Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Xbox 360

Kingdoms of Amalur is probably the most fun I've ever had in a game, besides maybe Resident Evil. That isn't particularly hard to achieve since I'm fairly new to gaming, but I will say, there are some things it does way better than a lot of games. Likes: It's a lot like Skyrim or Fable. The battle system for this game is amazing. Since it's open world like Skyrim, you have a lot of choices to make along the way to completing the game's story, but its everything Skyrim wasn't in a battle adventure game and more. When I say that, it isn't just because you get to customize the way your character fights, or the strengths your character has. It has to do with the way the whole world is built. Every monster in Amalur requires you to fight a certain way. Over time you may find a weapon that you love, and use repeatedly in fight after fight, but then there will be that one monster that requires you to completely change you arsenal either because they are immune to fire, best fought from a distance, or only really possible to fight with fast and light weapons or blunt and heavy weapons. In other words, fight a rock troll with a hammer, not a bow, and fight a mana-sucking magic user with something other than magic. As a result, the whole game requires strategy. It also requires you to understand and use the mass of potions in your inventory. They may not seem important until you fight something where they really are. Customization is virtually endless in this game. Like Skyrim, you get to choose what your character looks like at the beginning of the game, including race and gender. If that wasn't enough, however, it has tons of different kinds of armor, mage robes, and the like. You can even customize some weapons and equipment with extra gems, giving them even more affects to keep them usable longer. The graphics in this game are vibrant and beautiful, and the atmosphere changes throughout the world, and will even change in a location over time depending on what is going on. Each area of the map seems to have its own story quest. So if you arrive in the Webwood at the beginning of the town's story, most of the character's quests for you will relate somehow to what's plaguing their town. Sometimes you'll find that if you take two quests from different people who reside in one location, you might be able to kill 2 birds with one stone. In other words, 2 quests with one dungeon, or the like. Fast traveling is possible on the world map, but to truly enjoy the game in the beginning, I would just suggest going places on foot for a little while. The side quests in this game are worth playing. For every quest you complete, not only does your xp go up and your level steadily increase, giving you access to an incredible variety of skills and spells, but it also gives you other perks as well, such as rare items or even your own place. There are several chances to get your own residence in the game, and these usually occur after you've completed a quest. But be careful, unlike a lot of games, sometimes a quest is completed by your character making a choice to not do something. Should you really kill that guy, or should you let him live? Switching sides in the middle of a quest to help someone do something isn't uncommon in this game, so be careful who you trust and why you make the decisions you do. In some cases, a boss you're sent to fight may even give you the choice to change sides and work for them instead. The side quests really help customize your game and immerse you in the world. For some, you may even find yourself battling boss class enemies that dive off the main story, so if you ignore them, you're missing out. Reckoning mode is one of the coolest things. If you've ever watched "Legend of Korra" or "Avatar: The Last Air Bender," you probably wish you could magically go into the Avatar state and decimate everyone. Reckoning Mode is like that. While it takes some time to charge, once its available to use, you can activate Reckoning Mode to slow down the fight and do some incredible damage to your foes. Your character's eyes will even glow blue like the Avatar. The only thing that might turn some people off is that this takes some of the challenge out of fights. But don't worry too much. The time it takes to recharge is more than enough to kick your butt in say... a cave full of a dozen rock trolls. Magic looks amazing. Attributed to the game's vibrant graphics, spells cast in the game are incredible. In fact, many times when you're battling a mage, or using magic yourself, you can see how a spell affects your character or the monster/person you're fighting. This also applies to weapon affects. If your sword has a flame affect, you'll see your opponent catch on fire. If your shield has a stun affect and you perry, your enemy will reflect that. If you have something that causes bleeding damage, blood will start spurting. The possibilities are endless. Dislikes: The only thing I can possibly complain about for this game is that the company no longer exists (having gone bankrupt), which means no more updates. Unknowns: I've logged over 50 hours in this game at this point, and I still haven't reached the end yet, so I'm not sure if the ending is good or not, but from the story that I have seen, it's promising. Edit: I reached the end of this game over Christmas. All I can say is that, for me at least, it had one of the most satisfying endings I've seen in a game so far. That said, it's still open world, so you can play with all your rewards, equipment, titles, and royal acknowledgements after you've beat the game. And I think, that has its own kind of fun to it.

