a90skid.com
  • Home
  • News
    • Nintendo
    • PlayStation
    • Xbox
  • Reviews
  • Opinion
A 90s Kid
  • Home
  • News
    • Nintendo
    • PlayStation
    • Xbox
  • Reviews
  • Opinion
SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

For the latest video game news, reviews and more subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Kingdoms of Amalur Cave
  • Opinion
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • Xbox One

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Will Eat Up Your Time

  • November 4, 2020
  • Matthew Owen

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is a remaster of the 2012 open-world, action-RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, originally developed by Big Huge Games and the now-defunct game developer 38 Studios. Nearly a decade after its initial release, publisher THQ Nordic (responsible for other notable remasters like the recent Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated and the Darksiders remasters) has brought the game to modern consoles. Re-Reckoning contains the full base game along with all available DLC, including two quest-based expansions and a flurry of exotic gear and items. Taking place in a rich fantasy world plagued by a violent war, players explore the vast lands completing quests, defeating creatures, and leveling up.

Kingdoms of Amalur Title Screen

With big creative names attached to the project like Todd McFarlane (the creator of Spawn), best-selling author R.A. Salvatore, and Ken Rolston (lead designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning has a lot of potential. The game offers dozens of hours of real-time combat and quests that are rich with lore, but occasionally falters due to out-dated mechanics and a few other missteps. While the majority of the game is still enjoyable, this remaster is an unfortunate reminder of just how much quality-of-life and modern visual improvements make a difference.

A Fateless Narrative

Kingdoms of Amalur takes place in the Faelands, a lush and mystical region of the titular kingdoms of Amalur. Although all manner of fantasy species live out their days in the Faelands, the area is home to semi-immortal Fae, creatures that are able to continuously reincarnate themselves. You play as a custom-created, lowly soldier who has been recently resurrected from the dead, thanks to some successful experimentation by a gnome obsessed with magical science.

Kingdoms of Amalur Pile of Bodies

Unsure of what to do next, you forge ahead and wind up angering members of the Tuatha Deohn faction, an unruly sect of Fae who are waging a fierce war against all mortal races within the Faelands. With the Tuatha Deohn mercilessly killing innocents across the countryside and the very fabric of your destiny called into question, you set out on an epic adventure to reclaim your identity and solidify the safety of the Faelands.

Kingdoms of Amalur Cutscene

The many stories you uncover in Kingdoms of Amalur are set across a wide variety of unique fantasy landscapes, including arid canyons, muddy swamps, and hills of crystal. You can also expect to trot through some spider-infested forests, hang out in some quaint villages, and pursue various evils down dark and dingy dungeons. The expansive world of Kingdoms of Amalur makes it easy to get lost in the story, appreciating the abundance of side-characters and dialogue options. While graphically speaking, most environments don’t live up to modern RPG epics like The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, Kingdoms of Amalur contains plenty of evocative locales that help immerse you in the narrative. It’s a shame that Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning doesn’t provide a proper overhaul to the visuals, instead offering occasionally underwhelming and foggy vistas.

The Long Log of Quests

Kingdoms of Amalur, like The Elder Scrolls franchise, is packed with quests and can feel a bit overwhelming at points. As you explore the four distinct regions on the map, each containing approximately six unique zones a piece, you’ll pursue a wide variety of quests. These include quests pertaining to the overall main story, random side-quests discovered while exploring, and a slew of faction-based quest lines. Whenever you roll up to a new town or village, you can expect to see at least a handful of exclamation marks on the map, indicating new quests to undertake.

Kingdoms of Amalur Map

It’s fun to have a packed quest log with tons of things to do, but sorting through them can be a bit annoying. Unlike most modern RPGs, Kingdoms of Amalur does not display all of your quests on the world map at once. In order to get a better idea of where the quest is located, you’ll have to swap back and forth between the quest log and your map, keeping mental note of the quests your juggling. This minor annoyance eats up a lot of time over the entire journey, wasting time that you could otherwise spend leveling up.

Kingdoms of Amalur First Steps

However, the excess of quests helps flesh out the lore of each area, encouraging you to spend more time exploring and gaining experience points. The stories you’ll experience range from cliché to exceptionally high in quality, with a rich variety of fantasy tales. For example, you’ll attempt to cure a town overrun with a zombie-like virus, locate three ceremonial daggers from deep dungeons, eradicate the woods of a spider-queen, and more. At worst, the quests can be a bit dense with dialogue and there’s a few too many fetch-quests, but otherwise, they’re complex and intriguing fantasy stories.

