Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a 38 studios and EA game.

**KENT HAMMER** Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:05 pm

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
A 38 Studios and EA game

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an awesome new RPG from 38 Studios. This game truly is outstanding and should single handedly bring new players to the genre as well as impressing even the most seasoned and experienced role player.
The game really does have some heavy hitters behind the scenes by tapping into the artistic vision of world-renowned comic book and toy creator Todd McFarlane. Plus the literary genius of best-selling fantasy author R. A. Salvatore.
The game starts with your character's dead body being wheeled off to the incinerator and it is at this point before they dump your corpse that you get too pick which race you will be. This is a nice twist on the usual character creation process and the only thing you cannot change again at a later date is your gender.

In fact one of my favourite features of the game is the fact that at any point you can visit a fate-weaver and pay some coin to totally respec your entire toon. So if you started with a warrior and later decide you want to be a sorcerer then no probs! Or if you want too be a back stabbing bastard who dabbles abit with large weaponry yet hankers for balls of fire on the quiet then that's fine too. You are only limited by your own imagination and this does make for endless possibilities and a game world you really do want to inhabit for a very long time.

I don't want too spoil the epic storyline for you but trust me when I say it is dripping with huge back stories for all the NPC's you encounter and the level of lore and fantasy weaves away through every thread you start too unravel on your epic journey as the fate-less one. You decide how you play and you decide your own fate and those in the world around you.

The graphical style is kinda like the uber being love-child of world of warcraft, Fable and Skyrim. Like they all went out for a night of debauchery involving way too much tequila and absinthe and nine months later the Kingdom of Amalur was born too the world!!! Come on we have all thought about a cheeky threesome at some point haven't we? *-)

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a 38 studios and EA game. Koa210

Now I come too the part that is normally abit lacking in all other rpg's that have come before, Combat. This is where KOA really shines! Its is smegging awesome, truly brutal, visceral and fluid. You have such a huge choice of weaponry from Greatswords to faeblades then back again too longbows, staffs and chakrams the list really is exhaustive and every time you change to another weapon then all your move-sets change alongside it. Its clearly the area they have focussed on most and something that will leave you always wanting more it, which is good as there are battles and encounters too be had around every corner, outcrop and dark dungeon. The more you level up your skill tree, the more fun the action becomes with extra special moves or access too bigger explosions or spells. Trust me this game is very combat heavy and all dialogue and cut-scenes can be skipped if you want too keep marching on with quest after quest. I think the concept must have originally been for the game to be a MMO as the quest system is very similar too WOW and its all the better for it. I am hoping their will be future games in the same universe and I would imagine an fully fledged MMO is sure too follow soon.

Another satisfying feature is the humongous amount of loot that the game has for your to get your filthy little hands on! There are multiple chests in every area, some of them will need the locks picking and others will need a curse dispelling before opening unless you want to be glowing a poisonous green until you can seek out a healer. Then there is the EPIC amount of crates to smash the shit out of, with there being an achievement attached to this satisfying task too.
Nearly every poor soul that you conquer or vanquish will also have some gold, weaponry, armour or consumables for you too pilfer as well.
This makes thing constantly fun and addicting as you are forever upgrading and tweaking your inventory to give yourself the edge in upcoming combat.

The quests themselves seem never ending, everyone you meet has a story too tell and a task they need your help for. This makes it possible for you too play the game multiple times and each time complete a different selection of 100 or more quests!
In fact after my first 25 hours I had only done 30 or so quests and had barely even touched the main storyline itself.
There are also 5 faction quest lines too follow that are really enjoyable and offer rather awesome rewards at the end of each in the form of twist of fate cards. These might offer 8% extra damage or 5% extra xp from now on etc. Many bonuses like these can be found around the game world as well as extremely rare weapons and armour sets that when worn together give you a big advantage.
Its worth getting yourself a home pretty quickly so you can store up all your swag in case you decide too respec yourself further down the line and too collect as many rare armour sets as you can.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a 38 studios and EA game. Koa310

Along the way you will also discover lore stones and altars which can again give your cool bonuses if you uncover the whole set. I have spent multiple hours just sprinting thru the vast land trying too uncover as many new areas as I can. This really has paid off in my endgame as I can now fast travel almost anywhere instantly and it makes all questing a lot quicker and more satisfying.

