REVIEW - KINGDOMS OF AMALUR: RECKONING

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning  is a fantasy action-RPG, and was the first and only offering from the fledgling 38 Studios, founded by former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, and Big Huge Games.  The creative talent included art direction from Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, story from fantasy writer R. A. Salvatore, and game design direction from Elder Scrolls: Morrowind and Oblivion director Ken Rolston.  Though this review should be relatively spoiler-free, there is no guarantee of that so read with caution.  Spoilers will not be flagged with “ZOMG!!! SPOILER ALERT!”

Disclaimer:  I have 84 hours in the game as of now, and I have not yet finished it.  This review is meant to give my impressions of the game and gameplay to this point, not a final judgment.

Story:

The basic premise of the story, and the theme that runs throughout the land of Amalur, is that all beings are tied to the Threads of Fate, a concept seemingly borrowed from Greek mythology and modified in a very interesting way.  Your character is one of many killed at the hands of the Tuatha, a sect of immortal Fae who inhabit Amalur.  Their leader, Gadflow, has waged a bloody campaign across the face of Amalur in the name of his new god.  The Gnomish alchemist Fomorous Hugues, in an attempt to combat the onslaught, worked on a way to resurrect the fallen in what was called the Well of Souls.  It was through this your soul was returned to your body and you were brought back to life.  Unfortunately, you wake atop a pile of decaying bodies whose souls failed to return.  It is an excellent way to start the game and sets the tone immediately. 

The escape from the Well of Souls provides all the basic training you need to set out among the world of Amalur as a truly unique individual.  You see, having been resurrected from the Well of Souls, you are no longer tied to the Threads of Fate.  In fact, you are able to control Fate itself, affecting your future and that of others.  It was a bit disappointing to find that power is generally limited to specific plot segments or Fateshifting enemies (more on that later) and many of the choices made have little to no effect on the world of Amalur as a whole.  Still, it is a neat story conceit that keeps things moving in a land where a lot of things are happening but there is very little genuine emotion from any characters.  NPCs will talk to you with either a button prompt or as you pass them by, but nothing gives the impression this is a desperate, war-torn world beyond NPCs telling you it is.

Side stories and their attendant quests are plentiful, but while the questing itself is interesting, the stories tend to be rather bland and unmemorable.  They are also indiscriminate, so I can simultaneously be a member of the Travelers, which is a thieves’ guild; the Warsworn, who are essentially mercenaries; the House of Ballads, a Fae ruling council; and Archsage of the Scholia Arcana, which is more-or-less a mage’s academy (no, not like Hogwart’s so stop it).  It’s nice they didn’t require you to choose a faction and then close off all other quest lines, but it can be very difficult sometimes to keep track of what faction holds your current quest.  Also, if you are given a mission as a Traveler to steal from the Warsworn, there is no penalty for getting caught other than paying a fine or spending some precious XP to get out of jail.  While it would be nice to see more action and consequence within the story, it doesn’t significantly detract from the enjoyment of the game.  The writers and developers clearly intended for this game to be played fully, and by that I mean no options would be closed to the player. 

Visuals:

This world of Amalur is visually rich, and I mean rich.  Character designs are beautiful and not generic (if you can excuse the fact nearly all Ljosalfar and Dokkalfar women have large, firm breasts that are showcased quite fully by their outfits).  There are several skin tone variations to the characters as well as several variants of facial hair and clothing.  All are actually quite pleasing to the eye. 

The environments are, while not exactly stunning, extremely pleasing to the eye and differentiated quite nicely.  From the desert of Detyre to the spider-infested forest of Webwood to the Tywili Coast near Rathir, each environment is as unique and beautiful as those who inhabit the land.  They are bright, colorful, and vastly different.  From a technical standpoint, the environments do suffer from texture-popping and the occasional hitch as you run from one area to another, but overall these are minor complaints.

Sound:

The sounds and music are, well, fairly bland.  The same attack music plays every time an enemy spots you, which gets old, and you get the same background music for every load screen as well.  Weapon sounds are crisp and fit what you might expect from the various weapons in the game.  Voice acting is also somewhat bleh, though it is clear some of the actors are actually trying, and as a bonus they either had a positively huge cast or some very talented actors who are able to significantly alter their voice for a wide range of characters.  Still, the net result is a lot of talking to characters that are either neglecting to showcase any emotion whatsoever, or presenting their emotions in a way that contradicts whatever situation in which they find themselves. 