I bought KoA: Reckoning for my boyfriend as a gift (he is a huge R.A. Salvatore fan)... needless to say, I've logged about 25+ hours and he has 4 or 5 hours. The gameplay is very fun, especially if you tend to play characters that rely on hand-to-hand combat as opposed to archery or magic. There is nothing about this game that isn't appealing to the eye-- the colors are so bold and the landscapes really are gorgeous. The inventory system is pretty cool also; instead of giving your character a weight limit for what they carry, there is an item limit. Although this is kind of a bummer for smaller items, it really is beneficial when you're going through a cave or ruin and you find nothing but armor and weapons. The inventory menu also has a "junk pile," so as you're on a few quests and picking up everything (and I pick up EVERYTHING), you can add it to your junk pile, and when you get to a shop, there's an option to sell all of your junk, which makes your visits to the shops a lot quicker. For me, the controller setup had its high points and low points, but I really loved how your primary and secondary weapons are set on the X and Y buttons, which makes switching between them a breeze! I am a big fan of hand-to-hand and melee combat, so having this control setup allowed me to fight faster. Also, hitting left or right on the D-pad allows you to consume a minor healing or mana potion, which is awesome if you're in the midst of fighting several enemies (because it's rare that you'll only encounter one at a time). "Reckoning mode" also has its high and low point, which are, to me, the same thing-- in Reckoning mode, you can beat anything or anyone, very quickly. While this rocks for any quest with a mini boss battle at the end (fill up your fate meter while going through a cave and it will be full when you get to the boss, and cut him down in a few sword swipes), it makes these boss battles forgettable and too easy. And let me say this now-- I am not a super awesome gamer... I can hold my own, but I am a pretty casual gamer with a total weakness for a good RPG. Another little aspect of this game that I LOVE is the "hide helmet" option... I hate bulky armor because I can't see my character's face (I must not be the only weirdo like this, since there is this option), but being able to hide the helmet on the gameplay screen really made me happy. The ability to be able to change your character's destiny and appearance throughout the game is also nice and, although I didn't find the need for these options, it is definitely nice to have them available. Overall, I wish this game was a little more difficult; I know you can adjust the difficulty settings, but I don't feel like that would impact too much. I began this game working on the main quest, which is really interesting and fun. Side quests would come up, and I figured I would just get to them after or when I needed a break from the main quest. Well, I completed the main quest rather quickly (very rewarding, although I felt I should have paid more attention to the story line), and now I'm going back to the side quests and they just aren't that fulfilling compared to what I've done. They are fun and quick, but I'm completing them with more of a "well, what's the point?" attitude. Also, a bummer is that things in this game do not level up with you. After completing the main quest, I secured awesome armor, a kickass longsword, and a pretty dominant set of faeblades. So now, the enemies that used to take a little work to defeat are now cut down in 3-4 swipes of my sword... and if they do hit me, it barely registers on my life meter. Also the leveling up system isn't something I'm too excited about. When you are able to level up a skill, they are all things that I, personally, didn't care too much about because none of them are very difficult in the first place (exception to this-- Detect Hidden, which is awesome). Sure, you can level up alchemy or blacksmithing, but to be honest, I beat the main quest without having once made a potion or building a piece of weaponry or armor; potions, money, and pretty awesome weaponry/armor are all easily found in this game, so why spend the time during a quest making these things if I can quickly buy them? I will probably force myself to play around with this things, but at this point in time, I just don't see much of the purpose for doing so. After this, you get three points to distribute in various skills, which will add various defensive/offensive moves to your combat style. My boyfriend uses these a lot, but I didn't as much because I'm a total button-masher. But they are cool nonetheless! I hate to compare this game to Skyrim, but it is the last thing I played, so the comparisons are inevitable (I know, I know... "it isn't meant to be like that!" I get it!). I feel like KoA is geared towards gamer comfort-- the inventory system and controls are smart and were assigned with the gamer in mind. The story is intriguing and rewarding, and I found this game to be a lot of fun. On the downside, though, it just wasn't difficult and I feel like the main quest was the only true gem. This threw me off because in Skyrim, I did everything else to delay doing the main quest. KoA's faction quests are fun, but again, it was kind of like "okay, so now what?" If developers took this game and built it on a giant scale, I would be first in line to purchase it. Even with the several aspects of this game that I wasn't a huge fan of, I would replay this game or buy another game in this series in a heartbeat. I recommend it to anyone, but my advice is this-- stay away from the main quest for a while to truly enjoy the side quests, and slow down and enjoy the capabilities and storylines within the gameplay.

