Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning

TheGameguru wrote:
conejote wrote:

PC demo wouldn't work for me--after character creation the UI shows up fine, but the screen is otherwise black. It's an issue with ATI cards, probably. I won't be purchasing it for PC, which means I won't get it at all any time soon, since getting it for 360 or PS3 would mean a trip to a store.

Turn off Post Processing and it will work fine. Should be working in the retail version.

I was probably to harsh at first..once I got into the timed part it started to shine more...it's certainly worth playing from what I've seen...combat is enjoyable..not sure it's $60 worth...more like $30

OK, thanks. Will check it out this evening.

LobsterMobster wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Stele wrote:

Huh. Just logged in on the title screen and got all my ME3 stuff. That's kinda easy.

Guess I might play a bit later then since I have it.

Just want to point out to those who were in the Bastion thread that this demo did not start at my natural resolution, but instead spread and morphed my desktop as usual. Silly games. :D

There's another unlock at the end of the 45 minutes.

Which unlock is that? I thought there was just a suit of armor, a chakram, and the magic helmet.

(...spear and magic HEL-met!)

I dunno, but it popped up another ME3 unlock at the end. I didn't read it as I'm not planning on playing ME3 on my PS3.

garion333 wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Stele wrote:

Huh. Just logged in on the title screen and got all my ME3 stuff. That's kinda easy.

Guess I might play a bit later then since I have it.

Just want to point out to those who were in the Bastion thread that this demo did not start at my natural resolution, but instead spread and morphed my desktop as usual. Silly games. :D

There's another unlock at the end of the 45 minutes.

Which unlock is that? I thought there was just a suit of armor, a chakram, and the magic helmet.

(...spear and magic HEL-met!)

I dunno, but it popped up another ME3 unlock at the end. I didn't read it as I'm not planning on playing ME3 on my PS3. ;)

Ah... maybe the chakram launcher. I didn't see that pop up earlier.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Ah... maybe the chakram launcher. I didn't see that pop up earlier.

Yeah, it popped for me once the timer ran out.

I liked the demo, considerably more than I thought I would, but not enough to put it on my 'must buy' list. It's a bit...fluffy after putting 150 hours into Skyrim, although it almost has the same depth of mechanics to it (crafting, skills, abilities, etc). I also just read that you are able to own property, and can even own - and upgrade(!) - a castle?!?! That's pretty cool.

Thoughts:

- really liked the character creator. Most games I can never really tell if my cheekbones are higher or lower, or how sloped my forehead is. I'll spend so much time on the fullness of lips and still have an alien looking person. Glad it was simplified but deep enough that everyone can have a unique look. Wondering if there will be more race options in the full version? (i.e. can we play as a gnome instead of human or Fae?)

- combat is alot of fun, and appears to get more deep as you progress and unlock moves. Looks like it may trump Skyrim in that category as it will require a bit more finesse than mashing LT and RT.

- artstyle - while colorful and fun - is a but too 'cutesy' for my tastes. The gnomes invoked more Gwildor from Masters of the Universe than I prefer.

Ultimately, I think I would enjoy this, but on the tails of Skyrim, just don't have the mindshare/energy to get into another lengthy fantasy adventure. I'm taking a break with Catherine and saving my RPGing for ME3. Amazon wishlist get's a new friend though.

kilanash wrote:

You can preorder this as a digital download from Amazon for 50.99. I'm betting it will just be a steam code to type in. Won't get those TF2 hats though, if you care about that.

I believe I posted earlier in the thread that the game registers on Origin. The Amazon download AFAIK can be a legit download as you don't NEED Origin, but you can plug codes into Origin.

You can preorder this as a digital download from Amazon for 50.99. I'm betting it will just be a steam code to type in. Won't get those TF2 hats though, if you care about that.

garion333 wrote:
kilanash wrote:

You can preorder this as a digital download from Amazon for 50.99. I'm betting it will just be a steam code to type in. Won't get those TF2 hats though, if you care about that.

