Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning Review

Ambition is a funny old thing. We beg for days on end that developers had more of it, yet when they fail to reach their self-imposed lofty heights, we criticise and jeer at them. Then call them mean names. 

Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning has very much fallen foul of its own ambition. Creating a deep world and its lore for any RPG is tough, which is why so few bother.

Here Big Huge Games wanted to try something a little different, to move away from the generic tropes of the fantasy genre while building a world as rich in minute detail as anything created by BioWare. Of course, it failed.

Even with renowned man-what-done-some-words RA Salvatore on board, it's a little disappointing that Kingdom Of Amalur: Reckoning's world is just so flat and charmless.

It's clear some effort has gone into crafting this universe and the emphasis on fate and the immortal Fae makes for a compelling fantasy setting.

Except it's so poorly put together that the majority of NPCs are little more than giant exclamation marks that send you off to kick ten shades of crap out of the various beasties of Amalur.

There are opportunities to seep yourself into its lore by asking about specific subjects when chatting to these NPCs, but when it's as shoddily voice-acted and animated as this you'll quickly put a stop to that.

The Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning launch trailer.

It's just as well that Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning is bloody good fun to play then. Combat itself is fairly simple to grasp: tap square to attack and press circle to dodge.

It lacks the finesse of God Of War, meaning you'll often want to evade a heavy attack at the last second and get unfairly knocked into an unblockable chain of attacks, but as your repertoire of abilities increases so, too, does your enjoyment of the system.

Combos are managed simply by timing your button presses, juggling enemies or charging an attack for a risk/reward payoff. It's a little frustrating to only have the option to equip four special abilities – such as a spellcaster's magic or a rogue's frost trap – but that doesn't stop it from being involving to play, especially when the creatures begin to get tougher.

The panning camera is a surprisingly innovative feature, however, that begins as an over-the-shoulder view as you explore but spans out to a wider angle once combat begins. It's a subtle shift that makes a hell of a lot of difference during play.

Stat-crunching is kept simple – this is an action RPG after all – so there's less deliberation of where to put what attribute point each time you level up.

Instead there's three main skill trees available that are as pick-'n'-mix as you might expect. There's plenty of options, however, and though some will focus on the damage you're dealing with a specific weapon, others will advance or unlock abilities to use in a fight.

There's a lot of grandeur in Kingdoms Of Amalur, it's just a shame the game rarely uses this to its potential.

Accompanying this is the Destinies tarot cards that complement the fate undercurrent of the game but, more importantly, provide additional bonuses dependent on how far along a skill tree you've gone.

Later on these will even tweak the way your character fights, such as switching out your standard roll for a neato teleport manoeuvre or improving stealth attacks. And yes, we did just use the word neato in a non-ironic way.

Then there's the crux of gameplay: the loot. Whether it's collecting alchemical ingredients, finding concealed chests or rifling through hidden objects – Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning consistently rewards for searching off the beaten path.

Locked chests borrow liberally from Fallout 3 and Skyrim with the lock-picking system, but like so many things in Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning it's fairly rudimentary at best.

Similarly it suffers from irritating pickpocket/theft detection that can often mean you're spotted even in the darkest of corners, though even if you do succeed in lifting a valuable item you'll still struggle to sell it because everyone knows it's stolen property. 

A quick glance at the world map might not look impressive, but it'll take quite some time for the devoted to see and do everything it has to offer. 

Admittedly this echoes the dissatisfaction of Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning's world – it would have been much more enjoyable to explore something you might actually want to learn about, after all – but there's no doubting the timesink Reckoning can become. The longer you spend in the Kingdoms Of Amalur the more enamoured you'll become with it, and this really is its saving grace. 

Combat is by far and away the best feature of Reckoning. One of few action RPGs with satisfying combat.

Because no, Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning is not perfect – in fact, in many places it's damn right low-rent – yet somehow it manages to be just as satisfying to play as Dragon Age 2.

We'll end this review with a statement to EA, then: plump up on those production values a little more and you could well have an RPG franchise well worth sticking with.