I'm 10 hours into the game and am completely addicted. RPG Elements: Character Creation: Pretty standard compared to other recent RPG's. 4 different races, all with a male/female option. You select one of like 8 "signs" to be born under, which is like a blessing from a god of your choice. You even get to pick a tattoo to put on your face. There is no body type editing. Class Choosing: The class system is a little different in this game. Instead of choosing a "path", it's more like you choose a "color", because you can mix and match between 3 different focuses; Might, Finesse, and Sorcery. You can choose one to completely focus on, or you can put 2 of them together, or be a jack of all trades and follow all 3. Each of the 7 options will have their own benefits and as you level up, your "class" will evolve and become more beneficial. For example, if you focus completely on Might, the first class is "Brawler", then once you get to a certain level, you have the option to become a "Fighter", then, with more leveling up, a "Soldier", and it continues up to Tier 6. There is a skill tree for each of the 3 "focuses", and also a list of other skills like Blacksmithing, Alchemy, and Barter. Oh yeah, and you can talk to people called "Fateweavers" and completely change how you've leveled up your character so far. That means you don't have to say things like "on my next play-through, I'll be this class or focus on this type of weapon" because you can change however and whenever you want. Fighting: This is the real gem in this game. Seamlessly go from cutting down the enemy with a Great Sword, to throwing around a pair of Chakrams, then shoot a couple of lightening bursts from your hands, then slam the ground to create huge upheavals of earth to completely wipe the floor with your enemy. It Looks So Awesome. I love just going around looking for random things to fight because it's just so much fun. Quests: I am the type who enjoys stacking side quests, then completing them one at a time, then collecting more. There is a main story, but I haven't been following it. 10 hours in and all I've wanted to do is complete the abundance of side quests. There are 4 different categories of quests; Main, Faction, Side, and another for smaller tasks (like running errands). And then there's your list of completed quests. Graphics: I don't have to tell you how beautiful and bright and colorful and vivid and vibrant this game is. Go watch the trailer. Other Goodies: The blacksmithing system is awesome! The Sagecrafting system (creating enchanted gems to make your weapons and armor stronger) is awesome! You can even change your characters looks as many times as you want throughout the game. There's just so much really cool stuff in the game. It makes me wanna keep playing. I wrote this review at 3:30 AM, so if it sounded like unorganized rambling, it was. I was up that late playing the game. ***** Edit 2 months later, almost 60 hours of gameplay later, and 110 completed quests later ***** I beat it. At about 30 hours, I stopped putting everything into side quests and started following the Main Story, and here's what I have to say: Story: I'd give it a 10 for story concept. Story-telling was probably an 8.5 mainly because it leaves you with a few unanswered questions. Everything previously stated still stands as true, but I'm just gonna list some of the cons: I wish some of the special "unique" equipment, like armor and weapons, were a little more powerful. I got so good at blacksmithing and sagecrafting that I could literally create the strongest armor set and weapons out of the standard materials (i.e. iron, steel, silver, but in this game, they are azurite, sylvanite, and Prismere being the strongest of the materials). I would find some awesome-looking unique equipment that was not as strong as the stuff I created by myself. I hope this makes sense. The weapons you find thoughout the game that were designed to be epicly strong are nothing compared to the weapons you can make at the forge. Although I think the blacksmithing concept is AWESOME, I wish there were more weapons/armor you could create from the forge. Or that atleast you could make those "unique" weapons/armor more powerful. *spoiler* There's not much to the final boss, either. Maybe that's just because I had god-like weapons and armor, but I think even without it, it wouldn't have been too tough. When I face a final boss, I always hope it to be as extremely difficult and strenuous as the final boss of the Golden Sun series (which, by the way, if you haven't played those, DO IT. They are the best RPG games ever created). I want it to actually be really tough. And I don't want it to only take 2 minutes to beat. The environments, while gorgeous, can get a little repetitive later in the game. Nothing too terrible, but it won't have you gasping in awe at every viewpoint. That's really all I can think of to complain about. Buy the game. It is well worth the $30 that you'll spend. Big Huge Games need the support, too. They deserve it for such a job well done.