Gameplay:

This is where Kingdoms of Amalur positively soars.  I have yet to play an RPG with this degree of ease in movement, potion and spell management, and combat.  Everything your character can do in this world can be quickly and easily accessed through quick buttons or the menu.  There is even a radial menu for potions accessed through LB on the Xbox 360 and R-whatever on the PS3.  And oh, the combat.  When you dive into combat you suddenly feel like you’ve moved from the RPG realm to an action hack-n-slash on par with God of War.  You have two main weapons, mapped to X for the primary and Y for the secondary, and the nature of your attacks is wholly dependent on the pattern of button presses.  Want to slash the heck out of a Barghest?  Just tap X with a longsword equipped.  Prefer to use more powerful attacks?  Hold X or Y for a charged attack that does major damage.  Feeling stealthy?  Equip daggers and hit RB to sneak up behind an enemy, then hit Y to perform a brutal assassination.  Grab a shield to block attacks by holding LT.  Push the A button while walking and you break into a run.  Just be careful because A also harvests reagents and picks up loot.  Pull RT, and your magic menu opens.  Hold RT and press a face button to perform the mapped spell.  It really is that simple, and it works so very well when in combat.  You can even access your inventory during a fight if you want to swap an ineffective weapon for a better one.  If you are too busy with a group of enemies to hit the potions radial, pressing left or right on the D-pad accesses health and mana potions, respectively.  Ultimately, there is never a moment where you feel as if you are tasked with pushing too many buttons at once. 

The effects of your combat moves are well-represented as well.  Longswords slash through the air with authority, chakram look and sound incredibly menacing, and daggers are positively deadly.  There are greatswords that make Ice from Game of Thrones look like a toothpick, and unique weapons like Faeblades that resemble dual-wielded bat’leth.  All of the weapons have a very satisfying level of “thunk” when making contact with virtual flesh, and animations faithfully reflect the weight of the weapon used.  Spells also showcase the quality of animation and effects quite well.  Storm Bolt, for example, will almost always knock back a normal enemy or grouped enemies, possibly even stunning them.  Quake ferociously rattles the screen as your ground-pounding creates instant stalagmites.  All spells and effects generate with authority, for lack of a better phrase.  Even the Scorpion-from-Mortal-Kombat-like harpoon doesn’t make you think “oh, they STOLE that one...”

Closing Thoughts:

There really is not much room for complaint if you are an action-oriented RPG fan.  The few I have are centered around the rather droll voice actors and the fact it is far too easy for enemies to a) lock you out of attack animations so they can beat your brains out, because there are not very many clear-out maneuvers that are instant, and b) if an enemy is resistant to a spell it has ZERO effect, to the point where it does not even knock the enemy out of HIS attack animation.  It is an annoying game trait, but only a very minor one.  The best compliment I can give the game is this:  I have played it for over eighty hours and I am not even halfway done with it.  I pick up the controller, swearing I will only play for an hour, and I play for three or four.  It is that easy to be absorbed into the world.  Start a quest here, and by the time you get there you have had conversations with a half-dozen NPCs, sold some items, picked up and completed three fetch-this quests and still have four more in your active quest line before you realize you have yet to finish the quest you started when you loaded the game.  It happens to me all the time because the way the game plays is so unbelievably smooth.  That alone makes a play through worth every minute.

Overall score:  9/10

Thoughts on the Penn State and Chick-Fil-A issues in the news recently:

First up: Penn State and the actions of the NCAA. 

I won’t get into the specifics of the Sandusky case here. Needless to say that saga is as disgusting as one will ever see, and I expect he will find his remaining days very confining and uncomfortable. What I want to address is the overwhelming case of instant justice and out-of-proportion indignation that results from these situations nowadays. While I understand the Freeh report was drafted by Louis Freeh, former FBI director, and was very comprehensive, the idea that Freeh’s report should be the final, definitive word on the scandal is, quite frankly, absurd. Freeh had the full cooperation of Penn State the institution, but he lacked the power of subpoena and the power to compel testimony from key actors in the case. Certainly Curlee and Spanier refrained from providing testimony to Freeh to protect themselves in upcoming criminal trials, and Paterno was dead! I find it difficult to believe that the Freeh report, as a stand-alone work designed to prove or attempt to prove a case against the institution and the men involved, can be fully accepted at face value without taking the ancillary factors into account.

