Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning (PC) Review

The intro, which also acts as the character creation segment, shows the protagonist returning to life after dying on the battlefield. It turns out that a gnome crafted a machine that can do that wonderful thing, and this man or woman is its first success. The thing is, after that, most will actually forget how it all started. The first reason is probably that this fantasy land is packed with content. Side quests await you around every single corner. If one of those who like clearing them before focusing on the main line of missions, you'll spend more than 10 hours before even making the first major step. It's the second reason, however, where the problems with the game begin: the mediocre storyline.

The story just isn't that exciting. On one hand it doesn't need to. Apart from a few exceptions, pretty much all RPGs use the same old tropes; evil baddie wants to do evil baddie stuff, and the protagonist, a chosen one of some sort, is the only thing that can stand on his or her way. No, it's not the actual premise, but the execution that matters the most; the direction, the world building, the quality of writing. Well, that's the thing, these aren't that good either. The realm of Amalur and its denizens are as generic (and boring) as they come, despite the existence of the "celebrities" involved.

The blame should probably go to R. A. Salvatore, who provided the lore. Sure, he is a big name in the world of high fantasy, but in this critic's opinion (and not only), that's mostly because he is a - highly productive - entry level author, and in a genre where there's not much competition. Long story short, it's hard to care about anything here. You'll forget the names of all major characters the moment you meet them; forget about the main plot; forget the reason you are doing this or that while on a side quest. Even worse, you won't get much chance to actually roleplay.

In all honesty, this is an MMO minus the online element. Is it fun? Sure! The three skill trees let one mix and match abilities from the warrior, rogue, and sorcerer classes; the weapons are diverse, and each one handles a lot differently; the actual battles are far from passive, as you need to dodge or block incoming hits, and time your attacks; loot is hidden under every rock and inside every crevice; you can craft potions and custom equipment; and, finally, as mentioned before, there's always something to do here. Kingdom's of Amalur: Reckoning can easily waste more than 50 hours of your time. The key word here is 'waste.' This is an example of too little content stretched as far as it could possibly get.

Yes, there's a lot to do, sure, but it's all pretty much the same. Go there, hit X, go inside that dungeon and find Y, visit that location and talk to Z. It's boring, repetitive, and due to a lack of any good character interactions, you'll soon end up doing things just to do them, skipping the dialogue altogether. It's a grind for the sake of grinding. Even worse? The game doesn't challenge you enough, so you don't really need the extra experience, loot, or money. Now, it's understandable that not everyone shares this critic's view. It's all subjective after all. What about the remastering thingy? Is that a matter of opinion too?

What's on offer in Re-Reckoning, which is basically the upgraded version of the original, is maddeningly disappointing, and that's if you want to be polite. Mainly a visual polish job, this looks as if the developer just increased contrast and called it a day, with the textures being pretty much the same, despite them being of a higher resolution. Want more than that? Well, apart from a few tweaks here, and a bunch of bug fixes there, that's about it. It's hard to understand how on earth this was given the 'ok' from publisher THQ Nordic, let alone accept how this carries such a price tag.