Once again the world of Amalur expands, adding a new area for exploration, loot acquisition, and fate-defying. Where the previous DLC had a pirate theme and provided a slick new homestead on an island that required a boat ride from the mainland, this new experience elevates to the skies and delivers a grander scale of allies, enemies, and story gravitas.

Story

The strong themes of fate that have permeated the core game reemerge after just a throwaway reference in the earlier DLC. Now, you evolve your character’s story closer to the gods of Amalur. Nicknamed (or honored as) “Beckoned,” your role of as world savior now starts to earn some credibility. While side missions continue to run the usual trite reasons for monster slaughter such as locating lost spouses or slaying set numbers of critters, the main quest really evokes some gravitas. The proximity to the gods is set up by the new race of the Kollossae, a stony giant group with various political affiliations, and a city—Idylla—that floats above the Teeth of Naros area.

Aside from forcing you to crane your neck upwards in every conversation and cut scene, they present a few interesting challenges that appear to set up branching opportunities for the story (though I’m pretty convinced your decisions all lead to the same boss battles. Still, it’s refreshing, after so many hours, to feel like the people of Amalur truly recognize your contribution, and potential going forward.

Gameplay

It’s no surprise that the core gameplay remains consistent with the core game and first expansion. A couple of new monsters (the flightless Pteryx birds among them) don’t add much in the way of new challenge beyond their own take on the head-butt. Similarly, the rebel Kollossae follow the mantra of the bigger they are the stonier they fall. Ah, but they continue to drop phat loot that, earn you XP, and allow more points to flow into those crammed ability trees.

To prove that this engine has some flexibility for new additions, some of the traps and puzzles are at least interesting, if not terribly tricky (solving a rat problem by pulling levers in some super-limited tower defense style to stop them marauding from the sewers, for example). Despite additional fate cards there are no changes to the skill progression, the inventory system (that really needs an overhaul), and no new homes to own. This last one is a shame since the keep at Gallows End is awesome, but requires fast-traveling to Rathir, and jumping on the boat with Captain Brannigan (who’s evidently forgotten her devoted love for you since you finished off the first DLC content). It’s too many hops, so it makes sense to fast travel to Adessa to use your house there to stash that unwanted-but-not-quite-clear-its-useless gear.

Visuals and Sound

It did appear that some of the texture work in the new sewer area and Teeth of Naros location itself had received a beefing up of sorts. While the structure of both areas is incredibly simple (a square sewer system, a circular region) several areas, particularly the special instances, display an upgraded visual style…nothing too spectacular, but hints at what may be to come.

The voice-over work continues to be an issue in matching actual voices to the look of the fantasy creatures. Maybe it’s more apparent now since after over 100 hours now vested in this story, I’m genuinely listening to plot lines (those on the main quest, that is… whoever just needs resources farming are met with a quick click-through).

Bottom line

Through the roughly eight hours added to the campaign in the Teeth of Naros, the scale of storyline emerged in a positive way, whether you’re following your fate or crafting your own destiny. It definitely helps to collect all the possible side quests before descending into the sewers, or you’ll find areas you know mean something, but can’t activate until that quest is in your log. I have to say, it’s also pretty easy. I bust out a few health potions against the Silverback Trolls on occasion, but never really felt threatened. That helped breeze through both the very linear main quest and the multiple side options.  And that commitment remains plain weird: what is it about this game that is compelling me to a completest level never-before-seen? It’s fun, simple, playable, looks okay, and you feel like a bad-ass… that’ll do for another eight hours.

8.5 / 10

As I sat watching the Reckoning demo at EALA last week, I couldn’t help but think that the creative talent behind the game was such a mishmash of pedigree and experience that it was hard to fathom how the game had seemed to come together so well. After all, the studio is headed by former MLB all star Curt Schilling. Ken Rolston, the lead designer on Oblivion, is the lead designer on Reckoning, and it shows in the aesthetic of the environments. Forgotten Realms novelist R.A. Salvatore constructed the history and story to Reckoning, and any Salvatore fan will tell you Elves and sorcery are his specialty. Finally, Todd McFarlane helped shape the art design of the characters. What has come from this quadruple union is a third person RPG that seems a bit like Oblivion mated with Fable.

Combat is a fast-paced, action affair that resembles a hack-and-slash game more than it resembles an RPG. The demo character wielded dual chakras which he could toss about at will, giant steel boomerangs he could combo into his attacks. He also was able to teleport through enemies. Halfway through the demo, he was able to upgrade his teleport ability to cause poison damage when he teleported through enemies. This kind of customization is representative of the class system in Reckoning, or rather the lack of one. Every character starts as a blank slate, and through the adventure you’ll be able to upgrade your skills in one of three different massive talent trees. So if you’d like to be a spell-slinging swordsman or a pure brawler, it’s all based on how you spec your hero. The team at 38 Studios put it this way: the most important choice you make in an RPG is character class, usually at the start of the adventure, and without knowing how that class will perform in gameplay. They wanted to take that choice and let the player choose their own play style the more comfortable they got with the game.

Other gameplay elements will be familiar to RPG gamers: you’ll be able to stealth around the game world, pickpocketing NPCs or enemies if you wish. There’s an item crafting system whereby you can take all your junk loot, melt it down, and use those resources to create or upgrade new gear. There’s a rotary dialogue wheel for conversations a la Mass Effect. The brightly colored, sprawling open world of Amalur is filled with fantasy fare to feast on. It’s unashamedly bright, choosing to forget depressing dark fantasy and instead embrace an ethereal, dreamlike quality. Simply, this is high fantasy at its most pure.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning seems an unlikely product from an unlikely creative team, but it looks very promising, especially for gamers in the mood for a fast-paced, open world RPG. It will be out in February 2012.