Choose Your Own Adventure

KINGDOMS of AMALUR review

In many ways it is your classic RPG, you’re the chosen one, the fateless one who can change the sad course the world is on, you can be a fighter, thief or mage, there are ogres, and kobolds, and brigands, there are forests and caves and swords and spells, and everybody has a quest for you to complete.  Where the game diverges is important, unlike in many RPG’s which ask you what you want to be when you grow up and you are stuck on that track until you complete the game, Reckoning allows you to play however you like and rewards you regardless.  Want to be a magic-using thief, or a warrior/sorcerer/ rogue, please do.  If you decide you want to specialize in a different kind of weapon or don’t enjoy shadow-slinking, fine, got to a Fateweaver and reallocate all your points to create a completely different build.  I loved this because I want everything; I want to see what my elf looks like in big, spikey armor, or what happens when I completely level up the fire spell track. Usually this means I have to try a different playthrough- not this time.  Being a rogue, which usually just frustrates the heck out of me, is something I can try for a bit to see how I like it.  It’s also friendly to new players or players who don’t like math and aren’t interested in finding the most dangerous build, if you find you made a mistake or miscalculation you are free to change it.  The system works really well, and all the possibilities are very well balanced, exceedingly well balanced, so I never felt like the game had one way it wanted me to play.

The world is bright and beautiful.  They went crazy with their color palate, the dark dungeons have glowing flowers and luminous glyphs, the forests are filled with plant life and strange creatures- not all of which are trying to kill you.  There are details everywhere that show the love and dedication of the designers, moving cogs that are in motion in the background, clever looking doors, animal and plant life that is varied and alive.  The world is huge, but it never felt generic.

There is almost too much to do.  Everyone lost a locket, or a child, need s help with giant spiders and ettins, or cannot live without ten scorpion glands.  My advice, ignore most of it, play the main quest and then go back if you’re interested in more.  Every character is well and fully voiced, and they do love to talk.  The factions’ quests where you can join groups who focus in specific disciplines and have their own lore are interesting and worth investigating and between those and the main quest you have got at least 40 good hours of gameplay.  Sidetracking on the sidequests makes the story feel fractured, and while many of them are compelling, they’re not compelling enough to get mired in as you go back and forth to find/kill something and return for your reward.

Kingdoms of Amalur:Reckoning is fast-paced and fun.  Every button does something immediately after you press it.  Combos are easy to pull off, and every weapon is a different type of gameplay and you can use two at once, like bow and hammer, or staff and sword, or my favorites the chakrams (yes, just like Xena had).  It’s a joy for neophytes and RPG veterans both.  Amalur is fun to explore, vast, and easy to put down and come back to; it’s a game that gives you whatever you need to enjoy it however you want.

Only Mostly Dead

NEVERDEAD REVIEW

Your arms come off and you can still use them and decapitation provides excellent scouting possibilities.  You’re cursed with immortality, you cannot die, and you are forced to live with regret over past mistakes and with your flawed self.  Wow, what a great premise for a game.  I want to love it because it seems like such a big win on the mechanics and story front, unfortunately it doesn’t quite deliver on either.

In the game you are Bryce Boltzman, a demon hunter partnered with a snarky, sexy (?) blonde who can only speak to you with disdain.  She is human; you are not, so it would seem the fail situation would be that you allow her to die which could have been interesting if she weren’t such a bitch.  Bryce seems pretty self-loathing himself, so maybe this isn’t a problem that was a game killer.  The combat is frenetic and set in interesting and well-rendered locales all of which are very interactive, you can hurt enemies with architecture you destroy- good idea, and makes sense because in many games you can destroy mountains, but that window or wooden door is impenetrable.  Damage is shown by combats effect on your body, like your leg is torn off, cool, no HUD, easy to read, fine.  Game should be great.

THE PROBLEM WITH THE GAME

If you play it play it on easy.  Combat starts as pretty fun, electrifying yourself, setting fire to yourself, or tearing off your own head to solve puzzles or engage in a battle.  You can use your limbs as bombs or turrets by ripping them off and throwing them strategically.  The fighting doesn’t stay fun, the camera is hard to control, and the fighting is fastpaced and from all over, so I never got time to really play with the mechanics.  By the middle your body is falling apart all the time which wouldn’t be a bad challenge except who knows if one hit is going to ruin you or four, plus there are these grandbabies that roll around trying to ingest your head and if they do then game over.  You can never stop grandbabies from coming; kill one it is immediately replaced, so now not only can you quite see what is going on and you have been neutralized in combat, but you need to find your limbs or wait to regenerate them while these babies try to suck you in- it becomes an exercise in frustration.  While there are many ways to adjust and level up Bryce none of them make you any more cohesive and all of this is made even more strange by the fact you can not seem to hold yourself together after one hit and your abusive, fleshy partner in a short sweater skirt has no problem withstanding multiple demon attacks.  The final boss batte is absolutely no fun.

Neverdead has so much possibility with a few tweaks in every area it could be a great game, clearer combat, more abilities and ability slots (being forced to juice up your guns or your sword is stupid when you area faced simultaneously with enemies immune to one of the other), give a little more depth or a little more camp to the characters, they hover impotently between the two, combat that ends up being button mashing because there is not enough time to process or plan, and less grandbabies.  It seemed like they thought the game was too easy so they made you fall apart all the time and then try to avoid little monsters in the midst of combat.

Neverdead is worth a cheap look and definitely worth a sequel, but it never reaches it’s potential in its first outing.  It is original and smart, but the gameplay can’t keep up with it.  It’s really unfortunate that Neverdead dies about halfway through and it doesn’t seem worth your effort to pick up the pieces.