Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is the same game many of us fired up for the first time back in 2012. For the most part that’s a good thing, the vast world offers plenty of paths for the player to take and the combat still feels so dang good. The technical improvements are well done also, the extra details of each environment adding a little more color to Amalur’s world while keeping the framerate manageable. There’s still a few warts along the way, mostly involving things and people popping into view when passing or speaking to them, but none of them break the game to the point of starting over. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning accomplishes everything a remaster should accomplish, and stepping back into Amalur should be a top priority for everyone.

THQ Nordic brings another forgotten great IP from the past back to the market. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is still a great action RPG today, but not a great remastered one.

It may not be the most important remake of the year, but Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is a gorgeous, dense, and charming adventure.

If even the original game wasn't able to take that extra step and stand out among its competition, you shouldn’t expect that its remastered version will be able to accomplish this task. Nevertheless, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning remains enjoyable despite its age. It is a "vintage" game, capable of entertaining for hours (and hours and hours and hours) with its classic fantasy story full of fantastic creatures, epic legends and fairy lands.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is the perfect opportunity to properly assess one of the most amiable and unnoticed ARPGs of the past generation of consoles. Despite not standing as a remarkably distinguishable product from its original version, it is an ideal offer both for those who wish to return to the dense Amalur and for those who have not yet enjoyed such entertaining entertainment.

Improved textures and revised balancing complement this terrific action-RPG classic, which, however, features too many generic side quests.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning finally gives a second chance to one of the best role-playing games released in the previous console generation, making the gameplay even better with select balance tweaks that increase the challenge level and make it easier to engage with side content. Despite some issues and a dated gameplay design, the game's battle system, great writing and extremely deep lore make Re-Reckoning a game that most role-playing game fans will enjoy. Especially if they like juggling enemies to death.

It’s a polished game, but it’s polished for 2012. It’s a solid RPG, and if you want a very well fleshed-out fantasy world, you’ll find joy here.

All things considered, your enjoyment of Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is going to depend wildly on what your experience is with the base game thus far. If you’ve already played the original Amalur, I don’t think any of the changes here are substantial enough to warrant your money. If you’re new, this is definitely the best way to jump into an experience that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Re-Reckoning is underwhelming as a second release, but, with the original game being as much fun as it is, it’s hard to hold much enmity. While I may yearn for a truly modern Amalur title to bring the franchise into more modern times, Re-Reckoning is a solid blast from the past that, if we’re lucky, might give the franchise the demand it needs to keep moving forward.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning isn't the best Action RPG today, but at the time it was so good that it felt like a window into the future of the genre. After replaying it, it's clear that it has aged like a good wine, because it manages to connect two aspects as important as an accessible but deep combat and a huge world full of characters and stories to discover.