I believe I posted earlier in the thread that the game registers on Origin. The Amazon download AFAIK can be a legit download as you don't NEED Origin, but you can plug codes into Origin.

Bummer.

garion333 wrote:

There's another unlock at the end of the 45 minutes.

Well that's annoying - you can't set the game running in the background, it tries to be helpful and auto-pauses if it loses focus.

nel e nel wrote:

Wondering if there will be more race options in the full version? (i.e. can we play as a gnome instead of human or Fae?)

Minor point: I don't think that the elves are technically "fae" in the lore, even though they look pretty much identical. I think the fae are immortal or something, since they refer to humans and elves as "mortals." Which is probably a good idea in a game that has hitpoints.

LobsterMobster wrote:
nel e nel wrote:

Wondering if there will be more race options in the full version? (i.e. can we play as a gnome instead of human or Fae?)

Minor point: I don't think that the elves are technically "fae" in the lore, even though they look pretty much identical. I think the fae are immortal or something, since they refer to humans and elves as "mortals." Which is probably a good idea in a game that has hitpoints.

Yeah, I'm not sure what relation the elves have to fae, but they're different. The elves you play are mortal, while the fae are ... weirder looking immortals.

I'm sure there's some connection like a fae turning into golden rain and impregnating a goose which birthed the elves.

garion333 wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:
nel e nel wrote:

Wondering if there will be more race options in the full version? (i.e. can we play as a gnome instead of human or Fae?)

Minor point: I don't think that the elves are technically "fae" in the lore, even though they look pretty much identical. I think the fae are immortal or something, since they refer to humans and elves as "mortals." Which is probably a good idea in a game that has hitpoints.

Yeah, I'm not sure what relation the elves have to fae, but they're different. The elves you play are mortal, while the fae are ... weirder looking immortals.

I'm sure there's some connection like a fae turning into golden rain and impregnating a goose which birthed the elves.

Does this game allow golden showers? Oh boy, oh boy, insta-perch!

garion333 wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:
nel e nel wrote:

Wondering if there will be more race options in the full version? (i.e. can we play as a gnome instead of human or Fae?)

Minor point: I don't think that the elves are technically "fae" in the lore, even though they look pretty much identical. I think the fae are immortal or something, since they refer to humans and elves as "mortals." Which is probably a good idea in a game that has hitpoints.

Yeah, I'm not sure what relation the elves have to fae, but they're different. The elves you play are mortal, while the fae are ... weirder looking immortals.

I'm sure there's some connection like a fae turning into golden rain and impregnating a goose which birthed the elves.

Was it a Zeus Geus, like the one that impregnated Leda?

LobsterMobster wrote:
nel e nel wrote:

Wondering if there will be more race options in the full version? (i.e. can we play as a gnome instead of human or Fae?)

Minor point: I don't think that the elves are technically "fae" in the lore, even though they look pretty much identical. I think the fae are immortal or something, since they refer to humans and elves as "mortals." Which is probably a good idea in a game that has hitpoints.

Ahhh, I missed that distinction somewheres in my playthrough. Wasn't paying terribly close attention to the race descriptions at the beginning, just knew I wanted to be a svelte human lady from the high seas.

nel e nel wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:
nel e nel wrote:

Wondering if there will be more race options in the full version? (i.e. can we play as a gnome instead of human or Fae?)

Minor point: I don't think that the elves are technically "fae" in the lore, even though they look pretty much identical. I think the fae are immortal or something, since they refer to humans and elves as "mortals." Which is probably a good idea in a game that has hitpoints.

Ahhh, I missed that distinction somewheres in my playthrough. Wasn't paying terribly close attention to the race descriptions at the beginning, just knew I wanted to be a svelte human lady from the high seas.

I played a dark elf lady and when I walked into the first village they were like, "this fae was shanked! There's another fae around here somewhere who might know how to treat her wounds," as opposed to, "hey, you, what do you do when you get a boo-boo?"

