Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 246 Ratings

  • Summary: Immerse yourself in an all-new massive universe from the minds of bestselling author R.A. Salvatore, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston. Choose your path and battle through a sprawling world featuring intense, responsive, and customizable RPG combat. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 34
  2. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. Feb 9, 2012
    100
    There's never a dull moment in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. There's a new item at practically every turn, and you can't travel more than a few feet without stumbling upon a side-quest. Players always have one skill or another that they can be honing, and the option to visit the Fateweavers is always there for a change of pace.
  2. Mar 2, 2012
    85
    Amalur is a game that makes no pretenses about what it is. Every town has people in need, every monster needs killing, and every cave and dungeon needs exploring. You'll want to keep taking on quests because maybe you'll get a new sword that does more damage and looks cooler. Its dedication to enhancing player-power makes it a joy to play, even if a few minor issues keep it from true excellence.
  3. Mar 5, 2012
    85
    When you set aside the forgettable characters and boring dialog you find a game that is so well polished in many of its other aspects. The title boasts one of the best combat systems ever in an action-RPG and a highly flexible class system that allows the player to choose to be whatever they want to.
  4. Feb 15, 2012
    74
    Similar to Dragon Age: Origins, not everyone is going to bite. However those who do will be extremely satisfied with their meal.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 90 out of 114
  2. Negative: 11 out of 114
  1. 9
    I think this game is amazing. The interesting story and innovative combat will overpower the few bugs you naturally run into. Try this game and, if you give it a chance, you'll enjoy it. Expand
  2. The dev team for Amalur get a decent amount of kudos from me for this title. There is a lot of work put into this game and most of it really does come off quite well. It's not god's gift to RPG's, so I do think anyone giving this game a 10 is a bit crazy (or maybe this is their first game played in their life). No, it's not a life changing experience (at least when you play it while not tripping on mushrooms). But it is definitely worthy of a buy if you like games like God of War and Fable or action-RPG's in general. Trust me the game has some meat to it, though to be honest it's probably NOT worth $60 whopping USD they are charging for the PC version. I don't understand why it's $15 more on the PC when as far as I can tell there is nothing specific to the PC version that would warrant it. I will do this review in a different way than most and list pros and cons an final thoughts

    PROS:

    -Nice art direction care of artist Todd McFarlane
    -Large game world
    -Huge amounts of lore. The game was written to some extent by world renowned fantasy author R.A Salvatore, and the lore comes from his novels as far as I know. Every PC you can talk to has a few dialog options to speak about to fill you in a bit deeper on the lore if you care about it.
    -Fun "God ofWar" like combat
    -Bajillion sidequests -Fully voiced NPC's
    -Armor/weaponcrafting, alchemy, gemcrafting
    -Just a good solid RPG. CONS:

    -Your character has no voice - Some people don't mind this, but I prefer my protagonist to have a voice of his own. It is just one more thing that adds character and charm. -NPC's are too stiff during dialog- In games like Mass Effect 2, the characters really feel like they are "there". Here, everything is very wooden, and I'd like to see the next game in the series do more with the "acting". -Graphical texture pop in is very annoying and no way to fix it on the PC since it is hard coded into he game cross platform. This was done to make developing for the PS3 easier and so they could launch all platforms at the same time. To me it's very annoying and my eyes are constantly being drawn to these graphical anomalies because they just pop in so close to the character and they are therefore distracting to my game experience. -No worthwhile camera control - The camera is in my and many other players' opinions way to close to the character and there is no way to move it back. They give you an over the shoulder option (think Dead Space) but it's pointless and I don't know why anyone would use it to be honest. In a game like this you need to be able to see all sides of you. -Some claim the game is "too easy" even on Hard mode. -Some of the skills in the skill-trees can be rather "meh", but to get the highest tier abilities, you are forced to take them making some levels seem like a waste.
    -No autorun key (Trust me you will wish for one, though on the official forums someone linked a tool that you can run while playing the game where you can set an autorun key)
    -No real easy way to scroll through abilities making it hard to use them in the heat of battle (PC version, I don't know how it is on the consoles) though the program mentioned above allows you to also scroll through them with the mousewheel if you choose. -No real use for gold. I have currently $500,000 and I barely buy anything. There's definitely items that I could buy that will be an upgrade to my equipment, but since I maxed out smithing, I keep waiting to find the "Master" parts to craft top grade items. So in essence I'm running through the game with a slight handicap, but I've invested in alchemy so I pop potions galore to keep me alive. I would like to feel like i NEED to buy these items and do something with this gold though. THOUGHTS:

