Reckoning PS3 reviews

Been playing solidly since release and I've become totally addicted. Whilst the game doesn't really break much new ground, it does what it does very well.

The combo-oriented combat has been one of the main selling points, and it's a much-needed addition to the RPG genre. Weapon attacks can be strung together and combined with dodging attacks, blocking counters, and even your other weapon's attacks and your abilities.

Tying in to that is the class system, which is incredibly fluid and allows for a lot of experimentation and freedom – at one point I was playing a Might-based character swinging around a greatsword, clad in thick armor, but I'd also invested in the bow skills and roguish Finesse abilities to grant poison and bleeding damage bonuses – you can really bend the system to optimise your preferred playstyle.

The world is absolutely incredible. It's not as open as some RPG games in terms of the lay of the land, but it's as open as it needs to be – 35 or so areas (each usually containing several quests and/or dungeons to crawl), linked together via canyons and paths to highlight their geographical differences. There are 5 different regions in the game, and by the time I was finished up with all the quests I could find in the first I'd already clocked up 20 hours gameplay. Coming up on 50 hours, I'm only up to nearly completing the third. The amount of content, or things there are to see and do, is just massive.

Then there's the stories, the quests and the lore. The whole background to Amalur is quite fascinating, the tales of the diverse peoples and creatures and how everything came to be. It borrows quite heavily from Scottish lore, to the point where even most of the NPCs have a Scottish accent. The developers intend to use the lore of Amalur as a base for the IP to create more game titles, and it's already reached novel-worthy proportions. Even the quests usually have a twist or something interesting to ponder; not just “go here, kill this, take that because I want you to”.

The art style and overall aesthetics have been one of the greatest areas of the game. Not the typical dark, dingy and gritty feel of usual RPGs – think Champions of Norrath, with its surreal, bright and vibrant dream-like worlds. Everything is so colorful, detailed and full of life, and simply a joy to behold. The UI and menus are a bit oldschool, but not to the point of being detracting.

Certainly one of the best RPGs this gen, a game I'm going to hold with fondness in my gaming memories, and an IP and franchise that hopefully will go on to keep creating incredible titles and work.

A fantastic game. Although the graphics may be somewhat outdated the gameplay and animations are superb.

Obviously the combat was a big focus for the game and they did an amazing job, its smooth, fast, fun and exciting. Although the missions and sidequests are generic like most RPGs you will have a ton of fun doing them thanks to the leveling/skill system which has plenty of options in order for the player to sculpt any type character they want.

Had skyrim and havnt played it since I bought this the game play is way better excellent rpg buy it!!!

I bought this game after I reading reviews and comments online about this game. When first played it, It kind of had the Fable Atmosphere first but I soon realize the KOA world was bigger then that. My little brothers played it solid week and told me that the storyline endless. The GAMEPLAY is the key success to this game. Definitely recommend to GAMERS who LOVE RPG. 10/10

Love rpg games this one has great action

While the combat is fun,and the game looks good, the story and immersion leave a lot to be desired

Received the game today and have been blown away by how rubbish this game is compared to the hype and developers info. The combat is great (really, really fun), but the rest is just over-hyped, exaggerated and flawed.

Issues:

• Screen tearing… More than is acceptible in any game. And I am talking about big areas of the screen, not just minor funny stuff.
• The camera. The single biggest issue. Difficult to see and navigate and with a mind of it's own. The camera swings in cinematic style which causes you to head in the wrong direction and you need to readjust the camera before you can head off in the correct direction again. The angles are also highly restricted so you cannot enjoy the scenery as well as you should...... The panning scenes you see in the videos do not feature in the actual game.
• Cannot jump..... Even ankle-high rocks cannot be crossed (no exaggeration). This leads to the next issue…
• This is not an open world. It is a handful of staging areas linked by monotonous paths. Even in the larger areas you are restricted to where you can go. You see someone on a 1-foot ledge and want to go there… Bad luck. You must follow the path the developers have decided. It is not a massive area to explore… Large maybe, but not massive.
• The on-screen map..... There are only two practical uses: to allow you to see where you can actually walk (as opposed to the wide expanses you can see in front of you, but not access) and to get your bearings as you will constantly lose track of the direction you are facing due to the camera issues.

The good:

• Combat is fun and involving.
• Some cool weapons.
• Upgrading is done well.
• The menus are very, very old school… Some will criticize but I quite like the presentation (but not the organization of them).

A lot of reviews/comments have compared this with Skyrim. Even with Skyrims issues you cannot compare this to Skyrim. I like Skyrim a lot (not love), but this game is amateurish in a lot of aspects.

Greatly entertaining combat. Shame about weapon degradation. I've found exploring everything entertaining.

I've had high expectation for this game before release. Did it deliver- Art direction-wise yes. You can tell the developers have put a lot of work into building this fantasy world. Everything else wasn't terrible but wasn't memorable either. It has dialogue choices but they do not have any actual impact on the story. It employs a decent combat/craftin­g/questing/le­veling system which closely resembles other games of this genre, but fails to brings any new or exciting ideas. The game could have been successful if they could implement a co-op option, (which would turn the game into a mini world of warcraft or a more rpg focused ‘diablo’ or ‘borderland’). But as a strictly single player game, the mediocre storyline and repetitive, grinding quests failed to grab my interest for more than a couple hours. The developers originally planned to use this title as an introduction to a much bigger MMO project in the same fantasy world. However due to the lack of success of this game the studio has been shut down and there won't be any further DLC nor releases.

