Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Overview

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a 2012 action role-playing game developed by Big Huge Games and published by 38 Studios and Electronic Arts for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. You play the Fateless One, a person brought back from the dead by the Well of Souls and freed from the destiny that binds everyone else in Amalur. The game is set in the Faelands, where you explore, complete quests and fight in the field and in dungeons.

Combat is in real time with two equipped weapons, from swords and daggers to bows, hammers and chakrams, plus a shield, dodging and active skills. Filling the Fate meter lets you trigger Reckoning mode, which slows time for everyone but you. Characters are built through three Ability trees (Might, Finesse and Sorcery) and Destiny cards, which work as a class system. Nine outside-combat skills such as Lockpicking, Blacksmithing and Persuasion also level up, and a Fateweaver will reset your build for a fee.

The game grew out of a prototype made by Big Huge Games around 2007. 38 Studios, founded by baseball player Curt Schilling, took the studio over and set the prototype in Amalur, a world he created with writer R. A. Salvatore for an unreleased online game. Artist Todd McFarlane and designer Ken Rolston also worked on it, and Grant Kirkhope wrote most of the music. The score was played by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

It came out on February 7, 2012 in North America, February 9 in Australia and February 10 in Europe, with a Japanese release by Spike Chunsoft on September 20. A demo in January 2012 was criticised for bugs, and Schilling apologised, saying it had been built from outdated code. Special editions were made in small numbers, and the Legend of Dead Kel and Teeth of Naros expansions followed in March and April.

Critics praised the combat and visuals, but found the story and the lack of depth in its systems weaker. Reviews on all platforms were favourable. It sold about 1.3 million copies by July 2012, ahead of Electronic Arts' projections, but 38 Studios needed more than two million to turn a profit. The studio closed later in 2012, which cancelled a sequel and the planned console patches.

A remaster called Re-Reckoning, from Kaiko and THQ Nordic, was released for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One on September 8, 2020, with a Nintendo Switch port in March 2021. It includes all earlier DLC and added a new expansion, Fatesworn.

Official trailer

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Launch Trailer, EA Games Australia & New Zealand. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Xbox 360) Gameplay No Commentary, Game Footage Archive. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Action role-playing

Developer

Big Huge Games

Publisher

38 Studios and Electronic Arts

Composers

Grant Kirkhope, Mark Cromer

Designers

Ian Frazier, Ken Rolston

Writers

Erik J. Caponi, Andrew Auseon, Tom Murphy

Producers

Sean Bean

Directors

Mark Nelson

Engine

Big Huge Games in-house engine (first built for Rise of Nations) with Havok physics

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

No

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Achievements

Achievements61 (1,300G)

1000G possibleYes

Total

61

Gamerscore

1300

100% time

50 to 60 hours

Difficulty

5 out of 10

Playthroughs for 1000G

1

Playthroughs for 100%

1

New Game Plus

No. Your Destiny and skills can be reset with a Fateweaver as often as you like.

1000G without online

Yes

Online trophies

0

Online note

All 61 achievements are single-player. EA's online services for the game closed on 15 May 2023; no achievement used them.

DLC has trophies

Yes

1000G includes DLC

No

100% includes DLC

Yes

DLC comes in

Japanese release

DLC still for sale

No

DLC note

The Legend of Dead Kel and The Teeth of Naros add 11 achievements worth 300G. Neither can be bought today.

Missable trophies

5

Chapter select fixes a miss

No

Separate trophy lists by region

Yes

Only in a language other than English

No

Languages

English, Japanese

Region note

The Japanese release has its own achievement list.

