It has now been nearly ten years since the original Kingdoms of Amalur was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, and less than a year since its revised and corrected version arrived on old-gen consoles. Today, for Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning the time has come for the test in portability, finally landing also on the hybrid Nintendo Switch. The publisher's dark fantasy RPG THQ Nordic he had to rewrite his destiny once again, after having found good acclaim from critics, despite the improvements made by this new "showdown" were not in the end so impressive.
This re-edition of the adventure conceived by the writer RA Salvatore with the contribution of Todd McFarlane (Spawn) e Ken Rolston (TES 4: Oblivion) can benefit from a graphic cleanup, an updated role progression and a new combat system calibrated, in this case, on the platform controls Nintendo, counting all the DLC released to date. Also, the expansion called Fatesworm, which will add more 5 hours about adventure, will be released later this year, enriching the gaming experience even more. How did the title originally developed by Big Huge Games and 38 Studios on the Nintendo console? Let's find out together.
A world at war
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning tells the story of a fantasy world ravaged by a very long war. The free kingdoms of Amalur, in fact, have been dealing with the Fae, magical creatures that have the ability to reincarnate upon death, a peculiarity that makes their eventual defeat impossible. In particular, a fringe of the Fae, The Court of Frost in the service of God Tirnoch, has not given peace to mortals for decades, leading them to near extinction. When the fate of Amalur seems to be sealed, however, the unthinkable happens. In a magical laboratory located deep in the earth, the Well of Souls, the alchemist Formorous Hugues succeeds in the feat of replicating the magical weapon of the Fae. Our protagonist, who died in battle, is reborn from his own ashes, becoming the Fateless One, a man without destiny who has the power to rewrite it to bring the forces of good to victory.
The opening incipit of the game, which starts a plot to be discovered, is perfectly connected and is the background to the gameplay and mechanics of the whole game. Once dead, in fact, we can choose how to be reborn (through an overall good editing of our protagonist) and what our destiny will be. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning it gives us the opportunity to weave our own fate, through our actions: by leveling up and facing the secondary quests, we will in fact be able to shape the destiny of our character (class, skills and orientation) and that of the game world.
The title is a Classic RPG which allows us to range, therefore, between the styles of play, following the stylistic features of the genre or creating customized hybrids. We range from the warrior to the magician, passing through the thief, thus specializing in strength, magic or dexterity. But we will also have the option of to cross these abilities, going in the course of the game to assume new roles. In the event that the path that our PC will be taking no longer suits us, some gold coins to the right "weaver" of destinies will be able to free us from our past to write a new one: we can in fact redistribute the points acquired by leveling up , is thus reset the class of our hero.
Destiny in your pocket
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, which in the mind of the developers had to be somewhere between God of War e Oblivion, is an action RPG that ends with theget closer to the classic titles of the genre, recalling rather Fable. A semi-open world, which will allow us a great exploration, with a compelling storyline that we can in a certain way influence through dialogue choices, and a gameplay that mixes action elements with a classic role-playing structure, for a more than good final result that will guarantee us hours and hours of quests before reaching the end credits. An experience enriched by the DLC already released, plus one coming soon. You will be busy for quite some time, rest assured.
The Re-Reckoning version went to file some aspects that had not fully convinced the initial release of the game. First it had been revised the general level of experience. Recalibrated dungeons, both from the point of view of difficulty, that of the level of enemies and the loot of objects, but also a slower and more reasoned progression of our character, which will not lead us to reach the maximum level in a few hours. From a technical point of view, however, not much had been done, maintaining a graphic level that had never shone par excellence, and giving a touch up here and there where needed.
What was done instead for this new re-release on Nintendo Switch? Unfortunately, almost nothing. Leaving aside an adjustment of the controls for the Switch Joy-Con, the technical side of the experience has remained unchanged, indeed, during our test we found some glitches during the cutscenes, uploads still too long, and various pop-ups of the elements of the scenario, especially when playing in portability.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is at its best in portability
Although Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is the same experience released a few years ago, with a few more Switch limitations, it has the advantage of allowing us to bring the destinies of Amalur always in our pockets. The weight of the years begins to be felt for Kingdoms of Amalur, especially when compared to other titles of the same genre released more recently. However, this new incarnation on the Nintendo Switch leads us to turn a blind eye to some technical limitations, in the light of ability to play a mammoth RPG wherever we want.
From a graphic point of view, in fact, the version for Nintendo Switch in the dock proves inferior than the one released on PlayStation 4 e Xbox One. Especially in portability, at the cost of an overall stable frame rate at 30FPS, the resolution is forced to go down a little. Nothing transcendental, but it is certainly a step back from what we have admired on other consoles. As for, however, the peculiar features of Switch, these are unfortunately not exploited. The use of the touch screen is practically absent, while HD rumble is implemented at a minimum: We will not notice any difference from the vibration of a normal controller, nor will there be an alternation of vibration between the right and left Joy-Con. Really a great pity, much more could be done.
However, Re-Reckoning remains a rewarding and fun experience, rooted in a long and challenging action role-playing game, which has one of the most beautiful stories in the entire panorama. Unfortunately, to experience it to the fullest, you have to compromise with some technical flaw, and with an experience that begins to show the side to ten years of detachment from the new titles, but that won't be a problem for anyone coming to Amalur for the first time. If, however, you are looking for the best version of the title, perhaps the one for Switch is not the first on the list.