To sum things up Amalur is a world I will continue to live in for many months too come! They have already announced some new DLC and even more will follow in the future. If you have never thought you wanted too try an RPG before as there was not enough action and killing for you then buy this game now! If you love to get lost in epic rpgs buy this game now! This is the real deal and has the official GSA stamp of approval. I know its my game of the year for 2012 already and I could quite happily not play another game at all. Nuff said, you know it makes sense.

11 out of 10, outstanding in every way.

**Tricky34** Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:23 pm

I take it you like this then..

Great review mate, sounds like a good game for any RPG fans. I might consider picking it up at some point, but since i tend to get a few hours into most rpg's (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Sktrim) then lose interest. I'll probably wait until i can pick it up for a bargain price.

Guest Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:23 pm

Nice to see you passionate about a game that doesn't have the words "Dynasty" or "Warriors" in the title Very Happy

Tenlo Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:33 pm

Great Review dude, littered with the essential Kent-isms! Definitely going to be one to buy once I@ve got the money

**KENT HAMMER** Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:40 pm

Tricky34 wrote:I take it you like this then..

Great review mate, sounds like a good game for any RPG fans. I might consider picking it up at some point, but since i tend to get a few hours into most rpg's (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Sktrim) then lose interest. I'll probably wait until i can pick it up for a bargain price.

Rick, you won't get bored!
I am the same as you, but you won't get bored here as there is too much action going on.
Its fight fight fight fight fight! Very Happy

HACK AND SLASHTASTIC

Guest Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:40 pm

Trying to finish some of my games to make way for this into my life. Glad you rate it so highly. Top review mate

Colne Crusader Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:42 pm

Great review Kentus!!

You obviously love this game!!!

I played through the demo this morning and it seems to me that this is gonna be one that puts some people off at first, but will be worth persevering with!

I found the demo all too generic and a bit mundane. The dialogue is boring and the voice acting varies in quality and some of it is weird. I always find British regional dialect variations in a single village of knomes a bit odd!! A Scottish knome on one side of the road and one from Hertforshire on the other!!?? I found myself skipping conversations due to boredom!

Having said all that, I got the impression as Kent says that this game has one of the best combat and abilities systems ever in this type of game. There seems to be a lot of scope and variety in there from sorcery to stealth to brute force, and you can even follow a hybrid career of various styles combined! It does seem most excellent, so I wouldn't necessarily dock it points for the voice acting and dialogue when it seems the gameplay is so good, and maybe it becomes more epic as the game progresses.

What i'm trying to say is, if like me you were unsure at first impression, you may just need to give it a chance. I think I will be doing.

**KENT HAMMER** Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:50 pm

Myself, Stee and Demonize all have it and love it from GSA so that's a good start.

Voice acting is very good on the whole and there is no hertfordshire or britain even in Amalur! Twisted Evil

Its about the looting and the combat.

If you don't enjoy collecting epic stuff and don't enjoy the battles then its not for you.

D3M0NiZe Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:03 pm

Good review Kent.
Probably my game of the year so far as well.
I dont think the demo does the full game justice,i wasnt that impressed with the demo,but the game itself is awesome.

Colne Crusader Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:06 pm

I hope nobody takes my comments in the wrong way. I have only played the demo after all. I just don't want people to be put off by the initial dialogue and stuff, like I was a little because It's clearly awesome underneath! I've seen plenty of reviews slating it for the dialogue and I reckon they're probably wrong to do so.

GrahamOfTheDead Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:10 pm

Good work bossman! Although your first sentence pretty much renders the rest of the review redundant. Very Happy

I'll probably pick this up when it's cheap.

habitualschizo Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:40 pm

Good review our eternal leader. I'm another GSAer who has played and loved this game.

Lewy210 Thu Mar 08, 2012 5:32 pm

Great review Kent, I just 1000ed it and it was great, has a bit of a slow start but after half an hour or so it deffo picks up. My game time tells that with it nearly hitting 70 hours.

