Kingdoms of Amalur [Rocking the Boat]

Once upon a time, there was a an excellent MLB pitcher named Curt Schilling. He loved to play games. All kinds. Video games, board games, card games, he loved to play them all. He loved MMO games like Everquest and World of Warcraft. In fact, he credited video games with keeping him on the straight and narrow in regards to his marriage.

After he retired from baseball, he realized that he had the money to bring a bunch of talent together to create video games for him.

And Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was born. KOAR (which sounds like something I would yell during a LARP session) is the brainchild of Curt Schilling, RA Salvatore (DRIZZT!), Todd McFarlane (Spawn), and Ken Rolston (Morrowind, Oblivion).

With such all-star creativity behind it, you’d think that this game would be a home run (commence baseball puns!) And while it doesn’t strike out, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen such polarizing reviews for an RPG.

KOAR is an imperfect game, but one thing it REALLY does well is combat. I don’t think I have ever played an RPG where the combat was so fun. The combat is reminiscent of God of War, Devil May Cry, or Bayonetta. It starts off making you feel awesome, and it keeps getting better as you level up your character and unlock new combos and abilities. My current favorite ability is one you get early on MIGHT (See: Fighter) tree. It’s basically Scorpion’s “Get over here!” spear.

You also get rewarded for attacking your enemies in different ways by quickly filling up your fateshifting meter. When it is full, you go into full “Finish him!” mode. Your attacks do way more damage, time slows down, and you get a rocking finishing move. Ever wanted to punch a sprite in the face to death? Fateshifting gives you that chance.

Stealth also works  well and is REALLY fun. Silently killing an goblin-looking baddy by puncturing their lungs and kidneys a couple of times is waaaay satisfying. If you’re playing, pop a couple of points into stealth.

My biggest complaint is that the game just isn’t very immersive. After shutting down the old Xbox, I can’t really remember the names of any of the towns or characters. In fact, I often just find myself just blindly following my quest markers around. It reminds me a lot of an MMO, but in games like WoW, I tend to remember the names of places… even when I haven’t played in years.

I’m not sure what could be done to fix this, but it’s a major problem, especially for an RPG. Perhaps making your effect on the world seem more real? Elder Scrolls games all have this problem as well. You complete a quest and everything seems to go back to its original state.

In KOAR, you don’t feel like you have any real effect on the world, even though the story is about how unique you are, and how just by living you are changing absolutely the entire world.

The main quest story is good, but the side quests mostly concern going somewhere, killing a thing, and bringing back another thing. Rinse. Repeat. Not very inspired. But, there’s A LOT of stuff to do. I wish they had focused more on quality over quantity, but I’m betting in any follow-up games, this will probably be fixed.

Speaking of quantity, there are a metric buttload of weapons and armor to find and equip. And they all look awesome.

This brings me to the art aesthetic. It’s bright, colorful. Not exceptionally original, but compared to the browns, greys, and whites of most games as of late, it is a nice departure. I would compare the art style to World of Warcraft and Fable having a baby that kind of looks like a troll doll.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has a lot to offer. If you’re an RPG fan, I suggest you buy it. Support a new studio and their new product. The video games industry needs more original ideas. And it’s fun. What more could you want?