…so just buy it. :D

The games great; looks wonderful, engaging combat, but the PS3 version has some nasty sound delay, which really takes you out of the game.

Its a good combat game for an rpg, truly the first of its kind. You can customize your fighting style and then just change to something else later which is cool. The fact that the fighting is varied and entertaining, means that you can play the game for weeks without it feeling too repeditive, and its a big game too.

Its not without its flaws though, enemies can jump big distances and attack you when it seems like they cant reach. The mages that you fight throughout the whole game only have a few magic attacks, which gets old quick. The magic projectiles that they attack you with follow you across the screen, meaning you have to dodge at the exact split second. This can get quite frustrating when there are many mages on the screen.

On top of that, the sound synching is bad and quite unfinished, alot of the time the sound will be several seconds off. Apart from the game flaws though, it is still worth playing.

Just what you look for in an RPG, definitely worth buying

This game since is so solid that I play it more than COD MW3 and I'm prestige 18 with 32 MOABS!! this game is everything you'd want in a fantasy game from customising your armour to creating your own potions, gems, weaponry and armour plus your OWN DESTINY!! if your thinking about getting it I suggest you hire it first then you know you wouldn't want to return! haha SOLID GAME!! got it last Wednesday and have 30hours gameplay already hahaha

Awesome game to play. Rented it from the local vid shop to test couldn't put it down for the week. Had to buy it to thoroughly enjoy the potential it has. I like the idea of customising equipment, just adds that extra thing to do. Combat is a breeze when you get used to it. 35 hours into the game and haven't even left the first section of the map. Heaps of quests to do and keep you interested. For me this better than DragonAge, simply for the fact that you can break weapons and armour and try to create more out of the components. Would reccommend this game to any RPG fan.

I was a bit concerned, having gotten fairly far into Skyrim for PS3, if this game could live up to the Hype.

Well, wonder no more. Set in a surreal, almost WoW-esque landscape, the characters, setting, plot and RPG elements are really full of a unique MMO charm.

Being able to play however I want is nice, not to just pick the stereotype of Mage, Rogue or Warrior. The Fate you choose (character development path or spec path), can focus on either a full Warrior, Rogue or Mage type, but allows also several interesting hybrid types as well. The player can pick points and perks in different skill trees, with the Fate as a rough guideline to carve your own personal feel of how you play. Wanna be a sneaky type that also specialised in magic- Great! Want to deal damage from afar as a bow-centric warrior, but can also dish out damage with magical staff attacks- Why not- And you can (for a price) remove all spec points and start over, allowing the character to change throughout the game, as the player sees fit.

Personally I think I'm going to be investing as much time into this game as Skyrim, as it's a unique and awesome game!

This is like playing Fable with a Skyrim feel! This is an awesome game. But the story is kinda confusing. The makers tried so much to replicate a somewhat lord of the rings and narnia mix of fantasy-based-world-story-telling. The gameplay and everything else is great! But the story kinda runs everywhere. Still worth playing though. Good replay value in terms of choosing a new character and being challenged with a higher difficulty.

Good game, graphics and combat are quite good. The story line is rubbish though. I got bored playing this after a while. Something wrong with PS3 sound effects. Not the greatest RPG.

At first I was confused whether I should get this game or not, but after watching it from youtube and reading people's comments, so I took my chance of buying one. Then I found out I did not regret buying it after all!! This is a great game, fun, easy and addicting. I m not a pro-hardcore-gamer, so thats why I enjoy this game because of its simplicity. I wasted almost 3 weeks 2–3 hrs a day playing Dark Souls, and did not achieve anything other than keep dying and losing tons of souls. So after being tortured playing Dark Souls, I find Kingdom of Amalur-Reckoning quite entertaining. Real life is stressful enough, and Demon/Dark souls making it more stressful. Games should be entertaining and fun, not frustrating. I found Skyrim a bit complicated also, and slower phase compare to Kingdom of Amalur. The quests guide are as easy as WoW, the mini-map and main map can guide u where to go. Can travel instantly from place to place using the main map which is 1 of the most important factor of this game, while most other similar games, u have to walk/run without instant travel and go back and fort, and thats just a waste of time. The graphic is nice, especially the character graphics. They are quite nice and beautiful. Well… Not really really beautiful like FFXIV, Guild Wars, ROHAN, Shaiya, Perfect World or TERA chars, but at least good looking enough compare to Skyrim which the characters are truly really ugly, esp the female chars. I had trouble making a beautiful female char in Skyrim, lol. The sound is hmm… Average I think. Not gonna talk much about it. The control is easy, and the battle phase is fast. U can just chain any attack u like. The talent tree is also simple, similar to WoW. Lacking jump ability however, which is not really a big of problem. As for the story… Well… I dont really pay much attention to the game story, and that includes any other games, lol. Too lazy to read them all, so I m just guessing the story as I play it. Most of the time just skip skip skip the conversation.

Overall, this is a great game and worth buying.