Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review

ATC and I submitted a review of KOA: Reckoning to 2old2play.com, but thought some folks might like a preview of it:

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an action RPG from Big Huge Games which came out in February 2012 after a successful, though buggy, demo was released to PC, PS3 and 360. This generated good word-of-mouth for this new intellectual property which is from the minds of Kurt Schilling, Ken Rolston (from the Elder Scrolls series), writer R.A. Salvatore, and artist Todd McFarlane.

The game throws an amnesic voiceless protagonist into a fantasy world with a rich history and a large world to explore. We've decided to address various issues in the game either together or individually as we are both have played it differently.

ATC: If you are OCD in any way I would caution you about Reckoning. Being only 26 hours into the game I still have not even made it to the halfway point. The player can do a lot in this game from quests, crafting (gems, weapons & potions) and scouring the land just to see what Amalur has to offer.

Cad: What does Reckoning do well? A lot.

The character progression, skill trees and class bonuses as you reach each new Tier give you a sense of accomplishment as you progress through the game.

You're not locked into that Might class, for instance, if you have enough points in other categories to switch classes (and subsequent bonuses) on the fly. But, if you want to redistribute your skills from the ground up, go see a Fateweaver and for a fee, you can change your attributes completely.

ATC: With the idea to change your attributes at any time in the game I think benefits the player. This way it gives the player a chance to alter his/her play style and reinvent the game on how they play.

Cad: If you don't change your weapon and spell load out at least three times during your game, you're doing it wrong. You're missing out on fun finishing animations, finding weaknesses in enemies and creating general chaos on the battlefield.

ATC: I personally only have changed what type of bonus I receive like Smithing, Hidden Detection when I change my attributes. It is about making the ultimate character on the battlefield versus watching animations and finding weaknesses. During my time in Reckoning I have found that blacksmithing weapons and armor will always be better than what is dropped.

However, I know Caduceus thinks it is a waste of time and to just go with what is dropped and sell the rest versus salvaging the items

Cad: I salvage a bit, but the payoff seems minimal, to me. I played through the whole game in about 76 hours during my Hard play through, getting 100% of all the "trophchievements" using two or three crafted items during my entire game.

Honestly I think the crafting system breaks the game, giving you overpowered gear, and I don't enjoy micromanaging that much.

ATC: For me this is the first game I have ever really crafted in. So I took advantage to try and learn crafting since I think this game helps guide a player how to craft. The use of overpowered weapons in battle may be excessive, but an such a weapon will fit into certain play styles.

Cad: BEHOLD MJOLNIR, CRAFTED HAMMER!!! Anyway, there are unlockable moves and such with each weapon, though typically, you'll be mashing attack-attack-attack with the third move being slower and more powerful making a chain of attacks.

By interspersing magic you'll generate more Fate. This can be used to trigger Reckoning mode.

ATC: I have not really played around with weapon combo attacks due to the weapons I have been using (Chakrams primary and the Bow) in the game.

However, when using Reckoning mode the animations are nice. Normally you would want to release this mode when you have a bunch of enemies around to gain more experience.

Cad: You can jimmy that system a bit more by quaffing a potion to increase the XP from "group kills" during Reckoning mode.

The potion system is also a bit robust with around twenty components that can be gathered or looted all over the game world to make everything from health and mana restorations to temporary boosters to sneak skills.

ATC: Did you find yourself using more potions in the game?

Cad: I used health potions mostly, using experience boosters and damage reducers in particularly tough fights.

I carried around a lot more potions than I ever used, which is a problem because they affect your encumbrance.

ATC: I agree with the potions that even though we have a lot to choose from. During the game it appears at least for us that not many potions outside of the normal were being used.

Since you changed the way you played many times. Did you end up enjoying one weapon over the rest?

CAD: I was using a giant hammer for melee and chakrams for distance fighting at the end which seemed to work well. The hammer and the giant sword are slow and getting surrounded by wolves, for instance, which are quick attackers, it is easy to get overwhelmed, but you can quickly go into your inventory and change weapons in your backpack, if needed.

ATC: During my fights I tried to focus first on the smaller enemies with the chakrams. Once they were out of the way to focus on the larger enemies during battle. At times If I could get close enough and far enough I would use my crafted bow to pick off at least one enemy.

