Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

 Xbox One
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 33 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 33
  3. Negative: 6 out of 33
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  1. Xbox_Alive
    Sep 14, 2020
    7
    Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning- you'll play as the "Fate-less One", a mighty hero unique in the world for his ability to change the fates of others however he or she sees fit. So it’s ironic that, given the opportunity to do whatever they wanted with this last generation cult classic revived, developer Kaiko and publisher THQ Nordic did so little to improve the experience for the remaster.Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning- you'll play as the "Fate-less One", a mighty hero unique in the world for his ability to change the fates of others however he or she sees fit. So it’s ironic that, given the opportunity to do whatever they wanted with this last generation cult classic revived, developer Kaiko and publisher THQ Nordic did so little to improve the experience for the remaster. Honestly, it’s a struggle to even note much of an update to the graphics. Character models are a little bit smoother. Parts of the varied fantasy world look a little bit brighter, but overall it doesn’t appear that textures have seen much of an improvement. No one watching this game in motion is going to mistake it for a new release. What has been updated in this remaster? Well, one welcome change is the removal of level locking. You’re now free to explore the world with enemies scaling to your level, so you’ll no longer wander into the wrong part of the map only to be promptly killed in one or two hits because you’re under leveled. Kaiko has also added a Very Hard difficulty for those looking for an extra challenge. The two massive add-ons, The Legend of Dead Kel and Teeth of Naros, are also included. That’s really about it for the improvements however. In terms of new features, Re-Reckoning is one of the more disappointing re-releases in recent years. The Xbox version isn’t very well optimized, either. The frame rate would regularly dip in the game’s many large, outdoor areas, and I ran into crashes every few hours. At least you can save anywhere. Curiously, the one addition that could have made this remaster more worthwhile, a new five-hour add-on called Fatesworn, won’t be released until next year and you'll get all of it for much less than picking this up today in its current state. Most people are probably more familiar with the controversy surrounding Amalur’s development than the game itself if not look it up it's worth. read. Despite its rocky history and the questionable improvements, there is still an enjoyable action RPG here, even if nearly a decade later, Kingdoms of Amalur is definitely showing its age. Combat is still Amalur’s strong suit in the end. It has a sufficient heaviness to it that a lot of RPGs lack, though it never quite feels as good as some of todays massive studio offerings. That said, there are plenty of ways to customize your character to suit your combat style and needs. There are three basic classes: Might, Finesse, and Sorcery, but you’re free to mix and match classes and skill trees as you please. With a little planning, it’s completely viable to have a character that wields a giant warhammer with one button and magic staff with another. Regardless of what you end up equipping, each fight is about increasing your Fate meter and ultimately unleashing a powerful, gory Reckoning attack, which can eliminate an entire group of enemies and give you a huge boots in experience points if you pull it off just right. But the camera, which was heavily criticized in the original release, is still troublesome during combat, often picking odd angles behind scenery, zooming out randomly, and regularly getting stuck underground. Quests are another issue. Sure, there are lots of them, but they rarely involve more than killing a group of monsters, collecting a few specific trinkets, or going from point A to point B. Even the main quest doesn’t offer much variety outside of its boss fights. Amalur’s story about the nature of fate is serviceable and the voice acting does hold up pretty well, but it’s largely an excuse to set up more combat encounters. And while the levels are large and varied, they’re ultimately just big zones with branching paths and don’t make up a truly open world. It’s a little difficult going back to a game like this after playing so many of the years gone by greats to hit the Xbox console. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Re-Reckoning is the lack updates to the UI, which feels especially cumbersome by todays standards. In the end of all the dated complaints a solid game experience is still to be had here for your Xbox One. Especially if you missed the opportunity to play it until now on your Xbox console.… Expand
  2. shebeatsyou
    Sep 9, 2020
    5
    If you enjoyed the original then you know what to expect otherwise this is a very lazy port. Options still have the 360 controller layout so you can tell no love went into this. Also, none of the achievements work, unlike the PS4 version. Recommend waiting for a sale THQ Nordic should put in a little more effort but we know they won't.
  3. ZXSth
    Nov 9, 2020
    5
    Re-Reckoning, ideally, should be seen as an opportunity for people who have never enjoyed this masterpiece of a game to do so with modern graphical updates and minor adjustments. However, it should be understood that unlike its predecessor, Re-Reckoning is a much less mechanically stable game, which makes it hard to recommend over the original game.

