Kingdoms of Amalur: I Reckon It's Good

I was behaving well a few weeks ago, and as a reward my fiance bought me a new video game to play on her Xbox. Woo hoo! It was actually a wise investment on her part, since I was getting a little worn out on my main game (Borderlands), and Rhonda knew that a fresh one would more effectively distract me when she wanted to write or play World of Warcraft.

Anyway, the fresh game is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. It's an RPG set in a colorful world that includes all the typical elements of high fantasy: knights and armor, elves and monsters, and a special hero (the player) at the center of an epic conflict between good and evil. Check the video trailer-

The narration in this trailer is actually one of the characters in the game, the Fateweaver Agarth. All dialog in the game is voice-acted, and it's done surprisingly well. Eh, well, maybe the lip synching is off and Irish accents are somewhat overused, but other than that it's amazing.

You learn the story of Amalur gradually because your character begins the game with amnesia; a side-effect of his resurrection by an experimenting magician. Though resurrection is routine among the immortal "Fae," you are the first of a mortal race to be successfully brought back from death. In the process you have been granted an open destiny inscrutable to Amalur's fortune-telling "fateweavers," and you therefore have the power to change the expected course of history.

To be honest I don't quite get the whole "fate" part. I don't know how much detail or how far into the future the fateweavers can see, but it's hard to imagine that they could know a lot of specifics and yet not be able to change anything. The idea is cool, though, so I'm willing to suspend my skepticism for now. Maybe it will become more clear as I get further in the game.

Progress in the Amalur is made in the typical RPG way; via experience and skill points gained from defeating enemies and completing quests for non-player characters. You will encounter a LOT of NPC quest-givers, and the amount of quests on your to-do list can become overwhelming. Fortunately, you can see which of your quests go with the main storyline, and which are just optional side-quests or quests for a particular faction like the Fae, the Warsworn knights, or the hippie stoner anarchist "Travelers." I've started only doing the quests that seem like they're for a good cause and / or fun. Whenever there's a monster in a dungeon that needs to be killed I'm on it, but I pass on the quests to steal library books or collect invoices.

Though the graphics, story, and quests are cool in Amalur, the fighting is what makes it really fun and addictive. In contrast with the awkward combat in most RPGs, the "hack-and-slash" style in Amalur is direct, fast, and move-for-move. How you run around, dodge, and time your ranged, melee, and magic attacks strongly determines your success or failure, and different bad guys require different techniques. You don't have to depend ENTIRELY on your reflexes, however, because careful thinking about your gear and stuff also makes a big difference. The gameplay balance of exciting action and obsessive gearing works really well for me. I've also been enjoying using the optional character skills available in the game, like blacksmithing, alchemy, and sagecrafting. In contrast with the optional skills in a game like World of Warcraft, the ones in Amalur take a lot less of your time and are more immediately useful for making your character more powerful.

Before I end this post I should also mention that Amalur has a rad femme fatale- Alyn Shir. My character isn't quite sure if Shir is helping him or working to destroy everything that he has come to care about, but he's inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.