Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Confirmed

[Raevenlord]

The original Kingdoms of Amalur was an expansive voyage through well-known fantasy tropes, one that was received with relative acclaim, even if its overall storyline left something to be desired. A strange fact indeed, considering the game's story and lore were penned by none other than acclaimed fantasy author R. A. Salvatore, with input from Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston. Developer 38 Studios shut down the doors relatively close to the gamers' release on account of sales not being enough for the company to pay for a loan granted towards the games' development by the state of Rhode Island. And thus story could have been left written, with thoughts of a eventual sequels and even a franchise being put to rest.

Cue THQ Nordic (who have been on a roll when it comes to both IP and studio acquisitions in the last few years) and the story might have a different ending. In fact, it will, as the company has just confirmed a soon-to-be-released remaster of the original Kingdoms of Amalur. Cheekily named "Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning", the remaster makes way to a gaming platform (currently PC and PS4 confirmed) near you as soon as August 18th. THQ Nordic is claiming "improved visuals and refined gameplay." It initially offered a release date of Aug. 11, but it has now been adjusted to Aug. 18. The games' announcement was originally leaked via Microsoft's Store (with accompanying screenshots), and has since been confirmed by THQ Nordic via Twitter.



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[AsRock]

TBH enjoyed the original, personally don't care about a remake.

 

[Camm]

If it improves on the MMO grind style levelling, I'll pick it up.

 

[KnightStorm]

It looks pretty cool.

 

[Valantar]

That explains why Gamasutra just reprinted a post-mortem article from way back in April 2014 about what went wrong with development of this game. It reads a bit weird given that it was originally printed a month before the studio folded, but it's interesting nonetheless. Well worth a read for those intetested in some insight into the process of developing a huge game like this.

 

[AsRock]

That explains why Gamasutra just reprinted a post-mortem article from way back in April 2014 about what went wrong with development of this game. It reads a bit weird given that it was originally printed a month before the studio folded, but it's interesting nonetheless. Well worth a read for those intetested in some insight into the process of developing a huge game like this.

Yeah sadly it did not stop EA cashing in on it still.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Game was fantastic. I'll likely buy it just because I want to see it turned into the franchise it was meant to be.

 

[Frick]

TBH enjoyed the original, personally don't care about a remake.

Same here. It doesn't hold up for a second playthrough though.

 

[Valantar]

I might give it a try simply because I never played the original. Seems interesting if nothing else, though frankly the last thing I need is another 100+ hour open-world RPG on my to play-list.

 

[Frick]

I might give it a try simply because I never played the original. Seems interesting if nothing else, though frankly the last thing I need is another 100+ hour open-world RPG on my to play-list.

It wasn't that long iirc.

 

[Valantar]

It wasn't that long iirc.

You don't know how I play RPGs I'm a slow, meandering, easily distracted and obsessively exploratory player, and I tend to focus on side quests and exploration to such an extent that I often forget main quests. My single playthrough of The Witcher 3 took >200 hours. I never finished Oblivion simply because when I finally remembered that I had a main quest to do (the first oblivion gate) I had leveled my thief/sneaking character so high I encountered enemies so powerful inside that gate that I had absolutely zero chance of fighting them as that character. Yeah, I'm not exactly good at these games. Though I would say I do exactly what they want me to do

 

[kapone32]

Sometimes I still play the original if the price is right I will pick it up for the improved visuals even though the Game has native support for 4K.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I think I spent around 40 hours in the game. The visuals were stunning and the gameplay was pretty solid, but the story was just okay. If the franchise does come back to life it would be interesting to see where it goes from here. I might entertain the idea of getting the re-make of this game as long as it's available on other platforms that isn't the Windows store.

One franchise I wish to be finished off (though most likely probably never, ever will) is Advent Rising.

 

[AsRock]

Same here. It doesn't hold up for a second playthrough though.

So true, apparently what i was willing to put up with before, i am not now which is really the controls is the main issue for me.

Game was fantastic. I'll likely buy it just because I want to see it turned into the franchise it was meant to be.

After completing the game, we checked if there was going to be more and that's when we sadly learned that it went belly up, so sad.

 

[enxo218]

original was just fine , the combat gameplay was the best and visuals had a sweetfx improvement mod (just about the only useful of the scarcely available ones)...Please leave it alone

 

[Valantar]

original was just fine , the combat gameplay was the best and visuals had a sweetfx improvement mod (just about the only useful of the scarcely available ones)...Please leave it alone

... is anyone saying you won't be able to play the original any more? If the game was good or even partly good, wouldn't a remaster just make it possible for new audiences to enjoy, possibly also smoothing out the errors of the original? Saying to leave it alone doesn't quite make sense IMO.

 

[Frick]

You don't know how I play RPGs I'm a slow, meandering, easily distracted and obsessively exploratory player, and I tend to focus on side quests and exploration to such an extent that I often forget main quests. My single playthrough of The Witcher 3 took >200 hours. I never finished Oblivion simply because when I finally remembered that I had a main quest to do (the first oblivion gate) I had leveled my thief/sneaking character so high I encountered enemies so powerful inside that gate that I had absolutely zero chance of fighting them as that character. Yeah, I'm not exactly good at these games. Though I would say I do exactly what they want me to do

I do the same and again it wasn't that long. IIRC.

 

[DeViLzzz]

Wow! I never saw this coming! Huge news and definitely looking forward to a proper remaster. Notice how I said proper? Many times over the last few years companies have done remasters and they are just pointless. Hopefully this and many more games will get proper remasters in 2020 and beyond. Graphical upgrades with bugs fixed and more content added without it having the DLC tag. If there has to be DLC then have it be reasonably affordable.