I don't think I've encountered a western RPG that's quite as ... whimsical as this one? The art direction and atmosphere feel like something out of a storybook, it's just so fun and colorful and gives me the same feelings I got when I was a kid reading fantasy novels. Sort of Spiderwick wibes, almost? With the fae and the little critters that bite your ankles.

But the game's not wholesome, it's weirdly horny in spots, clearly written by male fantasy authors, so of course it needs to be horny and edgy and violent. And tbh you can tell that it was heavily inspired by thicc fantasy novels because the game is heavy on lore and worldbuilding but the actual plot is fuck-all and the characters are cardboard cutouts. It's the type of fantasy where the writers flex their imagination in terms of creature design but then turn around and put their female characters in leather belts instead of clothes, ya know? It feels very immature in spots, which adds to the sort of childlike feeling of it all. You're just a Cool Guy/Gal running around punching out bad guys and isn't that what you want? Look at this hot elf lady! Isn't she a hot elf?

Really fun combat, though! It feels and looks super fun and snappy, and it's unique in that it lets you have cool powers from the start, so you don't get that usual slog of having shitty and boring powers in the early game. It fully embraces the power fantasy of being the Chosen One. You get to upgrade those cool powers as you go (which makes them scalable and worth having even in the late game) and get even cooler ones (ye olde meteor summon), and take your character in whichever way you want across three different combat styles. Also, this game is the only one where you can effectively play as a battlemage, at least in my opinion.

Overall, I think this game is heavily underrated, has a really fun aesthetic style and fun gameplay, but the story is really boring and lacks any interesting characters to root for and the RP potential is weak to non-existent. It makes up for in style and fun-factor for what it lacks in storytelling. Defo give it a go if you haven't yet, but don't expect vintage BioWare levels of writing. It holds a special place in my heart despite its flaws simply because of how fun and whimsical and adorable it is.

It's an average game. Everything about the game is just average. It can entertain you for a while if you give it a chance, but it takes way too long to explore and finish the whole game. The game is made too long to be interesting. With a shorter and smaller experience and a good deeper story, it could have been a more memorable game. They tried to make too big a game and didn't work on the details enough. Too much empty and poorly thought out content to fill the game. There were too many changes of ideas during the development of this game and you can feel it while playing. It had potential and good ideas, but they were only on paper. They couldn't reflect that in the game.

Kingdoms of Amalur is a game with a bit of a cult following that actually made a resurgence recently with the release of a remaster. Back in its day, though, you were more likely to get to know the game not because of reviews and such, but because of the controversy surrounding it -- specifically, the bankruptcy of its developer, 38 Studios. How they allegedly defrauded the state of Rhode Island out of millions to make a WoW-killer MMO that only ever saw a teaser trailer, and how Amalur was the only game they managed to put out.

If anything, Kingdoms of Amalur makes an incredible first impression. Far from the grittiness that plagued the generation it came out in, the game uses a lot of vibrant colors, which does a lot to further the fantasy setting and make every place feel wonderful and unreal. Environments are also highly detailed, whether they are indoors or outdoors.

It also plays in a fascinating way with the concept of Fate: every creature in this world has its destiny already decided from the start, and nothing they do will ever change it. Some people can actually look into the threads of Fate of others and can tell them when and how they'll die, and even that knowledge cannot save anyone.

This comes into play as a war begins right as the game starts. In this world, the races of humans, elves and Fae live in relative harmony with each other. Relative, because the immortal Fae dislike the mortal races, and vice versa, but isolation makes it so conflict is avoided. That is, until the Fae living to the east are corrupted by a usurper king, Gadflow, and become the Tuatha Deohn, or just Tuatha, for short.

Gadflow proceeds to lead these immortal warriors into a war to exterminate the mortal races and corrupt the remaining Fae. Humans and elves are screwed, because besides the fact that the Tuatha are immortal, the threads of Fate have been looked at: Gadflow is going to win this war, and no mortal creature is destined to live past his onslaught. That is, until you come in.

As the game starts, you are dead.

