Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Having just finished the game, I thought I would record a few thoughts about it.

Kingdoms of Amalur is the first game from a new company, 38 Studios, which is the brain child of Curt Schilling, yes, the Curt Schilling, former Major League Baseball pitcher. Turns out he was a big fan of Everquest II, and used to hang out online in various places and discuss what was wrong with the game. As he says himself, like every else, he thought he knew how to fix it, only unlike everyone else, he had the resources to do something about it.

He assembled a really good team. Best-selling author R.A. Salvatore is the Executive Creator of Worlds. Ken Rolston worked on RPGs like Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, before going to Big Huge Games, which was working on a single player RPG (like Morrowind) and was purchased by 38 Studios. Todd McFarlane worked on the Spawn and Spiderman comic books before going to work at 38 Studios as the Executive Art Director.

So, today we have a single-player game built mostly by Big Huge Games, with a story set in the pre-history of the MMO that will be coming sometime in the future. In the game world of Amalur, 2500 years will pass between the events of Reckoning and the MMO...hopefully, we won't have to wait that long to play it.
Now, I should state ahead of time that I am not a big fan of MMOs, but I am a big fan of single-player, and multi-player RPGs. The problem is that I like to Role Play, and most MMOs don't really foster RP, but that has nothing to do with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (KOA:R), since it is completely single player.
Let me start them by reviewing some of the game factors, before I give the spoiler alert and go into the actual game.

The style of the art is slightly cartoonish, but not in a truly horrible way. Comic-bookish might be a better word, and considering the background of the Executive Art Director, that shouldn't be too surprising. On the other hand, parts of it are truly beautiful. The landscape is often dramatic, though with more than a hint of the fantastic, a fantastic that is often unrealistic, huge jutting rocks and enormous stone bridges are common place. The architecture is monumental, which is good. The characters are relatively realistically drawn, so while all the women are well endowed in the chest area, and all the men large and muscular, it isn't grotesque, some of the monsters are, but they are supposed to be that way.

Of course, like most fantasy games, the armor is awful and the weapons are worse. The armor would hinder your movement and the weapons would all be heavy and cumbersome. As someone who has made armor, I am always disappointed by the armor in games. No one seems willing to study the real thing. The same goes for swords and other weapons, so the one hand swords appear to be at least six feet long, with blades that would bludgeon rather than cut, and the great swords would look accurate if you were 10 feet tall. And, don't even get me started on the hammers (OMG). But, that is a personal peeve, so let's move on.
I've decided to make this into two posts, and put all the spoilers in the other post.

The game is fun, but the combat system is a bit hard to master, and I cannot say that I ever really did. You have several different weapons types, and for each weapon types there are a series of moves. First, there is the basic attack button move, then there is a attack button, pause, attack button move. After that, there is dodge, attack button move, and a block, attack button move. There are also a couple of moves where you hold the attack button while your toon sets him/herself for another special move. The problem is that at times you are surrounded by multiple enemies, and stopping to try one of the various moves means that one of the guys you are facing blasts you into next week. I found that I could really only use a few of the moves, because the key to staying alive and not spending an hour killing enemies was to keep mashing the attack button, which makes it a lot like all the other games out there. 38 Studio tried really hard to make the combat more complex, but really all they did was make it more complicated and only partially usable.

Also, the basic outline of the game is a clone of the one used in Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 3, 4 and 5. There is a mainline plot, which you must follow in a direct line. You can delay as much as you want, but there is only a single path to the end of the game. The same is true for the factions, one path from the start of the faction quests to the end. Once again, you can delay as much as you want, you can start a faction quest line, and then go back to the main quest line, and then do some side quests, and finally get back to the faction quest line, but it doesn't hide the fact that it is a single path from one end to the other. There are multiple paths through the game, but it is only by leaving one path and then moving to another and then coming back. The side quests and faction quests don't do anything to advance the main quest.

So, while, in game terms, you are the master of your destiny, at some point there is only one way to proceed. After playing a lot of fantasy RPGs, I have to admit that I am getting tired of it. It never really makes a difference at the end. Yes, you get choices along the way, and you can create and devise your character anyway you want, but you are constantly reminded that you are really in someone else's story, and in the end they push you along to the conclusion they envisioned.

I'll try to remember to put another part of my conclusion in the other post, since it includes some spoilers.
I enjoyed playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and I might play it again, but not right away. It has been less than 2 days since I finished the game, and already it seems a little boring. That is not a good sign. I am a little tempted by the idea of playing it again, but I am trying to figure out how I am going to make it different. But, for now the game is over and I need to work on other things.

Next time, there will be spoilers, as I go into the storyline and Role-playing aspects of the game.