizarre and rarely difficult enemies including fearless wolves, deceiving bandits, evil fairies known as sprites and obnoxious ogres that carry humongous hammers or greatswords. Most types of enemies can be easily beaten with your basic button mashing, yet some (usually bosses) require a proper strategy such as dodging their attacks and flanking from behind and sneaking upon an enemy to “assassinate” them. From killing these enemies you gain experience points and fate points. As dull and obvious as experience points are, Fate points are an exclusive concept of the game. Following the plot that you have no fate, fate points allow the player to use their “fate meter” to slow down time and defeat impossible enemies without the immerse amount of health potions needed.

What's the Immunity Recipe again?

On the subject of potions, the game gives you other options besides levelling, questing and battling. You can create potions, upgrade gear with gemstones, lock pick/disenchant chests for rare items, craft weapons and armour and essentially, explore! Creating potions in Amalur is quite similar to most action rpgs in which you first experiment with two different herbs to form a potion (i.e. damage + fire= fire damage increase potion) than adapt from there. On the other hand, sage crafting gemstones I found to be the most significant and entertaining use of my time. With sage craft, you can enchant an already elemental weapon (fire, ice, lightning, poison) with another to increase the weapon’s hit damage and dot (damage over time). The weapons in Amalur each offer a different way to play. For instance, the chakrams (ring like ranged weapons) allow the player to swiftly protect themselves from mid-close range whereas the hammer or great sword provides a heavy slash or clash that hits at a very slow pace yet deals far more damage than any other weapon.


Overall – 18/20

To put a long story optimistically short, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an excellent action RPG containing a fleshed out story, (main, faction and sides) thoroughly intriguing and unique combat system, a vast demand of “extra” content (sage craft, alchemy, blacksmithing) profoundly innovative and enlightening dialogue that teaches you all you have to know about this immerse and perfectly crafted world populated by some of the most unique and fundamentally inclusive individuals ever to be in an open world like this.