People unanimously agree the combat is great, but is it? This is no Dark Souls.
I'm playing on the hard difficulty, as a fighter. I use no magic, stealth, or ranged attacks. I just rush in with a giant hammer, press the square button four times, and I've either killed all the enemies or knocked them back, and if the latter, I just hit square four more times. The developers say they focused on bringing exciting gameplay to the RPG genre, but I don't see it. I'm not excited, there is no tension, I'm just mashing. And sure, there are combo moves to unlock, I could include magic and bows if I wanted to. And my fighting would be more complex. But why force a change when at level 2, I became an unstoppable brute? I haven't looked back since. After struggling with the first pack of wolves I faced, I started playing on auto-pilot. I skip a questgivers dialogue, run to the waypoint on my map, push square four times, pick something up, and run back to the questgiver by following the waypoint on my map.
I suppose this is because the game is so reminiscent of an MMO. It looks, feels, and plays like one. The minimap is pretty much WOW's minimap. Quests appear as exclamation points, and you finish them by going to the question mark.
I just wonder, why if they wanted to add such exciting combat, they chose to emulate Fable, and not Dark Souls? Dark Souls combat was a tense combination of targeting, dodging, parrying, and attacking with careful timing. This game could be more fun and easy, but still use a more timing based and strategic combat. Dark Souls even used tight environment effects such as clanging your sword off a wall you were standing too close to. In Kingdoms of Amalur you usually fight in a big circular room with nothing to consider.
What Kingdoms of Amalur does show, is that a console action MMO could work. Because it is one. All it needs to do is add the other players, grouping, and voice chat. Here's to hoping.