I'll start this out by saying RPGs fill the majority of the games I play, but I'm still very open to other types of games, including those that are more action than RPG, like this title. I hold no bias towards this game for the company it is from, its original goal of being an mmo, or anything else. GAMEPLAY: Starting with the main component, since it is an ACTION rpg, the combat. The controls are smooth and you will rarely find yourself blaming the game for dying, but the combos for all the weapons are streamlined. I.e., holding block and attacking will always be a special attack specific to that weapon. This works though, since you can only equip two weapons at any time, combined with four spells. Certain spells can have different effects if you hold or press the button rapidly but this doesn't happen often and when it does you usually need to learn a version of that spell that only comes later down the line. The weapons come in great variety, each one related to a specific class-type (which I'll get to that more later) and all have various interesting attacks and are enjoyable to use. Spells are also here, and some of them are quite interesting. Such as "Mark of Flame," which is a cone area of effect fire spell that does no damage but will "mark" enemies, when you hold down the button all of the marked enemies explode in big balls of fire. However there are many spells and abilities that are total garbage, such as the "Summon Faer-Gorta" spell. As it implies, this will summon a minion to aid you in combat, but this minion is useless as anything but a distraction so you only have to fight 3 of the annoying mages at once instead of four. At level 20 or so, I was doing 150s every hit while the fully-upgraded minion was only doing about 30. Spells and abilities are often a hit-and-miss affair, and I would advise saving before getting a new one so you can load back in case you don't like it. The method that you stop from getting killed revolves around spamming the dodge button or blocking or parrying, not a lot of variety here but it works well enough. There is also a rather shameful stealth mechanic. You activate it and your character will crouch down and eyes that represent how visible you are will pop up over all the NPCs. The eye will build up if you are too close to them and pretty much interesting if you're anywhere in front of them. Using daggers (because all other weapons are useless to use in stealth) when you sneak up on an enemy you can execute them, which will play a rather lengthy canned animation if you flat out killed them. Which you almost always will, since with daggers you do basically 10x your normal damage. The problem is that not all enemies have an execution animation specific to them, so it instead uses a slow two-attack animation that will almost always miss or the first hit will knock the enemy back too far for the second one to hit. The real problem with stealth comes from the enemy AI. Certain enemies will just know where you are, even if it's indicated by the stealth meter above their head that they haven't seen you at all. They will just walk towards you no matter where you go. I tested this with a troll and hiding behind a large rock. The troll would always follow me around the rock, and even instantly change directions if I went too close behind him. This, coupled with the fact that a great deal of the areas are not built with a stealthy alternative in mind makes trying to be an assassin unbelievably frustrating. Finally, you have a limit-break type of attack in the form of "Reckoning Mode." Reckoning Mode runs off your Fate Meter, which builds up (slowly) as you defeat enemies. When you trigger Reckoning Mode, time slows and your enemies become sluggish lambs to the slaughter you are about to unleash. Your damage is tripled in Reckoning mode, however, enemies don't die when they run out of health, they become stunned. When an enemy is stunned, you can perform a finishing move on them which involves one of a set of flashy canned animations specific to that creature and mashing a button to gain extra exp up to +100%. If multiple enemies are in this stunned state, it will finish all of them at once and gain extra exp from all of them. However using a finishing move will use up the remainder of your fate meter and if you do not use it before your fate runs out on its own, all stunned enemies will be healed back to full. However this great deal of different spells and attacks you can pull off are the polar opposite of the enemies you face - which are often the exact same as the ones over and over but with only more of them. Even at the end of the game you will be fighting the same boggarts from level 2, but in greater numbers which is more annoying than fun. They didn't even bother to re-skin them. The difficulty as the game goes on doesn't come from more challenging and unique enemies, it comes from copy/pasting more and more the annoying ones into a small space, and making them practically immune to stuns or knockbacks where you will still be knocked back by EVERYTHING. Overall, the