KINGDOMS OF AMALUR: RE-RECKONING
Brushing the dust from a lost age
How the grains of sand pass through our fingers, dear reader. Since I first reviewed Kingdoms Of Amalur upon release in 2012, I have wizened and wilted. 38 Studios is no more. And, perhaps most pertinently, RPGs have changed. A lot. I didn’t think they had, not all that much, until I sat down with Re-Reckoning. While the updated graphics do indeed belie its advancing years, and the particulars of its controls feel much more agile than they did on the PS3 pad, this is an inherently old-fashioned game.
Back in 2012 we looked up at Skyrim as the genre’s high tide mark. This was a pre-Witcher 3 age, when it was still basically acceptable to cobble together every roleplaying cliché you’d ever heard of and call it a new whole-cloth fantasy. So when this young upstart from a former MLB pitcher’s new studio arrived with mechanical depth to match the latest Elder Scrolls and a hokey story about a chosen one who’s destined to save the world from a barbaric race of hoozits, 1 we were on board.
The mechanical depth2 really holds up too – particularly the involving crafting and alchemy, to which many furtive hours can be lost. It’s also where Elder Scrolls veteran Ken Rolston’s fingerprint as lead designer is most clearly visible. The problem, as before, is that the world’s a bit boring. A bit ‘every other RPG before 2012’.
Reasons for playing, then? Nostalgia. Appeasing all those ‘best RPGs you’ve never played’ listicles. And as a reminder of why character – new ideas and memorable places – is so important to a grand adventure. Phil Iwaniuk