Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a fantasy action RPG set in the realm of Amalur, and has been advertised as a revolution in role playing video games. Reckoning features aspects both familiar and new to gamers.

The protagonist is the singular success of The Well of Souls, a mysterious device that is meant to be an end to death by restoring the bodies and souls of the dead. However, an evil faction of the Fae, called the Tuatha, has learned of the character’s resurrection and wants nothing more than to destroy the protagonist and the Well.

The freedom Reckoning provides for players is remarkable. Reckoning follows a character of the player’s creation as they explore the expansive open world and decide their own fate as well as the fate of Amalur.

Reckoning provides custom character creation, similar to the character creation featured in Elder Scrolls and is a staple of BioWare games. Players can choose their character’s gender, race, and appearance.

“I like Reckoning’s character creation. It is simpler than Skyrim or Dragon Age, but it’s still good and easy to use,” senior Katie Boylen said.

Reckoning features not only custom characters, but also custom weapons, potions and armor.

Players can make use of a blacksmithing forge to create swords and breastplates with custom bonuses and custom names.

Sagecrafting allows the player to create gems and add them to armor and weapons to make them even more powerful.

Alchemy involves gathering ingredients and experimenting with combining them to create recipes for potions.

“The skills are really cool. I wish you could do it in other games. I like the customizable weapons the most,” senior Katrina Fournier said.

“I like it because I can name my weapons and make them as awesome or stupid as I want,” Boylen commented as she slayed a pack of wolves with her sword named Pancakes.

Reckoning’s graphics leave much to be desired. In comparison to other recently-released games, including Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Skyrim, Reckoning’s graphics fall completely flat. The quality of the graphics is not so poor that the game is impacted severely, but it is disappointing to see such low quality among modern games. However, the environments and scenery are beautifully designed and rendered.

“The graphics are alright, but I don’t like the way the gnomes look. They just don’t seem as high quality. And the motion of all the characters is pretty bad,” Fournier said.

Reckoning’s combat is remarkably seamless. Doing battle with boggarts and trolls is a balanced blend of challenge and simplicity.

“Overall it’s not very unique, but I like that it’s easy to use,” Fournier said.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning may not be a revolution among RPGs and has its share of flaws, but it does include unique features and an interesting story, and is worth playing.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is developed by Big Huge Games and its parent company 38 Studios. It was released on February 7, 2012, and has been rated M by ESRB. It is available for Windows, PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360.