Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

[queenofdisco]

Well the demo hit 2 hours ago, I've been playing just wondering if anyone else has? It kinda reminds me of a mix of medieval & Baldurs gate. Its a very classic rpg in every sense of the word, not the least bit progressive and I find it addictive yet not compelling like other rpgs.

I'm still playing the demo dunno how long I have left on it, once you escape the tutorial area you have a good hour to explore. Its not very fabley imo but it the graphics are cartoonish, actually more so than fable. Its abit button mashey.

The enemies are pretty cool, classic big spiders, wolves, and a troll.

Yes so erm.... go and play it nao!

 

[mjmarin12]

Well the demo hit 2 hours ago, I've been playing just wondering if anyone else has? It kinda reminds me of a mix of medieval & Baldurs gate. Its a very classic rpg in every sense of the word, not the least bit progressive and I find it addictive yet not compelling like other rpgs.

I'm still playing the demo dunno how long I have left on it, once you escape the tutorial area you have a good hour to explore. Its not very fabley imo but it the graphics are cartoonish, actually more so than fable. Its abit button mashey.

The enemies are pretty cool, classic big spiders, wolves, and a troll.

Yes so erm.... go and play it nao!

Nice, I didnt now there was going to be a demo. How are the controls, character custimization, npc's, etc?

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

Not compelling at all which is a major minus to me. I started it, beat the first dungeon, then quickly got bored. There's no charm, nothing that makes me want to remember what the regions are called or understand the games various mechanics. That's a shame because it follows the classic medieval fantasy by giving just about everything a strange fantasy name.

I'm sure it would be great if I played it for 10 hours but that's a **** poor excuse. By the end of the intro dungeon, if I'm not itching to quest or explore, that's a failure on the studio's part. The opening dialogue bored me and I soon started skipping what characters were saying. That's not what the beginning of any piece of art is supposed to do. I should be giddy to get dirty with the game but I wasn't. I kept going anyway. The demo at PAX East looked extremely promising so I figured maybe it'll get interesting after time. It didn't. Quests I didn't care about kept popping up, I kept accepting them hoping one might have an interesting twist but it never came. After the 3rd quest popped up I was utterly annoyed and I turned it off.

This one will be a bargain bin purchase if I still feel like it'll be compelling given enough time.

 

[queenofdisco]

I doubt I'll buy this even if if I get it as cheap as I got halo 3 (£1). The character customization is quite basic MJ, npcs are okay, controls are good.

But as Cheez said theres no reason to remember the world, there is no charm. The idea of the well of souls is good but beyond that the world did bore me, the only thing that entertained me was the classic rpg formula.

I found it addictive, but yes as I said not compelling I thought the small people were dwarves, turns out they're gnomes. Its a shame really I would of thought more love would of been put into it considering it was made by R.A Fricken Salvatore and Todd Mcfarlane.

 

[Gikoku]

Well this is surprising.. This title looked really promising given the creative minds behind it and the early footage that was unveiled. I'll give the demo a try and share my thoughts as well.

 

[mjmarin12]

Aw man thats a shame. It did look very promising. Seems we'll just have to wait and see, and this is slowly turning into a bargain bin purhcase.

 

[KaveX]

I don't understand why you guys are let down to be honest. The art direction is superb and reminds me of Warcraft and the combat is flashy, especially when Reckoning Mode is activated and you pretty much destroy/alter their fate. The voice acting is pretty decent, but I do find myself skipping conversations but that's only because I have subtitles enabled and I read the text and get impatient . Character progression isn't as complex as most RPGs by not having stats to invest in, but there are Destinies (Perks), Skill Trees, and proficiency's to level up, such as Persuasion, Blacksmithing, Sagecraft, Alchemy, etc.

I do find myself not wanting to explore though. I don't think it's because of the landscape or anything like that (The world of Amalur is huge by the way). The only real problem I have with this game is the camera. I can't set the distance that im comfortable with to see my character.

All in all, the game feels fresh to me and is a must buy for me now. ^_^

 

[Azer249]

I'm with Kave on this one. Yes it's not the best RPG on the market but i can see myself getting hours worth of content out of it. Just seems like a mixture of Skyrim (question, weapons, customisation) and Fable (Graphic Style, Combat Style [But KOA has a more advance system]). I played the demo on PC and it seems like it was made for it, all of the spells bind to an action bar similar to what are found in MMOS. The combats fluid and i like the art style. I found myself playing online through it once then wanting to go back through the demo and try out a different combat style. So much so i played it 3 times as each Major class. With the introduction of fate cards as-well it make it even more interesting, the fact you can actually chose to be a battle mage and specialise in a mixture of both sword and magic and actually be an effective class appeal's to me.