To which I would have cooly responded, "I died once. Walked it off."

Well, I just played the demo.

Honestly, I liked it quite a bit except for the actual game world.

I felt like I was playing WoW HD. I think the biggest reason I like Skyrim is that the world is so realistic looking. I feel like they took the most scenic portions of many mountainous regions of Earth, and made a game from them, and it's beautiful. Walking through picturesque aspen forests, standing beside high waterfalls cascading near groves of enormous pine trees - it's the stuff that tourism brochures would die to have. KoA:R (or is it R:KoA?) feels closed in, and very, very World of Warcraft-y to me. Too many paths, not enough vistas. Maybe the full game overcomes that - we'll have to wait and see, I guess. There is something about standing on top of a mountain and being able to see a mountain top a few miles away and knowing that you can hike there if you want.

That said, it does some things pretty well, IMO. The combat was for me pretty fun. I felt like it didn't punish me for being a close-in magic user. The dodge is a godsend - see an attack? Get rolling, guy. Or block it. From everything we discuss here, Skyrim is: Walk backwards casting spells, sneak and shoot arrows for like, 8,999X damage from perks, or smith/enchant the everloving hell out of swords/armor until you're basically invincible. This game is fun, and pretty dynamic. I had a great fight with a group of wild monsters that almost felt like a gladiator arena, rolling, dodging, switching targets on the fly. Also, I felt like the targeting worked pretty well, and didn't make too many bad decisions about what it wanted to shoot versus what I wanted to shoot.

The looting seems to be pretty simple and streamlined. I'm not sure how I feel about breaking boxes. On the one hand, it's pretty game-y. On the other hand, is it any dumber than the Dragonborn desperately searching every burial urn he finds for 5 gold at a time? Or being sad because he can't carry all his dragon bones home?

I think I'll probably end up getting this one, but not right away (saving my money for some real world fun with my car). Maybe a mid-summer sale will bring it down to $30 or so.

The combat has really opened up after getting a couple levels, at least in the finesse tree. Once I unlocked the ability to guarantee critical hits by timing your strikes perfectly, any fear of this being a button-masher went out the window. A glance at the other trees shows that they have similar quirks.

InspectorFowler wrote:

I liked it quite a bit except for the actual game world.

Eh, I still have plenty of Skyrim there for me if I want it, I'm okay with this being different. Nobody else does games quite as massive as Bethesda for a reason. Though, check out the area (using the over-the-shoulder view) around the rivers in the northeast for some very nice scenery.

I'm a little on board with the camera criticisms now, but after gleaning the depth of the combat and character customization I doubt anything will hamper my enjoyment of the game.

Arovin wrote:

I think the biggest question now that we have seen all the skills and destinies is how is everyone going to build their characters?

I'm leaning toward a finesse/sorcery build focusing on daggers or faeblades (haven't seen those yet) and scepters, as scepters seem to beat the hell out of bows for ranged damage. I don't really like the animation for the default scepter attack, but you take the good with the bad sometimes.

Question: are we sure that's all the destinies? I thought there were some other branches to each combination, like ones that require more of one tree than the other.

Though, I equipped a hammer for a little bit just for giggies, and it was really satisfying. Again, thanks to the developers for including a respec option on all versions.

I hit up the Coinstar today and had just enough in the Amazon voucher to justify a day one purchase.

I liked the demo enough, but I am betting this one can be found sub-$30 by March 31st.

Yeah, same feelings here. Can't put down $60 for it...just not that appealing yet, like Skyrim. Will wait for a good sale

Blind_Evil wrote:

Question: are we sure that's all the destinies? I thought there were some other branches to each combination, like ones that require more of one tree than the other.

On the official website and wiki those are all that are listed. I would love to see more but I would not expect it unless they release some DLC in the future.

