Deep character building, and thrilling combat offset the weak story.
SHORT VERSION
* Pros – Thoroughly entertaining combat, deep character building, ability to respec at anytime
* Cons – Weak story, Graphics are sub par for this generation, crafting system can be disappointing in the end
* Conclusion – If you like RPGs and fun combat, don't hesitate to pick this one up.
FULL VERSION
RPG ELEMENTS 9.5/10
As you defeat enemies and gain XP, you eventually increase in level (duh). Each level you do the following:
- Add a single point into list of 9 "Skills" (lock picking, stealth, blacksmithing etc). As you increase the total number of points in a single skill you'll reach milestones that provide a new perk of some kind. So as you increase blacksmithing high enough, you'll gain the ability able to add gems to your gear etc.
- Award 3 points to any combination of "Abilities" that fall within either the "Might", "Finesse" or "Sorcery" trees. At first only the basic abilities are available to choose from (sword mastery, dagger mastery etc.), but as you meet, say the "might" point minimums, the next set of abilities open up. You're able to put multiple points into a single ability to ramp up the effectiveness, generally each ability can get 3-6 points before it's maxed out. My favorite ability was "Lunge" under the finesse tree as it really makes battle fun.
After you award a single skill point and 3 ability points, you choose a "destiny card" which adds some stat modifiers. The destinies available to you depend on which of the three ability trees you have focused on. A person choosing all might abilities may get such as "+X% to melee damage, +X to blocking", whereas a person spreading their skills between might and finesse trees may get to choose a destiny that does "+X% to melee damage, +X to ranged damage". As you add more and more points to the trees, different combinations of destinies open up; at quick glance, there are 39 different variations of destinies in Reckoning. Wow.
Sounds pretty standard-RPG stuff. Where Reckoning begins to differ is that you're never bound to a particular character build. If you decide you don't like the way you've arranged your skills/abilities/destiny, the game welcomes you to change it.
This is where the character building really comes to life. You can try out some things and begin to hone in on the skills that you prefer to use. Bit by bit you craft a character that plays the way you like to play.
STORY 5.0/10
I found the story to be typical and forgettable. It had the run-of-the-mill RPG/fantasy elements i.e. Knights, elves, dwarves with some fairies and demons tossed in there but otherwise you've seen this sort of thing before. Luckily the game developers give you the option to skip quite literally any dialog you don't care to hear, and there is a ton of fully voice-acted dialog. I found myself enjoying the combat system so much that I pretty much skipped my way through the story in order to get to the next battle. So why play Reckoning? Simple. Game play.
GAMEPLAY 9.0/10
Combat:
The Reckoning developers managed eek out every last bit of wiggle in the controls when it comes to combat. The response in the controls is top notch which makes you able to craft your approach to chained attacks, combos etc. very effectively. While very much an RPG, the combat plays more like an action game, and almost a bit like an arcade fighter. The combat keeps pace, it ramps up in difficulty some but manages to stay interesting with the various amounts of enemies they throw at you. Early in the game you feel a bit like a wimp with a sword (or staff if that's your sort of thing) mashing attack buttons. But by the time the end game is near you've gotten good at the game after countless fights and coupled with your chosen abilities, your character is able to simply annihilate in combat. For the most part, this power shift is great; it manages to make you feel like you're really getting good at the game, and not that the game just became too easy.
Additionally the combat feels very fluid and dynamic, you generally aren't able to just focus on one guy as others are taking shots at you too. Typically you're in 1 on 5+ scenarios, so you use your abilities to get the edge. Some games have you add a point in some skill but you barely notice what it did; in Reckoning I found that 90% of my changes were immediately noticeable. Everything from a new ability, adding a point in a new skill, wielding a set of daggers with slightly higher damage…they all make differences you'll see right away.
Finally I should mention the Fate system. As you defeat enemies, you'll fill a Fate meter. Once the meter is full, you can perform a Fate Shift that puts you into a hyper mode where everything around you slows down letting you deal ridiculous amounts of damage. More importantly however, once you've finished off an enemy, you're prompted by a simple quick time event that lets you button mash your way to double XP. These can make for big gains when saved and used against bosses. On a side note, it also can make bosses far too easy.
Skills:
Of the 9 available skills, I only really found 3 very interesting, so I maxed out Blacksmithing and Detect Hidden and added a few points into Stealth. The game has a great loot system. In a typical 1 on 5 battle, 1-2 of them will drop something and the drops are randomized. Even treasure chest contents can be randomized. Much like Blizzard's Diablo series, there are various rarities of gear, from common on up to unique, each denoted by the text color of the item's name. There's so much gear you'll find yourself hoarding seemingly decent items in the beginning but later on having to sell them due to lack of space. This makes for one of my favorite parts of the game, creating new weapons.
Without going into too much detail, as you find items throughout your ventures, you can bring them to a forge and salvage them for parts. You can then (depending on your Blacksmithing skill level) add up to 5 components that add modifiers (lightning, fire, ice bleeding damage etc.) to the base weapon. I should also mention that the salvaged components are also partially randomized, so you don't always get the same components when breaking down items.
Midway through the game I found that I was able to craft better gear than I could buy, in fact sometimes I'd buy higher level gear just so I could salvage the components. Apparently my skill points in Blacksmithing were well spent.
But I eventually found myself torn on the crafting system. On one hand you can custom fit gear to your liking, even name it if you like. But on the other hand, I found shortly after I was able out-craft the vendors' inventories, I ran into one vendor with this ridiculously high-powered long sword. Naturally I bought and equipped it… and I was never able to craft a anything quite as good after that. I literally used it throughout the rest of the game. I realize I didn't play every inch of what Reckoning has to offer, but in the back of my mind expected some sort of moment where you realized you were about to create the best weapon in the game…as opposed to buying it from a vendor.
GRAPHICS 7.5/10
While Reckoning doesn't try to be photo-realistic it sports a colorful, vibrant (and huge) world, with decent character models and faces, though to me they were not on par with most current-gen gaming graphics. I will say that I was always impressed with the graphical variations between armor sets, weapons etc. It's never fun to equip some "might hammer of doom" and it appears exactly like the weapon you start the game with…Reckoning does this right. The combat animations are also very well done and the lighting is quite good. Honestly my biggest gripe was the camera, which could be unruly at times. As you run around, it doesn't stay behind you very well, so you have to constantly be correcting it's angle to see what's in front of you. Also, in battle it doesn't give you a good perspective of the battlefield so it's common to be surprised by an enemy.
SOUND 7.5/10
I generally notice sound in games I play, but oddly the sound throughout Reckoning it didn't stand out to me. The voice acting is decent, but cheesy at times and the music is repetitive though it does have the fantasy epic feel to it. Upon finishing the game it didn't really didn't much of an impression on me so to me that's a bit of a negative.
OVERALL 8.0/10
I really enjoyed my time with Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning. As previously mentioned, there are a few flaws but they're hardly game breaking. The game is deep in lore, but it doesn't force it down your throat, which is nice, as the story doesn't offer anything groundbreaking. While I would have enjoyed having the more refined graphics, other game elements make up for it. The RPG and combat elements that the developers have crafted have depth and complexity that makes Reckoning enjoyable all the way through. It became apparent to me that the developers are gamers and have been taking notes on their favorite game elements.