I'm hesitant to recommend this game because I didn't love it, but for some reason I kept playing it until the end. I found myself speeding through some of the more boring bits of the game just to see the main storyline through to completion, but honestly, the main story leaves much to be desired. The world is huge and feels very complete, but unfortunately much of this is lost if you--like me--can't quite cross the threshold into obsession with exploring the world.

The gameplay is fairly fun and varied for an action RPG, but the skill progression for the sorcery tree is VERY unbalanced. You'll spend the first third of the game abusing the same couple of abilities over and over again, feeling somewhat underpowered and dependent on your physical weapon to fill in the damage gaps. It starts to balance out a bit in the middle of the sorcery tree, but then the scales are tipped ridiculously upon reaching the highest tier. The Meteor ability is capable of wiping out an entire group of enemies, and while it does have a long cooldown, it is always ready by the time you reach the next group and doesn't consume enough mana to slow you down. Speaking of mana, itemization was a bit frustrating and seemed too random. I finished the game with a staff bought from a vendor, but then again, I was just destroying armies of fools with giant meteors summoned from the depths of space, so who needs a nice staff?

One of the things that continued to irritate me in this game is the sound. I'm not sure if they didn't have the budget for a good sound team or if they hired amateurs, but the sounds in this game feel completely wrong. One example is the sound they used for a shattering clay jar. It doesn't feel like part of the environment, but instead a flat sound file played slightly out of sync with the action. There are many other examples of terrible sounds throughout the game. The music was occasionally decent, but for the most part it was forgettable.

The graphics in this game were nice enough, and the art style felt consistent and well-done. Framerate was never an issue on my aging machine--even with settings on max--so clearly the core tech team behind the engine knew what they were doing.

All of my complaints aside, I still found myself coming back to this game day after day to see what was around the next bend. Upon completion, I almost felt as if I could do more exploring or wrap up some of those faction quests I left unfinished...but, I have better games to play. If you like MMO-style gameplay and want to get lost in a big, lonely world for hours on end, give Kingdoms of Amalur a shot. However, if you--like me--find yourself with less and less time to play games these days, you may not get as much out of this game as you put into it.

I'm hesitant to recommend this game because I didn't love it, but for some reason I kept playing it until the end. I found myself speeding through some of the more boring bits of the game just to see the main storyline through to completion, but honestly, the main story leaves much to be desired. The world is huge and feels very complete, but unfortunately much of this is lost if you--like me--can't quite cross the threshold into obsession with exploring the world. The gameplay is fairly fun and varied for an action RPG, but the skill progression for the sorcery tree is VERY unbalanced. You'll spend the first third of the game abusing the same couple of abilities over and over again, feeling somewhat underpowered and dependent on your physical weapon to fill in the damage gaps. It starts to balance out a bit in the middle of the sorcery tree, but then the scales are tipped ridiculously upon reaching the highest tier. The Meteor ability is capable of wiping out an entire group of enemies, and while it does have a long cooldown, it is always ready by the time you reach the next group and doesn't consume enough mana to slow you down. Speaking of mana, itemization was a bit frustrating and seemed too random. I finished the game with a staff bought from a vendor, but then again, I was just destroying armies of fools with giant meteors summoned from the depths of space, so who needs a nice staff? One of the things that continued to irritate me in this game is the sound. I'm not sure if they didn't have the budget for a good sound team or if they hired amateurs, but the sounds in this game feel completely wrong. One example is the sound they used for a shattering clay jar. It doesn't feel like part of the environment, but instead a flat sound file played slightly out of sync with the action. There are many other examples of terrible sounds throughout the game. The music was occasionally decent, but for the most part it was forgettable. The graphics in this game were nice enough, and the art style felt consistent and well-done. Framerate was never an issue on my aging machine--even with settings on max--so clearly the core tech team behind the engine knew what they were doing. All of my complaints aside, I still found myself coming back to this game day after day to see what was around the next bend. Upon completion, I almost felt as if I could do more exploring or wrap up some of those faction quests I left unfinished...but, I have better games to play. If you like MMO-style gameplay and want to get lost in a big, lonely world for hours on end, give Kingdoms of Amalur a shot. However, if you--like me--find yourself with less and less time to play games these days, you may not get as much out of this game as you put into it.