combat certainly can be enjoyable, as you can throw lightning at something and then cleave it apart with a sword bigger than you are, but you will likely be bored by the copy/paste enemies, frustrated by their cheap tactics, and annoyed at the fact that half of your abilities are useless. PROGRESSION: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning follows the "get exp, level up" formula that most RPGs do, however they way you level up is different. You don't choose a class, instead when you level you get 3 points to spend in one of three trees. Sorcery, which is for mages and spell-slingers. Might, which is for warriors who want to smash things and not die. And Finesse, which is for rogues and archers. You can spend your three points in any way you want, put them all in one or spread them between two or three of the trees. You can choose a fate card depending on where your points have gone though, these cards will give you bonuses depending on which one you pick, like extra melee damage for Might or more mana regen for Sorcery. Fate cards come in seven forms and six tiers for each, 3 for the "pure" routes of putting all your points into one tree, 3 for the hybrids between any two of the trees, and one for putting points into each tree. Not all fate cards are created equal, for instance the Might/Sorcery cards are more for someone who is mostly doing warrior with a bit of mage on the side, opting for having increased melee damage with giving you mana by a percentage of how much damage you take and throwing out the regen bonus of the pure magic cards. You can at least change your fate card whenever you want though, which is nice. Equipping weapons depends on level, while equipping armor depends on your points. You might jsut need level 10 for a sword but need 55 points in Might to wear metal. You also get to increase a skill when you level, which ranges from crafting skills to things like merchantile which reduces buying prices in shops or persuade which will give you more dialogue options at certain times. STORY & SIDE QUESTS: The world itself is based largely on what I think is Irish lore, including things such as Fae, the Tuatha De'Ohn, and some other myths. This and the twist of fantasy with elves and magic makes for an interesting and rather rich world, but a lot of things are not explained in detail which will frustrate some. The story is well written and interesting, but lacks character depth. While the concept of you being the only person in the world not bound by fate is very interesting, it's just not supported enough by other characters and the actual storyline while still somehow being the main focus. You almost never make your own decisions in the game, despite being totally unbound by fate. You're almost always doing what everyone else is telling you to do. Don't let the UI from the conversations fool you - this isn't Mass Effect, most quests are just "go find this, kill that, then leave." The side quests can be interesting though, but you won't get to do them all. Not because the door is locked behind you when you leave an area, it's because the side quests DO NOT SCALE TO YOUR LEVEL IN ANY FORM, this exception being the faction quest lines. This results in quests that you get nothing for, essentially. Not enough exp to do anything with and the items you will be vastly over-levelled for before you even get halfway through the game. VISUALS: Easily the best part of the game. The art direction is colorful and inspired, ranging from lush forests to sandy deserts and cliffs. This is not your average "BROWN IS THE ONLY COLOR TO EXIST" game, if I had one gripe it would be that there's almost too much green in the color palette, causing some places to look more similar than they should. Caves and dungeons are unique and well designed, if a bit linear. Even the creatures, while repetitive, are at least well made. This is the kind of game that needs an art book. CRAFTING AND EVERYTHING ELSE: Crafting is actually pretty good, and different from most games. Mainly blacksmithing, which lets you salvage parts that hold the stats from equipment you don't want so you can use them to make something else. Each item has the base component, for swords it would be the blade, and then other smaller components that will give it extra stats. Like a hilt that will give poison damage, or rivets that will increase your maximum health and mana. You can also name your items after you make them, so it's fun to name your fist sword "The Pointy Avenger" or a staff "The Stick of Truth." There is also fast travelling in this game, but otherwise you have to run everywhere. Conclusion: A decent title, and probably worth getting if it goes on sale. If you're someone who enjoys a hardcore and fleshed out RPG experience, I would advise you to stay away though. The lackluster gameplay and story will likely put you off. But if you're looking for something to just screw around on for awhile then you might like this, just put it on easy to save yourself the headache of the spamming and stunlocking of the more annoying enemies.

