House of Valor “Season Pass” (DLC) – Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (360)

If you bought a new copy of Kingdoms of Amalur then you’ll already have the House of Valor content available to you via what EA is calling a “season pass”, you’ll just need to redeem the code included in your box. Should you be looking to purchase the title pre-owned then this extra set of quests and smattering of loot won’t be unlocked unless you want to pay 800 Microsoft Points (or £6.80 in simpler terms) but is it worth it?

You’ll be paying for a new area on your map which includes merchants, a fateweaver, crafting stations and an Arena complete with challenges both storyline (sort of) and mission board. The notice board offers a reasonable mix of “kill lots of things” tasks which can then be broken down in to “kill lots of things without them hitting you” or “kill lots of things without using magic or finesse”. Eurogamer.net reports that these should offer “a nearly endless variety of combat challenges”.  Honestly, you’d have to be pretty desperate because it gets incredibly boring rather quickly.

The more storyline-based part of the DLC sees you pitting your wits against various other teams in a fight to be the Arena Champions. You choose a companion to take in to the fray with you, be it mage, rogue or fighter they all perform fine and I didn’t spot any being monumentally dumb as allies often can be.  As mentioned, there’s an attempt at a plot here but it feels tragically “bolted on” and a let down when compared to the rest of the game.

There are a couple of good points to working your way through this area, the main one being the experience. It’s actually quite a quick way to level as you’re not spending time running back and forth between regions solving everyone’s problems. Loot rewards are also pretty decent, especially if you suffer from class ADD and keep changing Destiny trees. I found them handy to fill in gaps in my kit or to sell for the coins I needed to repair my equipment.

I can’t recommend spending £6.80 for the content of this DLC alone. When compared to how much game you’ll be getting for £25-£35 if you’re going pre-owned, it just doesn’t stack up. That said, if you have picked up the game for substantially less than the RRP it might be worth having a read of this forum post about online passes and considering the alternative view point.