    I don't understand how some people are hating on this game. In my opinion these people are very jaded gamers that have seen it all by now and expect games being released now to change their life or something. None of the cons written above even when all combined are enough to stop me from playing and enjoying this game. I like the combat, I want to see what is next in the story, I like the loot hunting, the world looks nice, the story is very competent, and I really don't know what else in this era of gaming an RPG can offer besides that sort of gameplay. I highly suggest you purchase it at some point and show EA that giving a new game franchise a shot is a lucrative investment, or else all we may see is the same old same old. I really want to see what these guys do in a second installment because I think it will be what the Witcher 2 was to its predecessor.
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  3. 5
    There are two main reason I was disappointed with this game. First it is certainly not an open world game (which it was advertised as) and it is structured weirdly, it has large open regions that you progress through but the world as a whole is not open at all. The second is that the story and presentation of the game did not draw me in and make me care in the slightest about my character or the world, it failed to show any original material to make me think this game was worth playing. Also the combat started out fun but rapidly got old. Played for about 15 hours, had a relatively good time but I got bored of it. Overall I am disappointed with this game but it doesn't deserve too bad a review score as it was fun at times. Expand
  4. 4
    Based on 55hrs of game play. I was really excited about this game, and I probably would have rated it about 8.0 after 10 or so hours, but that number seemed to continue going down the longer I played. The main issue with the game is that I don't find it immersive, I want a sense of wonder from my games, and this game did not have that. I can't find any compelling reason to finish the game. The game world feels plastic, the side quests feel like tacked on fetch quests, and I just don't care about the story. The game is very repetitive with quests and with combat. It felt very constraining to be able to unlock many different skills, yet only be able to use 4 at a time. At first, this destiny system seemed it would allow to create the kind of player that you want, but in reality it is much more constraining than many other RPGs. The ability to only use two weapons also seemed to put be constraints on play style. It was a very cumbersome process if you wanted to say use 1 magic weapon, one melee weapon, and a bow. Also, the most useful fighting method in the game is to merely spam the melee weapon button. Stealth is useless. The bow is also pretty pitiful, and many of the magic abilities you can't use much latter in the game because they have very long casting times, and because the enemies attack relentlessly it renders much of the magic useless. Therefore you just use melee, over and over and over. There are also camera angle issues. The game can be pretty, but mostly you just see the ground behind your character. I don't want to look at the ground the time when I could be looking at beautiful vistas.
    This game also does too much hand holding. You never have to search for a quest, you never stumble into a quest from a random dialog with an NPC. Amalur puts an exclamation point over the head of any NPC with a quest, so there is no point to explore and talk to anyone else. Also the dialog you need to choose is always the first option, and is highlighted. Dungeons are also too formulaic. They almost always have a circular shape so you can't get lost. Two days ago I had an epiphany when I realized that this game had become a chore to play. I was trying to finish it solely because I had spent money on pre-odering it. (oh, the pre-order bonuses were worthless. Do not PAY for them. You will have better equipment after about 8-10 hours.) I took the game and traded it in without finishing it...and I feel free. It's a game that I am happy to be rid of and sorry I wasted as much time as i did on it. Some of you may love this game..anyways this is my view.
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See all 114 User Reviews