Online-only version

No

Digital-only

No

Disc-only

No

Players with 1000G

6.1%

Gamerscore, base game

1000

Gamerscore with DLC

1300

Missable trophies

• Destiny Dominated
• The Harder They Fall

Grind

• Smash 1,000 objects for Bull in a China Shop
• 500 kills with abilities for And Then There Were None
• Spend 200,000 gold for Big Spender
• Succeed at 50 Persuasion attempts for A Wink and a Smile

• Reborn You were reborn from the Well of Souls, and have escaped Allestar Tower. 10G 99.74% of players
• No Destiny, All Determination You have met High King Titarion, and have been confronted with the true scope of your powers. 15G 53.27% of players
• Turning the Tide A ruse has baited Octienne into betraying the necromantic nature of his experiments. 20G 40.9% of players
• Hero of Mel Senshir You have defeated the great Balor. 75G 39.4% of players
• Destiny Defiant You have defeated Tirnoch, and defied destiny. 75G 30.69% of players
• Destiny Dominated You have won the game on Hard difficulty. 100G 9.82% of players
• House of Ballads Completed the House of Ballads storyline quests. 20G 40.97% of players
• House of Sorrows Completed the House of Sorrows storyline quests. 20G 26.61% of players
• Scholia Arcana Completed the Scholia Arcana storyline quests. 20G 22.95% of players
• Travelers Completed the Travelers storyline quests. 20G 26.58% of players
• Warsworn Completed the Warsworn storyline quests. 20G 34.23% of players
• Reckoning Rampage Killed 5 enemies with a single Fateshift. 20G 63.53% of players
• Niskaru Slayer Killed 25 Niskaru. 20G 45.45% of players
• Out of Your League Killed an enemy 4 levels higher than you. 20G 19.7% of players
• Cleaning Up the Streets Killed 50 bandits. 20G 66.44% of players
• Blades of Glory Acquired 10 Unique weapons (Special Delivery weapons excluded). 15G 49.82% of players
• Foiled Again! Parried 100 times. 15G 21.92% of players
• Trapper Killed 25 enemies with traps. 15G 17.42% of players
• Riposte! Landed 25 special attacks out of Parry. 10G 18.35% of players
• Would You Like Fries with that? Landed 100 complete attack chains. 15G 76.68% of players
• Shock and Awe Killed 100 enemies with abilities. 15G 36.89% of players
• And Then There Were None Killed 500 enemies with abilities. 20G 18.61% of players
• Juggler Landed 5 consecutive hits on a launched enemy. 20G 39.23% of players
• Elixir of Fate Made a potion with the Essence of Fate. 20G 25.13% of players
• It Didn't Explode! Made a stable potion by experimenting. 10G 63.75% of players
• Green Thumb Harvested 10 of each type of reagent. 15G 8.81% of players
• Good as New Repaired a piece of equipment. 10G 80.74% of players
• Shop Class Crafted a piece of equipment with Blacksmithing. 10G 65.77% of players
• Master of the Forge Crafted an item that uses all 5 forge component slots. 20G 33.37% of players
• Romancing the Gem Crafted an Epic Gem. 15G 27.04% of players
• Diamond in the Rough Crafted a Pristine Shard. 10G 39.98% of players
• They Never Saw it Coming Backstabbed 20 enemies. 10G 32.39% of players
• Cartographer Discovered 100 locations. 20G 27.94% of players
• The Great Detective Detected 25 hidden things. 10G 56.27% of players
• Loremaster Discovered all Lorestones. 20G 10.54% of players
• Bookworm Read 50 books. 15G 20.71% of players
• Big Spender Spent 200,000 gold. 15G 45.91% of players
• Five Finger Discount Stole and fenced an item. 10G 40.52% of players
• Where's My Wallet? Pickpocketed 20 times. 15G 14.5% of players
• Jailbreak You broke out of jail. 10G 27.68% of players
• A Life of Crime Got caught committing a crime 25 times. 15G 13.4% of players
• Crime Doesn't Pay Spent over 10,000 gold in crime bribes. 10G 27.61% of players
• Some of This, Some of That Unlocked a two-class hybrid destiny. 10G 60.1% of players
• It is Your Destiny Unlocked a top tier destiny. 50G 20.38% of players
• Jack of All Trades Unlocked a Jack of All Trades destiny. 10G 50.85% of players
• Breaking and Entering Picked 50 locks. 15G 48.1% of players
• Open Sesame Dispelled 50 wards. 15G 20.75% of players
• A Wink and a Smile You have succeeded at 50 Persuasion attempts. 15G 13.49% of players
• Bull in a China Shop Smashed 1,000 objects. 15G 39.52% of players
• Streaker You spoke to someone while not wearing clothes. 10G 29.14% of players
• Message in a Bottle Located all eight message bottles in Gallows End. 25G 6.92% of players
• Keep on Rising Gravehal Keep has been fully restored. 50G 11.11% of players
• Give Her a Hand Found Aubrey Gilcrest's severed hand. 25G 7.07% of players
• Manic Pixie Dream Elf Wooed Rast Brattigan. 25G 11.29% of players
• Exterminator Killed 50 Scavs. 25G 6.58% of players
• The Harder They Fall You’ve bested Kahrunk without killing his attendants. 20G 11.75% of players
• We Built this City You helped the Kollossae in the Teeth of Naros break free from their fate. 50G 10.4% of players
• Mistaken Identity You’ve found a strange Almain who has been hiding in the sewers of Idylla. 25G 8.2% of players
• Beam Me Up Used the Henge to enter Idylla. 25G 11.71% of players
• Murder Most Fowl Killed 50 Pteryx. 25G 8.59% of players
• I Regret Nothing Fell to your death from the Idylla Concourse. 5G 8.17% of players

