Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Release Date: February 7, 2012


Single Player:



The single player in Kingdoms of Amalur is an absolute magnificent experience. The story begins with the death of your character. If you have played the demo for this title, than you will already know how the story begins. The camera issues that were prevalent in that build are no longer there and what we have is an enormous, robust, and fun experience. I spent the first five hours or so of my adventure in the Kingdoms of Amalur becoming acquainted to the controls, which are extremely easy to pick up. After becoming acquainted and leaving the first area, I exited to the world map where at first glance after pressing the select button; I thought it looked smaller than what it should be. I was amazed, as I looked upon the map that by pressing the triangle button, it enables a fast travel system to access previously visited areas.

This will most likely become your suggested choice of travel throughout the game. After getting into some of the game’s main quests you will know that you have only just touched the surface. There are varieties of quests that you must complete. They range from stealing items, exploring caverns, to finding people or items, or playing delivery boy. You will be busy for hours after you finish the main storyline. In Kingdoms of Amalur there a lot of enemies that can kill you rather quickly whether it be bears, wolfs, or any other extra magical creature you may come across.

Traveling around the world is a pain at first because there is not a particularly fast way to get from town to town until you reach it the first time to enable fast travel. The story is very deep with characters that are weird, quirky and interesting. These characters may even join up with you at times and help you in battles against bosses or lead you to your next objective. As you progress, you will obtain information in your quest, of a dark lord that wants to murder you because you alone have the ability to change people’s fates. You gained this ability because of your resurrection from the well of souls. Your reincarnation into your body allows you to change fate’s design and unravels what fate previously had planned as your told by the Ysa. You will traverse dangerous jungles and deserts while facing dangerously strong trolls and bosses.

Gameplay:



The gameplay in this game is great and the first aspect of the game that i know most RPG fans would want to know about is the character progression that essentially has three areas to it. When you max out your experience bar, you will see it after killing an enemy or completing an objective. It grants you the opportunity to level up. Leveling up goes through three processes, skills, upgrade points, and destinies. First, you have one upgrade point to upgrade your skills. What you chose to upgrade depends on your character preference. You can choose to upgrade skills such as alchemy, stealth, blacksmithing and others. After that you are given three skills points to upgrade stats for either the might, sorcerer, or finesse abilities for the type of character that you are controlling. These can be distributed anyway you want. This allows you to create a character that is versatile of centered on a deciding trait.

Combat in KOA is not the best as it mostly involves you hacking and slashing away enemies, but there is more to it than you would expect from RPG’s with gameplay like this. You can map items to a quick select wheel that will allow you to use them at a moment’s notice. There are also magical wells that have buffers that you can use for a limited time so that you will able to handle tougher enemies in certain areas.

Treasures are abundant in the world, as you will find chests that you can loot, steal from, dispel magic spells and lock pick to obtain the treasures. There are tons of items that you can obtain while in Amalur. These items help to construct new items, armor, and weapons that will need. It will not be easy to make all of these products, as it will require many rare materials. There is a load more that you can do as you enter into the world such as crafting potions by alchemy benches and other more advanced crafting techniques. This also holds true for weapons and armor, as you have to maintain their durability.



Presentation:



The graphics in the game are very reminiscent of world of warcraft. Models are well polished and the creation of your character allows you to create practically anything that your heart desires. There is also the option in the settings menu to disable your helmet. This allows you to play the game with a helmet equipped but, not visible for the player. You do not have to worry, as you will still have the bonuses of the equipped helmet.

If you gotten a chance to get the Mass Effect bonuses you will be please to know that it looks spectacular and comes in very handy when fighting early on in the game. You will be please to know that any alteration to armor done in the inventory screen will appear in game immediately. Weapons that have special attributes on them will also show themselves when you have them equipped. If an ice sword is on your back, you will see the elemental effects of that weapon.

Controls:



The controls are very easy to become acquainted with; you will have a plentiful amount of skills that you will be able to obtain. You can unlock four different types of magic that to be used against enemies..

The combat is basic, because at its core it is a basic hack and slash Rpg with a little extra added into the mix. It plays like your above average hack and slash with a few un-lockable combos that you get when you level up your character in the game. Blocking or parrying attacks is done by pressing the L1 button and stealth mode can be initiated by pressing the R2 button, it’s in your best interest to remember that as you will need to have a higher level stealth skill to sneak up and behind enemies to become undetected. For the most part the controls are solid. The only problem that I had personally was at times the camera angels for battles became unbalanced and had it positioned in a way that was not the best for fighting. It was a minor annoyances but nothing that would hinder the overall experience of the game.



Sound:



The best part of the game in my personal opinion is the sound of the game. The story telling and voice acting of this title really makes it seem like you are on an epic adventure to save everything that you know and love. The narration is really well done and really helps with the story telling aspect of the game that it is portraying.

The ambient music is spectacular as it gives you a mysterious feel to the areas you enter. The ominous music at times are neither ground breaking or awe inspiring but it does allow you to immerse yourself within the world and to be better equipped for what lies ahead. It is a pleasure to hear your blade slashing and the groans of you slaying an enemy, it has honestly very well done.

Pros:



Great Storyline, well developed and in-depth character level progression, and a fun character customization.
Replay value and difficulty levels that can change to your liking.
Many side quests aside from the main story that can keep you adventuring for hours and hours on end.
Great fast travel system that helps cut down on walking from place to place.

Cons:



Load screens in houses, and entry into areas can get mighty annoying and long at times.
Minor glitches and some slowdown can occur from rendering but nothing to severe that will hinder your experience.
Final Thoughts:

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a massive game. As soon as you begin your journey, you will know that this is going to be a massive exploration adventure for the user to enjoy. You may be an addict to Skyrim right now but rest assure this game will shatter the precious relationship you and Skyrim have made. If you love, enthralling and massive storylines with an abundance of side-quests to keep you busy for a while than this is definitely the game for you. Enjoy the best game of this caliber.

Final Score:



I give Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning 4.5 of 5

Article by,
RGC Muska