My fate Is My Own, Sort Of

As of late, I've found myself truly needing to play within a fantasy world setting. I'm not all too sure whether it's because I miss HBO's Game of Thrones or my affinity with Dota2, but I went and tracked down a copy of a game that's been highly recommend to me. Enter the world of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a single-player adventure akin to Skyrim and the forgotten-realms universe. Allow me to unravel the threads of fate that I weaved from my character's experience and simply bring light to a game you probably never heard of.

As you may have guessed it, the game revolves around the idea of fate. After initiating the game with an interesting character creation, you awaken form a pile of corpses that you were once a part of. Ultimately, your fate has been re-written and it is now your task to do as you please in the world and continue to weave those threads.  Super interesting concept and the fact that this tale is written by R.A Salvatore (one of my favorite authors, creator of Drizzt) you would expect it to be absolutely fantastic. The issue is that it's not all that groundbreaking. Within the first 10 hours of the game, I found myself playing the hero and running errands for the entire world and their grand-mothers.  The question is: why? Because I was simply there? They give you the option to attack any denizen of the cities, but again, why? I saw no purpose in exploring any of the options provided because they simply made no sense.

By the same token, the fate concept makes way for one of the best aspects of the game: the class/role system.  Ever want to be a mage who uses swords? Maybe a Knight who uses daggers? Skyrim did all that? Well they never officially named those classes did they? Yeah, it's nothing new but it's a lot of fun to explore and discover. There's only a handful to begin with but, once you start to dump your experience points into it and unlock the higher tiers, it becomes exhilarating. What I really enjoyed about it was how it actually affected your combat. The combat itself is wonderful; nice and smooth but once you tack on giant hammers and spells you've unlocked from the class trees, it too becomes memorable. Something that should be mentioned about the combat is that it's time based. Instead of crippling your fingers with button combinations, you simply tap your attack trigger in a different timely fashion to result in varied ways to dismember your opponents.

Meanwhile, the game itself offers everything you would expect from titles of this genre. There's tons of loot to be had, mystical creatures to slay and quest givers who's intentions are questioned. However, the world still feels unbelievable. There's something that doesn't allow me to believe that this universe exists. The forgotten realms universe, although vast and broad, is believable and perhaps this game should have been set in it. That being said, I can't figure out why I simply can't care about what fate has for all the citizens and creatures inhabiting the decently sized map. Similarly, the dialogue is rather dull and aggravating. The voice acting itself is fine, it's simply the sequence. The moment you trigger a conversation with an NPC, you enter a weird locked camera mode that tends to blot out the NPC or you. In addition, you have the opinion of speaking with all NPCs about relevant topics such as their town, a specific race or faction, etc. I attempted to hear everyone voice their opinion but it was so tedious and boring. None of it is really important and the fact that your avatar is mute doesn't help.

All in all, with the short amount of time I've invested into the game, I've enjoyed it. Sure, the world is kind of boring but there’s just enough intrigue sprinkled into it that it allows you to persevere. The combat itself should be reason enough to check it out. GIANT HAMMERS, I'm telling you, they’re super sweet.  It's a dorky game with a dorky premise but there's good fun to be had.  Sure the graphics aren't the best and my ps3 has some issues with the sound but it's a good trek. I give the game seven thumbs up out of ten with the potential to go up. I was promised an interesting set of side missions so here I go to weave my fate yet again.......after a couple hours of Disney Infinity 2.0.....yeah.....

GIANT HAMMERS!!!!111!11