Space and patches

Space needed7.3 GB

Update patchTitle update 1

The title updates on record for this game.

DLC

Two paid story add-ons, a quest line unlocked by the online pass in new copies, and several pre-order items. The Legend of Dead Kel and The Teeth of Naros can no longer be bought on the Xbox store; owners can still download them. The online pass closed on 15 May 2023.

Items

Name	Date	Adds	Price	Obtainable today
The Legend of Dead Kel	2012-03-20	A new island, Gallows End, with new dungeons, enemies, unique weapons and Twist of Fate cards, and the Gravehal quest line. 5 achievements worth 150G.	800 Microsoft Points	no
The Teeth of Naros	2012-04-17	A new area with the Kollossae and a new Primal damage type, plus new enemies. 6 achievements worth 150G.	800 Microsoft Points	no
House of Valor	2012-02-07	A quest series for the House of Valor faction, unlocked by the online pass that came with new copies. The online pass closed on 15 May 2023.	Online pass with new copies	no
Pre-order items	2012-02-07	Special weapons and an item for finding potion ingredients.	Pre-order bonus	no

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

Single-player only, and the disc still plays on Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

Online

Online servers runningNo

Plays offlineYes

There is no online multiplayer. The only online feature was the online pass that unlocked the House of Valor quests, and EA closed it on 15 May 2023. Single-player is not affected.

Services

Service	Status	Shutdown date
Online pass (House of Valor unlock)	closed	2023-05-15

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	Xbox 360	80	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
Edge	6	10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	8.5	10
Eurogamer	8	10
Game Informer	8	10
GameSpot	7.5	10
GameTrailers	8.2	10
IGN	9	10
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	8	10

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Mark Nelson
Executive Design Director	Ken Rolston
Lead Designer	Ian Frazier
Producer	Sean Bean
Lead Narrative Designer	Erik J. Caponi
World Creator	R. A. Salvatore
Executive Art Director	Todd McFarlane
Art Director	Tim Coman
Composer	Grant Kirkhope
Composer	Mark Cromer

Notes for collectors

• The January 2012 demo unlocked themed items in Mass Effect 3, and the Mass Effect 3 demo unlocked items in Reckoning.
• The Signature Edition was oversold by 12 units, so an Exclusive Edition with an alternative print numbered out of 12 was made for those buyers.
• Early runs of the console versions came with a free online pass for the House of Valor quest series. 38 Studios said it was always meant to be the first DLC.
• The Japanese release by Spike Chunsoft included all the DLC.
• Because of the studio closure, the planned console patches never shipped. A PC patch was released quickly for the worst bugs.
• The Legend of Dead Kel and The Teeth of Naros achievements make up 300 of the 1,300 gamerscore.

Credits

Publisher

38 Studios and Electronic Arts

Developer

Big Huge Games

Director

Mark Nelson

Released

2012-02-07

Age rating

M (Mature)

Disc ID

4541093E

Region

US

Time to beat

about 43.7 hours

Copies in the shop

• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (XBOX 360) CA$14.99