Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning | PC Review

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is a remastered version of the original hack-and-slash RPG that came out in 2012. The original was developed by 38 Studios and Big Huge Games, and published by Electronic Arts. Big Huge Games is still involved in the development of this remastered version, and they cooperated with KAIKO to bring us Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, published by THQ Nordic. The remaster includes all the previously released DLC, and apparently some new content as well. As I never played the original, all of it was new to me. I was in for quite a journey.

Creative Brain Power

The names behind Amalur are very impressive. Ken Rolston (Elder Scrolls), R.A. Salvatore (D&D’s The Legend of Drizzt) Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man, Spawn), and Erik J. Capone (Fallout 3, Skyrim) all wrote and helped design the game. That’s a lot of creative brain power and it shows in the depth of the game’s mythology. Despite that, there was a lot of controversy around the game, as it caused 38 Studios to go bankrupt after the release of Amalur. However, this did not deter Big Huge Games from taking on the task of remastering Kingdoms of Amalur, as it is still a beloved title amongst RPG fans.

Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive And Dodge

On first sight, Amalur is a pretty standard and straightforward hack ‘n slasher, but it incorporates some interesting RPG mechanics and does that well. The character creation allows for a lot of flexibility to create your own unique character. You have four races to choose from and many options to customize your hero. It has three skill trees that you can choose from and you’re not limited to just one, either. You can specialize to become a Warrior, Rogue or Mage, but you can also mix the skills up to be more of a Jack-of-all-trades. I chose to mostly specialize on Warrior and supplement it with some magic skills, and this worked very well for me.

If You Can Dodge A Niskaru

The combat is not too difficult and as time and level progresses, you can learn more skill moves. I even learned a few by accident because I hit the ‘wrong’ key, which was fun. I must say that I’ve never been really good at action games, so I was very pleasantly surprised that I got the hang of it pretty quickly. Once you get a good grip of attacking, dodging, casting and blocking, you are really ready to take on the world. And a huge world it is.

Sights And Sounds To Behold

The graphics in Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning are both stunning and a bit dated. The world itself is fantastic, and they truly created some gorgeous setpieces, but the character models and the monsters look a wee bit dated. This doesn’t take anything away from the enjoyment of the game, though. The music is great and really helps in setting the mood. It changes when combat begins, and adds a lot to the atmosphere. What’s also quite impressive is the voice acting. Most of the characters you meet have fully voiced dialogue, and the actors bring a lot of character to them. It’s fun to listen to, but clicking through it is not a problem, so even for the faster players this will not slow them down. And there are so many characters to interact with!

Well Of Souls

When you have the creativity at your disposal of the brains who wrote and developed Kingdoms of Amalur, you’re guaranteed a good story. And that’s exactly what you get. You have no idea who you are, but you quickly find out that you died and got resurrected in the Well of Souls. This makes you the first one on your side of the conflict that managed to do that, and makes you an extremely valuable target for the enemy. That enemy is the Tuatha and they are hellbent on conquering the realm of man. There’s also a class of supernatural seers called Fateweavers and, as the name implies, they can see the fate of everyone in the world. Except yours. And that changes everything. 

So You Want To Be A Hero?

Your choices with other characters affect how they view you, and you have the option to choose a heroic solution or a less heroic one. When you increase your skills, this can also have an effect on your dialogue tree, as you can attempt to persuade people, for instance. This opens up new possibilities and can either help you or harm you if you fail. But it does add some flair to the proceedings. There’s also a ton of items to find. Or steal, if you’re so inclined. They come in different categories of importance and some are customizable with gems. The best you can find is a full set of armor that suits your character, but you can also find books, jewelry, a ton of reagents, and other worthless or very valuable stuff. I did find that the inventory menu is a bit clunky and didn’t feel as smooth as the rest of the game, but it’s a minor inconvenience.

Conclusion

By the time of writing this, I haven’t finished Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. I’m 30 hours in and already did a ton of quests, side quests, tasks, boss fights, dungeon runs, and so much more. Yet I have the feeling I have barely scratched the surface! My mighty Varani still has a lot of work to do in Amalur. This game is massive and a very pleasant distraction from the pandemic raging the globe right now. I have only touched upon such cool mechanics like blacksmithing, alchemy, and sagecraft. Thus far I have crafted some potions, but not yet created my own armor or added gems to my weapons. I have collected several pieces of a legendary armor, so I’m hoping to find more of those in the future. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have Fate to distract, a war to win, and reagents to harvest! Fetch me my battlehammer!

This review is based on a PC copy of Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning provided by Evolve-PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.