Kindoms of Amalur: Reckoning

The creation of an RPG with the universe created by R.A Salvatore was from scratch an interesting prospect ...But was the actual game good, bad, fresh or just mediocre?Well in the end it was a really good experience....

The game is situated in one of the kingdoms of Amalur, a world were everyone's fate is solid, written and remains unchanged. More specifically the Faelands. The Fealands have unique wildlife and indigenous people. The Fae. Creatures that operate close to nature's wild and strict rules. The traditional rulers of the Faelands were the 2 courts of Fae. The Summer Court , that symbolizes the lighter aspect of nature, that of rebirth and the Winter Court, that symbolizes the dark aspect of death in nature. The Fae are magical immortal creatures forever bound to preserve nature,fate and tradition, even to the point of reliving the same experiences over and over again for all eternity. Now the Faelands are basically ruled by the rest, more typical races of Amalur. Races of Men, Elves and Gnomes and the Fae world is in decline.

In the wake of this decline the Winter Court had a severe change. A radical function of the Winter Fea took over, changing state of the court, declared the coming of a new god and begun an all out war to destroy all other races. The war already rages for 10 years and every fateweaver foretold that the fate of the world was sealed. That until someone like the player arrives. A man that by accident is fate-less and can change what is written and thought to be unchanged. The most valuable skill in a world where fate is always unchanged. 

The game has a solid plot and can keep you interested enough till the end. The world is different, colorful and large. Each race , although it could be considered typical, is also interesting. The Fea especially are atypical and have a strange charm in their world and their never ending will to preserve the stories of their past by reliving them forever.Even though the graphics of the game are more or less average(but not bad) , the art design of the Faelands is what stays with you. Besides the main plot there are certain function quests that give extra bonuses upon completion and there are numerous of other sidequests found all over the vast lands. They might seem a little typical or boring but they are true to the classical CRPG template (especially MMOs). The game content is really large, just with the main and function quests. If you add the sidequests then the content amount is huge. If one is a completionist or a grinder he will be right at home here.

But such a vast action RPG with so much grinding content can only be truly fun if the combat system is fun. Well the combat system is the game's most powerful aspect. Fast paced, fun with the best amount of arcade and strategic feel in combat. Besides the typical weapons one can see even some unique ones, like the Chakrams for example. Every weapon usage is fun but from the moment I took them in my hand I fell in love with them. Anyway the game has the typical 3 attribute trees of the fighter , mage and thief. Yet there is no restriction in weapon or armor usage or where to allocate your attribute points. So basically a player can create any combination with these three classes from the pure ones to the jack-of-all-trades classes and to every class combination in between, which here are called destinies. As each attribute tree is increased new destinies are unlocked giving greater bonuses, making your class combination more powerful. In addition there is also an additional skill tree with skills like persuasion, crafting etc.

One of the game's most addictive aspect is the loot.It is endless!!!!!Almost to the level of the typical MMOs or the old diablo games. If one adds also the crafting and alchemy system, the game has a lot to offer in terms of equipping your character. They are not the deepest crafting/alchemy systems we have ever seen in RPGs and they are not really necessary to progress in the game but they are useful and fun enough if someone wants to use them. I actually went to the end battle with mostly crafted items but if you are bored it is not really obligatory. The loot in the game is more than enough.

All in all the game is really good. Decent story, decent graphics and sound, great art direction and addictive,well refined combat and huge loot. Most of the quests seem to be a little grinding but the quality of the combat system never lets you get bored. Plus the game is really huge. There are already a number of DLCs that came out expanding the content even more.  Looking forward for the sequel.....