I’ve had somewhat of a rocky start to my relationship with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I had
played the demo prior to its launch and decided for various reasons that I’d
pick it up as soon as it was available. That’s something I typically don’t do
these days, but the game showed a lot of promise and had a lot of big names
attached to it. R.A. Salvatore had worked on the story. Todd McFarlane had
worked on the art. Ken Rolston had worked on the game design itself. I’d say of
the three, you’re more likely to not recognize Ken Rolston, but he was
previously the designer of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and IV: Oblivion which
is a big deal in video games. This all amounts to high expectations across the
board for story, design and game depth. Unfortunately, I fear my own expectations
were too high.
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| Amazing Visuals |
I spent the first ten hours or so really disappointed with
the story and characters of the game. When I play a role-playing game (RPG) I’m
usually pulled through the game by a desire to know what’s going to happen
next. This is not so in Amalur. I often
found myself simply not caring what happens next. The story was failing me, and
the characters were typically bland and unremarkable. The lore and the story of
Amalur are certainly interesting but
their method of delivery feels rather forced and boring. I believe it’s because
I’m constantly being spoon fed story via exposition, but very rarely just
experiencing the story as it unfurls. Many of the story’s segues feel more like
a “while you were out” memo, such as coming back from a quest to find the king
had been kidnapped and I’m the only one left who can save him. The fact I was
not being absorbed into the story the way I hoped led to another question. What
was driving me?
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| Situations like this! |
I was getting close to 20 hours on my gruff character
modeled after a Viking warrior, and I thinking of starting a new character to
begin this ride all over again from scratch as a lithe, stealth assassin.
Clearly something was hooking me. Typically when a game is disappointing I can’t
wait to just finish and check it off my list of games to beat, or get so bored
and discouraged I simply walk away. Kingdoms
of Amalur: Reckoning on the other hand had me already thinking of my next
character. This is when I knew something out of the ordinary was occurring. I
know 10 to 20 hours is a lot to ask of a player these days, but I feel something
magical happened to me in that time. While grumbling about how the story needs
to feel more involved, I was growing addicted to the unbelievable combat
system.
I was forced to admit that I absolutely love Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I can’t
seem to put it down. I find myself playing through, not caring about what
happens next in the story, but what kind of awesome battles I may have where I
travel next. I’m hoping beyond all hopes that any new Downloadable Content (DLC)
provides more character combat abilities and more difficult fights. I found
myself thinking early on that this was what the “Fable” series should have been
delivering by now, rather than spending time developing hand-holding with ugly
NPCs. This kind of fast-paced, timing-is-everything, skill-based combat system
is exactly what makes an action-based combat system so much fun. It definitely
raises the bar for other games in this action-RPG genre.
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| Dodge that spear, man! |
Because R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane and Ken Rolston are
all accomplished veterans in their fields it was easy to think that I was going
to get something as well written as a book, as visually stimulating as a comic,
and the depth of gameplay I’d come to expect from Elder Scrolls titles. Instead,
I’m forced to remind myself that Kingdoms
of Amalur: Reckoning is 38 Studio's first game title to hit the public. While
they didn’t pitch a perfect game, they have created something that is extremely
fun and well put together. I hope that future content for this game adds more
depth and particularly difficulty to the late-game combat with many additional
combat-centric challenges. I also look forward to see where this series will go
in the future and what other kinds of games they may make together. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning nails it
when it comes to addictive, deep and fun combat and character customization.
-TOP
I wanted to take a moment to announce something I started over the weekend. I call it "A Breton in Skyrim" and is a reader-guided adventure of realistic living in the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I have a few posts up and leave reader polls to see what Genjo, the Breton, will do next in his life.
He must eat and drink. He must sleep. These rules are enforced by a mod.
He walks most places, meaning he may not get as far as you'd expect in a day's travel.
The final rule is that when his time comes to die, so too will this blog project.
I make no promises about how often I'll update this site, but people seem to be reacting positively to it so I'll try to dedicate some time to it every week. Thank you for checking it out.
http://bretongenjo.blogspot.com
-TOP
I wanted to take a moment to announce something I started over the weekend. I call it "A Breton in Skyrim" and is a reader-guided adventure of realistic living in the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I have a few posts up and leave reader polls to see what Genjo, the Breton, will do next in his life.
He must eat and drink. He must sleep. These rules are enforced by a mod.
He walks most places, meaning he may not get as far as you'd expect in a day's travel.
The final rule is that when his time comes to die, so too will this blog project.
I make no promises about how often I'll update this site, but people seem to be reacting positively to it so I'll try to dedicate some time to it every week. Thank you for checking it out.
http://bretongenjo.blogspot.com
-TOP
