Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

[Tempest]

I recently picked up Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on a recommendation from MetalJesusRocks and absolutely love it. On my second play through, I sat with the game for four and half hours straight, which is something I never do. The world is so immersive and involving and the story is pretty good too. The best part of the game, however, is the gameplay, especially the combat. A lot of similar games, like Skyrim, have an immersive world and great story, but the gameplay is lacking in some way. Reckoning has all three. Sure, the world seems a bit odd at first with the fae and gnomes, but I've quickly come to love this original and quirky take on a fantasy world.

I can't believe the game didn't sell well and that this resulted in the developer being closed down. What a terrible shame.

What are your thoughts on this game?

[PartridgeSenpai]

I actually bought this game when it first came out, and I really enjoyed it. I generally agree with everything you've said. There were some bigger story moments that I felt weren't done very well (there's one moment in particular where a character sacrifices them self to kill some giant monster, and I was just like "was I supposed to care about them? O.o), but other than that, I felt it had a very interesting story and VERY good combat.

My main complaints would be with the overworld and with the difficulty (and somewhat with the skill system as well). Compared to an open world game like Skyrim, the overworld felt fairly flat and boring. There was nowhere near the same kind of atmosphere and wonder that I might stumble upon something cool (you can tell that it was intended to be for an MMO when they designed the overworld, and a lot of the in-game assets, really).

The difficulty is also fairly lacking. It kinda has a more intensified version of the Xenoblade problem, where you're either WAY too powerful and everything dies super super fast, or you're in an area you're way too far ahead to be in, and stuff just one-shots you. You level up so fast though, that even if you wanted to have that one-shot toughness of difficulty, you'll be in a spot where you're way stronger than the enemies in that area really fast :/

On a tangential note to the difficulty, I also thought the skill system was fairly decieving, even though it doesn't matter that much because you can re-spec LITERALLY whenever you want. The game talks like being a jack of several/all trades is just as good as being a specialist in either the warrior, mage, or rogue classes, but that is just so not true. I was a mage/rogue for almost the entire game (dem chakrams, man), and near the very end I respec'd into a mage class, and just started DESTROYING EVERYTHING. The end-tree skills you get are just so stupidly powerful, it makes trying to be a jack of all trades just purposely ham-stringing your ability to kill stuff. I respec'd into a warrior right before the last boss as well (right after you kill that guy with really awesome warrior armor you can take), and that felt hugely powerful as well.

None of them being game-breaking problems, but all things that kept it from being a game I universally recommend. Something I should probably pick back up sometime though. It's been forever since I've played it, and is one of the few PS3 games I sold back when that was something I still did on a larger scale.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Pretty sure 38 Studios had a heap of problems beyond this particular game not selling well.

Anyhow, it's a lot of fun! One of the better seventh gen Western action-RPGs.