RECKONING KICKS ASS!! Yes you read me textually shout that right, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning kicks ass, like an arrow to the knee or Chuck Norris' foot. Here's why…
The day is February 7th 2012, it's 8:30 pm and I'm watching some horrible movie online. Sad face. I have given up on gaming, the magic being lost, I have resigned from that world and decided to go a different route. BLOOP. My brother has sent me something on Skype, I press ESC and open the Skype window. It's a link, I click it, to my surprise it's Day[9], but he's not doing a daily about StarCraft II, he's playing an RPG, what is that game I wonder. Having nothing better to do I watch. As I watch I begin to get excited „Wow, this game looks really fun!“ I say to myself. After 30 or so minutes of watching some of the prettiest combat and environments I've ever seen in an RPG, I'm on the edge of my seat. Then he says he's taking a break and when he comes back he'll do an Interview with Ken Rolston. WHAT WHAT WHAT?!? Ken Rolston the lead designer for Morrowind and Oblivion?!? By this time I'm jumping with joy. „Morrowind was my game!“ I say. „It taught me to be a nerd! “ I exclaim. After one super amazing musical interlude, courtesy of Day[9]'s incredible music tastes, I see the interview with Rolston. And as soon as he finishes I jump out of my chair and rush off to the local superstore. „Thank god for Day[9]“ I’m thinking, as I dodge and pass slower cars in my mad dash to get this game. I get to the store and run to the customer service desk. I make roughly $60 a week, so this is my whole pay check, I think….worth it. I cash my check and buy the game. As I rush home I'm thinking about the things I had just seen on the live stream. The colors, the brightness, the combat and the model art. I try to compare it to something. Fable, Oblivion, Dragon Age, no… this is something new. „HAHA!“ I exclaim in excitement. „Something new!“
New. New what? What about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is new? A better question would be: What about it isn't new? Don't get me wrong it still follows the time tested traditions of a fantasy RPG, i.e. questing, dialog, collecting, crafting, enchanting, gear searching, etc. however Reckoning does it in a whole new and very sexy way. Reckoning caught me off guard and totally surprised me. Video games and I, I am ashamed to say, have had a falling out in recent years. I haven't followed them as closely nor anticipated them as anxiously as I could or should. I’ve bought games like Skyrim and Fall Out: New Vegas and just left them to sit and collect dust. My battle.net account has been inactive for months. I didn't even watch E3 last year! But I'm pleased to say that Reckoning has single handedly restored my faith in video games! It's not a perfect game, but it's a damn good one.
Reckoning is the first game of an entirely new, 100% original series. This alone gives the game a mystical appeal, and alternately scares away some of the more purist and conservative gamers, who would rather die in front of their computer playing Elder Scrolls I-XL, than see gaming change whatsoever. This newness allows for the lore creator R.A. Salvatore (maybe you've heard of him) to have his world be one that is totally new and unseen. That makes Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning exciting, the idea of a whole new world about which I know nothing is exciting and compels me to play, learn and discover a whole new universe. By and large, the best thing about Reckoning is its combat. Oh its so fun! In every game the combat is fun at first then, depending on the game, slowly becomes more and more tiresome. So far I have been running through the world of Reckoning swinging my daggers and casting my spells for close to 24 or so hours and the combat is still just as exciting and disturbingly fun as when I first picked up that controller. The most exciting thing about the combat is the choreography, your character and the NPC enemies move so flawlessly that you can't help but feel like a total bad ass. Random drop gear baby, hell yeah! As a gamer who's first RPG was Diablo II, I have a deep respect for random drop, because it creates a new and individual experience, and if 38 Studios should ever make a MMO out of the Amalur series (fingers crossed) then the individuality will be even more apparent and will create a more robust game economy.
Lastly, the world that Todd McFarlane has created is absolutely beautiful. At times a little to bright but on the whole gorgeous and dramatic to the extreme. A truly great work. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has rekindled my love for games with its new IP 's, its seamless combat, compelling story and entirely beautiful environments and animations. And I hope that it does the same for you. Even more so I hope that, in the pursuit of new I.P.'s and more fun, more stream lined game-play, other game developers follow the example of 38 Studios and Big Huge Games. Because in today's FPS and MMO heavy world, where Call of Duty and World of Warcraft reign, there is nothing more refreshing than a new game that kicks ass.