In September of 2020, THQ Nordic released the remastered version of Kingdoms of Amalur, and also showed off a trailer for the game’s first DLC in seven years. The DLC was called Fatesworn, and though it was delayed quite a while, it did release in mid-December of 2021. If you enjoyed the original game, Fatesworn is a must-have, but if you didn’t enjoy it, nothing about Fatesworn will change your mind. Let’s have a closer look.
This DLC takes place after the story of the main game, and this means that you need to have completed the original main game to access it. That’s no small task, either, but it’s one well worth undertaking if you haven’t already. I put in well over 110 hours into the main campaign since Re-Reckoning came out. That said, Fatesworn takes place in a whole new area called Mithros. You’ll find this biome-diverse area nestled in the northwest corner of the world map. This area is roughly as large as the DLCs from years ago, my favorite being The Legend of Dead Kel. Fatesworn extends the experience with lots of new things, though some are just re-skins of old things, especially the enemies that include “new” Boggarts and Trolls of the Chaos variety. The amount of actual new enemies is pretty scant; the Heavy Knight comes to mind — and they’re really tall, armored tank-likes that are neat — but most enemies are simply reused from the original game but with the purplish color of Chaos.
There are also new armor sets and weapons, some of which are required to be crafted (or purchased) to fight off Chaos enemies that have Chaos armor, making them only vulnerable to Chaos weapons (lots of Chaos!). You can readily see which enemies have the Chaos armor by the purple graphic on top of their life line. Fatesworn also includes plenty of NPCs, including some returning ones, around twenty new side quests, a couple of Faction ones, ten new main quests, about a half dozen new Tasks, new PSN Trophies, and of course a new story arc that pits the Fateless One against Telogrus, the God of Chaos, who is leading the people astray.
Other new additions to Fatesworn see raising of the character’s level cap from 40 to 50, a new Destiny called Chaos Thrall, and a new Skill called Chaos Sight that can be upgraded multiple times. The Chaos Sight upgrades help the Fateless One locate Chaos Rifts and Portals, the former of which you have to locate and destroy to open the latter. The Niskaru, one of the fiendish enemies from the main game, are back in force in Fatesworn, and use the Chaos Portals a lot as well. Having been very thorough in Amalur, I guess I admit some fatigue at some of the side quests and Tasks that boil down very basic, raw fetch quests. There just isn’t a great deal of imagination in most of the Fatesworn side quests, though there are some good ones. Too many of them are fetch and repeat, and that gets old. I had mixed feelings about some of puzzles and maze-like situations I found myself in, too. One area in particular was like a puzzle and a maze combined, and was based around locked and blocked pathways that had to be passed by manipulating a lot of big floor switches. This design felt tedious, not very creative, and not captivating at all. Fortunately, these moments aren’t the norm for the game or this DLC, so it’s fine, but it does taint the experience some.
At $20, Fatesworn offers a strong enough great to bland ratio for me to recommend. I thought the DLC felt a little formulaic, with a lot of boxes checked and not a lot of fresh creativity and inspiration, but, I adore Kingdoms of Amalur and was happy to dive into a new area with new content. Fatesworn will provide a solid ten hours, if not more, depending on the difficulty you’re playing on, your skill, and just how thorough you want to be. Given that you have to have completed the original (long) game to access this new content, Fatesworn is clearly for fans who enjoyed the original gameplay loop and want more of the same. If that’s you, like it was me, Fatesworn was worth the wait. Here’s hoping THQ Nordic keeps Amalur in their future plans.
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