Well, not quite. You did die, but you awaken at Allestar Tower, to find that you have been resurrected by a magical apparatus called the Well of Souls. You're the first of the Well's successes, and also the last, since the Tuatha attack shortly after you awaken. After escaping the tower, you begin to realize that, because you were brought back to life, you are not bound to Fate -- everything it had in store it you only reached the moment of your death. You also don't exist in anyone else's Fate, so the moment you enter others' lives, their destinies can change.

This is the thing that stuck with me the most from the game, as it's a fascinating way to set up a chosen one type of narrative. It's not that your characeter is especially talented or has been named in some prophecy: much to the contrary, the reason they're special is exactly because they're nobody at all: a person that should not exist, and who now intrudes in their stories to change the ending. It's so good.

That said, it's just about the last time the game's story and setting feels remarkable, since most of what's left is painfully generic fantasy RPG lore. This game has a lot of lore and backstory around minimal details, which is quite amazing from a production standpoint, but I will admit, I skipped over a lot of it for finding it too bland.

This is a game from people who (purportedly) used to make MMOs. If you want to play a single-player MMO, Amalur is your game, in a good and in a bad way. The world is so vast, the character customization, deep, the lore, expansive, and the quests, so mundane. Every modern theme park MMO has its share of fetch quests, and they're certainly not missing here: useless quests that offer little benefit other than the dopamine hit from ticking a box.

Okay, that's a bit unfair to say: like the average MMO, some quest lines have more structure and wind up being very fun, like when you hunt an ancient witch who's possessing other mages, or free a Fae from a human prison, or craft items for a sleazy merchant who wants to scam people and who scolds you for making items of actual value.

Yes, I did say crafting, and in fact, there is more than one of such systems embedded into the game. You can brew potions, forge equipment, and craft gems to customize that equipment. The result of each will depend on the components used, their quality, and your skill level in that craft. There are nine skills in the game, and while you'll probably leave the crafting related ones for later, choosing what to upgrade next can take a few moments of your time.

This is but one of the facets of the character customization Amalur offers. Aside from customizing the character's race and appearance in the beginning of the game, you get to pick from several skills, and, most importantly, you get to mix and match their combat capabilities from the three skill trees. Amalur doesn't have a set-in-stone class system: it instead offers you three trees that you can spend points on at any time: Might, Finesse and Sorcery.

Yes, those trees do translate to Warrior, Rogue and Mage, which are the basic classes in every RPG ever, but Amalur's system has two advantages: One, you can make hybrid classes, with the game even honoring that choice by giving different perks depending on how your points are distributed; and two, the skill points can be reset for a relatively small fee at NPCs called Fateweavers, effectively enabling you to change your class whenever you want to.

It's hard not to be tempted to do so, too: the combat in Amalur is extremely satisfying. The same care that went into creating those detailed environments went into making fluid and great-looking combat animations. The fighting does a wonderful job at balancing a fast pace while still keeping the weight and the impact for each attack. Every weapon feels great to use, and the skills, especially the magic, feel really powerful.

Ultimately, however, the way so much of this game is just generic RPG elements -- run-of-the-mill quest design, theme-park like world, bland lore -- prevents it from forming an identity of its own. It's easy to remember the great combat and some of the plot, it's easy to enjoy the character customization, but everything else just meshes together.

Your enjoyment of the game will depend on how easily can you look past those unremarkable elements. Personally, I found it quite easy. There were moments where it felt like I was handling busywork, but after finishing it, I felt like going back and trying the game again, with a different class. Maybe I'll do that with Re-Reckoning, some time soon? Not if I ever want to move forward with my backlog, though.

What I enjoyed
- good combat (so far played as Sorcerer), especially boss and sub-boss fights
- acceptable graphics and art style
- very low system requirements in 2023
- alyn shir

What I didn't enjoy
- levels felt too big and stretched out
- no mounts at all, either run around or fast travel
- getting to a new area felt like a template: new area to explore = talk to key NPC's that will give you literal fetch quests to complete, some ending with a boss fight. I know this formula is in every other game, but here I really felt it.
- respec has a cost (should have been free)

What happens when a retired MLB Pitcher uses his career savings to start a video game development studio? A story more interesting than the game itself.
Directly after retiring, avid World of Warcraft player Curt Schilling wanted to make his own MMO. Using his own funds in combination with a $75-million USD loan from the state of Rhode Island, 38 Studios was born. With an all-star cast of R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, Grant Kirkhope, & Ken Rolsten, the team began their work on their newest MMORPG. 38 Studios was eventually forced to scale back their premier ambition to a single-player RPG. Despite the change in priorities, Kingdom's of Amalur: Reckoning would sell over 1-million copies!... it needed to sell 3-million to break even. Unable to pay their debts (at one point an anonymous personal check was used to settle a company loan), 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy after only one game. Rhode Island was left with $75-million in debt. Schilling, bereft of his life-savings, left to go rant on TV shows about much he hates the gays and what not.

