Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Exploring an Open World RPG – Full Review

Western style has undoubtedly become King among role-playing games. Ten years ago Japanese RPG’s with turn-based battle systems, ramped up action and anime characters were dominant for all consoles. Western RPGs with what some call “true role-playing” were experiences mostly reserved for the PC and MMO community. That was until videogame companies like Bioware and Bethesda came along and shook things up pretty radically with their heavy dip into the current generation of consoles. Console RPGs now share the same design philosophy that their PC counterparts have had for years; these games emphasize freedom and choice over linear progression and grinding turn-based battles. The mass effect (pun intended): has even begun to show in JRPG’s (Japanese Role Playing Games) as they have adopted many western mechanics. “Kingdoms of Amalur” is in many ways the archetypal western RRG, though it does shake up a classic formula with some very intuitive gameplay mechanics.

Photo courtesy of 38 Studios

You need but create a character out of four races (two human races, two elf races) and play through a short tutorial that sets up the story before venturing out into the world of Amalur. The map is massive and if you want to see every inch of it expect to invest a lot of time with this game. The world of Amalur is divided up into distinct regions: a classic fantasy forest, a desert that’s reminiscent of Arizona, a wide open plain, an Amazon-esque swamp, and a kingdom chock full of massive crystals. Diversity is ripe and the visual transition from one zone to another is stunning. Each of these regions features over a dozen landmarks: towns, caverns, castles, and at least one large city to name a few.

What’s an RPG without quests? This game has dozens that range from; faction story-lines (there are about four or five factions) to the insane number of side-quests to the discovery markers (which yield experience and story tid bits) to the main quest -which pales (in length) to the enormity of the rest of the game. Yes there are a ton of quests, and we’ve only touched on a few of the great ones *spoiler: most of the quests involve beating the shit out of monsters.* Unfortunately outside of the game’s quests there isn’t much for you to do. This is a problem for many open world RPG’s; they give you a huge world to play around in and a ton of people that need you to do tasks for them and that’s about it. I wish the non mission elements of games like “Grand Theft Auto 4”; where interacting with the games characters through dates or activities, played a role in sandbox RPG’s. There are a lot of open RPG’s out there (the pink hippo in the room being “Skyrim”).