Dueling Fates

Although quests are as rampant and easy-to-find as they are in an MMORPG, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning plays more like a hack ‘n slash adventure game than a traditional RPG. The combat plays out in real-time, so you’ll have to slash, dodge, and block your way through intense battles. In terms of the feel of combat, Kingdoms of Amalur reminds me of PlayStation 2-era God of War titles, containing a mixture of melee, ranged, and magical offensive weapons.

Kingdoms of Amalur Combat

Weapons can be purchased from vendors, looted from chests, or gathered from fallen enemies. You can slash foes down with a sword, use various elemental and conjuring abilities, or fire off any number of bows and chakrams. There’s more nuance than a standard hack ‘n slash though, as Kingdoms of Amalur contains a parrying mechanic, tons of class-based skills to upgrade and unlock, and stat-based gear to equip.

Kingdoms of Amalur Fate Combat

As you battle fantasy foes, you’ll earn “Fate” points, eventually filling up a purple meter. Once the meter is full, you can enter “Reckoning” mode, slowing down time and allowing you to execute larger enemies for bonus experience. Whether you’re clearing out a cave full of spiders, fighting towering beasts, or any number of other objectives, you’ll be doing a lot of creature-slaying. Thankfully, due to Kingdoms of Amalur‘s simple and somewhat free-form “destiny” system, you’re free to mix and match abilities to create your ultimate loadout.

Choose Your Destiny

Every time you level up, you’re able to increase your skill in a variety of categories, including Mercantile skills, Stealth, Blacksmithing, Alchemy, and more. You’re free to upgrade these skill lines as you see fit, boosting whatever will help your preferred method of play. You’ll also be granted three points to deposit into a variety of abilities, spread across three main categories. There’s Might, providing warrior-based skills, Finesse, which highlights rogue and stealth abilities, and Magic, best for battlemages and wizards. You can also level up these skills by finding skill-trainers, usually hidden away in village pubs or faction halls. Leveling skills this way costs a decent chunk of gold, but I always found it worthwhile.

Kingdoms of Amalur Might Tree

Each of the three categories contains various passive and active abilities, allowing players to mix and match to their heart’s content. For example, I deposited lots of points into the Might category to strengthen my longsword attacks and health, while simultaneously leveling up various magic spells from the Magic category. This, combined with a few points in Finesse for ranged weapons, made for an explosive set of skills great for any battle situation.

Kingdoms of Amalur Destiny Card

Once you’ve slotted your respective points, you’ll choose a destiny card. Each destiny card offers additional boons, including enhanced elemental damage, better blocking and damage resistance, and much more. You unlock more destiny cards depending on what skill categories you invest in (Might, Finesse, or Magic), unlocking better buffs to suit your play-style. While there are plenty of destiny cards that reflect the expected classes such as Fighter, Sorcerer, and Rogue, I preferred the mixed destinies such as the Wayfarer, which provides stat boosts across a large variety of damage types. The level cap for Kingdoms of Amalur is only 40, so by the time you reach the extra DLC content, you should have a pretty tight strategy formed. Overall, I appreciated Kingdoms of Amalur’s fusion of traditional leveling with the buff-granting destiny cards, which urged me to try out class-types that I usually avoid in other RPGs.

Is Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Good?

If you’re looking for a fun, action-RPG with tons of content, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is a great choice. In terms of value, the game offers a huge amount of content for a mid-tier price, making it mighty attractive if your wallet is light. I found dozens of hours of enjoying slashing through fantastical beasts and completing quests, but the game is not without its faults.

Kingdoms of Amalur Lightning Magic

The visuals are still underwhelming, as the remastered graphics look essentially the same as the original. There haven’t been any quality-of-life improvements either, so sorting through quests, selling gear to merchants, and other small gameplay mechanics can be annoying. However, due to its satisfying combat, well-written story, and a plethora of content, these mistakes can be forgiven. It’s just slightly disappointing that Kingdoms of Amalur didn’t receive a big-budget remake that fixed some of the old problems, because it’s a super underrated game that never got its time in the spotlight.

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Related Topics
  • fantasy
  • rpg
  • third-person
Matthew Owen
Matthew Owen

I'm a life long gamer and an overall media junkie. In addition to writing great articles like this, I host a gaming/comedy podcast called "Super Gamecast 64" available on iTunes and Stitcher. I also watch an unhealthy amount of movies, and try to spread as much love into the world as I can. Hope you enjoyed the content!