As much as I'd like to report Amalur was a gem of a passion project unfortunately doomed to fail, it's a pretty generic, monotonous game. Many notable talents worked on it, but there's an overall lack of focus. Everyone all did their work, tossed in their ideas, but no one moulded them into a cohesive vision. The original intent to create an MMO shows with how massive but sparsely populated expanses are with meaningful content. It's a protracted, boring, save-the-world from some evil on the other side of the world affair clearly aping other (better) games.
You'll find more entertainment watching a documentary on how Amalur was made than actually playing it.

KoA is like a lower-budget Elder Scrolls game but with combat that's actually exciting. There are quite a few different weapons to choose from with unique movesets as well as spells. I've not played another game that really makes you feel like a battle mage as much as this one does. Cast a few spells til you're out of mana, jump in with your sword until it comes back, retreat, and fire off more magic. It's a very exciting and addicting combat system with lots of mobility and powerful attack options. You of course have your standard things like some enemies being weak or resistant to magic or physical damage, forcing you to change up your tactics.
The problem that I had with this game is that the fighting was too fun so I fought nearly everything I came across and was supremely overleveled by about halfway through the game.

Again, it's relatively low budget so there is a bit of clunk and some things that aren't perfect, but that just means it's even more disappointing that there was no sequel that could have improved upon this one's flaws.

The story concept was interesting but, to be honest, I didn't pay much attention to it. Haven't gotten around to it but I'll definitely pick up the remake at some point.

Come one, come all, I'll show you the byproduct of when I transform our MMO into a third person action game!

To your left you'll see many sights, underbaked writing with a bogstandard setting wrapped around the most Fable rip-off narrative of "the fate of the world is entirely up to you!" To your right, waltz by Warcraft-like models and tedious boring sidequests with spam click and dodge combat that is both slow, time consuming, and also bereft of much depth other than its card system.

As a bonus, I'll even toss in some base fantasy music and really sleepworthy aesthetics. Sound good? Nice. (5/10)

So this is a game I had to try a few different times. When I originally bought and played this game back in 2018, I enjoyed it but ultimately dropped it after around ~20 hours. In 2020, I tried it again, only to drop it much more quickly (~3 hours). Recently, however, I once again decided to try this game again and I'm so glad I did.

Now, I don't think this game has the best worldbuilding ever made for the video game medium or anything, but I liked this game's world. Exploring and learning about the various regions, races, traditions, etc. was fascinating to me. I'd be lying if I didn't say my favorite part wasn't the combat and looting, however.

While the game was on the easier side (even while playing on the hardest difficulty), I still had great fun with the combat system and it's what made me want to keep giving this game more chances, and it finally clicked!

Kingdoms of Amalur is a Western open world RPG, often thought of as a 3rd person Skyrim. It has most of the features you would expect from this type of game. An open world map. A huge number of side quests. Character creation, skills and leveling. Alchemy, blacksmithing and opening locks.You pick between 3 character types, the classic Fighter/Mage/Thief typesets, each one having different special abilities and able to use different equipment. You can also do a combination of the 3 if you want. The combat is quite fun, you combine your attacks with your special abilities and can parry and dodge too. It's nothing special and gets fairly repetitive after a while, but you have the option to change classes at any point in the game by use of a fateweaver and this helps keep it fresh. On the face of it, KOA seems like a fairly standard RPG for this gen, but there are two things I think it does really well. Firstly, the dialogue in the game is really nice. All quest givers have something interesting to say to you and a lot of the time they will even accompany you or provide some form of voiced twist, even in the smallest of side-quests. They also separate the most menial of fetch quests into a separate group called tasks. Secondly, the map is excellent. For a start, it's bright and beautiful with a great variety of environments and enemies. The connections between each area really flows well too, which gives you a nice feeling of continuity and makes it quite fun to explore. It's a pretty solid RPG which I think probably holds up to the reputative it received at release as a decent but not special game. It's cheap too so pick it up.