Cad: The amount of lore they've poured into the game will give you plenty to hear and read. I'd argue there's a bit too much with this being a new intellectual property, but they're trying to give themselves plenty of background. The problem with doing that is that you might write yourselves into a box by accident. Or at the very least make some contradictory statements.

ATC: That is true about the lore, but you do get that faithful following. You know the ones that buy the over 600 page strategy guide just to get more in depth about the lore that may not be in the game. I have found it is easy to over look some of the lore in the game because it gets over whelming at times.

Cad: That is a boon and a burden. As I started to wrap up the game, I didn't really care as much. I think there was too much content. At the end I had completed over 150 quests, I'll check to be sure, as it might have been 175.

ATC: I am still not as far as you yet, (I have reached the plains), but I know I have 80 completed quests with 7 more active and will have more quests completed than you did when you finished. What keeps me from moving on from an area is seeing everything from loot, Monsters and walking around this vast world. Of course the loot is everything I can hold till my back pack gets full, but the environments are what set this apart.

If I had to compare this environment to Skyrim's, I would choose Amalur, even with its limitations.

Cad: I'm a fan of the wide color palette as well, with the varied environments. I don't like endless wastelands and the grey/brown worlds of many recent games, though you will experience that in the last set of zones before the finale of Reckoning.

ATC: Even though it may be darker tones in the later part of the game. The palette is still nice too look at versus the grit of recent games.

During my travels in Reckoning I have found the enemy system to be a good change of pace. Reusing the enemies in new zones at higher levels is fine with me just because a new enemy or two is being introduced into the mix. It is not like seeing a bear at the start that is level 1 and 34 hours later still seeing a bear at level 1. The ratio guide for each area is assuming that you will make it to a certain area within the target area that has been set-up by the developer.

Cad: Even at high levels, though, some enemies - bears, Jottun, Ettin, Trolls, and others - are damage sponges. You really have to pile on the damage, hoping to stagger them to keep them from attacking. This gets frustrating late in the game when you've been through several rooms of the above enemies and there are three or four more to complete the quest.

ATC: Something I would like to whine about is the amount of loot you can carry at once. Of course I like that crafting items don't count towards my total. The complaint is I can't carry as much as I want before I fast travel back to salvage things.

Cad: You need to have some sort of penalty for encumbrance and frankly the game is pretty generous. I mean, you're basically packing enough crap to stock an ACE Hardware, so while there are backpack upgrades available, about 2/3 of your inventory REALLY just goes unused.

And the Junk system does work well. I like that my "good stuff" can be separate so I don't accidentally sell off my Chest Plate of Awesomeness +2 by accident (conversely you can buy it back from a vendor at a grossly increased price if you change your mind later, but still....).

ATC: The other complaint I have with this game like Cad is about the ability to see Progress for Achievement's or quests. For me I am an in game hoarder till it comes time to salvage and sell all my junk at once

Cad: Yeah, really don't like the fact that I wonder how many books I have read? How many enemies have I killed using my abilities? How many ingredients do I have left to find? Who knows? The game does, but it is all under the dashboard, unlike, say "Red Dead Redemption" which put it all out there for you.

ATC: I know I will be playing this game for sometime searching Reckoning's every little nook and crevice. With as much content that has come out for this game at launch, it should intimidate the competition. I truly do not see a reason why you wouldn't buy this game used or new if you love action RPG's. Even with the small glitches and frame rate issues I have seen in my travels this game is still fun to play.

Cad: I've had one episode of REALLY bad stuttering on the game, as far as technical issues go, but we both have played this on the 360. That was with only two large enemies on the screen, but it didn't cause a crash and corrected itself. With multiple enemies on the screen, I've noticed slowdown, but not enough to keep me from playing.

I won't say I'm as enthusiastic as ATC. I've enjoyed the game quite a bit. There are definite great parts of the game, but there is still some work to be done. The DLC hits soon and we'll be back with more thoughts after that.

ATC: You're just upset you don't loot whore like I do.

Cad: We didn't discuss it here, but if you get the game new, you obtain the House of Valor quest line, as an incentive. This affects no trophies or achievements. There is room for discussion regarding this practice, but I think Big Huge Games viewed it as a way to make sure you got a new copy so they would get paid.

Overall, my recommendation is this: If you play through the demo which is available on PC/PS3/360 and you like it, buy this game. If you DON'T enjoy the demo, don't bother getting the game as it is seventy more hours of the same thing.

ATC: I concur with Cad's recommendation. Time for me to get back to Amalur...