Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a game with an unusual backstory and a troubled development that would make for a movie in its own right. The game brought about the downfall of not only the studio that made it, but also several politicians and financiers due to under-performing at the time. It should be noted though, that the game’s development has required the game to sell more than was realistic for the game to do at the time, and not due to the quality of the game.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has a notable creative team behind it, including the legendary R.A. Salvatore who wrote the Dark Elf Trilogy, and Ken Rolston who was a major part of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. There was artwork designs provided by Todd McFarlane as well, and the result was a new world being made that had so much potential at the time. While the original bombed, THQ Nordic has revived the IP with the remaster called Re-Reckoning.
Amalur has an excellent story (not surprising considering who wrote it), and felt very fleshed out with interesting twists and ideas that made me just want more. The game takes existing concepts from fantasy and applies its own twists to them and this helps make the experience worth playing. You may think everything is familiar and well known, but the reality is that the game is trying new things with older ideas. The presentation reminds me instantly of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but there is a clear distinction with some ideas all its own.
The issues here are that the load times are disturbingly long, especially on the Switch. Entering a store in Amalur takes as long to load as leaving one, which doesn’t seem to make sense since you are only loading up a fraction of the textures. This is easily the most frustrating part of the game, and the loading is far worse than on systems like the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, which themselves had load time issues. Amalur is full of side-quests, but you will start to find yourself avoiding them due to the loading times and they will drag the overall experience down for you as the game does on.
One spot where the remaster shines though is the improved combat, as the version had a high-speed camera and was simply not responsive when it needed to be. Re-Reckoning takes this mechanic and makes significant tweaks that makes the overall experience much better, with combat feeling more natural and the camera is far easier to control this time. In addition, bow aiming is easier and more fluid, which removed a major flaw of the original that held the game back.
The result is a refined combat system that starts you off on a simple direction and gradually gets deeper as you level up. Once you are able to arm yourself adequately, you can attack hordes of enemies at once and go all out. You can use a nice variety of weapons and the various combat styles allow for a wide variety of play including stealth, magic, and frontal assault. These are all equally effective with the ability to assign level points to different disciplines, again similar to the Elder Scrolls series, and you can visit a Fateweaver to reset your choices if you want to change your style.
Then there is Reckoning Mode, where you will build up enough fate energy so that you can erase your enemies from the tapestry of fate and cut them off from their destinies. In other words, it is a single shot berserk mode that allows you to obliterate an enemy with a spectacular finishing move. There will be slow motion pans to a gruesome impalement or slashing jump that ends in a quick time event that allows you to double the XP you’d normally receive if you can move fast enough. These up every so often during combat, not frequently enough to get completely stale, but also not rare enough that you forget that they are present either. The game does keep reminding you how to use Reckoning Mode., and that does get annoying after some time, but it is overall a welcome addition.
Now for the downside, for a remaster of a game from 2012, Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning does not look like a remaster all that much. Unlike the Ninja Gaiden II Xbox One X remaster (which we reviewed here) that absolutely knocks it out of the park, Amalur’s visuals are more limited. There is more details than the original release for sure, but it does not seem to come close to what it could have been. This is not being released as a AAA title, but instead a budget remake, but characters are surprisingly undetailed. It is possible that this is a failing of the development team that remastered the game but it is also a possibility that this was an attempt to preserve the slightly cartoonish look of the game. This leaves Amalur looking half like it’s been upgraded to HD and half like a cel-shaded game, and is not an ideal look.
The game feels like corners were cut for the remaster, and everything is super shiny when it does not need to be, There are also invisible wall issues that are frustrating to deal with, and the map is not the best with a feeling of “where do I go next?” happening a lot. This is a case of the devs porting a lot of the flaws from the original release to this version, alongside having made actual changes. I do need to stress though, that good changes were made, especially to the combat system and controls. Things were tweaked but could have been tweaked more.
Also be aware that this release comes with all the DLC, including special equipment delivered to a chest in the first town. Trying to take it all will fill your inventory right away, but taking the right stuff will make you very overpowered at the start of the game, which may be helpful for newcomers, though those wanting a challenge may want to avoid it. This is a nice touch, and I appreciate the inclusion of all the DLC previously released. A brand new expansion is being developed for this remaster, and I have high hopes it will be a good one.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is a excellent game, that is fun, well-written, and has a great 30+ hour main game here that is more than doubled with side quests. If more effort had been put in to fixing and updating the game, it would have been a lot better received. If it wasn’t for the load time issues and the unfixed technical problems, what was reworked would have made the game far better. Combat is wholly satisfying, the progressions are excellent, and the whole core design of the game is solid. Still, it is priced much less than a major retail release, so there is some leeway here. Overall, this is a fun but flawed game, and for those looking for a western RPG to play, you could do far worse than Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning.
This review was based on a digital copy of Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning provided by the publishers.