Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a single-player action role-playing video game for Microsoft Windows, developed by Big Huge Games and 38 Studios, who together with Electronic Arts also published the game. Three creative masters – author R. A.
Salvatore, artist Todd McFarlane and game designer Ken Rolston – teamed up to create this ambitious new fantasy. A richly detailed history and sweeping storyline provide hours of immersive RPG gameplay in the spectacular open world of Amalur. Amalur has been torn apart by war and destruction.
You alone have the power to set things right. Rise from the dead as a reborn hero – cut free from the bonds of destiny – and blaze a path to glory in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning PC. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning features a fast-paced combat system that tests your responses with every blow.
Fight with powerful weapons, use awesome magic, or integrate them both into a single fighting style. Employ Fateshift kills to finish off your enemies and take on dozens of combatants at once.
It may lack the precision of, say Witcher 2's combat, but it makes for a style that can be picked up in seconds, customised to your own particular style of play and crowned with impressive arcade-style finishes... Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a triumph that makes the prospect of a future MMO based on the same world and engine all the more enticing.
No matter what you're looking for, whether it be amazing gameplay, immersive storytelling or perhaps a riveting new world to explore as you fully customize and re-customize your character at will, Reckoning has it all.
For all of these drawbacks, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an intriguing, good-looking, game that has absolutely brought a new spin to the RPG genre.
The battles feel like the ones from Darksiders, the dialogues remind of Bioware titles, and the world wants to be as big and multifarious as Skyrim. Reckoning gets this mixture just about right, but misses its evident types in any discipline. I had fun anyway, which is mainly due to the cool talent system and the fascinating tale. Whoever lets oneself into it, receives a successful action-role-playing game that has found its place exactly between linear story-nuggets (Dragon Age) and open-world adventures (Skyrim).
Reckoning provides many hours of good, solid fun based around character development and skill progression. Those looking for a deeply immersive experience should probably look elsewhere, but don't be surprised if your Civic runs nice and smooth while the other guy is busy patching the crap out of his Ferrari.
There's a lot to said for visuals these days though, and having played the PC version extensively we're not sure we could then go to the console with a neutral mind-set. Swings and Roundabouts, as they say, but Reckoning is a good game all round and well worth getting – no matter the platform.
Fast and flashy combat in a shallow fantasy world. For the solo MMO player only. [Apr 2012, p.62]