You May Also Like
Kitana Fatality Screen from Mortal Kombat 11
View Post
  • 5 min
  • Film
  • Nintendo
  • Opinion
  • PlayStation
  • Xbox

We Want These Fatalities in the New Mortal Kombat Movie

  • Matthew Owen
  • April 22, 2021
Two handmade dolls from It Takes Two
View Post
  • 5 min
  • PC
  • PlayStation
  • Review
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X

It Takes Two Review – Harmonious Collaboration

  • Matthew Owen
  • April 14, 2021
Gold Hotel Room Luigi's Mansion 3
View Post
  • 5 min
  • Nintendo
  • Opinion

The Switch Pro Games We Can’t Wait to Play in 4K

  • Matthew Owen
  • April 10, 2021
Yakuza Like a Dragon Man in a Diaper
View Post
  • 5 min
  • Opinion
  • PlayStation
  • PlayStation 5
  • Xbox Series X

The Funniest, Horniest, and Best Substories in Yakuza: Like a Dragon

  • Matthew Owen
  • March 23, 2021
Square Enix Presents Logo
View Post
  • 5 min
  • News
  • PC
  • PlayStation
  • Xbox

Everything Announced on the Square Enix Presents Spring 2021 Livestream

  • Matthew Owen
  • March 19, 2021
Little Nightmares 2 Hunter Shack
View Post
  • 4 min
  • Nintendo
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • Review
  • Xbox One

Little Nightmares 2 Review – Tiny Terror

  • Matthew Owen
  • March 5, 2021
Hitman 3 Title Screen
View Post
  • 5 min
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • PlayStation 5
  • Review
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X

Hitman 3 Review – The Thrill of the Hunt

  • Matthew Owen
  • February 21, 2021
Gate to Niwa Resort in The Medium
View Post
  • 6 min
  • PC
  • Review
  • Xbox Series X

The Medium Review – Resort of the Dead

  • Matthew Owen
  • February 15, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

TRENDING
  • Little Nightmares 2 Hunter Shack
    Little Nightmares 2 Review – Tiny Terror
  • Yakuza Like a Dragon Man in a Diaper
    The Funniest, Horniest, and Best Substories in Yakuza: Like a Dragon
  • Gold Hotel Room Luigi's Mansion 3
    The Switch Pro Games We Can’t Wait to Play in 4K
  • Two handmade dolls from It Takes Two
    It Takes Two Review – Harmonious Collaboration
  • Kitana Fatality Screen from Mortal Kombat 11
    We Want These Fatalities in the New Mortal Kombat Movie
Instagram
#outriders #outridersgame #gaming 5 0
Don’t get COCKY or #demonsouls will destroy you 4 1
My first portable #mariokart where does it rank? 5 0
#metalgearsolid #mgs #hideokojima 4 0
Find the crpg for you in our newest YouTube video #crpg #divinityoriginalsin2 #baldursgate3 5 0
Get everything you need to know about the latest #nintendodirect on our YouTube. Including synced voice to my lips! 7 0
Celebrating the best game music of the decade in less than an hour on YouTube Facebook twitch dlive but not Instagram. 8 0
#gaming #gamingdaily #gamingmemes #morrowind #skyrim 6 0
#skyrim #morrowind #gaming #gamingmemes 8 0
#morrowind #skyrim #elderscrolls 8 2
#finalfantasy #nobuouematsu 7 0
#hyperlightdrifter streaming now. :) 7 0
Follow
Author
Matthew Owen
Matthew Owen
I'm a life long gamer and an overall media junkie. In addition to writing great articles…
View Posts

a90skid.com

21 User(s) Online Join Server

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

#outriders #outridersgame #gaming 5 0
Don’t get COCKY or #demonsouls will destroy you 4 1
My first portable #mariokart where does it rank? 5 0
#metalgearsolid #mgs #hideokojima 4 0
Find the crpg for you in our newest YouTube video #crpg #divinityoriginalsin2 #baldursgate3 5 0
Get everything you need to know about the latest #nintendodirect on our YouTube. Including synced voice to my lips! 7 0
A90KID.COM

VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY & ENTERTAINMENT

A 90s Kid is an active website and media channel, dedicated to providing you information and entertainment related to the video games industry

Navigation
  • Home
  • News
    • Nintendo
    • PlayStation
    • Xbox
  • Reviews
  • Opinion
Recent Articles
  • We Want These Fatalities in the New Mortal Kombat Movie April 22, 2021
  • It Takes Two Review – Harmonious Collaboration April 14, 2021
  • The Switch Pro Games We Can’t Wait to Play in 4K April 10, 2021
  • The Funniest, Horniest, and Best Substories in Yakuza: Like a Dragon March 23, 2021
  • Everything Announced on the Square Enix Presents Spring 2021 Livestream March 19, 2021
A 90s Kid
© 2021

Input your search keywords and press Enter.