Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

A remaster that carries its own expansions, and one genuinely new add-on on top. Here is what Destinies actually do, what the box already contains, and what Fatesworn adds.

You earn the Destiny cards, then pick one

Destinies are the game's class system, and they are cards rather than a locked-in choice. Each one is unlocked by the ability points you have assigned across the three trees, Might, Finesse and Sorcery: putting your points into a single tree opens the cards for that class, and splitting them opens the multi-class cards that combine two or even all three. At the level-up screen you choose which unlocked card is active, and the choice is not permanent, because unlocked Destinies can be swapped at any point in the game outside combat.

That makes a build which has stopped working a reason to change direction rather than to start a new save. If the problem is where the points went rather than which card is showing, a Fateweaver will reset your ability points for a fee, and that price climbs the more often you use one, so the tidiest habit is to rework the character when you have a few levels to redistribute rather than on a whim.

Magic and melee are the same fight

Combat is described as seamlessly integrating magical and melee attacks, which is a design instruction as much as a feature. The intended flow is switching between the two inside a fight, not declaring a lane at the start and defending it for the rest of the game.

Fateshift kills are the flourish on top of that, and they are not free. Reckoning runs on a meter that fills as you fight, and only a full bar lets you enter it. Once you are in, the Fateshift prompt on a downed enemy spends the whole bar, finishes the enemies still standing and pays out extra experience, so the mode rewards going in with a target rather than letting the bar drain on its own.

The original expansions are already in the box

Re-Reckoning includes all the downloadable content from the original release, from Teeth of Naros to Legend of Dead Kel and more, which changes what the package is: the expansions are part of the purchase rather than extra chapters sold back to you.

The store lists the remaster's own contribution as improved graphical fidelity and refined gameplay, so this is a cleaner look at the same game rather than a rebuild around new systems.

Fatesworn is the one genuinely new add-on

Fatesworn is the new content for Re-Reckoning, and it is an expansion rather than a cosmetic pack. It opens the mountainous region of Mithros and its Chaos Realm dungeons, adds Chaos as a mechanic tied to weapons, enemies, rifts and portals, raises the level cap to 50, and brings new enemies, armour sets, weapons, accessories and crafting reagents with it, ending in a confrontation with Telogrus, the God of Chaos.

It is sold on its own, and it is also bundled with the base remaster and the official soundtrack as the FATE Edition. That is the version to look at if you want the whole character arc in one purchase rather than working out which pieces you already own.

What the character actually is

Underneath all of that, the build is assembled from skills, abilities, weapons and armour, and the store lists them together for a reason. A weapon that does not suit your abilities is a mismatched half however good its numbers look, which is the argument for building around a card you have chosen rather than collecting whichever gear has the biggest numbers.

The world around it is a large one, and the store names the city of Rathir, the vast region of Dalentarth and the grim dungeons of the Brigand Hall Caverns as the scope of it. Expect to spend the campaign moving through it rather than returning to a single hub between missions.

Side quests are the other half of the pitch, and the publisher is the one making it: it describes countless quests rich in political intrigue, romance, sinister magic and whimsy, and calls them central to the primary mission. That is the developer's framing of them rather than a rule about how you have to play.

Should you play it

Yes, if the idea of a class you assemble from cards you have unlocked sounds better than gambling on one at the first screen. It is a remaster of an older role-playing game, so expect the shape of its era in the quest structure and the size of the map, and enjoy it for what that shape does well.

Two things to know before you buy. Decide whether you want Fatesworn on day one, because the FATE Edition is the tidier way to get everything and the add-on is the only piece here that is genuinely new. And check where you are buying, since the remaster has been released across PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch at different times and the store pages differ by platform.