The lorestones are one of the best mechanics I have seen in a game to combine exploration with lorebuilding and even give gamemechanical reward to it. I especially liked how they tell you the story of the region you are exploring in a bards way.

This game created by the most senior and most experienced animator. Story and World by R.A. Salvatore to Armor, Design by Ken Rolston ( Morrowind - Tribunal - Oblivion) and Costume and Character by Todd McFarlane (Spawn). Such underrated Gem.

I've always felt this game is criminally underrated. It came out at the same time as Skyrim and I ended up getting it for my PS3 instead. I've always loved it, and personally really enjoyed going through the remaster as well. I was thrilled when THQ bought it and I'd love if they ended up making more games in this universe.

this game was the setup for the MMO that was supposed to launch prior to it crashing and burning. I believe that they have rereleased it to see about interest lvl and potentially more games. The entire world was created by R. A. Salvatore including the stories so he is tied to this game because of the amount of writing he did for it and that still hasn't come out.

This is my favorite game! It's not over complicated to play, the dialogue and story line in excellent. As open world, it's easy to change course if you want to switch it up. The character and c and cameras are easy to control. And I love the up close 3rd person perspective. Games of today bore me. I'm playing for escapism as break from real life. Too much shooting and zombies. Give me fantasy and special powers any day.

I played it a long time ago and back then really loved it, especially the atmosphere and vibrant areas, as well as the stories that those lorestones are telling which also added a lot to its atmosphere for me. Once that dlc comes out, I will five it another shot.

I really enjoyed the hybrid classes, gave alot of freedom in build creation. I had so much fun going stealth with daggers insta-killing enemies, then I switched to the Chakrams for crowd control and large enemies. And the finishers made combat very satisfying. I put in over 100+ hours on my initial character and playthrough.

just minor thing, propably the most important thing about races is they have access to different gods...minor thing, but wanted to mention it

I was just sad they didn't do a full remake. The game was fucking incredible.

Nice review...i did play the "original" game....and to me it was one of the most underrated games of its time!...i have a strength/dex build with some crafted chackrams....and i love the freedom this game gives you to play the build you like!...thanks for giving this game some of the love it deserves!

This game is so underrated and a hidden gem. A lot of the points you say are valid and I think reflects the fact that this is a 10 year old game at its core. The fact that every quest is a dungeon, fetch quest, with one ending, and all combat based, reflects the datedness of the game.

Nothing to get from exploration? Excuse me, there are tons of secret treasures in this game, sometimes you can even find an unexpected quest somewhere in the wilds.

This channels needs more subscribers. I no longer trust anyone else's review on RPGs.

Other cons I would add, as I played the OG version and was hoping for some change in the remaster, but no : No mount. It still baffles me how big the overworld is of each biome and you get no mount? The stash in your homes has an inventory limit...... trust me when I say this - there are so many unique weapons and armour sets in this game, its impossible to keep them all. Because the stash chest in your home is universal, which mean it can be accessed from any home. It made it difficult when it came to collecting such things as unique armour sets as you had to find the standard helmet, chest, gauntlets, legs, etc, to the point I had to delete older findings to replace with something new I'd picked up.

No choices? Did you not get Married to the Evil Queen @ the end of the House of Ballads? Ok after over almost a decade I don't remember many of the details about the game, But I definitely remember that choice. That character really spoke to me and made me sympathize w/ her point of view. Did this choice have massive world altering consequences? No. But it was a choice. And pretty sure all the guilds questlines had some sort of choice regarding how to resolve them.

I’ve been a sub for a long time now. I normally don’t comment but man you are definitely a top 5 KZfaqr on the platform. Hope more people find your channel

The review mentions that this game does nothing new, but the ability and combat system is rather cool for an rpg. This is a rpg with excellent fast paced combat, where dodging, blocking and using special abilities blend well together. It’s what Skyrim combat wanted to be. Unlike the recommendation in the review, I’d say sorcery is the most powerful and visually stunning combat but also the least engaging. The warrior and rogue have more difficult and strategic combat. Rogues get better dodging, warriors get better blocking. I like splitting ability points between the two to be able to use all the fun weapon types. For a real challenge there is a mod that makes the combat much more challenging and I couldn’t play without it because the game is too easy otherwise. It’s also worth noting that there is a lot of world building and lore in this game. Many NPCs have tons of spoken dialogue beyond what they use for quests, so if you are in a hurry you may miss it. My main criticism of the game is that it is a very long game, easily one of the longest ever made if you try to do everything and don’t rush. And if you do rush you miss a lot of what makes the game good. Overall, the size and easiness work against the game and make it seem more bland. But as a combat rpg it’s I find it very entertaining.

