Life's a real breeze in this fun role player
KINGDOMS of Amalur attempts to follow this year's gaming titan and towering achievement - The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim - with something considerably breezier. It boasts the same vast volume - courtesy of Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston - but delivers in manageable chunks.
Amalur's gentler feel begins with great combat. Hack-and-slash is the order of the day, with evasive rolls and shield counters giving our hero a Kratos-lite experience.
For an RPG it's swift and immediate, capturing a natural flow rarely permitted by the genre's mechanics. That attacks are spun from a single face button is a nice touch. For one, it frees up other buttons for secondary weapons - letting you quickly swap between lumbering swords and vicious knife stabs or sniping arrows.
Knowing what weapon to use on which enemy requires just enough thought to keep you engaged, making for an almost Bayonetta-like (2010 Hack 'n' Slash title) gameplay experience.
Amalur's story focuses on one simple concept: fate cannot be changed. In the world of Amalur, there are Fateweavers, readers of fate, unique warriors who can tell anyone what has happened and what will happen in their lives. Anyone, that is, except your character.
While I loved where this was headed, the story barely touched on this unique and interesting concept, which is a shame, because the main questline never really reaches its full potential.
How much you love Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning depends on what you look for in a role-playing game.
Let's say you long for a pervasive sense of time and place, for a great story featuring memorable characters, or for varied quests given weight by superb context. If that's you, then Kingdoms of Amalur will disappoint.
Then again, you might want wonderful battles against cool creatures, terrific looting and leveling, and lots of ways to customize your skills and equipment. If so, then this is the world you should inhabit.
The context is hardly inspired, but you'll be having so much fun that you may not care.
- WITH CHRIS HAYES