    Even after the associated Xbox One    Re-Reckoning, ideally, should be seen as an opportunity for people who have never enjoyed this masterpiece of a game to do so with modern graphical updates and minor adjustments. However, it should be understood that unlike its predecessor, Re-Reckoning is a much less mechanically stable game, which makes it hard to recommend over the original game.

    Even after the associated Xbox One patch, players will encounter a multitude of strange, yet mostly non-intrusive graphical hiccups (such as certain treasure chests not having lids), as well as moderately longer load times than the original game. However, several unfortunate individuals will also experience crashes to the main menu, while others still will encounter the now-infamous "disappearing enemies" glitch, which causes the associated save file to become corrupted. While potential workarounds have been suggested, a bug this game-breaking and egregious should not exist in any video game of Amalur's ilk.

    Other unfortunate errors exist in the game that make this "remaster" hard to recommend - while the graphics have been improved and the framerate increased to 60 FPS, the graphical updates do not necessarily bring Reckoning into 2020 successfully. Furthermore, framerate drops occur often, and sometimes persist until the game is reloaded. The latter problem is a carry-over from the original, and players will find that there are many problems found in the first game that have been brought into Re-Reckoning. And the idea that there are new bugs to deal with, in addition to there being many (if not all) bugs that made their way into Re-Reckoning, makes this version of Kingdoms of Amalur less than an obvious recommendation over the original. And frankly, the idea of a remaster being inferior to its respective original game is preposterous.

    While definitions of what constitutes a port, remaster and remake are inherently subjective, I am apt to calling this game a port that features some minor mathematical adjustments and graphical updates. And while the price point of $40 US does not make Re-Reckoning a write-off, it makes choosing between the original and its lacking successor a challenge. While further patches and updates may be applied in time to bring Re-Reckoning up to snuff, it is hard to recommend this version of Kingdoms of Amalur to anyone who values performance and graphics equally. The original was a magnificent experience, but this supposed remaster, regrettably, does not do it justice.    … Expand
  4. AtemArchangel
    Dec 22, 2020
    7
    Another average at worst, solid at best game. I played this back when it first released because it came with armor from Mass Effect, in turn Mass Effect had Kingdoms of Amalur armor as well.
    The best way to describe this game is....Fable but good. Now I know there will be some Fable fanboy that lose their mind. I've played Fable 1-3 and I found them to be meh games. Amalur plays similar    Another average at worst, solid at best game. I played this back when it first released because it came with armor from Mass Effect, in turn Mass Effect had Kingdoms of Amalur armor as well.
    The best way to describe this game is....Fable but good. Now I know there will be some Fable fanboy that lose their mind. I've played Fable 1-3 and I found them to be meh games. Amalur plays similar to the Fable franchise, but has everything for the most part that Fable lacks.

    With that said, it's still a middle of the pack RPG. It's nothing special.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

82
#82 Best Xbox One Game of 2020
42
#42 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Gaming Nexus
    Oct 13, 2020
    55
    Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the story of marketable talent crafting a competent—if flawed—RPG in 2012; Re-Reckoning is that same story hastily repackaged in 2020 and resold at an overinflated price point.
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  2. Generación Xbox
    Sep 30, 2020
    90
    Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is a necessary remastering of one of the best RPGs of the last 15 years.
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  3. XGN
    Sep 29, 2020
    80
    Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning brings you back to a magical world. The game has been polished to bring it to 2020. This succeeded for the better part of it. The game looks good overall but here and there the aging is still visible pretty clearly. For 40 euros you still get a hell of a RPG with more than 40 hours of story, all of the DLC and next to that a lot of side missions, tons of weapons and more. Also, there is a new DLC on it's way for the game slated in 2021. That makes this more than worth the buy.
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