Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning

Okay.... A few things to say here. I have started and stopped playing the original version of this game a few times, and then did the same with Re-Reckoning a couple more times, but got distracted every time and stopped. After talking with my son about the game recently, I decided to throw myself into it 100% and play it through. And i did. The whole base game, and it was great. I really really enjoyed it. The first DLC, Legend of Dead Kel was okay... It got really into the whole Task thing with a vengeance, but yes, I finished the main story and most of the rest of the content. Then came Teeth of Naros. That one I actually really enjoyed. So my hopes were high for Fatesworn. Understand, of course. I had deliberately NOT read any reviews on the subject. I should have read reviews. It's basically almost a game itself, or maybe a copy of one? A certain Elder Scrolls one. With gates. You know, portals? You have to close? yeah.... I got really tired of all the repetition, and today, decided I am taking a break from the game for a while. There's nothing WRONG with the DLC at all, but it does feel like a game all to itself. Maybe, after a break for a bit, I'll go back and finish it. Maybe. But for now, I say, definitely play the base game. it's still good, even after all these years. And play the DLC at your leisure, knowing that last one is basically a sequel. In other words, plan to take a break in between. :D

Ah yes, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reselling
I had such a crush on Alyn Shir when I first played this back in the day. Given the chance I would do unholy things to her… Agarth can wreck me too.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is a blast from the past. It’s like World of Warcraft meets God of War. It is the Western equivalent of Dragon Quest: a colourful and nostalgic fantasy RPG from an earlier age of gaming. If any of those comparisons interest you, it is absolutely worth your time. The combat and the atmosphere... Its like straight out of a Tolkien novel. The world design is so magical and the soundtrack makes it even better.
This is a good game that suffers from a lack of variety, poor side missions and repetitive bloat that makes it great to start but very tough to finish. It's not the worst thing that's happened to Rhode Island but it's probably the most 7/10 game of all time. When it came out there were much better options like Skyrim and Dragon's Dogma. It's worth playing if you like the genre but don't expect it to wow you. Felt a lot like a single player MMO in terms of quest design and environments.
Despite the MMO-like gameplay, Kingdoms of Amalur wasn't planned as one. It was meant to be the single-player prequel to an MMO codenamed Project Copernicus with an epic backstory spanning millennia. It's like the most generic MMORPG possible was turned into a single-player game. It's a lot of fun, while suffering from old style game mechanics but it's part of the pleasure I suppose if you have any nostalgia for that era.
Yes at first it appears like they spent more time on coming up with the new title than actually remastering the game, but they actually made a lot of changes. They're just more under the hood and quality of life changes as opposed to big overhauls. The remaster has slightly better graphics and includes all of the original DLC. The new Fatesworn DLC will only work with Re-Reckoning as well. They also changed how areas level with you to make it more dynamic or like how loot is generated and how levels of mobs in areas are calculated. They added a new difficulty, and a lot of smaller changes and details that add up to something better than the original. It's the little things that make a difference.
Amalur isn't hard to get into at all. It's one of those entry-level RPGs that anyone can play. You talk to NPCs in villages and cities and accept quests from anyone with a giant gold ! over their heads. They'll send you around the current zone or a neighboring one, sometimes into linear dungeons to clear, and then you return to them for the reward on top of all the loot you picked up along the way. It's a huge world with a ton of side content and multiple factions to join alongside the main storyline.
You also have complete freedom to build your character however you want. There are seven Destiny class lines to explore, each of which represents a different playstyle. I did Might/Sorcery (a battlemage tank) on my first playthrough, for example. Now I'm looking at Finesse/Sorcery (a glass cannon rogue) next.
The combat is bloody hack-and-slash action in the vein of Devil May Cry, God of War, and Darksiders. There are weapons ranging from traditional swords and bows to twin scythes called faeblades and magical discs of doom called chakrams which turn you into Axel from Kingdom Hearts. There's even a Spartan Rage-style powerup called Reckoning mode that slows time and grants you extra EXP as you execute enemies in especially brutal ways. It's awesome.
I played this remaster with my kids and we all loved it because it's so self-aware of its own cheesiness and has familiar themes reminiscent of swashbuckling nonsense from the last century. The hammy voice acting is also superbly hilarious given the cheesy script, it's a real hoot for sure. Definitely not flawless and definitely not for everyone. The story has neat ideas but is underwhelming, a vast majority of the quests are MMO fare, the zones can be dull to get around it, and enemies are overused. But despite all that, I still enjoyed it.
Playing it is like eating plain tortilla chips. It's not a particularly life-changing experience, and I never find myself thinking "wow I really crave plain tortilla chips right now". However, sometimes I find myself with a bowl of plain tortilla chips in front of me. I eat chip after chip thinking "I should probably go grab some salsa or queso. Maybe heat up a can of refried beans or something". But I don't. Amalur is a difficult game to find time for in my backlog, but whenever I want to just chill for a few hours a bit less than sober it's a solid choice.
For all its flaws, I still don't think Kingdoms of Amalur is a bad game. But I did start thinking of it as the Western equivalent of Dragon Quest. This is the opposite of Soulsborne games. In something like Amalur, you're not being challenged at all; you're there for the mindless hack-and-slash action and traditional fantasy setting. It's video game comfort food.
In conclusion, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is an artifact of days gone by. It can be both refreshingly simple and frustratingly outdated. But for all its flaws, this is still a really fun game. I hope the devs extend the good game concepts to a new game with similar elements in the future.
Finally, remember guys. The Maid of Windemere did nothing wrong.
7/10

