Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the newest entry to the Western-style role-playing game, and it didn’t allow The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to overshadow is equally impressive premise of immersing players into a deep world where everyone has a pre-determined Fate. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, or simply Reckoning from this point on, doesn’t give players new ways in expanding the role-playing genre, instead the game improves one critical element that has smothered Skyrim and the Dragon Age series from being definitive and atmospheric to the level of perfection. Reckoning re-defines combat and gameplay by letting players take control of their character’s actions all throughout the adventure, and it’s definitely worth exploring the vast overworld of Amalur for many different reasons.

Reckoning begins with you being carted away by two arguing gnomes. Basically, you’re dead and you have become part of an ambitious experiment to revive the dead. After you fall into a pit full of rotting bodies, your character awakens from his/her slumber only to find out that your re-incarnation has been cut short because of an invasion led by the game’s primary antagonist group, the Tuatha Deohn. The Well of Souls, the instrument that initiated the revival, interfered with your Fate leaving your character without a destiny or concrete pathway to set his/her foot in. The presentation is powerful and convincing. Your character lacks direction, plus the absence of destiny provides your character with different characteristics that provide permanent upgrades that can be coupled with certain skills and abilities.

Combat in Recknoning
Combat in Reckoning is satisfying, and perhaps it’s most attractive feature. Whenever you choose daggers for offense, you can actually pierce or backstab enemies in realistic, gruesome fashions. Your character’s versatility depends on your choice of combat; however, Reckoning is dipped with options developed to make combat more atmospheric, bloody, and worthwhile. Your character can choose and switch between primary and secondary weapons. You won’t get stuck thrusting a sword to the gullets of spiders and kobolds, neither would you distance yourself from Red Legion bandits for a considerable amount of playing hours. Reckoning offers diverse combat customization that lets you create a balanced character that knows how to swing a sword against a crowd of spiders while being able to shoot goblets of flame residues to Red Legion archers from afar.

But what about the efficiency of each weapon?

Leveling in Reckoning is different from RPGs, but it does borrow familiar interfaces you’ve probably seen in Diablo II or the Fallout series. Character growth is refined into three simple layouts. Firstly, you will gain access to “Perks” that passively enhance your ability to sneak, pick locks, dispel enchanted statuettes, persuade, or sell junk at higher prices. This is all important in enriching the overall experience, but it doesn’t make you stronger against Reckoning’s bad population of giants, spellweavers, and trolls that carry huge logs.

After spending points in passive abilities, you will then be transported into a skill tree sub-divided according to style. Might provides combat prowess and improves your handling with longswords, broadswords, and hammers; Finesse grants you complete control over daggers and Faeblades; and finally Sorcery concentrates your character’s skill to cast damaging spells and provides mastery over staves and sceptres. A more important ingredient to the customization cauldron are Destinies, which can only be activated after your character meets a specific Might/Finesse/Sorcery requirement. Destinies provide unbelievable combat boosts that benefit your character’s growth as a swordsman who can harness powerful energies or an assassin that favors magic over shadowy kills.

Questing in Reckoning
Reckoning is filled with side-quests but sadly, most side-activities are not that important and rewarding. NPCs who give the quests are forgettable and are essentially useless after you complete their task. Questing does give your character a chance to fight stronger enemies or explore dungeons filled with treasure chests that contain a “wealthy supply of loot,” which can easily overcrowd your backpack if you’re not careful of selling gear that you have absolutely no use for. Looting in Reckoning is so interesting that the developers of the game wanted you to become over-encumbered with alchemy ingredients, potions, weapons, armor, and important documents in minutes.

Scores

Graphics (8.5) – Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning looks like an MMO, but that doesn’t hamper the whole experience. In fact, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning does not suffer from crippling lag or frustrating framerate drops despite its size. The game did not give up on me for one second, and I could savor in the moment of exploring vast woodlands, leaky dungeons, and treacherous riverbeds without seeing my character dance to some patchy fault lines. However, character design and NPC structure looks mediocre and I swear that my character looks much similar to the potion merchant I’m talking to right now.

Gameplay (9.0) – The gameplay of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the main attraction, it doesn’t get any better than this. Deep, guilt-free character customization allows you to create a balanced character capable of executing power moves, spell casting, and assassination all at the same time. Even if you made a mistake in allocating points, you can always re-shuffle your build and experiment which style will satisfy you the most.

Replay Value (7.0) – The lack of consequence in Recknoning is jaw-dropping. Kill a chicken in front of a village soldier and he will do nothing to apprehend your silly crime. Although you can turn on the aggression and start murdering people around you, the realism is hampered by a GTA-like wanted system wherein you’re notoriety level will decrease after you leave the scene of the crime undetected. Additionally, dialogue only offers one-word punches that NPCs have a more colorful way of expressing themselves. Questing is linear and does not add something valuable to the formula

Sound (7.0) – Voice-acting is realistic enough. Music changes during tense moments.

Final Score = 8