Sure i'm bigging the game up but there is also some negatives.

• The camera is the worst camera ive ever seen in any RPG.
• The draw distance on foliage is awful (My pc runs it maxed out at 190+fps so it isnt my pc)
• Finally, some of the quests are repetitive and consist of the standard, go here, fetch that, come back mechanic.
• Dosent seem to be a way to change Field of View (PC)

But the good pointsare a lot better:

• Despite the awful draw distance i love the Art style.
• The story is interesting and i feel compelled to read notes about the lore of the game
• The combat mechanics are very good and some of the weapon models are brilliant.
• The Fate cards could turn out to be very interesting if implemented correctly.
• It seems to have a lot of content and i barley explored more than one dungeon in the 45 minute free roam portion of the demo.
• Hours of content that wont get boring for me

Things that i hope get implemented/changed:

Even thought i do like the game there are a couple of things that i do think need changing.

• Increase in draw distance.
• Options to alter field of view.
• The camera should be have an option to be changed from free-cam to the current one.
• You should also have the option to zoom in and out of your character.
• One thing that bugs me but isnt a big deal, but the menus look horrible, the red and black thing looks like it was slapped together fast, really needs polishing up.

Overall i think its worth playing the demo. Its a solid game that could be amazing with a few changes, but its definitely not a game an RPG fan should pass over. Sure it isn't as good as Skyrim, but it is one hell of a good game that will probably give a lot of hours.

 

[Tyloric]

Downloading for both PC and 360. We'll see which I enjoy more.

EDIT: For those who don't know, if you play this demo and the ME3 demo (when it is released) and also purchase both titles, you'll get special armor unlocks for both final versions of the games.

PLAY the Reckoning demo to unlock:

• Exclusive Todd McFarlane-designed Reckoner Knight Armor for Mass Effect 3 (install the demo)
• The Powerful Chakram Launcher for Mass Effect 3 (complete the demo)

Reckoner Knight Armor

Chakram Launcher
PURCHASE Reckoning to unlock:

• N7-inspired Shepard’s Battle Armor for use in Reckoning (redeemed via EA Online Pass)

Shepard's Battle Armor

So, yeah, the demo is worth checking out just for the c00l unlocks.

The game is trying to be both Dragon Age and Fable, and by the end of the demo I didn't want to play anymore. The camera is irritating that most often you're attacking foes out of blind faith rather than actually aiming, and the dialog scenes are poorly put together. Most of the npcs I saw move like they're robots.

The demo was mediocre; not bad, not good.

 

[Necromancer]

Hmm, I suppose I'm a bit late, but that's alright.

I definitely enjoyed the demo. The game plays a little bit like Fable, but it's obviously a more complex RPG. However, it's not too complicated, which is a big plus for me. When I first started to play Fallout, the leveling system, perks, skill point distribution, equipment stats, etc. were a little overwhelming and difficult to understand, which made it difficult to get into the game. I mean, now that I understand it all, I absolutely love the game, but I feel like Reckoning will definitely be easier to get into. Let's see...there were some other smaller things that I liked about the demo. Let me see if I can remember them all...

There were several voice actors I'm pretty sure I've heard before. I'm relatively certain that the guy outside the cave who can see the future was voiced by the same person who did Canderous Ordo from KOTOR 1.

The combat was awesome. There were just the right amount of those special moves, and it was very fluid and had a very nice feel to it (which is extremely important to me), and there was a pleasing amount of diversity among weaponry.

The world seems just plain huge!

There's probably more that I liked, that's just all I could think of off the top of my head. Anyway, I'm definitely getting this game. I've had it preordered for a while, but I'm running a bit low on cash, so I think it'll have to wait. :lol:

 

[Devil Keyz]

i just wish they had more race options like the cat man khajiit from The Elder Scroll's Morrwind and up and Minotaur's ect.. instead of the plain fantasty 101 Elf's with weird name's

 

[Quistrix]

So, I finally got 'round to downloading the demo.

Firstly, it definitely took Fable as one of it's biggest inspirations. The combat is scarily similar, though thankfully different enough so things don't seem too uncomfortably familiar. The way the combat flows, I'll add, is rather satisfying.
The enviroment in the game definitely follows in the same foot steps as Fable. It's bright, colourful and a lot of things sparkle.
Though of course, unlike Fable, you get to create your own character, male or female and you have 4 races to choose from. The character creation sequence isn't very in depth. There's a couple of options per slider and that's it. But you do get to choose jewellery and face tattoos. And the hair options are good.