Teeth of Naros you get the Primal weapons and Dead Kel you get a Big House to decorate with stuff you find in the DLC plus bonuses from the pets you can raise.

This truly is a hidden gem

i take it you also got bored playing Dragon's Dogma aswell? I love playing the Jack of all trades class with Chakrams and all 4 passives active at once later in the game you can get enough bonuses active that you can case magic with 0 mp as well as make yourself immune to all damage types (which i did to myself by accident during the last dlc) this games biggest downfall is after you do everything, there is no reason to keep playing, and the replay factor isn't very high unless you let a few years pass

Could you share your save game file? I've finished the original (not remastered) version not so long ago, and the game still very fresh on my mind. So i didn't wanted to play all over again before the new DLC.

I remember going for typical fighter when playing the original with longswords, greatswords and hammers now I want to be a Rogue and use daggers and bows :)

The added setting for the camera is amazing.

just wanted to pop in to mention that this game plays beautifully on the steam deck, and plays for around 4 hours at that

one of the games that i absolutely enjoyed playing back in the day! And there are tons to find in exploration.

I love this game. The combat feels so good and rewarding. Also I love that this game is so stylized. It aged with much more grace than for example the more realistic skyrim, which needs some major mods to still look good.

If I remember correctly, there was a "choice" at the end of every guild quest.. Also, I loved the DLCs more than the base game, as an atmosphere, armors, etc .. the collossae DlC introduced a new type of damage, the pirate one introduced a kind of mansion building and managing, they both have real good potential. I'd enjoy for a sequel. I really hope they add a new class/archetype in the next expansion, but I truly doubt it..but still. Necromancy exists in this world, so why not complicate it a bit ..Loved the art style too, and I hate cartoony graphics.

I found the gameplay amazing! As said, and the reckoning mode is awesome, if they decide to make a sequel too this, if improved, I'll definitely play.

Thank you! Great review and exactly what I was hoping to know about the game.

the reason the races are almost the same is explained in the games lore the Ljosalfar and the Dokkalfar were once the same race think of them as we think of elves and dark elves they changed so much over time they spilt into the 2 races we have in the game the two human one are from a race that like them was once one but one became traders/pirates and they lost their homeland so long ago that they split into two tribes this lead them to becoming 2 different races over time hell its pretty much our real worlds race of humans we are almost the same yet we are not

i discovered this game a while ago and quite literally played it everyday until i was finished it. lol. for whatever reason it's highly addictive. simple, yet challenging. collecting reagents and stuff makes revisiting areas worth it. and there is reason to fully explore every spec of the map. often finding goodies you didn't expect to find. i love the ability to go wherever... i'm not restricted in this linear meh reality where i am stuck to one path. oh ya... i got way in over my head a few times... and actually ended up doing a main quest later then i was supposed to and it was under powered for me because i had gone so far off the quest line into the unknown it wasn't funny. The fact that the game even allowed me to do that gives it an extra star from me. YAY... i can do my own thing... i am not forced to be a frigging robot... i am not forced to design my character a set way and have rule after rule of what i can't do shoved down my throat. Great game.

The game is currently one of the two free games that you get monthly with your PlayStation plus subscription and here's a pro tip for those who don't know: You can add any of those games to your Library without downloading it (saving space on your hard drive) then download the game and play it whenever you feel like it down the road because it's already in your library, essentially, you own the game by adding it to your library wether you download it or not.

10$Black Friday sale 2023. Worth it

Fun note about this game, the base game and thousands of years of lore was created and written by famed and acclaimed fantasy author R.A. Salvatore known most notably for creating the legend of drizzt series of novels

That closing music always gets me hyped

I've put over 170 hours into re-reckoning on the Xbox One, and loved it. (Still haven't done the Teeth of Naros DLC yet). For me, the most frustrating thing was the inventory management as I wound up wanting to complete all the special sets of armour. I understand the comparisons to Fable in some ways, I also thought that the loot and inventory reminded me of Diablo III.

Solid review, for me this game has one the most compelling story and environments I've ever seen in an RPG. The only thing that held this game back from true greatness, imo, was the combat that was fun and satisfying but just shy of true polished greatness. I do think if more iteration could have been done on the combat system then KoA would have absolutely been a complete smash hit. But simply from the absolutely fantastic voice acting and constant flow of whit and humor just makes this game so endearing to me even today. Much respect for putting so much time in before giving a review, I've never even heard of someone being so thorough with a game before giving a review.

