Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a new title due out early next month. In that light, let’s give it a quick once over and see what we find.
The first thing I thought when I started playing was that this was a very bleak game. In fact, I couldn’t see a thing. Actually, there’s a bug with AMD graphics cards that require post-processing to be turned off, otherwise you can only see a solid black screen. Once that was sorted out – and hopefully it’ll be patched out of the full version – my next thought was that this game reminded me of something. I wasn’t sure what at first though. The combat is intuitive but nothing game-changing, and navigating the world is easy enough. The tutorial spends too much time holding your hand and not letting you feel the game out. It all but forces you to use every item it puts in your way, from daggers to swords to a magic staff to magic itself. You’re not allowed to freely experiment because you have this pushy gnomish fellow who follows you around and insists, along with obtrusive dialog boxes, that you try out every style of play. I would prefer to be given the option to do so and not be railroaded into it.
Once I was out of the starter dungeon it hit me what I was feeling déjà vu over: KOA: Reckoning reminds me allot of the original Fable. The combat is similar and the world, with it’s vibrant colors, stylized look, simple geometry and generic fantasy feel bring me back to Albion, circa 2004.
If you can escape the nostalgic pull I fell in to, Reckoning looks to be a solid, if unspectacular game. Look for it on February 7th.