My only downsides are that hard mode (theres a big achieve for finishing it on this) is way to easy, if you put all your points in blacksmithing and sagecraft you can really break the game with health regen (recovering tons of health before enemies attack you again) and mounts, dear god mounts would of been good, its a massive world and if your going for the 1000 you'll be doing ALOT of running while looking for lorestones and harvesting plants.

Really looking forward to the DLC in a couple of weeks and playing it again.

Oh and Chakrams are the most badass weapon ever. bounce

Lewy210 Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:22 pm

Just heard this:
38 Studios has always made it clear that it intends to spread the Kingdoms of Amalur brand across multiple games, including an MMORPG. But it seems this online Amalur experience may be launching sooner than anyone thought. The revelation comes straight from the mouth of art director Todd MacFarlane, who told START that the MMO codenamed Kingdoms of Amalur: Project Copernicus is supposed to "come out later in the year."

While this isn't exactly a very specific (or informative) announcement, 38 Studios has been far more forthcoming with information about its new DLC pack for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The DLC is called "The Legend of Dead Kel" and will be available for download on Tuesday. To help get you excited, the studio has also released a new trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BsxNBX_DDWQ

MMO would be great if its anything like this one.

**KENT HAMMER** Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:27 pm

Awesome news!!!

There will be no level cap increase sadly though, but much more DLC too follow I reckon.

Also this is from the official FAQ-

There are five unique achievements to be earned in The Legend of Dead Kel. These will be available on both Steam and Xbox Live. They total 150 points toward your Gamerscore.

So with this adding only 150GS I am well happy as I reckon they might add 4 more DLC's each having 150!!

Love this game, I am ashamed of myself for playing anything else!!!

Additional-

We have one thing to add to this. One of our team members wanted everyone to know there is an additional backpack (+10 inventory space) available for purchase in The Legend of Dead Kel.

Lewy210 Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:30 pm

How much you reckon it'll be 800 or 1200?

**KENT HAMMER** Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:17 pm

Lewy210 wrote:How much you reckon it'll be 800 or 1200?

It is confirmed at 800 mate

RabidHellBunny Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:19 pm

Nice review - I actually read this one!!! I think I might NEED ths game!!

**KENT HAMMER** Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:28 pm

RabidHellBunny wrote:Nice review - I actually read this one!!! I think I might NEED ths game!!

wow

Good job I was sitting down when I read this!!

I am deeply honoured you read my review.

Liquid Code Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:20 pm

Its a good game. Word of warning if your hoping to 1000 this, start playing on Hard and dont change the difficulty for the secret achievment Destiny Dominated for a whopping 100 points. I made the mistake of playing on normal and only halfway through the game started looking at the achievments. Its not that hard on the hard setting, just make sure you save alot.

Lewy210 Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:55 pm

Liquid Code wrote:Its not that hard on the hard setting, just make sure you save alot.

Also save a full reckoning bar for the end of each dungeon, most of them have mini bosses or something which you can cheese this way on hard.

Faaantastic, they havn't updated Xbox.com with the new dlc achievements bounce

**KENT HAMMER** Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:27 pm

I now have the Dead Kel DLC and I can confirm you now get pets!!!

The Boggart adds additional XP aswell! The other pets offer different bonuses.

Also the PS3 dlc does not have any trophies, so the PS3 guys are freaking out!!

YAY 360

Lewy210 Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:39 pm

KENT HAMMER wrote:I now have the Dead Kel DLC and I can confirm you now get pets!!!

The Boggart adds additional XP aswell! The other pets offer different bonuses.

Also the PS3 dlc does not have any trophies, so the PS3 guys are freaking out!!

YAY 360

You found many of those message in bottles? I've found 2 and every time have that sting song in my head Laughing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbXWrmQW-OE&ob=av3n

D3M0NiZe Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:44 pm

Just finished the single player and Legend of Dead Kel DLC.
Absolutely fantastic game.Clocked up about 90 hours on it and enjoyed every minute.
Cant wait for the new DLC.

Ba5sett Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:30 pm

Nice to see people are enjoying this one, I liked the demo and have been tempted to get this after reading everyone's opinions I reckon it's a must buy now although I'll be getting and playing the witcher first I think

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