Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning – Fatesworn Gameplay Preview

Fatesworn is the latest expansion for Kingdoms of Amalur. It takes place right after the ending of the main game. Basically the tapestry of fate is unraveling thanks to your actions and the god of chaos is taking this opportunity to take control. It’s up to you and your band to once again come to the rescue.

Fatesworn takes place in the land of Mithros, filled with mountains and snowy tundras. The main quest will take roughly about six hours to complete and the game also adds in twenty five side quests, six faction quests, and six task quests. For the most part, the side quests are essentially fetch quests but the writing and delivery of the narrative do a good job of masking this fact and making it feel more like an adventure.

The game increases the level cap by ten levels to fifty and adds in new armor sets, weapons, accessories, and etc. as well. You’re going to need these as there is a new mechanic tied to the narrative. Chaos portals open into new chaos dungeons, filled with enemies with chaos armor, which can only be broken by chaos attacks. As you can probably tell, chaos is a heavy thematic element in the new expansion.

I enjoyed my time with the game. Kingdoms of Amalur actually does a great job of building up the world and characters and we see more of that in Fatesworn. The exact contents of the main narrative may not be pleasing to everyone but I found myself enjoying even the side quests. For example the second side quest you run into (The Stolen Ticket) is with the self pronounced Lord Godric Payne, or as I like to call him, Payne in the Ass.

Lord Payne laments to you about his border pass being stolen by one Dolan Hardy, who Payne claims to be a dishonest thief. You confront Dolan, who rejects stealing the pass so you do what any sensible video gamer would do. You pickpocket the pass from Dolan and return it to Gordic Payne only to find out later that Dolan is a hard working citizen. You return to confront Payne, in which you have the option to fight him, convince him to return the pass, or buy it from him. Let’s just say that after the option I chose, Payne will not longer be a pain to anyone else.

The third side quest (Sound of Mithros) was about a a musician trying to set up an ensemble to play traditional Mithros folk music. You end up convincing a flutist to join, after retrieving her stolen flute from bandits, as well as a lutist. As you can guess the lutist needs our help to retrieve wood to build a brand new lute, as his was broken. He couldn’t risk damaging his “magic” hands as he puts it.

After gathering the band, Colet thanks you and the trio leave on their merry way. I actually tried following them to see where they go. The game actually has the characters path to a destination so I’m very curious as to where they will go. As you can see from these two side quests, the game play essentially boils down to a fetch quest but the writing is pretty compelling and I found myself fully immersed.

I find exploring the world of Amalur to be quite fun. It’s a fun casual romp in a world you can easily loose yourself in. It brought back memories of playing Fable 3 way back on my 360.

Overall, Fatesworn adds on plenty of new content to Kingdoms of Amalur. Most of it is pretty darn solid, although some may find the conclusion of the narrative to be a little dissatisfactory. I had a fun time and look forward to return to the land of Amalur once again.