Thanks for the review, was curious about this game and now I know it isn't my kind of game, love you reviews and Please keep up the great work

When should I open the dlc chest after the tutorial? I heard it scales with your lv so when’s the best time to open it?

Free for ps plus in November havent played this game since ps3 I'm actually quite excited

Okay I have the original and Im curious if I should even buy the re reckoning edition? What you think

Very informative. I would like to see a 100% review for Elex

Congrats! I may have mentioned before that I was a glitched trophy kept me from 100ing the PS3 verison. Still bummed about it. =(

A 100% review, what a fun idea! I actually listened to your review differently. After all you very well know what you´re talking about it here

Sorcerer was busted. I loved it.

I love games, that said I do not know how “adult” gamers who work full time jobs are able to complete or even put hundreds of hours into games or even multiple games before the next one comes out. I have a back log of hundreds of games all great, but never touched.

I do play it since PS+ and I have to say it's great. Great and huge and I mean HUUUUGE! It's a old school great rpg with lots of things to discover during exploration, combat is relatively simple but feels great. (I am pure tank so far, 76 points in might and 1 and 1 point is magic and stealth) Side quests are interesting and main quest as well. Overall for me is 8/10, since I have also never played original I think it would be 9/10 years ago. I do enjoy it

Ive played hours upon hours of tbis game. Two play throughs. And will gladly play it again. Alot of filler quest but the combat is stellar. Def a cult classic. But i love this game

We need more combat like this in RPG's.

If I remember correctly Kingdoms of amalur was supposed to be a prequel to a game that they were making which was supposed to be a MMORPG under the name project capernicus. But sadly that never came to be since 38 studios closed down. I think you can still look at some ideas for the project though.

I remember playing the original in high school but never finishing it, so I admit I got the re-reckoning version to finish it properly once and for all (not yet but still on my game list lol)

Sounds like you didn't play both versions, re-reckoning is far more enjoyable to play especially when you factor in the new level scaling system, instead of locking the level when you enter a region, now when you level up, leave a region and come back the levels of both the enemies and loot is re scaled to meet your level, in the original reckoning this was not the case and was broken, re-reckoning made the necessary adjustments to make sure loot and treasure isn't useless

Played the game several years ago and consider it one of the Best SP RPGs ever made. Perfect? No. But damn good.

A nutshell summary that popped into my head was 'good at being mediocre' - there's nothing memorably great about it but it never gets in its own way and so succeeds at being a fun little button masher you can grind through with one eye on KZfaq. Buy it if you need a filler action-rpg and like playing a custom character with plenty of build variety.

I just started this game, got it on clearance for $10 and it's well worth it. Feels like a mix of Fable and Skyrim. Graphics are outdated but not bad considering it was 2012. Didn't mention you can go in the water in some places and dive or pick up things (again Fable-like). I play a combination of Bow/Melee/Sorcery. Soften them up from a distance then finish them with Melee or Sorcery. It's fun, but only found one knapsack so I'm constantly having to destroy items for less money to make room and pick up new items. I sunk 24 hours into it the first three days I played it. Definitely underrated!

Trying to Dispel without max Dispelling is like trying to perform brain surgery after going to the doctor's office.

Pretty much what I thought when I played the original. Didn't care enough to finish it though, as fun as the combat was, the story and world didn't hook me enough to carry me to the end.

I had the original on console and now own the PC version; awesome game that kinda went under the radar. ; )

This game is AMAZING! Playing on PS5 and this game is underrated and is what am Action RPG should be full of. I’ve been playing 4-5hrs a day and I’m not even half way through.

They might have changed it for the remaster but even on hard I found it very easy to accidentally mid max myself just by doing all the side quests and exploring. Before I’d know it, I’m 3-5 levels ahead of all the enemies in the area.

Thank you, even subscribed after this, quite informative! I myself borrowed the game from a friend of mine way back and played about 15 hours on the 360 but never completed it. Always saw it as a action Fable. Bought the re-reckoning edition along side KOTOR 1&2 today, having uninstalled Division 2 after playing it for six months straight. Glad to hear that magic is powerful in this game as that is what I tend to gravitate towards in fantasy RPG's, so I'll be playing on hard difficulty I think.

I love this game. I pre-ordered it for the PS3 then pre-ordered this version for the PS4 and its one of my two or three favorite fantasy setting Action RPGs for the PS3.

The checkboarding is noticeable on the Series S, don't know if it's like it on Series X, PC or PS5. There's some character model texture issues (especially on elves near the ears) and some of the missions can't be completed because they're broken.

