Is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning the Most Accessible RPG Ever?
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To call the game's themes and ideas derivative would be an understatement. There's little here that hasn't been done to death before, from the basic character classes to the chatty shopkeepers dispensing expository information to the perks for leveling up. And unlike the fantasy worlds of the Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, or even Fable, the storytelling here is often so painfully earnest as to border on self-parody.
Playing the PC version of the game, I had high hopes that Kingdoms of Amalur would be a good opportunity to stretch the legs of my GPU in return for some stunning visuals and precise controls, especially as the company that developed the game is run by former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling, an old-school PC gamer if there ever was one.
Unfortunately, the game feels more like a console game ported to the PC than the other way around (although that may not actually be the case, as early work on the game was for an online MMO version). Case in point, the mouse-and-keyboard controls are needlessly complex, and have a floaty feel. Plugging in a USB game pad was a far superior solution, even though I usually avoid that on a PC when possible.
But despite these issues, there's still a lot to like about Kingdoms of Amalur. The backstory to the game's universe and society is deep and genuinely interesting, and the combat-heavy mechanics really do feel like someone merged a fast-paced action game with a traditionally nerdy RPG--a quest in itself that has brought down many challengers over the years.