Yet that is exactly what NCAA president Mark Emmert did when deciding, unilaterally and with full endorsement of the NCAA management council, to crush the Penn State football program with some of the harshest sanctions ever levied. This was done despite the fact the NCAA commissioned no investigation of its own, nor did they so much as attempt a fact-finding of any sort. They simply took the Freeh report, said “Yep, looks good,” and accepted it as full gospel truth. Even the by-laws of the NCAA provide for due process in any investigation, and here they blatantly disregarded their own charter for the sake of an expedient media splash designed to make the NCAA look good. There is simply no other reason for such a quick reaction to the Free report itself. Remember this: It took years before the NCAA finally sanctioned USC for the Reggie Bush benefit scandal. It took months before the NCAA declared Cam Newton eligible to play in 2010, and even then they were criticized for not being thorough enough. Yet by and large everyone is okay with the sanctions given to Penn State with no due process whatsoever!

I agree with the $60 million fine; in fact I applaud it. Sending that money to help victims of sexual abuse and for prevention programs is exactly the right move. Spreading it out over a five-year period to avoid a huge financial impact on the university is also a smart idea. The football money does not apply to just the football program; it supports many other sports in the athletic department. Spreading out the fine helps mitigate the impact on other sports programs. Now here’s where the NCAA goes wrong: First, reducing scholarships for the next four years by twenty is brutally harsh for a football program. So too is the four-year postseason ban. Now you may be wondering why I think this is where the NCAA got it wrong, so I’ll explain. The scholarship reduction and bowl ban serves to punish one group only, the players. They’re not punishing the university president, he’s out. So is the athletic director. They are both facing jail time for being idiots. Sandusky is already figuring out how to become someone’s sweetheart in prison. Joe Pa is dead and can no longer answer the charges. Who does that leave? The young men on the team who weren’t even there when most of this took place! The coaching staff, most of whom were coaching in the NFL last year! None of the actors who were involved in the scandal to begin with are currently associated with Penn State, yet the NCAA and Emmert felt it necessary to make sure the football culture did not override common sense. Oh yes, and one more thing: any player who wants to transfer may do so without penalty. I can say I am proud of the guys who stayed, and I also do not blame the ones who left one bit. I blame the NCAA for once again failing to punish the people who made the mess; instead only managing to punish those left behind to clean it up.

 Now, as for the Chick-Fil-A controversy; I am not going to be friendly with this one. The idea that the owner of a private corporation can voice his feelings on a religious issue and have it so blatantly and completely misconstrued is unconscionable. Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy’s stance is this:

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. 
"We operate as a family business ... our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that," Cathy emphasized. 
"We intend to stay the course," he said. "We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles." 

Now what I would like is for someone to explain how we went from support of “the biblical definition of the family unit” to staunchly anti-gay and anti-gay-rights. Does the company have a policy against hiring gay men and women? No, they do not. Do they actively and forcefully advocate for laws defining marriage as between man and woman? No, they don’t do that either. What Dan Cathy did was voice his belief, and as President and CEO of the company he can speak for himself AND for his stores. Yet somehow his belief that his company operates on biblical principles (for pete’s sake, they’re even closed on Sunday, which some analysts say costs the company revenues in excess of $1 million each week) has made him and, by extension, his company exclusory, elitist and discriminatory. No, no and oh for heaven’s sake, NO. He was speaking of his Christian, biblically-based beliefs, not the civil belief!

Let me put it another way: I can adhere to whatever religious beliefs I wish, and that’s that. At the same time, I would not use those religious beliefs to suppress the civil rights of ANY GROUP. If a church wants to say “No, we are not going to marry a gay couple in our building,” it is well within their purview as a church to do so. But if an atheist heterosexual couple can walk into a justice-of-the-peace, get a marriage license and be LEGALLY BONDED, why can a homosexual couple NOT do the same?  And where in that interview did anyone get the idea that Mr. Cathy openly and fully supported laws that prohibit gay marriage?  Dan Cathy did not, at ANY time, say gay couples should not be given civil consideration. He said his company supports the biblical definition of family. That’s all. And hey, all of you who spent days crying into your cereal over this, outraged and indignant, threatening to boycott the chain? When are you going to realize the free exchange of ideas is what makes this country great? I mean, you wouldn’t want to oh, discriminate against anyone because they have a differing opinion would you? No? See, I didn’t think so.