I love the concept of Kingdoms of Amalur

Your review was impeccable. I agree that it is not original or that it does feel a lil mediocre depending on how you relate to the game. But I think it is as good as it could have been. As someone who was a teen in the late 90's playing Ultima Online this game at that time felt like a dream come true when you consider growing up on UO and Diablo I and II. Something not that far could have been said about Dungeon Siege #noshot

Your intro song really reminds me of this game

The game really shines in combat and the ability to adjust your path on the fly via the unbind destiny.. so if you want to play as a different fighting style you can do it at anytime

This is still one of the best games I ever played!😊

as someone who loved the original i really enjoyed the remaster, it fixed my biggest issues with the original that was the terrible camera angle, now you can change it and it feels much better

I really don't see how this game has been done before many times and better, there's maybe Dragon's dogma and Fable but most of em still feel different and there's really not many like it.

I don't know if you played the different types of races, but the gods vary by race. The only thing that is consistent between all 4 is the self-sufficient choice. Though, I hope any sequel will allow all gods for all playable races. Same goes for customization. All hairstyles and facial hair. Maybe add more tattoos 2. As for combat, I think the might/sorcery is better. It allows you to use mage weapons, but wear the warrior armor for maximum protection. I feel that blacksmithing and sagecraft ate the 2 best skills since they allow you to make incredibly powerful weapons and armor. Also, Re-reckoning gives more loot and gold than the original.

I still play this game, if it had online and a stead feature this game would’ve made a bigger impact. This is still a very enjoyable game.

According to the leaks, this should be next month's PS Plus game, so this is a good time for this!

I came to see what the game is like. Was looking for something to get into, and this was on PS+.

Man, I remember playing this when it first came out

highly recommend speeding up the game to 1.3 or 1.5x speed using cheat engine. makes fights actually difficult, until you craft your own armor anyways...

While I enjoyed this game immensely when I started playing back when it first came out, it's also, one of those I never finished. Mainly because it was a failed attempt as an MMORPG ...and that fact shows: immense gameworld filled with repeatitive quests, NPC and monster skins...If the gameworld was smaller and richer in enemy types then we might be talking, nowadays, about Kingdoms of Amalur 3 and not a Re -Re....It had THAT much potential.....

I’m simple, I played it to platinum on ps3, then again on ps4 when it came out. It’s joe free on ps plus so no reason not to give it a whirl. Shame it didn’t do the numbers it needed but would love to see thq do something with it.

back in like 2013 or so I briefly met with one of the writers for this game. I basically told them I thought the writing kinda sucked and I still feel bad about it to this day lol

Hey! I actually thought the name of it is very catchy and funny :P

I heard they are working on a sequel 👀 but then again I heard in 2019 that they were gonna wait and see how well the re-master did. 2 years later no leak of anything and still no dlc. Maybe someone should remind them of the lack of the extra dlc we all paid for... 🤔

i played the original version again last week and have started rereckoning this week as I was so frustated with the buggy gameplay and i see a massive graphic difference on my pc, also fov makes the game feel different and the gameplay experience also feels better. No they didnt do flashy changes, but rereckoning feels and plays much better than the original on pc.

I loved this game sooooo much when it came out. I think this was supposed to be a mmo but they scrapped that and just made it a single player with what they managed to make until then.

I feel like I enjoy the game but I do have some gripes for sure. The big one is that I feel that combat is kind of buggy. So I am playing a stealth finesse/sorcery character. So off the bat you can stealth attack pretty much anything but larger enemies won't die from the initial hit. So what ends up happening is that you hit them but while you're in your stealth camera attack animation they just get up and start free attacking you while you can't move or anything because you're in the stealth attack animation. Sometimes in melee combat I'm attacking something and I'm somehow not hitting it even though I'm in melee range and I'm going through the combo as if I'm hitting them but I'm not actually hitting them. The game also doesn't deal with mobs of enemies well. Like when there's more than two or three enemies or even two or three enemies depending on the type you can literally die so fast because they're all attacking in different ways and you have a hitstun when you get hit but sometimes enemies don't have hitstun when you hit them. Also the stealth in general is pretty trash like I guess I'm used to Skyrim and Fallout stealth like this just feels useless. Like the game is fun but I just feel like it almost doesn't feel finished in some ways?

Ps plus gang … where you at

i picked up this game because i had nothing else to play and i thought the title was stupid because it's not a series yet it was titled this way but this game was really fun back then. i used chakram because that weapon looks cool but if it were released today, it should have some sort of depth to it because you are just fulfilling the requirements for destinies and it makes you feel like have less control over your character. i liked this game because it wasn't trying to be dark souls which every rpg game is trying to be now.

