EDGE: Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning Review

EDGE- What arrives on shop shelves is an epic RPG with a user-friendly pick-up-and-play ethos. This most obviously manifests itself in the responsive player character. If you’ve hacked and slashed a bloody path through God Of War, you won’t need any introduction to Reckoning’s combination of button mashing, evasive dodges and timed parries. That each weapon is limited to one button prevents complexity but welcomes experimentation – equip a new weapon and you’re only a few prods away from mastering it. Combat isn’t deep, but it is wide, thanks to multiple weapon classes and the mountains of loot within them.

At its heart, Reckoning is an interesting tale about disrupting cyclical fate – ironic, considering the game’s largely repetitive nature – and when the story gets to shine, 38 Studios and Big Huge Games’ friendlier design presents a welcome change of pace

[Baba1906]

like allways. why am i not suprised. =D

[gillri]

indeed another well written review from EDGE

[StraightPath]

Poor mans Skyrim I guess looks average at best nothing to spectacular, Although Skyrim combat and quests are nothing spectacular either. However Skyrim offers so much content that really people look past the medicore and boring quests and awful combat mechanies and other stuff.

Skyrim only suffers from problems on the despicable PS3 version.

[rdgneoz3]

You do realize that for KOA, they did speed runs of the game, skipping cut scenes, fast traveling everywhere they could, sprinting where they could, and did the main story in 30 to 40, and every quest they had in about 200. Its also got the housing, crafting, marriage, alchemy as well. Overall, KOA is more along the lines of Fable then Skyrim in terms of gameplay, somewhat dumb to compare. They might both be RPGs, but its like comparing a TPS to a FPS (and in the past Elder Scrolls has had crappy animations for the third person view).

So they both have a lot of content, 2 different gameplay styles, yet you over look the problems of one and bash the other. Very nice.

p.s. I have the PS3 Skyrim (waiting for patch to play again...) and PS3 KOA (once it gets here from Amazon).

[Montrealien]

*edit*

double Post fail, rofl

[Montrealien]

StraightPath said..

"However Skyrim offers so much content that really people look past the medicore and boring quests and awful combat mechanies and other stuff. "

directly followed by..

"Skyrim only suffers from problems on the despicable PS3 version."

Comment fail much?

/on topic

Love this game, and if a poor mans Skyrim means that I actually have some gameplay in my deep RPG, then consider me Charli Chaplin's The Tramp.

[SwampCroc]

poor man Skyrim... HAHAHAHA...

KoA... loads 10x faster then Skyrim..

different weapons Skyrim could only dream of implementing.

crafting items and socketable items... (reminds me of Diablo II, blows Skyrim out of the world)

doesn't seem to have any issues that Skyrim has... and PS3 Skyrim isn't the only broke one.. It has issues on all the systems...

I have no idea why KoA is getting so much hate...

probably because the people are too scared to get off the bethesda dick sucking train and play a different game...

there is absolutely nothing wrong with KoA... I'm loving it.. and those of you that are too stubborn to buy or play it because of some petty reason are fucking stupid.

[josephayal]

Amazing review

[Seventh_Blood_Reborn]

Edge and their urgent need to appear different from others ...

[Baba1906]

i guess a 6 is pretty good for them. it just doesnt make anysence to me. but opinions are opnions is guess. i know its just an opinion but come on, 6 sounds allways as if they hadnt had any fun at all when playing it. =D sometime i think they have the wrong job maybe they should review movies or books.

[smithdown]

Why is reviewing movies or books so different to reviewing games?? It's all critical analysis!!

Is it simply because you don't like the fact that their reviews are intelligent, articulate and, shock horror, actually CRITICAL of the games? In your view, it seems that every game should be given either an 8, 9 or 10.

Morons... Honestly I give up with this site, I just end up exasperated by all this thoughtless drivel.

[Baba1906]

im not saying that the reviews arent well written, i just think that they like to give out low numbers so they can feel as if they where doing something special. sure maybe he hated it.he has the right to do that. its really subjectiv and as you say a critical analysis, but i think i am alloud to disagree with the review. i dont think that makes me a moron. and of course not every game should get a 8-10, but from what i have played i just dont agree with the 6. i would be mad if at work and in the uniersity i would only give 60% of what was expected of me.

But please dont get all mad about it. its just opinions.

[YourFlyness]

If Skyrim can get a perfect score, with its shortcomings, I cant see how reviewers can give this game low scores

[wynams]

Nice read.

This game is too generic and asks too little of the RPG gamer to engage with.

In 3 months, this game will not be discussed remotely to the degree that Skyrim still is.

Not a bad first attempt from 38 Studios tho.

[YourFlyness]

I think Skyrim is only being discuss because of the Bugs ,and game-breaking Lag

[rdgneoz3]

Yep, one of the recent Skyrim articles being how to 1 shot the hardest type of dragon on the hardest difficulty using bugged items....

[Montrealien]

try pactuslly playing the games and having your own opinion wynams, you know, besides just shaping your opinion on others people's opinions.

