Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Xbox 360

    Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an Action/RPG developed by Big Huge Games and 38 Studios (headed by ex-Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling). The game was published by Electronic Arts and saw release in 2012. Kingdoms of Amalur saw a huge amount of hype as it neared release, and got nearly as much media attention after. The game touted an amazing cast of writers and designers such as Ken Rolsten (of The Elder Scrolls fame) working on game design, Todd McFarlane (of Spiderman and Spawn comic book fame) working on art design, and R.A. Salvatore (If you're a fantasy fan that hasn't heard of Drizzt Do'Urden, there's something wrong, love him or hate him, Salvatore has made a killing with his books) writing the game's story. Gamers looked forward to what looked to be the greatest Action/RPG ever to be released (the game was meant to garner attention for the series and a MMORPG was planned eventually), only to find that the game was much less amazing than they had expected. While the game met with a relatively positive reception, it sold extremely poorly and lead to the demise of Big Huge Games and 38 Studios. The closure of developer 38 Studios lead to a $75 million dollar lawsuit levied against the company by the State of Rhode Island who loaned the business money to make the game. Luckily, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is not nearly as big of a disaster as it caused.

    Kingdoms of Amalur follows a hero known as the "Fateless One". This hero dies at the onset of the game, only to be magically revived by an arcane apparatus known as the Well of Souls. Upon resurrection, it is discovered that the Fateless One is no longer bound by the rules of fate, and as such, can change the destiny of others. This power makes the Fateless One the perfect candidate to face the evil empire slowly making its way across the lands of Amalur, the Tuatha. The Tuatha are a group of immortal elves who are slowly working their way across the lands, bringing a blight along with them in hopes of summoning their evil goddess Tirnach. Unfortunately for Amalur, it is widely known that the Tuatha are fated to plunge the world into darkness. Luckily, the Fateless One has the power to change the future...

The Fateless One is a much better title than what RPG gamers are commonly given, the Dateless One.

    If the story sounds somewhat meandering and thin (oh Salvatore...), it's because it is. I had an extremely hard time getting into the game because the first two hours are just people looking at your character and going on and on about how you're no longer tied to the threads of fate. Really, you don't say? I don't care about how powerful I supposedly am, tell me the story of why I need to be a hero! The story really doesn't pull you in at all throughout the entire game, though it gets a little better half-way through. None of the characters are endearing or interesting. I never once cared about any of the characters...which is sad because good characters are what make stories great.

    Luckily for the game, there is a HUGE amount of content to uncover. There is an abundance of side-quests to keep you busy throughout the game. I found that there were so many quests that I actually reached the game's level cap of 40 long before I was close to finishing to game (not a good thing...). Loot is plenty as well. New weapons and armor drop from enemies, can be found in chests, and can be bought or crafted. There are unique items, rare items, set items, and all kinds of other things to collect as you traverse Amalur. The player can blacksmith new items, create special gems to socket into items for additional power, and make potions with varied effects.

Yay! I get to test out my fresh-made, ridiculously huge sword!

    The world of Amalur features lots of distinct, beautiful areas to explore. Each area has its own personality, monster types, and quests. I've seen a lot of people give Kingdoms of Amalur grief for just being another "generic fantasy world", but honestly I thought that the world was extremely well done, even if it is all recycled ideas. The game's art style is as though World of Warcraft and the Fable series had a child together. While the game looks somewhat cartoony, I found that I really enjoyed the character and monster models and never once felt like the game was childish.

    The game's environments are beautifully designed with vivid colors and interesting layouts. I loved all the color that was present in the game. If you haven't noticed, I'm kind of tired of the drab, yellow-filters put on games lately to make them seem more "mature" and "gritty". Lush forests, dark marshes, arid deserts, and more await the Fateless One as he or she travels to face the Tuatha.

Forget the Tuatha, I'm settling down and becoming a fisherman...

    Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning features skills trees which allow you to customize your character to whatever sort you would like. The skill trees feature three categories, Might, Finesse, and Sorcery. Skills from each section favor the warrior, rogue, and mage respectively, but can be mixed and matched to the player's liking. A large number of weapon types are available for use, three per skill type, and can again be mixed and matched to your liking. Characters can equip armor, accessories, a main weapon, and a secondary weapon. Any weapon can be either a main or secondary, and do not suffer penalties for being in either slot. Maybe you want to be a mage with a staff and a warhammer, or a rogue with a bow and magical chakrams, either way is possible and more.

    Combat in the game plays out more as an action/hack and slash game than a traditional RPG. Skills and attack combos become available as you level up, making for ever more destructive abilities. The game's combat is likely the most enjoyable thing about it. While I got bored with the game's quests, I always enjoyed taking on different creatures with my varied skills. Additionally, the Fateless One has the ability to enter Reckoning mode. This skill causes time to slow down for everyone but you and increases your damage output drastically. Enemies defeated in this mode fall to their knees with the threads of their fate dangling above them. The hero can then Fateshift the enemies and snip the threads of fate. This destroys the enemy and gives additional bonus experience to the hero.

Playing baseball with gnomes is an Amalurian national pastime!

    While I loved the game's exploration, combat, and visuals, there were a few things that really bothered me. My main complaint is that many different actions are all mapped to the "A" button. This may not seem like a big deal, but it leads to a lot of frustration. I found that often I would try to hit "A" to run past a character only to start talking to him or her, or that I would be mashing the button to skip some dialogue only to find that I accidentally selected a negative dialogue response (I know, my fault). The bigger problem was that every now and then the "A" button would just stop working, making opening chests, running, and talking to characters impossible. I also found that the game would move the camera or anything controlled by the right stick on the controller as though I was pushing it when I was not. I know that analog stick drift is a problem with the controllers for Xbox 360, but in both this case and with the "A" button not working, the controller worked fine with other games.

    The game is also quite easy. I played through the adventure on the game's hardest mode as I heard ahead of time that the combat gets to be boring as you eventually crush enemies with one blow. Even on hard mode I still found combat to be unchallenging. After I leveled up to a certain point, I no longer feared taking damage and nearly nothing could hurt me. This lack of difficulty really mars an otherwise fun combat system.

Bwahahah! I am become Death!

    Overall, I found that I really enjoyed playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I played through the entirety of the game once, and then made two other characters which I played for around 10 hours each just to see what the other skillsets were like. In all, with the DLC, the game lasted me around 80 hours. This time could easily be expanded as I didn't complete and side-quests after reaching the game's level cap. It's too bad that the game's developers are now out of business, as a number of the problems with the game could be fixed with a patch or two. Luckily the issues don't keep the game from being entertaining.

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