After...
45 hours
3322 enemies slain
6 chicken slaughtered
6 million gold acquired
180 quests completed
6.5 million damage dealt
finally finished the game
Managed to complete the main quest, all of the faction quests, all the side quests i could find except for 2 (explored the entire map, secret entrances, every single lore stone set), and had 14 tasks left to complete, most of them were repeatable quests i think.
Unless i missed an entire other continent, i doubt the 200 hour number is anywhere near accurate, as i´m not a gamer with super mad rpg skillz. Even so, 45-50 hours is a good number for an rpg.
What did i think of it in the end?
I enjoyed the game but it´s a fundamentally flawed gem that sapped every last shred of willpower i could muster to reach the end of it.
Why was it a chore by the end and why do i think its flawed?
The excessive amount of combat
The map is overpopulated with enemies, and the closer to the finish, the more enemies you have to face. And face them you will, because with a few exceptions and even with stealth maxed, you will end up fighting on your way to and from quest objectives... add to that, that the enemies spawn at absurdly fast rates, grayed mobs still aggro and the aggro range is aggravatingly big.
In the end, for as much as i liked the combat, i was fucking tired of it.
Quest Design
The main quest is serviceable if predictable and unimaginative, being clearly inferior to the various faction quests and the magnificent winter/summer Faye house quests.
The problem resides with the mind numbingly boring side quests that are only there as exp and gold dispensers.
It´s clear the game was inspired by mmorpg quest design, as the flashbacks to WoW questing were an ever present ocurance.
Not a bad thing for those that enjoy simple straight forward questing and are only here for the loot, but for anyone else looking for any kind of depth, best look elsewhere than Amalur.
That leads me to...
World design
Amalur is a beautiful place if your into the "cartoony" WoW / Darksiders look. The colors are vibrant, the artwork is imaginative and the scenery transmits the proper sense of grandeur.
The problem, for me at least, is in the way the zones were designed. Even tho the game strives to be an open world rpg, each "zone" in the game is a self sustained hub with a clear theme to it, all connected by corridors that clearly transmit "warning you are heading into another zone".
Even tho it might sound silly, i would compare the design more to the Witcher games than to the elder scroll games. A series of discreet zones with a clear progression. Not so much as a sandbox game.
These zones in themselves are not as open as they could be due to are connected by "corridors", every small obstacle is there to make the player´s life a miserable experience when going from point A to point B.
A small log? have to go around it, a small 20cm incline? have to go around it. All these detours at to a lot of unnecessary traveling by the end of the game, and for some very aggravating moments.
Lore
R.A Salvatore is an awesome D&D writer, i enjoy his work for it´s straightforward narrative. What Salvatore is not, is a "world builder"...
The Lore in the game, i can only describe as "confusing", it tries too damned hard to sound deep and complicated for the sake of being deep and complicated.
You have names, terms and concepts are that are laid thick and fast without any sense of the player exploring and discovering by himself/herself.
There are some nice ideas like in some of the Faye house story lines, but overall Amalur feels too much like an "alien" place with the player (me) feeling too detached from giving a damn about what is going on around him.
Sometimes spoon feeding the player in a more linear experience goes a long way in effective world building.
Conclusion
I had a lot more to write, but i can´t be bothered to continue... the post is long enough as it is.
In the end, even tho i might sound overly critical, i had fun with Amalur, it´s a nice fun action rpg, flawed... but is any game perfect?
Would i continue exploring it in future expansions/dlc? Depends on the story and if they move it forward instead of laterally (i couldn´t care less of the world around me, but i would love to see my own character´s story more developed).
