Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

I don't know how many RPG enthusiasts we have here, but I've been a big fan since pen and paper and twenty-sided dice.

I simply cannot describe the awesomeness of this game, but I will say that this game is everything that games like Fable and Elder Scrolls tried to be. What is better about KoA when compared to those juggernaut franchises?

Writing: Kingdoms of Amalur was written by R.A. Salvatore (creator of Drizzt Do'Urden) and Ken Rolston, with creative and artistic contributions from Todd Friggin McFarlane (I know that's not his real middle name). What results is a cross between western fantasy RPG and heaven, with boobs mixed in.

The graphics are not the best (especially for the almost laughable enemy models), except in the background/setting and ambiance department, where I think they delivered an immersive world.

The sound really draws you into the world more with top-notch voice-acting. Unlike Fable games and Elder Scrolls games (yes, all of them) the people you will encounter in Amalur convey the proper emotions when they speak, whether fear, arrogance, stupidity, or authority, they just sound right.

The gameplay is where this game really shines though. The combat is as fast and responsive as it is in Fable games, but more balance in my opinion, because you can viably choose any abilities to suit your playstyle and not be gimped as a character. The combat in elder scrolls games is bad to begin with, so I will not compare the two in that area.

The menus and interfaces in KoA are MUCH more user friendly than the nightmare menu system presented in Skyrim, and features like collapseable menu items and "add to junk / sell all junk" makes navigating the boring part of the game easy and fast.

Getting long, but there's more;

Amalur is almost completely open world from the very beginning of the game. After fighting your way through the introduction/tutoriol part, you can immediately start exploring, gathering, collecting, and completing some dungeons. On one of my characters playthroughs, I was level 5 before I completed my first quest. On another, by level 5 I had already been given a house as a quest reward.

Play this fuckin game. Then thank Hammer.

how would you compare this game to say dragon age origins?

I thought the visuals were a bit more colorful in KoA, a bit more realistic in Dragon Age. I enjoyed alot about Dragon Age. The concept of having to begin the game multiple times to get all the different story lines was cool for me because I like to give a game multiple fresh runs.

In combat, there is no comparison at all. Dragon Age combat was clunky, and based around pausing to issue orders between your party. In Kingdoms, the combat is fast-paced (not a button masher either, you will do much better using tactics than hacking away) and there is plenty of opportunity to mix up your playstyle.

I feel like Kingdoms keeps me busier than any other RPG i've ever played. You are literally ALWAYS within sight of something you can fight, pick-up, destroy, gather, collect, unlock, or talk to. It's the reason my MW3 disk is cold.

I've played KOA: Reckoning, Skyrim, DA: O, DAII, and I like them all for different reasons.

The only drawback to KOA for me, was wandering around finding lorestones and doing the same type of fetch quests over and over. And lastly, fucking spiders popping out of the ground 24/7. LOL