Spoiler Alert - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Part 2 - Spoiler Alert

This is where the spoilers live, so either don't read it, or don't complain. 

So, this game is much like Oblivion and Skyrim in that it dumps you right into the story.  To be direct, you start off dead.  Two gnomes are pushing a cart with a body on it, and you are the body.  At the moment where they are about to whip back the sheet and record information about you, the game pauses so that you can choose your race, and create the appearance of your character. 

Here, the game diverges from standard fantasy RPG format, because you don't pick a class.  There are no classes in KOA:R.  Actually, that makes it similar to Skyrim.  There are three disciplines, called Abilities, Might, Sorcery and Finesse, which equate pretty neatly with Warrior, Mage and Rogue.  You get three points at each level to put where you want in these three disciplines.  Sorcery includes spells, staves, scepters (wands) and chakrams (flying disc weapons).  Might includes attacks with sword, greatsword, hammer, and other weapons.  Finesse includes dagger attacks, archery attacks, and something called faeblades, double ended daggers.  There are also poisons, and other things of that sort. 

After you set up your character, the dwarves reveal your newly created face, and then they dump you onto a pile of dead bodies...which is where you wake up.  Now, you begin to explore and then fight your way out of the vast complex where you were reborn after having died in your first life. 

So, that is enough spoilers for now.  You fight your way out, and you learn about Fate, and Fateweavers.  In the world of Amalur, all are ruled by Fate.  Each person has a path through the weave of Fate which cannot be altered, at least not in any major way...until you come along.  Shortly after escaping,  you are told that you have no fate, that you are the master of your destiny, in fact, throughout the game, you character is called the Fateless One. 

The problem is that the game belies that idea.  You are pushed along a narrow path, as if you have no decisions to make on your own.  You can delay the inevitable next step, but you cannot bypass it, nor can you choose how it will play out, at least not often.  The best way to effect the plot line is to dump all the points you can into Persuasion, because then you may not have to fight as often, however, even that did not work for me during the penultimate confrontation with Gadflow.  My persuasion attempt was successful, but I still had to fight him. 

It reminded me of two spots in Mass Effect, where you have the opportunity to either Charm or Intimidate Saren, but either way, the same scene plays out. 

Game designers need to work on more complicated scenarios, not only with multiple endings, but with TRUE multiple endings, and truly different paths to those endings.  A persuasive or intimidating character should have the opportunity to resolve ending conflicts without a fight, or at least not the fight he imagines. 

In the case of Gadflow, why not have the persuasion work, and Gadflow attempt to change, but then Tirnoch is too strong, and eats him anyway.  Even if Gadflow followed you into the final chamber as an ally, it could still lead to the final confrontation with Tirnoch.  He would still have served his purpose by getting you into the chamber where Tirnoch attempts to use you escape her prison. 

I know there is only so much you can do with multiple storylines in the context of a game, but I think they can do better, and after seeing this in KoA:R, and seeing the same thing in Skyrim, Morrowind, Oblivion, Mass Effect 1 & 2, and reading all of the negative comments about the end of Mass Effect 3, it seems to me that game designers need to get with the program and move on to truly interactive storylines, where the player can effect the story and the ending in a bigger way. 

There is one key part where the main quest line splits into two quest lines, but you either do both, or not and in either case, you end up in the same place, where they come back together. 

So, like so many other fantasy RPGs, you pursue the mainline quest, the faction quests, and side quests.  Some of the side quests are so paltry that they are called tasks.  One annoying problem is that some of the tasks never end.  You cannot complete the quest, which can be quite annoying. 

Fateweavers will allow you to remake your character for a fee.  You are set back to level 1, but you get back all the points you have invested in Abilities and Skills.  This means that you can try out other builds, and if you find that you are annoyed with some choice you made in the past, then you can undo it.  Level 40 is the maximum supported, and I reached that before I even got to the final portion of the game. 

The faction quest lines are not quite as much fun as the ones in Oblivion...about on a par with Skyrim, but Skyrim wasn't as good as Obilivion. 

I've run out of things to say, so I will stop here. 

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.

Skyrim

Before getting into what I think of Skyrim, I think you should have a little of my history with The Elder Scrolls series.


I first discovered The Elder Scrolls with volume 3, Morrowind. A friend loaned me a copy after learning how much I liked Neverwinter Nights. In many ways, I would say that Morrowind is my favorite game of all time. Only Mass Effect has come close for me.

I played Morrowind until my character was level 80. I had done pretty much everything. I beat the main quest and continued on. I played so long that I was running out of things to do. I finally decided to try one of the vampire lairs. I had avoided them to that point because of the warnings in a couple of player guides. I walked in, and none of the vampires were even a challenge. That is when I stopped playing Morrowind.

When The Elder Scrolls 4, Oblivion came out I bought a copy the first week. Then, a couple of weeks later I built myself a new system, because the old one didn't play it well enough. I was hooked at the moment when the game intro finished and the music swelled up. It was a moment that gives you goose pimples. In Oblivion I went through each of the four major side quest lines, but for a long time I didn't bother with finishing the main quest. I figured out how to be virtually invisible, and that made a lot of things way too easy, though they were still fun.

When Bethesda announced that Oblivion would be the last segment of The Elder Scrolls, I was heart broken. It was like having an old friend die before you got to see him one more time.

I don't know when Bethesda changed their minds, but eventually, there was Skyrim, and I looked forward to it. Money was tight, so I didn't get it the first week, and I don't have the money to buy a new PC, even though I need one, but I finally got the game.

First, I have to admit that I am not playing on the highest video settings, so that might be coloring my judgment a little. The Elder Scrolls has been, at least for three versions, a game that draws you into the game world. It makes the game seem real, to the point where the sound of a cold breeze and a snowy landscape will send a shiver through you and have you looking for a blanket to throw over your shoulders.

Also, Skyrim is the frozen north part of Tamriel, the continent and empire that has been the been the setting for all The Elder Scrolls games. It is populated by Nords, who are in a word...Nordic. But the problem that I am leading to is that the game seems a bit grey, almost monotone. There isn't a lot of color. There are a few bright flowers, but small ones, and a few green trees, but they seem faded somehow. All the people dress in subdued colors, which might be part of the belief that no one wore bright colors in the past, which we know to be false.

The only other problem I have seen with Skyrim is that isn't quite grabbing me the way Morrowind and Oblivion did. I am enjoying it, but I don't feel as involved. I am not sure I can adequately describe it.

The leveling system is still better than anything else. You level by improving skills, and many of the skills can only be improved by really using them. They have eliminated a few of the more exploited skills from Oblivion, which makes leveling a little more difficult, though admitted not much.
The world is huge. I have been playing for about two weeks now, and I haven't explored more than a quarter of it. I have reached the end of two of the major side quest lines, Assassins and Thieves, and still have two go to, as well as having about half of the main quest line to finish. There are still many side quests, there are ones in each of the major cities and several of the smaller ones to do, and much much more.
But, I am beginning to feel that this series has run out its time. There is too little that's new. Yes, there's dragons, but your only interaction with them, is killing them. They attack somewhere near you, and you kill it. I haven't reached the point where I learn why they are back, and maybe that will change things, but I have not going to hold my breath.

I'd give it 7.5 out of ten. It's better than Fallout 3, which isn't too surprising, though they borrowed a numbers of things from Fallout 3. Of course, then again, Fallout 3 had the same greyness problem. It's worth checking out, but don't expect too much. If you liked Oblivion or Morrowind, you'll like it.