its like if fable and skyrim had a baby. i played it on the 360 when it first came out and have repurchased it again and again. switch, steam, playstation. its legit my favourite game ever. its graphics are charming and surprisingly well done for its release date. the scenery is stunning. charming characters. good weapon and magic systems. mix and match for combat styles. i honestly think the only reason its not a more well known game is because it released at the same time as skyrim and got buried by it and unlike skyrim it didnt get relesed 1000 times to stay relevant. if you like skyrim or fable give it a go, i doubt youll regret it.

Look, I'll be very blunt. This Re-master with the updated graphics is...well...fine. It really only reinvigorated my interest in the never-to-be-released sequel to this game. This remaster is still just KOA: Reckoning. If you liked the original version you're going to like this version exactly the same, or marginally better if you're big on appearance. However, the heart of the gameplay and what always brings me back to KOA is the combat style and simplified skill trees. If this game was an MMORPG it would be bigger than WOW in my humble opinion, but it's not. It's a single player game, which trust me as an elder scrolls player, I love this style of game. What I'm getting at is I've replayed this game 6 times with different classes, mixed classes, different difficulties, etc. It's an all time classic for me because this combat style has not been replicated correctly in any other game I've ever played. Yes, there are other games like KOA that you can utilize 2 weapons at the same time and cast spells. That's not new to the genre. What KOA does great is the fluidity of their combat scheme. It is seemless to switch between weapons, spells, blocks, etc. It makes the game feel like it's constantly progressing and not stale and subdued like WOW combat. I know they're two separate types of games but I'm just trying to get my point across that the DEVS really knew what they were doing when they put this combat scheme in the game.
Now let me tell you what I don't hate, but don't particularly love about the game. The story overall is just slightly above average or just average in general. I believe the combat scheme was the focus of this game and the story was secondary. It leaves a lot of quests feeling empty or just unrewarding. I do love the whole FAE light side vs. FAE dark side idea because it reminds me of Star Wars in a sense. Moving on, the character creation is very basic but offers plenty of options for a game released during this time period. My biggest gripe is the expansions and overall endgame. The expansions were just side quests and mediocre at best. The last update about chasing Alyn's "secrets" is the biggest letdown of any "expansion" or side quest that I've ever seen. It was extremely lazy and pointless. Thank the FAE gods for fast travel amirite?
In summary, KOA:RR is just KOA:R with sharper images. The base game itself was fantastic and I loved playing it over a decade ago. The biggest issue is the game was overshadowed by the release of Skyrim to the point where it never caught the eye of mainstream gamers, unfortunately. I will always have a place in my heart for this game and I'll always replay it every 5 years or so and there are few games I feel that way about. If you can get this game at a decent price I highly recommend playing it. Just REMEMBER, you're playing an combat based RPG from 2012, not a remade game packaged and delivered like FF7 remake. If you made it this far, thank you for reading this review and let us pray that somehow, someway, there is a sequel or new KOA in our lifetimes. FYI I've played 50 hours of KOA:RR and hundreds of hours in the OG version.
Thank you for reading!

