You will spend hours in the game without even noticing
And boy does this game deliver. I didn't have high expectations but still got much more than I was asking for. At first, it might seem a little boring, but when you get out of the "tutorial dungeon" things start to become interesting. There's always something to do in the Feylands, from gathering plants for your alchemy experiments to questing for different factions found in the game, which grant you a special "twist of fate" cards which boost your character even further.
While quests are a bit generic, they are fun to do - not because of the story behind them, but because of the loot. Mostly, the equipment found while questing is better than the retailers have, and with blacksmithing you can salvage even the seemingly useless armor and weapons to create your own. Throw in sagecrafting and you will create armors on par with the ones found while questing.
Of course while exploring the world you will face many dangers of it. Combat is done really good and on mid and higher levels it's not just about left mouse abuse, you will have to use your combos and special moves to get kills which will fill your fate meter. Once your fate meter is full, activate reckoning mode and enjoy. Reckoning mode is a nice little twist which can many times save your skin.
There are 3 classes in KoA, might is a typical warrior, sorcery is self explanatory and finesse is a rogue. But you can put ability points in whichever you like, and then choose a destiny of a battlemage or perhaps a prodigy - whichever you feel like investing in. There are four races to choose between, each comes with a little bonus, but you are not bound by those bonuses since the skill tree is divided from the ability tree, which is good because skills doesn't affect your combat effectiveness, like in Skyrim. Also, if you don't like your build just visit a Fateweaver and relocate your points in exchange for gold.
The story is as generic as they come, but the world still has some interesting characters you will meet along the way and also some choices, which will award you different twist of fate bonuses. The world is colorful and pleasant to look at and even more fun to explore. Yes, the graphics aren't on par with Skyrim but Amalur is not intended to be compared with Skyrim. It is a different game with different mindset.
There are some drawbacks of course, lip synching could be much better and dungeons could be more complicated, mostly it is just "one way ahead" while there's some little hallways on the side which usually end up with a locked or warded chest.
Prices are sometimes a little weird to, I sold my epic gem for around 8000 gold and the vendor was later selling it for more than 10 times that he gave to me, even though I had some points invested in mercantile.
Overall KoA is a very pleasant surprise and don't be surprised if you start to play and suddenly it is dark outside. While it isn't any revolution in action RPG's its execution is very well done, there are not a lot of bugs and the game itself is very stable, in the hours I spent in the world the game didn't crash once. If you are an action RPG fan, this game is a must have for your collection.
P.S.
8.5 doesn't mean 85% if I could I'd give it 88%.