Systems: Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, & Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch*
Release Date: February 7, 2012, & September 8, 2020*
Publisher: 38 Studios, Electronic Arts, THQ Nordic*
Developer: 38 Studios, Big Huge Games, Kaiko*
*Let us get some housekeeping out of the way before we get too deep into this, and if you already know why there is a difference between Reckoning and Re-Reckoning, you can skip the rest of this paragraph. So Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was first released in 2012, then 38 Studios closed. THQ Nordic bought the rights to the game and created a remaster that included all the previously released DLC and a third newly developed DLC in 2020. The remaster, titled Re-Reckoning was released on the Nintendo Switch in March 2021, which is the version that I am playing and writing about. That's it.
I started Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning (hereafter referred to only as Kingdoms of Amalur for simplicity's sake) as a corpse, not really knowing much about the history of the game, or the game in general. I had heard that this was a good game around the time that the Switch was receiving its port. I watched a couple of the trailers and was not initially impressed by what looked like a single-player RPG with World of Warcraft-type graphics. And really, none of the trailers sold me on the game as they seemed primarily focused on basic video game mechanics like "Attack your enemies," "Create your character!" "Save the Kingdom!" type tropes. It honestly could have been a trailer for a boss-rush game. But that was about it really. Only after I had started reading The Legend of Drizzt novels by R.A. Salvatore did I find out that he wrote upwards of 10,000 years of lore for the game. And Todd McFarlane created a lot of the artwork. And Grant Kirkhope wrote the score. A few months ago I decided to pick up the game and after finishing Final Fantasy X, I thought that a western RPG was a good way to go rather than jump right back into another JRPG.
Well, 9h55m later, I am having a pretty good time with the game in the way that someone might enjoy The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Shadow of Mordor, or The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, in that so far I have completed eight side quests, and I am working on eight additional side quests and have hardly touched any of the three main quests that I have. My primary motivator for doing so many side-quests is to further develop the skill trees which are broken up into three primary focus groups, finesse, sorcery, and might (essentially rogue, mage, fighter). Because part of your character's story is that they seem to not be connected to fate, you can mix and match how you level up your character, although there is a bit of anxiety that I have or will put precious skill points into an ability that I end up no longer using as the game progresses; but such is the way with some RPGs I guess, but maybe there will be a skill reset option later in the game?
The character I created is named Halthora, a Varani woman who worships/believes in Njordir, the God of Water, although what overall effect race and religion have on the ultimate character development I am not 100% sure. Yeah, I leaned into the nordic/Skyrim-type character partly because it seemed like a safe option since the main storyline seems focused around a Fae vs. Human conflict so I was not sure if picking an Elven/Fae race would play against how I play my character. I probably could have done more research before deciding to create my character this way, but I tend to roleplay my characters rather than min-maxing them. So far I have been focusing primarily on Finesse and Sorcery because that seems more interesting than smashing my way through everything. Plus I like being able to sneak and casting spells in this game is not overly complicated and satisfying.
Combat is a little more involved than button mashing your way to victory, if only because there is some element of timing your attacks to disrupt your opponents and dodging out of the way from enemy attacks. I quickly figured out that there is no stamina meter so I could, hypothetically, roll indefinitely, but that would make the game not a lot of fun and then I would not earn any XP to level up with. I started out the game using daggers (you automatically dual-wield) with a bow as a backup weapon (which you can swap out on command) but I found that I did not like the aiming mechanic, which is pretty strange. Early in the game, you have a couple of combat encounters and I initially did not like that there was no lock-on button, but it was something that I have gotten used to, and aiming in third-person with a camera that is pulled back does not feel ideal. I eventually decided to use a staff as my backup weapon, again to have a dual focus on the Sorcery and Finesse skills, and I just liked the ability to cause elemental damage, although in the last hour or so, I have switched to using chakarams as they have a slightly faster attack rate and I like the area of effect of the powered up attack. But the camera still took me a while to get used to as there have been times when the environment got in the way between the camera and my character during combat; so I just rolled my way back into frame.
I guess this just means that I am going to continue playing.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
I'm Going to Rock this Mother Fucking, Bi-atch!
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