Not as good? It's da bomb, bro.
http://www.metropulse.com/news/2012/feb/29/kingdoms-amalur-reckoning-sounds-wake--call-rpg-ge/
"Somewhere in England,
Fable series developer Peter Molyneux is crying into his tea, or sobbing at a soccer match, or whatever it is that British people do when they’re sad. Whatever form his lamentations take, he no doubt knows an awful truth—the
Fable game he always wanted to make has finally been made, and it had nothing to do with him.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a vast, immersive fantasy epic that has a lot to teach the self-proclaimed visionaries of the industry, having seemingly come out of nowhere to blow many of their best creations out of the water.
...
But where the
Fables were each variations on the theme of the buggy, disappointing mess,
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is at once massive and streamlined, simple and complex, familiar and utterly new.
Attribute at least some of this to the inclusion of fantasy author
R.A. Salvatore as
Reckoning’s resident loremaster. A best-selling fantasy writer since before many of
Reckoning’s players were born, Salvatore made his name as one of the first authors to turn the idea of RPG-related fiction into a viable career. Having him write your game’s backstory is like having Abraham Lincoln come to San Dimas High and narrate your world-history project.
Salvatore’s mark is easily discernible here.
Reckoning’s Faelands are the stuff of old-school high fantasy,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by way of
World of Warcraft. It’s a world completely unafraid of its own stereotypical nature, with layers upon layers of beautiful (if in no way unexpected) scenery at every turn. Forests give way to steppes give way to mountains give way to deserts, all littered with villages and ruins and undercut by caverns and tunnels.
...
Reckoning focuses on that single player’s experience, which allows combat to be tighter, skill progression to be more dynamic, and the game’s story to be told more in a more robust fashion.
Reckoning features expansive character growth options, forgoing a strict class-based setup in favor of several loosely affiliated skill trees divided between warrior, mage, and rogue archetypes. These trees can be mixed and matched with few restrictions, with a series of extra perks and noncombat skills granting bonuses and gameplay options on top of a character’s chosen skill set.
This allows players the freedom of a system that offers as much choice as possible without burdening them with an overabundance of complexity. When stripped of context and analyzed strictly mechanically,
Reckoning’s system appears similar to other adherents of the classic warrior/mage/rogue triumvirate, but as implemented within the game, it feels a shade more intuitive than the systems of its predecessors.
That gives
Reckoning a level of freedom rare in modern RPGs. There’s a lot to experience here, so having some of its fundamentals be content to get out of the way—and do so effectively, instead of attempting and failing like the
Fables and their ilk—is refreshing in a gaming environment too often focused on micromanaging and number-crunching. In a game with a lot of strengths,
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning’s greatest is perhaps its ability to actually be played."
