Simply An Amazing Triumph For RPGs (DETAILED REVIEW)
Story 8/10
When you begin the story you are dead. Yes, I said it, you are dead. Luckily for you, you are revived by a gnomish scientist that goes by the name of Fomorous Hugues. He revives you using the Well of Souls. You must find a way to escape the facility you are in because it is being attacked. When you finally escape you come to find out that you have absolutely no memory of your life before you died. You eventually meet Agarth. He is a fateweaver. He informs you that everyone has a fate in Amalur. Seeing as he is a fateweaver, this means he holds the ability to read your fate. Seeing as you have died and been revived you are "fateless." This leads you on a long journey (and I do mean long) to uncover the truth behind your death as well as help in the existing war against the mortals. K.O.A. main story is very engrossing and will surely keep you immersed. There are tons and tons of side quests to do as well. Unfortunately the side quest are mostly go here and find this, or go there kill this types of quest which sometimes can become very repetitive and boring after a few hours if it wasn't for this games excellent gameplay which I will get to later. There are also different faction storyline quest as well. Now these are deep story driven quest that takes plenty of hours to finish and kept me very entertained. The faction storylines also allow you to learn about different races in Amalur. Overall K.O.A. main story and faction quest are great but unfortunately the side quests are very repetitive and somewhat boring. With that said the majority of the game is well written and R.A. Salvatore did an excellent job.
Gameplay 10/10
Spectacular. Simple amazing. The gameplay in K.O.A. is the selling point. There are three different difficulty settings; easy, normal, and hard. Compared to other titles in the genre this game isn't very hard at all. I've been playing on the hardest difficulty setting and have only died about 4 or 5 times. I wish the difficulty was a little harder but it far from a gamebreaker. You start out with 4 different races you may choose from. Almain (civilized humans) Dokkalfar (Dark Elves) Ljosalfar (Light Elves) and finally the Varani (nomadic humans). You can choose from Might, Finesse, and Sorcery. These are the same as fighter, rogue, and mage classes you may encounter in other RPG games. In every class there is a skill-tree you may use in order to unlock new abilities. Combat is really fun. Battles are in real time and there are plenty of different ways you can approach battle. You have your primary weapon, and also a secondary weapon you can use. With this you also have your magic and other powers. The combat is very fluid and fast paced. In previous RPG games the combat has been criticized as being subpar with the rest of the game. That isn't the case at all here. You can parry attacks or simple just roll out of the way. For you finesse people out there you can sneak up on and enemy and assassinate them if you so choose. There is a fun and intuitive way for everybody to approach combat. The combat also includes a "rage system". With this rage system you can slow down time and attack enemies in order to get an experience boost. You may also perform a gruesome finisher on a single enemy.
Kingdoms of Amalur focuses heavy on customization. You may customize just about everything. You can make your characters strengths to fit your playstyle. Each time you level up you will have the option to add points into your abilities and skilltree. Your abilities consist of things such as lockingpicking skills, persuasion, blacksmithing, alchemy, etc. One great thing about this system is the fact that you don't have to think too hard about what you want to invest in because 38 Studios had added the ability to completely wipe your slate clean and put your points into a different skill. All you have to do is find one of those handy fateweavers and give them a little cash. I love this system because it gives the option to experiment with different types of characters without having to start your whole game over. I stared with a finesse character then completely changed over to a might character. You can also mix the classes. For example you can be a mage who uses magic and also have a few finesse abilities such as pickpocketing or assassinating. This makes the game that much more enjoyable because you aren't strictly limited to using only one class at a time. Crafting is also very handy. Not only can you find rare armor or weapons but you can also create them. The looting system is completely random so you will having to basically do a lot of searching and exploring in order to find items you may want in order to craft. Sagecrafting is also a neat feature. With sagecrafting you can use gems you find around Amalur in order to put them into your weapons and armor to give them elemental effects as well as damage or armor boost.
Exploration plays another huge factor in K.O.A. Amalur is huge and there are many of places to explore from caves, wastelands and different cities. The map is broken up into continents. Each continent looks completely different from another. There are lorestones all around Amalur to find as well as hidden treasures. Lorestones are stones you can collect that tell you a little bit more about the history of Amalur and also grants you some experience. It's highly encouraged to keep your map active in your HUD at all times because it's very easy to get lost. You can interact with every NPC you come across in the game as well. The dialogue system is similar to what we have seen in other games such as Mass Effect. The conversations you have are very detailed and long. You can pickpocket NPC as well. Similar to Skyrim you cannot sell stolen items unless you have increased your abilities or find a merchant who will take the items off your hands. I really enjoyed how 38 Studios did the buying and selling portion of the game as well. Items you sell from the beginning to the end can be rebought in case you sold the wrong item or you need quick cash at the time. With its deep customization system and extremely fun gameplay Kingdoms of Amalur provides some of the best experiences you will encounter in any RPG to come out in recent history and is sure to keep even the most hardcore games entertained.
Graphics & Sound 8/10
K.O.A. has a pretty unique graphic style. Environments are beautiful and all of them have their own unique look and feel. This is a very bright world and all of the colors will pop out at you. Everything just looks so crisp and clear. Water effects, blood, grass etc. all looks amazing. A few times I even stopped and used my camera to just look at the world. Todd McFarlane did an excellent job with the artwork portion and has left us with a beautiful, colorful world. There are some performance issues that I must address though. Early on in the game I encountered some framerate drops. On one occasion the framerate dropped really low and made movement and combat almost unplayable for about 2 minutes. Aside from that one occasion it drop a few other times but nothing to serious, and as mentioned only had issues in the beginning 5 hours. Character animations are decent nothing to spectacular in this department but nothing to complain about. Even with all the hours I have played this game, K.O.A. has never frozen on me. I've never had to reset my console because of a freezing issue. I also didn't notice any real issues with graphical popups. This is very impressive for a game of this size. Performance wise, K.O.A. held its own with only a few hiccups along the way. The score is another impressive part. KO.A. Grant Kirkhope created the musical score. The music keeps you immersed into the fantasy world of K.O.A. and seems to play the right type of music at the right time to go along with what's happening around you. Voice acting is equally impressive. Everybody sounds different and like actual people instead of boring robots. The only complaint in that department is the fact that while voices sound good. Lip syncing is not. Voices come out of NPCs mouths but what is being said doesn't sync up with their mouth movements. This isn't a big because of how good the voice acting is fortunately. Graphically, K.O.A. should impress even with the minor setbacks and the score is well composed.
Length & Replayability 10/10
Kingdoms of Amalur is a 100 plus hour game. Expect to be playing for an extended period of time. With so many hidden treasures to find and dungeons and caves to explore, there are plenty of things to do and explore in Amalur. In most RPGs the biggest reason to replay the game is to create a new character. As mentioned earlier you can start a new character without starting the game over so there is little reason to actually replay the game itself but that doesn't take away the value of the game by any means at all. I am closing in on 100 hours of gameplay and I'm sure I still have more areas to find. This game is massive.
Final Verdict 9/10
Pros
+ Amazing Gameplay
+ Deep Customization
+ Beautiful Environments
Cons
- Minor Framerate Drops
- Lackluster Side Quest
- Difficulty
Closing Comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an amazing game. The bar is set exceedingly high in the gameplay department in the genre. Customization, gameplay and a huge world waiting to be explored definitely puts K.O.A. in the running for GOTY and at least RPG GOTY. Expect to spend countless hours in Amalur as I did. You will enjoy every second of it.