Next: Loop Hero Review: Going In Circles Is Fun Old fans of Kingdoms of AmalurВ will no doubt enjoy revisiting it on Nintendo Switch, which is the best way to experience it given its smooth processing and portability - but it's a tougher sell for newcomers, who will have to decide if a now-by-the-book RPG experience is worth it for a still-excellent story. It's not a bad title - the foundation of the game is too good, even years later, for that - but it's lost some of its greatness over time, and for those who haven't experienced it before, it seems like it might be difficult to discern why people enjoyed it back then. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-ReckoningВ hasn't aged well when it comes to its presentation, and while the core of the game makes it quite playable, its less impressive elements prevent it from being a must-play if players missed it in 2012. Character movement is similarly stilted, with battles feeling distinctly uncool when compared to the more flashy or fluid combat that characterizes the best of modern action RPGs. Faces range from blocky to inscrutable, and the game's world, while varied, feels blurred and muted. Obviously, as a remaster of a 2012 title, there's bound to be some aging - but the visuals really do hold the game back. In fact, nothing really stands out about Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-ReckoningВ at all, in large part due to its mediocre graphics. Battles don't necessarily need to be exciting in action RPGs, and some adventurers will no doubt enjoy the fact they can switch up styles, but that doesn't make for a standout journey. Enemies behave in a pretty mundane manner, with bosses featuring mechanics that never threaten to be more than a minor nuisance to figure out and exploit. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-ReckoningВ combat is diverse, but in letting players have fun with so many different systems, it trades away anything really special as well. The menus are clunky and hard to parse, and the overwhelming amount of information that gets thrown at the player early on is a reminder that fantasy RPGs have come a long way when it comes to streamlining introductory missions and tutorials. For Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, what is expected now was a bonus in its original version, so the 2021 version of the game feels much more standard. Unfortunately, these qualities aren't really rare in 2021 - RPGs are pretty much expected to have this sort of content and the ability to customize character builds, and those that don't tend to have a good reason for omitting that playstyle. Each build has a draw, and if players are intrigued by it, the many further upgrades in each skill tree make sure they can focus on which part of the design interested them in the first place. The flexibility in character upgrades and abilities also means it's unlikely that players will ever find themselves unable to play the way they want, at least in broad strokes. The sizeable amount of content available in Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is also notable - the game rarely feels as though there's nothing to be done except pursue the main narrative thanks to its many side quests and overworld map pursuits. Related: Why A MMO From A D&D Novelist, A MLB Star, & Todd McFarlane Failed Navigating the world of Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-ReckoningВ never feels like a chore because of its setting, and its characters, though visually unimpressive, more than hold up to the test of time when it comes to personality and nuance. One of the game's strongest selling points is its story, which begins with some neat twists on fantasy tropes and continues to deliver subtle, well-thought-out plot beats throughout the game's lengthy run-time. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-ReckoningВ follows the story of the Fateless One, the customizable player character who is able to defy the gods and other supernatural beings in the Faelands to carve out a new path for the world. While Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-ReckoningВ still contains the charm and depth that made it a niche hit in 2012, its graphics and many of its bulkier systems have long been abandoned by the genre at large, and the game is a great example for why that is. Developer Kaiko and publisher THQ Nordic's revival of an oft-forgotten RPG cult classic continues with Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoningon Nintendo Switch, and it achieves much the same as it has in its other re-releases.

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