There are some movies and TV shows that I'm convinced only really "hit" if you watch them at a certain age. It is my firm belief that if you haven't watched Star Trek, Mean Girls, or The Breakfast Club before the age of 18, you will never understand or enjoy these things (at least, I did not)*. Similarly, I think some games are appreciated more if they come at a certain time in your life.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is one of those games. This game would have been really cool if I had played it when I was 10-12 (it was not out in the mid-00s, and there was no way the graphic violence would have gotten past my Mom's one-woman censorship board). It would probably be pretty cool if I was in college and played it while listening to lectures or something. However, as a grown man, this game feels very basic and boring.
First offender is the combat. The combat is in real time, and feels close to Dragon's Dogma or Scarlet Nexus, if you are familiar with those games. The combat in Amalur has the twin drawbacks of being barebones and stiff. There is only one basic attack (no light/heavy attacks or parries), a dodge that feels awkward to use, a range attack that quickly runs out of ammo and seems quite pointless, and a set of spells that can be customized. The spells are kind of cool, but they, can't really be chained into combos,. There is also a Super Saiyan mode that can be built up by filling up your rage/devil triggers/whatever; instead of making you superpowered for a small amount of time (like DmC) or giving you access to a massive attack that can curbstomp multiple enemies at once (like Blades of Time), it gives you the change to attack one enemy with a super special attack that gives you extra EXP. Combat in this game has no depth and feels like a repetitive chore; the lack of a parry, a decent dodge, or any combos beyond your basic "tap X" sequence is keenly felt. The swift, exciting, and somewhat open-ended combat of Devil May Cry has spoiled me, I suppose.
It is true that there are some combos that you can unlock in the game, but I didn't find the ones that I unlocked useful. Additionally, you also have to use perk points to unlock them only for specific weapons. Realize that the hammer sucks and want to use a greatsword? Too bad, you've put all of your points into the hammer. It is true that you can respec later on, but this kind of game would have benefitted from a Skyrim-style system where you level up weapons ability based on using the weapon.
The story is your usual high-fantasy bafflegarble; it's not great, but I'm usually fairly lenient on bad stories as long as they aren't shoved in your face by "cinematic" cutscenes. The dialogue choices tend to be pointless and apparently you can use persuasion skills to steamroll past everything. I highly dislike dialogue choices in games where they do not make a difference or make very little difference; developers and writers need to have confidence in the story that they are telling.
The "open world" is a series of poorly-disguised corridors with the occasional boring dungeon. The game feels less open than an N64 Zelda, and even the map clearly shows the corridors. Thus, there's no real exploration in the game; not that there is any real point to the exploration anyway. I found nothing about the enemy designs, world, or other art to be at all interesting. The semi-cartoony art style clashed with the occasional graphic violence of the game. Every NPC has a thousand dialogue keywords that you can choose from, and none of them are interesting. The loot system was not engaging or addicting; there was no way to easily compare stats for new items vs equipped items, and given the fact that combat felt like a chore, I didn't really feel excited to upgrade my gear. I am barely interested in smithing, crafting, alchemy etc. in most games, and in any case Skyrim did all of these better than Amalur.
Everything about this game just felt like busywork. I could probably forgive one or more mediocre elements of this game if they combined to create an immersive and interesting whole, but Amalur just feels like Fantasy Game: The Game. Everything in the game feels very much like a video game element. I don't know if this makes sense, but it describes the sense I felt while playing it. It was the opposite of Skyrim, a game that, while it contains clunky and repetitive elements, really feels like living in a fantasy world. Amalur feels like playing a fantasy game (quite appropriately, since it was originally intended to be an MMO) and nothing about it grabbed me. In my earlier years I may have been able to ignore its many flaws, but at this point in my life, with so much experience gaming and so many superior choices available, I can't justify playing this game.