It's winter and I'm just settling in after a long day of work. I curl up with my console and a cup of hot cocoa to relax for a couple in the company of thieves. Or mages. Or warriors. Or maybe a mix of all three. No, I'm not exploring Skyrim, a release that undoubtedly overshadowed newer IP; this is Amalur, and it's [almost] everything I could hope for in a great RPG. In Kingdoms of Amalur, you'll embark on a journey as a fighter, sorcerer, or rogue (or some custom combination thereof) who has slipped outside of mortal constraints and can unravel the threads of fate to alter destiny, which only a race of "immortals" known as the Fae is supposed to see. What does this mean? Most importantly it means that you are not stuck in one role throughout the game. You can switch between classes and reallocate your skill/ability points by paying a so-called Fateweaver, and while the cost of the reset goes up each time you do it, you will eventually be rolling in enough dough to not have to worry. You find items throughout the game that are randomized in chests and often scaled to your level, and you can buyback any item you sell (but beware that sold items may disappear if you unload over 50 things on a single merchant). You can return to any area and explore most of the gigantic world from the outset, taking quests (and switching between them) at your leisure. These things make you feel like you can play how you want, can't screw up, and don't need to concern yourself with being a completionist. It's refreshing. Also, the story is in-depth with many connecting branches, and you can follow it at will. If you feel like vegging out, no problem. Your map will clearly mark where you need to go for quests, so you can even skip the carefully-crafted dialogue and just grind, if that's your thing. I agree with other reviewers who say the story is bland; few characters and plotlines are memorable, and the many fetch quests eventually blend together. At least the writing itself is good (that is, the caliber of English exceeded my expectations). While you probably won't return to the game for story, except maybe to uncover the vague details surrounding your character's past, you will become addicted to exploring the beautiful variety of locales and toying with the wonderfully fluid battle system (Mass Effect 3 fights feel disgustingly clunky after this title). Battles are fluid (actually there are little pauses between certain animations, but its quirky and intentional rather than glitchy) and hands-on (I don't think I could ever go back to turn-based RPGs after this), with many abilities to test out. The game truly shines in battle and the button mappings are perfect. Visually, the game is gorgeous. The terrains and characters are varied and detailed, and aesthetically it's a mating of Fable, World of Warcraft, and 90s Disney. I often see people bemoan the game's difficulty; they say it's too easy on the hardest difficulty setting. I played through on Hard and for a while it was tricky. Yes, it got simple fast (mage users, prepare to be godly), but I wouldn't change a thing; I enjoy the casual feel (the last thing I want is to raise my blood pressure trying to get a freakishly difficult achievement - I did that in Mass Effect 2 and the game was no longer fun). Besides, you can avoid spamming spells, strip down to your skivvies, and/or wield a pair of butter knives if you have a death wish. I've had my grubby little gamer hands on everything from Arcanum to Xenogears, and by now I know what I like and want in my playthroughs: attention to story and environment, streamlined gameplay, high levels of customization, freedom to explore, unlockables, minimal frustration... And Kingdoms of Amalur does not disappoint.