Kingdoms of Amalur hits different. I don't really know how to describe it, so let me paraphrase some of the things I've heard others say that have stuck with me. I've heard numerous people who say they don't like RPGs say they love this game--and some of these people can't even place exactly why they love it, which is a testament to how much this game has to offer. On the same token, I've heard plenty of people that say they normally hate fantasy say they love this game and the world it's set in. Someone described the combination of open world, breathtaking environments, spectacular, epic combat, and unique setting as "a formula no game had ever done before." I don't know if that's 100% true, but I've never played another RPG that hits like Amalur. And considering I'm writing this for the remaster that was made so many years later, that's really saying something.

Amalur isn't for everyone, I will readily admit that. Some RPG fans might be turned off by the solo adventure aspect. To those people, I say: give Amalur a chance. The characters are wonderful, the story is great, and the setting is amazing. No, you don't get to have campfire dialogues or have followers, but Amalur is all the better because of that, and I say that as someone who thinks Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect one are among the greatest RPGs ever made. The best way I can describe it is this: Amalur created an awesome, winning formula and they stuck to it. Everything they did, they did extremely well--especially the world building!

In an effort to keep this review short, I will conclude by asking the question that might be on a buyer's mind: is the remaster worth it? Yes, it absolutely is. Compared to the original, you get the awesome DLCs included, some quality of life improvements, additional content, and some nice graphical changes. I'll admit, a few of the graphics changes I was hoping for didn't make it into the remaster, but overall the remaster improves upon Amalur's iconic environments and style without ruining the original feel, which is always a tough task for remasters. Plus, supporting interest in Amalur is a really good thing to do. This is one of my favorite worlds ever, and it's an absolute travesty that it was abandoned until recently.

Do you yearn for simpler times? A fantasy romp through a beautiful world free from battle-passes and daily quests?

Design by Todd McFarlane and story written by R.A Salvatore, this game is like if Skyrim and Fable had a child but then they abandoned it and it was raised by World of Warcraft. Oh also Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance is like the weird uncle that shows up and tells it Dungeons and Dragons bedtime stories whenever Dr. Darksiders needs to stop by and give it a checkup.

This game is everything you have been doom scrolling looking for. The entire god damn thing is voice acted by some absolute legends. Combat feels great, itemization is interesting and progression slaps. The quests are fantastic and feel fresh as hell. The world design is really great. Even the character models are awesome. They are very stylized and well animated. Even random townspeople NPCs have mouth animations that actually match the (fully voice acted) dialog. There are fully animated in-engine cutscenes that absolutely slap. Little details like these feel really refreshing in the modern gaming hellscape of cut corners and hand drawn non animated cutscenes of the post 2020's.

This really feels like a game made in 2012, and I mean that with the highest praise. It's just modern enough that you don't get lost or bored playing and has just enough difficulty on normal that I can imagine playing this for hundreds of hours on higher difficulties with different builds.

Really truly getting the feeling like when I played Skyrim for the first time back in 2011. The story is really good so far. Playtime is something like 25 hours if you rush the main questline (don't do that) but around 100 for full completion. The way I play games, Ill squeeze a few hundred hours out of this reading all the books in game and diving deep into the lore.

It's totally worth the full price they are asking, but it goes on sale frequently so follow it and wishlist it and snag it on sale with all the DLC for under 15 usd.

Yeah this game slaps.

Ellen was right.
Good game. Very similar to Reckoning, but the visual clarity and DLC make this the better purchase.
Everyone needs to play this, if only to hear the horrible attempts at Scottish and Ainmhi the wolf-man.