Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review
A
Journalistic Review by DefiantParrot
*Warning: Contains Spoilers*
Originally Written 07/25/2017
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| (1) It's Big and Huge alright |
Developer: 38 Studios, Big Huge Games
Publisher: 38 Studios, Electronic Arts
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Action RPG
Release: February 7, 2012
On
November 11, 2011 Bethesda released one of the most critically acclaimed games
in recent memory. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim is a game that many
praise to this day and is even being rereleased again with versions for the
Nintendo Switch and Playstation VR coming. Skyrim is a game that many RPG’s
have been compared to since its release. So imagine trying to be a new RPG, a
new IP at that, and trying to make your name known not even three months after
its release.
Enter 38 Studios and Big Huge Games to give us Kingdoms of
Amalur: Reckoning. Now I’m not going to spend this review discussing the
downfall of 38 Studios or the controversy surrounding the state of Rhode
Island. It’s a fascinating and horrifying look into what creating a game can be
like these days and I would recommend a quick google search. But that’s not
what this is about, Kingdoms of Amalur is a game I have always meant to try,
but when the game was released Skyrim still had its claws deep in me, and since
then it’s always been on my backlog. Well today I plan to scratch this game off
my list, is it as good as Skyrim? Is it worth my time and more importantly
yours? This is my review of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
Kingdoms of Amalur had some extremely talented
individuals involved in its creation. R.A. Salvatore wrote the story and lore
for the game, Todd McFarlane working on the artwork for the game and Grant
Kirkhope in charge of the games music.
The game was originally meant to be an MMO with Salvatore
having written 10,000 years of history for the game. However after the game was
scrapped in 2009 the land of Amalur was later revisited for a single player
RPG.
The first thing to point out is that Amalur has many good
things about it, the main story is fairly interesting. You create your
character which can be a variation of four different mortal races in the world
of Amalur two different humans and two different elves, and you begin.
Apparently a group of Fae known as the Winter Court have gone insane under the
madness of their leader Gadflow and have declared war against the mortal races
of Amalur.
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| (2) Arrows recharge over time |
Your character is one to have died in this war, but
somehow you have come back to life and therefore Fate, which dictates the life
of all who inhabit this world has no control over you. As the Fateless One not
only are you untouched by fate, but you can change the fate of those you interact
with. The story involves you discovering who you are and changing the fate of
those in Amalur for good or for ill.
It’s pretty compelling to discover who you are and where
you fit in I just wish there was some big reveal for your character but
unfortunately there isn’t. The story is serviceable but nothing to write home
about and unfortunately the side quests which are the real meat in an RPG are
even worse.
None of the side quests are memorable or interesting,
none of the characters you meet stay with you either and that goes for the main
quest too. None of these stories or interactions will stick with you, whereas
in other RPGs such as Skyrim the side quests can be the best part of the game,
and can lead to your own stories that you tell your friends.
After having played for over a hundred hours I can’t
really remember anybody’s name except for Gadflow because that is a hilariously
terrible name.
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| (3) You heard me! |
Not only are the side quests uninteresting there are an
abundance of them and many of them can be repetitive. Several are a variation
on , “go here, do this come back” be it finding items or individuals or killing
the 7 special swamp sharkdogs or whatever. These will drain you after a while
and that’s what I felt while playing this game. Drained.
This goes for Faction quests as well especially the ones
for the House of Ballads, which has you go to such and such an area and defeat
such and such an enemy with a different name three times. I was so beyond
caring the guy could’ve been called Dimitri Crotchlicker and I wouldn’t have
cared.
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| (4) The House of Ballads |
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| (5) Never Not Cool! |
Now that’s not to say the game is terrible it really
isn’t, the customization in this game can be pretty deep. Not the appearance of
your character itself, I felt it was pretty lacking in hair styles and the
such. But the customization on how you want to play the game. Magic thief? Do
it. A warrior who only wears magic robes? Go for it. You are welcome to play
Amalur however you want to do it and that is never a bad thing. I opted for a
character who uses Longswords for when enemies got close and attacked farther
away enemies with my magical abilities and Chakrams. More games should have
Chakrams in them, this game gets a point for me just for that. Also I love
Xena… So there is that. CHAKRAMS!!!!!
