Intuitive combat, vast open world, captivating lore, unique skills, twists of fate, destinies… something, something… I don’t know. I love the game, BUT IT’S TOO MUCH. Or is it? Find out with me!

I don’t know how a game this massive and visually appealing was made in 2012.

I remember playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning back in 2013, a year after it was released.

I was not aware of all the hubbubs in the gaming world, internet connection was way less accessible then, and all I knew was that my brother always had a way to get new games and make them work in our potato-powered CRT Monitor computer.

Anyway, that’s beside the point.

I don’t remember finishing it, but I remembered having tons of fun playing it along with Dragon Age: Origins and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

I was deeply fascinated by its fantasy world, intuitive combat, and open-world experience. It truly was a fantastical adventure, I just wasn’t able to finish it because I couldn’t care less about the story.

A year ago, I found the remastered version of the game named Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. It was released in September 2020, and it featured all the DLCs of the original.

I made time to play it, and I must say, I definitely underestimated the amount of content and graphical improvements they made with the remaster.

I’ll keep this concise as there truly is too much going on in Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning.

Just for transparency’s sake, I have finished the base game and was trying to finish the Fatesworn DLC. However, I got so burnt out due to the repetitive nature of the game that I just couldn’t push through anymore.

Gameplay

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning plays very much like a typical RPG action-adventure game where you run around with your custom character, killing monsters, hoarding gold, and finally getting strong enough to defeat the final boss.

Controls

The controls are very intuitive besides the fact that the Shift Button is used for blocking instead of sprinting, and the Control Button is used for sprinting instead of crouching. You press left click to attack, scroll to switch weapon, number keys to use spells, and occasionally right click to aim down while using your bow.

Resource Bars

You have a health bar, a mana bar, and a Fate Energy bar. Your health bar represents, well, your health and your mana bar represents your magical capacity. Your Fate Energy is the resource you use when you enter Reckoning mode.

Reckoning Mode

Reckoning mode is when you essentially “control” Fate and time slows down, allowing you to run amok against multiple enemies, even turning the tides of battle. This mechanic is closely tied to the story, which we’ll get into later on.

Skills

Aside from your basic combat controls and abilities, you have Skills. Skills are non-combat stats that enhance different aspects of, well, non-combat gameplay. These include alchemy, lockpicking, and persuasion.

These can affect your gameplay but personally, the only truly useful ones are persuasion and lockpicking.

Twists of Fate and Destinies

Aside from Skills, you have the Twists of Fate and Destinies. I’ll just group them together because this is too long.

These two aspects provide different stat bonuses depending on which ones you have.

On one hand, Twists of Fates are acquired through certain game events or story quests which then provide you permanent buffs. On the other hand, Destinies are “classes” you unlock and choose depending on the point distribution in your skill tree. The more you put in one skill tree, the more you are inclined to that class and therefore unlock the appropriate Destiny.

Audio and Graphics

The audio in the game is mostly pretty basic. The sound effects of your sword swooshing or magic explosions reverberating in the air are there.

The most surprising one for me is it seems that the game uses surround sounds, I might be using this terminology incorrectly, but I don’t know how to put it best.

If you move away from certain objects, the sounds they make gradually turn fainter. I like that.

For the visuals, the texture and graphics are definitely not the best but the use of colors and general set design is fantastic. I had tons of fun just running around, taking photos and videos.

Combining these two, the developers made the best out of their resources and produced a pretty amazing experience for me considering the time it came out.

Story

The main story is pretty unique. You may look at it at a very basic level of being reincarnated and “breaking the chains of fate.” Yet, you may also look at it from the rich lore that surrounds it and how it supports the different factions, gods, races, and kingdoms in the game.

It is pretty interesting how they weaved them all together, and how much o it there actually is in the game.

Tons of side quests actually provide important lore or plot twists to certain key points in the game. However, completing these side quests doesn’t really affect the main story which is very disappointing.

Content

This part may actually be redundant, but I found it very important to put into perspective the scale of content Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-reckoning has.

If you read my introduction correctly, you may have seen that it took me 108 hours to reach the midpoint of the Fatesworn DLC. Mind you, the Fatesworn DLC actually occurs post-endgame of the base game.

Aside from that, I actually haven’t finished all side content in the base game either. There are so many fetch quests and whatnot in the game it actually felt like content for the sake of content.

It actually felt like the game is supposed to be an MMORPG just like World of Warcraft considering the way the game is structured, visually designed, and filled with content.

Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. I actually haven’t researched that much about the game’s development, just the game itself.

It was exhaustingly fun, but exhausting nonetheless.

Yes, I had tons of fun with Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-reckoning. Yet the amount of content and my completionist mindset really set me up for failure and disappointment.

I wanted to cherish every bit and piece of content in the game, but there is so much to take in. Too much, in fact.

The graphics are great, the sound design is as well, the combat is serviceable, and the story is actually fine. However, I got exhausted.

I recommend it to people who enjoy RPG games but are not trying to find anything too deep in the combat aspect. It would also be great to remind interested players to TAKE YOUR TIME.

Yeah, I don’t know how this game is a Single-player game.