I'm playing the original version and I enjoy the game as it gives me those vibes I felt during my 1st login as ex-wow player. On the other hand after the elves' chain quests most of the time I find myself having to complete X-side quests that are a boredom fest.

I played it on 360 back int day. It was like Silverpine forest from warcraft made into a full game.

It may not seem that way, but Sagecraft can be incredibly overpowered late game. Late game, rather than relying on unique loot, you can buy uncommon tier armor pieces and weapons with multiple gem sockets. While I didn't try it on the new very hard difficulty, stacking Conqueror's Gems on a mage build was enough to one shot every single enemy I fought with a meteor on hard mode (except the ones who were immune to fire and resistant to elemental damage, they were my worst nightmare). The damage stacking was strong enough to one shot Tirnoch. Tirnoch's fight has phases when she becomes immune to damage momentarily, but those phases don't prevent the initial damage. One meteor was enough to get kill Tirnoch and my build wasn't even fully optimized (I gave up on some damage runes for mana). Although there are runes that aren't all that great, or at least that don't seem to be. I tried stacking stagger runes to increase stun durations with a warrior build, but the results weren't great. If I remember correctly, the maximum amount of utility sockets that you can have at once is 16 (2 per piece of equipment, so magic users would lose two slots since they don't wear pants). Some of the notably overpowered utility socket gems are : Conqueror's Gem : 20% more damage against lightly wounded targets (makes one shotting incredibly easy) Gem of Night / Gem of Radiance : +20% damage during the night and +20% damage during the day respectively. Hero's Gem : +20% health. Oracle's Gem : +20% mana. Gem of Precision : +7% chance to critical hit (it sounds very strong and maybe it is, but that would require other bonuses that amplify critical hit damage). There are also a few Epic gems that are very strong, although you can only have one of those at a time (the only Epic sockets are on chest pieces). They include gems such as Rogue's Gem, which increases the level of all unlocked Finesse abilities by 1 (while there seems to be a cap, that cap is higher than the cap of levelling). There is a variation of this gem for warriors and mages alike. Gem of Abatement reduces all mana costs by 20%. At some point, skills cost nothing. There are multiple weapons and twists of fate that also reduce mana costs. The weapon gems are also very good, but they don't have as much cheese potential. The Gem of Bloodletting does give +15% chance to steal 25 health on hit, which can be notable, but it isn't any more than that. Stacking armor gems can also be incredibly good, since it can lead to immunity to certain types of damage. Flawless Gems grant 30% more armor. That seems great on paper, but I can't confirm it's uses since I never experimented much with it. Gem of Haven grants 12% Elemental Resistance. In short, don't sleep on Sagecrafting.

Nah, even the new DLC won't convince to get the remaster, but I totally recommend game for people who didn't play the original.

Did you ever review the dlc?

I loved this game but I hated navigating the world. I don’t like fast traveling and not having a mount to quickly get around killed it for me.

i only know about this game cause of a friend and tbh its so underrated

good review, voice in audio mix could be louder and there could be some sound fx here and there to shake things up.

I have never played this - always been interested, will check it out next time it's on sale - but I gotta say, this PS3-era UI could *really* have used some work for this remaster. Looks cheap as hell to me. I understand the game as such is pretty damn good and also a passion project and all, but especially with that in mind this presentational aspect jumps out at you even more.

I love this game so much but the remaster was terribly disappointing, I could have just booted up my 360 version. The fact that they charged us for DLC that doesn't exist yet is egregious. Would love a sequel though.

You forgot to mention two important pros (from my perspective): even today, when graphically outdated this game has most beautiful visual scenery, a lot of places just magical eyecandy, combined with lore stones and stories this is most fairytale-atmosphere filing game I ever played. Second pro is chakrams and fae blades - this weapons are so cool that first time playing I was just obligated to multiclass to finesse-sorcery to fight using thise weapons. Sadly this weapons very rare in (not isometric) games.

Eh the game rebalanced the massively skewed and broken difficulty from the base game. The original release was ridiculously easy especially with crafted gear to the point that it was hard to enjoy overleveling and not being able to use any of the dropped unique items. I straight up dropped the original game half way through because of how boring I felt the game was while trying to make it difficult.

I played it back when I came out. This was free on ps plus so I revisited it and I didn't care for it this time around. I don't think it aged well

My main memory of playing it back on the Xbox was it was a very enjoyable experience until I ran into a game breaking bug. I just started playing it via PS Plus again, my experience was very enjoyable, but then I ran into another game breaking bug. I'm not willing to micro manage save files.