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| (6) YOU SHALL NOT PASS!! |
That of course leads to the game’s biggest strength, its
combat. Yep anyone who has ever talked about this game at least from what I’ve
seen has praised this games combat. And boy they are not wrong! The combat is
really the saving grace of this game. The missions may be boring, and the story
unfulfilling but man kicking ass in this game rocks! I mentioned the longswords
and chakrams, but there also Bows, Great Swords, Hammers, Sceptres and more!
Mixing and matching your weapons and finding what works for you is the best
part of this game bar none.
The magical abilities in this game are also pretty cool
you get the arbitrary shoot magic at enemy ability right away but then you can
get other abilities like summoning giant rocks from the ground or summoning an
enemy skeleton to fight by your side… I called him Skeleton-Buddy.
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| (7) This is Skeleton-Buddy. He's my friend |
The game also has Blacksmithing, Alchemy and Sagecrafting
for those who enjoy making their own weapons, potions and items to boost the effectiveness
of your weapons and armor. Of course that’s for those who enjoy because you
will never be short on money especially if you invest in your Detect Hidden
ability which in itself is really cool.
Other abilities involve lockpicking and dispelling which
also works really well, but then again the lockpicking can never be as bad as
others I’ve seen *Assassin’s Creed III* cough.
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| (8) Am I the only one who wants to pet him? |
The locations also look absolutely beautiful the various
areas you explore can be lush like the starting area or scorching such as the
desert region ,MacFarlane knows how to make a world look vibrant and
spectacular. Now if only the character models followed suit. As well as being
uninteresting the characters look uninteresting as well. While in the right
armor your character can look badass. NPCs just seem… off. Especially the Fae
who seem to gearing up for their background roles in the film Trolls.
The voice acting is done decently well, again nothing to
write home about. The lip synching can be pretty dreadful at times though,
enough to annoy me at least.
Grant Kirkhope is an extremely talented man, however his
work here is lackluster at best. None of this music sticks with me nor is it
memorable in any way.
There are glitches in this game that also tend to annoy
after a while. Small audio bugs like beginning combat to no sound for a few
seconds before the game catches up.
Frame rate shitting the bed when attacking multiple foes
at once especially with the Chakrams, the camera falling through the floor on
me during combat on three separate occasions.
But none of those were really that frustrating. But what
really sent me over the edge was my game crashing during the quest The Century Flowers in which I was
unable to complete the quest, sending me into a rage faster than watching
Batman V Superman.
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| (9) Fuck You Nature |
But the biggest thing to remember with Kingdoms of Amalur
is if you’re considering a purchase, this game is Long! As I’ve already stated
I put over 100 hours into this game and I didn’t complete everything. I did
many side quests and faction quests and completed the main story but there was many
things I didn’t finish at all. And there is a reason for that, this game holds
to the saying quantity over quality.
There are so many sidequests and things to do here in this
game that it can be exhausting. Amalur clearly still has the feeling of an MMO
attached to it. Which doesn’t really work for a single player RPG, there’s so
much to do. But how much of it will you really WANT to do?
Oh and one more thing… an Online Pass for an Offline
game? Fuck You, EA.
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| (10) No seriously, Fuck You EA |
All in all is Amalur better than Skyrim? No. Not even
close in my opinion.
Is it a great game? Well that’s harder to say.
Many of my issues with this game could’ve been ironed out
in a sequel, however it is extremely unlikely that will ever happen. As is
Amalur is a game full of content, and is easily worth a purchase… From the
bargain bin or at the most $20.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning receives my Bronze Seal of
Acceptance.
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| (11) Have I mentioned Fuck EA yet? |
2. http://www.mobygames.com/game/xbox360/kingdoms-of-amalur-reckoning/screenshots/gameShotId,573673/ (1999-2017)
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7QHdJBksGs
4. http://amalur.wikia.com/wiki/House_of_Ballads_(Location)
5. http://www.stormthecastle.com/how-to-make-a/make-xenas-chakrams.htm (2001-2017)
6. http://www.g33kwatch.com/reviews/kingdoms-of-amalur-reckoning-review
7. http://amalur.wikia.com/wiki/Faer_Gorta
8. http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/09/30/matter-of-perspective-kingdoms-of-amalur-the-house-of-ballads-quest/ (2016)
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLCCXnf4iJU
10. http://www.shacknews.com/article/72201/amalur-reckonings-online-pass-unlocks-single-player-content (1996-2017)
11. sfimg.com (2016) https://www.sfimg.com/forum/thread?post_id=182845
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