Ya know, this game's fucking massive. The world map's huge, the amount of quests is never-ending, the loot never stops coming. It's natural, for a game that was initially planned to be an MMO.
A shame that the lore never becomes interesting, and the gameplay soon becomes repetitive. Still, it seems the sort of title to earn a cult following. Perhaps with co-op support, or official mod tools, the game could've grown a base like that. But also, Amalur's map contains many invisible walls, such as at cliffs, as the player is unable to jump or fall except at specially marked areas. Maybe all the game needed was to feel more like a sandbox, with a more physics-driven world. Such "static" RPGs have grown out of fashion, in which players are restricted by the developer's intents. Now what players want from these games is to make their own adventure, take their own routes, and complete things in their own style. There's no fun in having an idea in a game, but being unable to follow through due to limits in the developer's imagination.