The world of Reckoning is like the country of Candy: there are bad guys and good guys! If you find this preamble a little simple and Manichean, know that it remains faithful to the spirit of the game. The elves, called here the Faes, are divided into two groups. The Fae of the Winter Court have declared war on mortals, while "the Fae of the Summer Court are kind". Why quotes around this sentence worthy of a novice writer? Because it is word for word one of the game's dialogues! It is Gizela Wulflac from the village of Gothart who will give you this crucial information, which you will in fact have already been provided with dozens of times by the time you meet this young woman. We laugh, we laugh, but the anecdote remains revealing of the poverty of the game's dialogue system. on relatively tasteless sentences. This bad impression is accentuated by the presence of a mute hero and a far too monotonous French version. Players who are not put off by English will do well to switch the game to VO, in order to find pleasant voices, with pronounced accents. Unfortunately, this will not change anything in the scenario and the universe, which remain of a foolproof classicism. Besides, imagine that you are playing an amnesic character! Hopefully you are too, so you don't have to remember all the roleplaying games that have used this big string in the past. We laugh, we laugh, but this time at least you have a good reason to have forgotten everything since you are dead. Fortunately, a gnome scientist managed to restore your body and soul, thanks to a magic well of his invention. You are therefore free to choose a new life! If the creation of the character remains simple (choice of sex, race among two human and two elves, of a deity granting particular bonuses, and physical appearance), it remains possible to "multi-class" by the continued.
It's your destiny !
Depending on how you spend your talent points in the power, finesse and sorcery trees, you will become a warrior, a ranger, a mage or a mix of the three. Add to that ten areas (alchemy, lock picking, bargaining, stealth, etc.) to progress through ten levels, as well as a destiny system providing various bonuses, and you get a rather extensive hero customization. And that is good! What is also significant is the plethora of quests available, which ensure a very good lifespan. It is possible to complete the main adventure in about thirty hours, but whoever wants to respond to all the requests will easily spend more than a hundred hours surveying the map. On the other hand, it must be recognized that the quests are often very basic. Moral choices are rare, and their influence remains very limited. In fact, the whole game is built like an MMO that would be played solo. The geography of the places is made up of very distinct zones and you are constantly asked to go and kill this or that group of monsters for this or that boat reason. A little more and it feels like World of Warcraft! Moreover, the graphics resume the paw cartoon dear to Blizzard. Which works pretty well, though the sheer amount of bloom to make every Orlando on earth swoon can get slightly sickening at times. We laugh, we laugh, but by force, you will end up thinking that Reckoning is a bad game. Well no: just take it for an action game with RPG components, rather than a game of action-oriented role, and everything works out! The fights are indeed particularly dynamic, fluid and impressive. The screen shakes for a yes or a no, weapons and spells trigger real fireworks, the enemies are mobile and force us to do many dodges, we switch in the blink of an eye between different equipment. .. In short, we are not bored for a single second and we are amazed. It's extremely well done and rewarding, and it's certainly the game's greatest strength. This efficiency, combined with a generous loot system, quickly causes the characteristic addiction of good hack'n'slash. It must be said that the developers have gone all out to constantly reward the player, and make his life easier. Maybe even a little too much.
God mode activated
Thus, apart from passages in stealth mode, the hero never walks. He is running. Always. And he also knows how to sprint, without ever losing his breath. The plants he can pick up and the chests he can loot shine brightly so they can't be missed. The collection of chemical compounds from plants is instantaneous. So much so that you can do it while running, and even while sprinting! Naturally, quest givers have a big yellow exclamation point on their heads so we don't waste time talking to ordinary NPCs. It is possible to totally respecialize your hero, very easily and at any time for a small sum of money. Which is absolutely not a problem since the gold coins are collected by the millions. Literally. Even the most basic weapons unleash an avalanche of special effects on the screen, while a judgment gauge fills up over the fights and gives the opportunity to regularly trigger executions. Which bear their name well since they are represented by animations of all violence. Free, of course, even if it means bordering on the ridiculous when we see the hero smash with frantic and repeated punches the face of a simple elf in the woods. And don't expect to find a little finesse when you pick up chakrams, presented as a weapon intended for mages. These metal circles that we throw like boomerangs are as fierce as they are enjoyable, and would make the warriors of other RPGs look like wimps. Naturally, we loot magic items all the time. And even having spent zero points in picking, it is easy to open the chests whose level of picking is indicated as being difficult. The general level of difficulty is also very low, which certainly stems from a desire to appeal to the widest possible audience. Moreover, the targeting of enemies during combat is automatic. A lack of taste to store next to the lack of jumping (apart from certain predetermined places), our hero only knowing how to roll. Or the non-representation on the screen of the shield that we carry, and which appears and disappears magically each time we perform a parrying movement. You will have understood it: far from the narrative depth of a Fallout: New Vegas or the freedom of a Skyrim, The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is on the other hand a very good release, capable of seducing players full of passion. .