In truth, yes, I found it addictive - distracting too.
I would disagree with some people here: I did find it compelling. The game felt warm and welcoming. I'm liking where the story is going, the idea of you "making your own fate" is a nice one.
The game is very serious, unlike Fable. I'm still to find any form of real humour. Although, a group of enemies named 'Bogarts' did make me giggle with their little noises and movements.

I will agree that NPCs feel rather lifeless, but when compared to A.I. from something like Skyrim, for example, it's a lot to go by. The world, however doesn't seem lifeless. Like I said it's bright and colourful, and it's also a lot bigger than I expected. And from what I've seen, there's quite the collection of weapons, armour and items to be had.

Obviously it's not perfect. I've come across a few glitches. My character's and one NPC's head going missing and popping back in momentarily afterwards and parts of the scenery popping up and such. The camera's a bit annoying too, but it didn't really bother me if I'm truly honest.

Want my honest opinion? I like it. Maybe even a lot. Some of you may disagree and call me deluded. But I would give this game -- it's demo an 7 or an 8 out of 10. Hopefully the issues I mentioned will be mended in the full version of the game.

Anyone who is still yet to download the demo, do so. Play it and then decide whether it's worth the purchase. As far as I'm concerned, it is.

 

[Tsuyu]

GAME...​

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Y U SO MUCH ACTION AND SO LITTLE RPG?!​

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[Quistrix]

GAME...​

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Y U SO MUCH ACTION AND SO LITTLE RPG?!​

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lulz aside. It felt pretty RPG-ish to me.

 

[Necromancer]

The character creation sequence isn't very in depth. There's a couple of options per slider and that's it.

Honestly, I count this as a plus. When a game has an extremely in depth facial customization system in its beginning like Fallout, I feel obligated to customize every little tiny meaningless detail even though I don't enjoy it and you spend almost no time viewing your character's face.

lulz aside. It felt pretty RPG-ish to me.

Agreed.

 

[SelfAppointedGunslinger]

I'll download when I can be bothered, feeling pretty lazy today. Sounds good though.

Edit: Just downloaded a few hours ago and I must say I quite enjoyed it, it didn't blow me away mind you but it was still good. The lore seems quite promising too, I just hope they can get it across to the player so that they have a deep enough understanding of it as they progress through the game.

As for humor, I managed to find some in the form of a cursed wolf forcefully turned into a human (or "clumsy two-legs" in his words by a bunch of malicious sprites.) ****ed myself when he asked how I could stand wearing pants.

The environment was Fable-ish, lot's of narrow woodland paths, no massive open fields or anything like that (at least not any that I have yet to come across.) I was hoping to see some of the towering castles and keeps seen in the trailer, but I suppose it was too early in the game to come across any of those yet.

Still like I said seemed like a good game.

 

[Gikoku]

Playing the demo right now, and I have to agree with some of the criticism that has been shared already. Like Tyloric said, the NPC conversations are poorly thrown together where I am simply not compelled to care for what is being said to me. The camera is completely lazy and I'm left having to constantly do all the work for it, it's not terrible.. just, it could do with automatic control here and there and at least have it focus on my target (I don't like how it whips around sometimes).

The combat itself is pretty fun to be honest, at first it felt like Fable, but as I started unlocking more parts through the tutorial it became a whole 'nother beast. It's solid and not frustrating at all (for now). The menu however feels a bit sluggish, like.. Fable sluggish. It looks like they took the Dragon Age & Fable 2 menus, spliced them together and made something that is uncomfortable for me to navigate through. I don't like it.

The character creator is decent while not being overly deep or simple, and the graphics are alright (nothing to write home about). In all honesty, this game doesn't draw me in and it doesn't make me care for what's going on around me that much. I'll still get the game, but it won't be for a very good while until the price drops down a bit. I'm pretty disappointed.

 

[SelfAppointedGunslinger]

Hmm...just received £50 as a late Christmas present not too long ago. Not sure whether to spend it on this or a game that I know I'm going to love for certain like: MGS HD collection (£29:99 in sainsbury's, sounds like a good deal to me.)

 

[Gikoku]

Hmm...just received £50 as a late Christmas present not too long ago. Not sure whether to spend it on this or a game that I know I'm going to love for certain like: MGS HD collection (£29:99 in sainsbury's, sounds like a good deal to me.)

I'd say go for the MGS collection (more bang for the buck) then get this game later.