[Captain Qwark 9]

so this guy clearly think skyrim is the holy grail of gaming and seems to mostly dislike reckoning.

i on the other hand think skyrim is a boring lifeless waste of time. with the most mediocre story, terrible combat, lifeless world since its only inhabitants are crabs, giants, dears and wolfs....oh and BANDITS!!! the number one enemy in the world!! a landmass that looks virtually the same throughout every square inch except the occasional waterfall, and quest that are nothing except the usual rpg fetch/kill quests ( i wont knock it for that though )....idk im sure there is more that makes that game meh but the point is, i dont like it. with that in mind, perhaps i will love love love amalur since that seems to be how the audience has divided themselves.

my checklist
amalur
voice acting=check
cutscenes=check
good story=so far
excellent, varied combat=check
varied landmass to explore=check
numerous dungeons=check
character customization=check
enemy variety=check
lots of loot=check
many side quest=check
varied quest=fail
bosses=check
dungeons with traps=fail

Skyrim
voice acting=yes by 6 people
cutscenes=not really
good story=fail
excellent, varied combat=fail
varied landmass to explore=fail
numerous dungeons=check
character customization=check
enemy variety=fail
lots of loot=decent
many side quest=check
varied quest=fail
bosses=dragons
dungeons with traps=little bit, same on over and over(spiked door)

thats my list of what i look for in an rpg

[SwampCroc]

I like your list.. but what are you talking about no traps....

I've seen traps, there are wards to dispell..

many different and unique things that Skyrim can't do because of the mass strain the game puts on systems...

that's why KoA is so good compared to it... KoA doesn't suffer from any of those issues.. running around the world is seamless... it doesn't slow down like Skyrim is know to do.

[Captain Qwark 9]

i mean like actual traps, in skyrim for example....boulders falling, platforms falling from under you, spiked doors, arrows, secret passages, swinging axes, doors that can only be unsealed by certain spells, toss in bosses at the end of some fo them, etc....the level designers dont use a lot of the diff elements of gameplay that skyrim has to make the dungeons more interesting.

koa is no different.

exploring the dungeons and looking at the different structures is nice and all but i want more to do in the dungeons similar to say zelda. if the dungeon is literally just areas to walk around in then its not all that interesting and in the end all the dungeons boil down literally to, go from point a to b, loot chest, leave. thats why they become so repetitive.

adding in those elements would make each dungeon feel unique and exploring them could actually add some tension becuase there would be a chance you cant make it to the end or you get close and need to come back later after you have upgraded or learned some new ability....

oh well though, thats just my opinion and my biggest complaint with both. good thing darksiders 2 looks to be doing all of those things for me, until then though KOA is more than enough.....skyrim on the otherhand has too many short comings on top of that for my taste

[SwampCroc]

I see what you're saying..

But with Skyrim... It's kind of almost like all of our fault..

I mean individually WE all had expectations of what it was going to be like... And while it is good, it's pretty much the same format taken up a few notchs. But it can get mundane very quickly..

Now granted I have nowhere near the amount of hours on KoA yet. But, I like your Zelda comparison on style. But, everything seems fresh to me. I haven't gone in many places . I've mainly have ran around. I've only played throug a few missions.

and the people.. the normal average person you talk to in town.. They seem more vibrant and lively than the Skyrim NPC's....

yeah people say Skyrim is a gloomy type atmosphere. but there is a point where the NPCs just get super annoying and repetitive.. KoA might have this after 100 hours like my Skyrim save I dunno yet...

and the action.. I mean it's so smooth. It's a gamers wet dream.. I'm really digging it.. and it kind of reminds me of Folklore a little bit. I just started playing that aswell I picked up a used copy..

I could go on and on. I dunno this game has grabbed my attention. But I hear what you're saying. Everyone is entitled to their thoughts and opinions.

[N311V]

This game appears to be above average at best. A score of 5 is average for edge (as it should be) thus a score of 6 is about right for them. Virtually all other sites have inadvertently shifted their average to around 7-8. I remember when an 8 ment a game was really good, no it could be mediocre. Don't get pissed at edge reviews, just remember 5 is average for them not 7-8.

[turgore]

I said it before and Ill say it again. Edge is not a real reviewer.

[dirigiblebill]

Yeah, I hear it's a magazine. Bleedin' cheek.

[smithdown]

They produce the most well-written, incisive reviews available. The magazine is aimed at adults, and most importantly its aimed at developers (the whole back section is dedicated to development scenes around the world and it carries job adverts for studios like Crytek every month). Its the most well respected magazine in the business. So, let me ask you, out of them and you, who do you think is more likely to be wrong?

Face it, Edge just rub gamers up the wrong way because you've all gotten used to other reviewers scoring everything from 7-10, with anything below an 8 being considered unplayable. Its the OTHER reviewers that have got it wrong, Edge are doing it properly.

I read the review in full and thought it was well written and explored the key mechanics, weighed up polish against the blandness, and a 6 seems right. The demo did seem very cliched and almost felt like playing a nice-looking PS2 game - quaint, really. I'll def end up getting it at some point, but its on my 'some day' list as opposed to my 'day 1' list. And that is precisely where a game scoring a 6 should be.

[baboom223]

Only logical comment here.

[JonnyBigBoss]

Sticking to WoW.