I bought this fairly recently, even though it has been out a while. I love fantasy RPGs where you get to play a female character (you can also choose to be male). I could make this an incredibly in-depth review, but nobody wants to read a review that is as long as a book, so I will try to keep it as short as possible. In my opinion, the game is a mix between Fable and The Elder Scrolls. I really love how many choices you get in this game and how complicated and intricate everything is. The world is huge, there are countless weapons and armor, and they aren't all rusty longswords either. The weapons I find in random treasure boxes while exploring are actually interesting and fun to use. I like that there are so many different types of weapons. I usually stick with one or two main weapons and switch between them, but the weapons in this game make it so hard to choose! My favorite are the Faeblades, but the daggers, great sword, staffs, etc. are all so much fun to use, too, especially with their different enchantments. Always pay attention to the enchantments before selling ones you don't want. Sometimes they will add an extra point to your Finesse, Stealth, Persuasion, etc., which can be really useful to have on you when you really need a boost in those skills. I love how streamlined everything is. Usually, "streamlined" means "dumbed down," but the Reckoning is an exception. I absolutely LOVE how you can easily add things you want to sell to Junk, so when you find a merchant, you just click Y, and everything is sold. You don't have to painstakingly go through your inventory, and it keeps your inventory from getting really cluttered. I also LOOOOVE that when you save your game, you don't have to sit there, staring at the menu, waiting for the circle to stop moving, so you can get back to your game. All you have to do is click save, exit out of the menu, and start playing, and it will still save. I am an obsessive saver and very impatient, so this was a huge plus to me. I also liked how there was not a cap on how much money a merchant had, so you could sell anything you needed to one person and not have to travel around to three different people (I'm looking at you, Skyrim). There are many other little things the game developers thought of that just make playing the game easier, but I'm blanking on the rest right now. I also love the stories and quests. Everybody loves the Elder Scrolls games, but can we just admit the quests that involve walking through caves that seemingly never end can get a bit tedious? I really like that the caves in this game tend to be pretty small, so you aren't in there for hour after hour, fighting the same bears and rats over and over again. The quests and characters are really creative, and the stories and histories had a lot of depth. The game really draws you in. The characters had a lot of personality. Some are really funny, some are weird, and some are helpful and nice. They just really came across as separate individuals, many with their own back stories. The quests are fun and creative, and most importantly of all, RARELY BORING! It's like living in a fantasy novel. I can tell R.A. Salvatore worked on this. I had so much fun playing the House of Valor. It's like the Arena in Oblivion, but with more intrigue and a better story. You can get the code for this automatically if you buy the game new. The fate-weaving, destiny, and level-up systems were pretty complicated to me at first, but in a good way. Most games now try to appeal to casual gamers and make things easy and less complex and utilize way too many cut-scenes. While I probably can't claim to be a hardcore gamer, I do like a challenge and some complexity. I liked how hard it was to dispel chests at a low to med level, how hard it is to find all the lodestones, how much harder it is to sneak than in the Elder Scrolls games, and how I kept dying at the beginning, so much so that an insulting message popped up, assuring me that it's okay to change my difficulty level to Novice (no thanks). I absolutely loved how hard it is to make money and save up enough to buy really expensive things. This is not a game where you amass so much wealth, you could buy a country. You have to work for it while you lust after high-damage weapons with cool magical properties until you have enough money. This is much better than immediate gratification. Just one cool weapon or one piece of armor can cost half a million dollars, which is pretty hard to save up to. The combat system is fun and creative. You have to time certain moves right, and you can plan out creative attacks, using magic, arrows, and spells, giving you more XP points. I'm on level 25 now, and I still die sometimes because the game remains challenging. Some tips: Do some research before you really start playing, so you don't screw up. Skills that are useful to level up, especially at the beginning of the game, are Detect Hidden and Persuasion. You'll miss out on some cool stuff without these skills. Dispelling is also something I wish I had leveled up at the beginning because I totally sucked at dispelling chests and kept getting cursed from failing at it. Curses are expensive to remove... If you find yourself with one and you saved before you tried to dispel the chest, then just restart at your last saved point, even if that means you don't get whats in the chest. It most likely won't be worth more than the cost to get the curse removed. Also, read about how they level enemies. Here is a link that might be useful: [...] This discouraged me from exploring really far at the beginning of the game: "The exact level of the enemies you face in each area is locked as soon as you first step foot into that area. Whenever possible, this 'level lock' will be identical to whatever level you are. However, if you're either below the minimum value, or above the maximum value, the level will lock at those minimum/maximum values." I did not want to lock enemies down to level 3 everywhere just because I felt like exploring all the way to Rathir or somewhere far away. It's just something to keep in mind. This review has gone on way too long, so I'll wrap up. It's a really, really fun, addictive game, and I have spent an embarrassing amount of time playing it, forgoing sleep and responsibilities. I would definitely recommend!

