Xbox 360
Published by Electronic Arts
Developed by 38 Studios, Big Huge Games
It's not often that the main character in an
RPG is dead at the beginning (although Planescape Torment is one such
game that springs to mind) but that's exactly the position your
character will be in at the beginning of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,
the fantasy, third-person action RPG from 38 Studios and Big Huge Games.
Fortunately your character will soon make a Lazarus-like recovery,
thanks to the Well of Souls, and return to the land of the living and
that's extremely good news for the citizens of Amalur because they are
desperately in need of a hero. The side effect of coming back from the
dead is that you no longer have a fate, you were meant to be dead after
all, and are free to shape it as you wish during the course of the game.
The beauty of this is that in a world where everyone is seemingly bound
to their fate, you are the only one with the power to alter not only
your own fate but those of others too.
Whilst most RPG games allow you a good deal
of freedom, Kingdoms of Amalur takes things to a whole new level. As you
would expect you are free to deviate from the main storyline and take on
any of the many side quests that can be found in the game. You are also
free to shape your character’s progression too, levelling up passive
abilities such as Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Detect Hidden, Persuasion and
Stealth. You can switch between a number of destiny types, which confer
bonuses on your character, whenever you want to (although you’ll only
begin the game with three of them). There are three skill trees
(Finesse, Might and Sorcery) that you can purchase skills from using
your skill points that you acquire when your character levels up. Each
of the skills on the skill trees has six levels allowing you to improve
a skill significantly if it’s one you deem to be useful. Surprisingly
however, you can even completely reset all of your character’s skills by
visiting a Fateweaver. This allows you to completely reshape your
character’s attributes and effectively change the way in which you play
the game at any time you want. You’ll have to pay for this privilege
however and subsequent resets of your character’s abilities get
progressively more expensive. Still to have the ability to effectively
reset your character in this way is impressive and helps you avoid
unwittingly creating a character that you aren’t completely happy with.
With this being an action RPG it’s imperative
that the combat is solid enough to keep you coming back for more.
Thankfully the combat in the game is actually pretty impressive. The
game makes effective use of combos and charged attacks and feels very
smooth and easy to get to grips with. You’ll have access to staffs, a
variety of swords and dual knives, hammers, bows and so forth. Magic can
also play an important role in combat if you choose to take advantage of
it. The combat remains fluid and exciting throughout and of course
there’s always the option to use stealth but how effective it is boils
down to the abilities and skills you’ve chosen as your character
develops.
One of the features I really like in Kingdoms
of Amalur is the ability to create and name your own armour and weapons.
Whilst playing the game you’ll get to collect a variety of components
that can be used to craft weapons and armour that can differ from those
that you’ll find in the game. You can even break down the weapons and
armour into components which you can then use in the crafting of your
custom creations. These custom creations allows you to craft weapons and
armour that provide you with the status boosts you’ll need to compliment
your character’s attributes. I suppose you could argue that it’s
possible to craft weapons and armour that make the game a little too
easy but personally I think it’s pleasing that if you invest time in one
area of the game such as the crafting, it does have a tangible effect on
the game as a whole.
Whilst the game is generally impressive, and
the quality of the action makes sure it's an addictive experience, some
aspects of Kingdoms of Amalur could have been better. The bulk of the
side quests in the game feel too generic, the storyline is decent but
lacks the richness you'd expect to find in an RPG and the visuals,
whilst impressive from a technical perspective, lack originality. These
problems collectively mean that Amalur doesn't have a particularly
strong sense of identity and that's a shame. Probably the first
complaint I had with the game was that the options to change the look of
your character are actually pretty basic by today’s standards and feel
far too limited for an RPG of this calibre. None of the aforementioned
problems are of major importance and they are certainly not big enough
to deter anyone from enjoying what is essentially a very polished game,
but with stronger side quests, an engrossing storyline and an original
look for the world and its characters it would have been a top of the
line action RPG.
The presentation of Kingdoms of Amalur is
absolutely fine. The visual style of the game will be familiar to anyone
who has played a colourful, fantasy-based action RPG before but in the
game’s defence the character models generally look fine and the numerous
environments that you’ll explore all look absolutely fine if not
technically impressive. Assuming you simply put the disk in your Xbox
360 and load up the game, you’ll be advised to first install the game
before beginning your adventure and this is for good reason. Playing
straight off the disk, you’ll encounter long load times and quite a
choppy frame rate at times leading to a gameplay experience that’s not
ideal. With the game installed to the hard drive however things are much
better with a smooth frame rate and load times that are much more
acceptable. The game is also subtitled, although they are disabled by
default. You’ll have absolutely no problem in following the game’s
storyline as all of the essential dialogue is subtitled with the
speaker’s name being shown so you’re aware of who is saying what.
Tutorial information and quest details are all given in text too and can
be recalled when needed. The on screen radar always shows you where you
need to complete your next quest. The game also makes good use of icons
to convey information and the icons are pretty much self-explanatory.
I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The combat is enjoyable and the amount of freedom you have to play the game in a way that suits you means that most fans of the genre will find Kingdoms of Amalur to be an addictive experience. Yes some aspects of the game could have been better. Better side quests, a richer storyline and more options to alter the physical appearance of your character would have been appreciated but the combat is impressive; I like the ability to be able to craft weapons of your own design and the main storyline is enjoyable. On the whole it’s a very addictive action RPG and if a sequel could manage to make up for its deficiencies, none of which are serious, it would be one of the best action RPG’s to date.
