Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning - Fatesworn Review

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning's latest expansion, Fatesworn, is upon us with brand new quests to conquer. What fate awaits us in the lands of the west?

Fatesworn takes part immediately after the end of the main campaign; something I found quite disappointing. The story takes place as you are told of a new God of Chaos surging in the lands of the west, Mithros, as it will be your quest to stop the unweaving of the tapestry of fate.

I wish Fatesworn had taken place later on down the line — perhaps a couple of years later — so that our previous achievement against Gadlow and the Tuatha hadn't been trivialised. But instead, the Fateless One wakes up after the battle to hear the bad news of the new rising threat.

The story feels uncompelling — if not downright wrong because the chance to savour our victory is stripped from us — as Telogrus' first appearance was so badly done I almost thought that it was supposed to be one of those storylines where the main villain is first introduced as a farce that is pretending to be them. Telogrus' voice actor feels so wrong for the role, and I was honestly shocked to hear such bad voice acting seeing as I was often impressed with Kingdoms of Amalur's choice of actors.

This has been one of the worst acted scenes I've ever witnessed, it was painful.

The story feels more of the same, with several dozen side-quests scattered around the world that will allow you to explore the lands of Mithros and interact with the locals in the area. I enjoyed the first side-quests, they were interesting enough but it felt wrong doing these things whilst there was a literal God threatening life as it is. Aside from that, none of the side-quests felt compelling enough nor urgent enough to really warrant the attention in comparison to the main quest. This only served to break my immersion more than Telogrus' voice.

There are around seven hours of extra content, with side quests easily adding another six. I was ecstatic to see this, given that I was very excited to be able to explore more of the Kingdoms of Amalur universe and be able to finally see what is considered the definitive conclusion to the game.

However, the way everything was laid out felt more like this was an attempt to bring out more content for the game rather than trying to finish a passion project. The way the story unravels in the end makes it sound constantly as if there will be a potential for a Re-Re-Reckoning to come in the future, and this didn't sit well with me because I believe there was no intention for a new game to begin with.

The closer I got to the ending the more shocked I was at how badly Fatesworn was handled. The main quest ultimately boils down to a life-or-death fetch quest that goes on a few hours too long because characters keep sending you to bring this and bring that very akin to how one does whilst playing fetch with a puppy. Instead of laying down in front of me everything I should do and allowing me to choose what to prioritise, the game decides to drip-feed the Chaos content trying to milk how long the game would go on so that there would be more of an excuse to demand the £17.99 for the DLC.

The expansion comes with a level cap increase from 40 to 50, which is meant to be the 10 points you will be spending on the new Chaos Sight skill, but no new abilities to the Finesse, Sorcery, and Might trees to make up for the extra influx on ability points given.

The new Chaos system brings with it a new set of weapons that are meant to be able to chip away at a life bar to enemies both new and old that are invulnerable to other normal types of damage. This system allows you to craft a brand-new weapon that will deal Chaos damage to allow you to lower the purple health bar in your adversaries, which only works to give them two lives. What was most annoying about this new system, however, was the implementation of super armour to the enemies that have the purple HP. Not being able to stagger enemies whilst having to technically kill them twice made for a bad gameplay mechanic which I did not enjoy whenever I fought hordes of these enemies.

With the return of old characters from the base game that accompany you throughout your quest, I expected that when I entered the main boss fight I'd be accompanied by one of them and fulfil this final epic battle. Instead, into battle charged a brand-new character in the series that I had very little time to connect to and care for. Despite the company of this character, the final boss battle has some of the most obnoxious moves in the game which made them borderline impossible to beat despite taking with me tons of potions in preparation because of the copious amounts of damage they were dealing.

Several bugs are present throughout the expansion as well, such as entering places and being clipped through an item, not being allowed to move. This happened three times, each in completely different areas, which forced me to reload and sometimes play that particular part of the game. 

Fatesworn feels like a cash-grab in an attempt to milk Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning or hopes to hype audiences both new and old for a potential sequel that might never come. Several aspects of it felt empty and badly thought out, with the main story giving you several options that seem will lead to multiple endings, only for the character to literally answer they will "pretend to not hear that" and continue on with their expected dialogue. The 12 hours of content would seem promising if the main quest hadn't turned into a glorified fetch quest.