After several years of debating whether to obtain Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, I finally purchased the game and have to say it has not been a disappointment. The main quest lines maybe account for a quarter of the gameplay. While fun, where the game shines is in the amount of side quests and tasks. Some can be annoying as you're basically running back and forth around the same area talking to characters or engaging in brief fights. Others are more involved and actually affect your stats. The world is pretty vast and there is a lot to do. Amalur looks pretty when you're doing it too. Other than one brief glitch on my first playthrough that was easily fixed with a reload, the graphics and gameplay was pretty smooth. The learning curve of the game isn't such that you'll feel overwhelmed by it, though I do feel that increasing the difficulty was surprisingly not as challenging as expected at times. The game seems to generate enemy difficulty based on your character's level rather than a set level throughout. This is good and bad as sometimes it's almost too easy to get through sections even with the difficulty settings on Hard. I think what I like most about KoA: Reckoning is the fact that I can play it by myself and not have to worry about achievements relying on other people. While there is the option for obtaining things online, there is enough to do in the game and to obtain without needing extra content. It comes packed with so much already that in a time of online shared experience, it excels at not having all the DLC options. Fun game that sometimes feels repetitive but really manages to be a great single player RPG in the end.

I didn't think I would like this game as much as I do but it's really good. The map has a little indicator to keep you going in the right direction for missions or tasks which is great you don't wander aimlessly. The fight scenes are really good, with special powers like lightning bolt, 2ndary weapon bow, primary weapon dagger, and a little mortal kombat move that shoots a rope that pulls enemies toward me unless they are big then pulls me to them, and all these moves are very fluent. You can always click to potions which stops battle while you gear up more with better weapons for that fight potions and armors for that specific fight. You can hold 70 items which seems like a good amount. Collect hers, make weapons, level up to add to skills, sometimes you've got a ai companions and sometimes not, dieing blows so save regularly, so as not to have to go back to far. There's even fast travel just pick a fast travel point (valid points) and zoom so once you get there your done not fifty trips of hiking back and forth. It says socketed on some of my items but haven't figured out how to use that yet, came with no instruction book. Good game, some of the options don't work right, can't turn off subtitles, the gamma doe's nothing when moved up or down, stuff like that. I sit in front of my tv on the floor the be able to read all the small print, you think these companies would make the damn print bigger, but the don't in raw it's like tiny, unreadable from any realistic distance, so beware of that one. Back to this, so far one quest one register for me so the person just lie's on the ground squirming and her friend says help her and I have nothing on my quests screen to make it easy so I have no idea where to get what she needs. But that's the only one. The bulls are funny they will ram ya, potions are cool, wish I had more repair kits, I just had to spend three hundred to fix my items so they didn't break 25 % of three days worth of gameplay. So if your looking for a fun run around game you can play just a few hours or so a day then this might be it. Borderland is pretty good too just beware if buying used game of year addition some don't come with both discs like advertisement says it's dl content and used up, what a rip. Plus always check your discs for little cracks in the clear part of the spindle, they will get worse till disc is no good, happened to me this week with borderlands and it's a headache to do amazon returns without a printer and no return ship label, but vendor has been very helpful with mailings, ok RECK ON get it just missing ING.