I like the 2nd tier scepter attack from blocking. It sends out 3 waves that do some incredible knockbacks. Unfortunately, the 2nd tier is the only new attack for the specter that you ever get.

In the sorcery line I did notice that each of the elements have an ability that increases their secondary effects. Fire: Burning, Lighting: Jumping to extra targets, and Ice: Slow. The way those are worded it seems like they will affect any elemental damage not just ones from spells. Could be useful skills for hybrid characters.

According to the official forums people are assuming you get a total of 123 ability points at max level. Cap is 40 and you get 3 per level. You start at level 0 so that would be 120 and you get 3 free points assigned during the tutorial. That means that you have 12-14 free points to assign beyond the requirements for the top tier destinies.

I tried building a Universalist destiny on paper but found it hard not waste points on abilities I do not think I would ever use. Does not seem worth it compared to the powers from the other destinies.

*Edit = bad at math sorry its been fixed

I loaded it up last night and found some more cool stuff and some more bad stuff. The cool thing was a Talisman, which is a magical energy shield. It's far less incongruous than your magically appearing kite shield (because the actual Talisman itself is very small anyway) and provides worse protection against raw damage, but better elemental resistance.

I also found my first magically locked chest. They REALLY need to get the controls down for that dispelling minigame. If there's any delay whatsoever, it makes even easy seals impossible to dispel.

Oh, and one other thing: sometimes when I entered combat the game would hang for a few seconds as it searched for music. I wonder if turning the music to 0 simply mutes the music or prevents the game from loading it in the first place? These days I tend to play my games with the music extremely low or absent entirely. In some games (like Bastion) it adds a lot. In others it tends to telegraph more than it should.

Hmm. I nearly threw my controller when picking locks, but had no problem at all with the wards.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Hmm. I nearly threw my controller when picking locks, but had no problem at all with the wards.

I'm the complete opposite. Locks are easy, I've yet to dispel a ward.

After playing the demo, I'll echo what several people here are saying--I'll buy it, but not yet. I think there's a lot of fun to be had with it, but I'm not ready to drop $60 right now, especially since I'm still busy with the end-of-2011 games.

I'm only basing this on the demo, granted, but Amalur seems like a strong argument that not every new shiny game should be priced at $60.00 now. Seems we're still in this transitional zone where inflation, new pricing structures (including digital distribution and Steam sales) and game quality are all messing with our expectations. A few more years getting used to $60.00 for a PC game and I might not have a problem with that price for this same game.

Montalban wrote:

I'm only basing this on the demo, granted, but Amalur seems like a strong argument that not every new shiny game should be priced at $60.00 now. Seems we're still in this transitional zone where inflation, new pricing structures (including digital distribution and Steam sales) and game quality are all messing with our expectations. A few more years getting used to $60.00 for a PC game and I might not have a problem with that price for this same game.

From the looks of the demo (map size) it would have been worth full price to more people if they were smarter about the content in the game (disclaimer: just going by what I played in the demo). There seems to be a lot of 'stuff' in the game, and there's scope for a long lasting game going through that 'stuff', but it comes across as filler because presumably at the start of the project as an MMO they specified this great big world and then fill it up with general content that's about the world rather than more specifically the story they're trying to tell, which I guess is a bit expected in something that's meant to introduce people to the world for the MMO.

I feel like I'm falling for some bait here, but comparing it to Warcraft leading into WoW doesn't give me a great impression of how they're handing the story content.

Dyni wrote:
Montalban wrote:

I'm only basing this on the demo, granted, but Amalur seems like a strong argument that not every new shiny game should be priced at $60.00 now. Seems we're still in this transitional zone where inflation, new pricing structures (including digital distribution and Steam sales) and game quality are all messing with our expectations. A few more years getting used to $60.00 for a PC game and I might not have a problem with that price for this same game.

I forget exactly which podcast it was from, but someone asked the developer how much content was in the game. He said that they had tasked a few of the play testers to get 100% completion as quickly as possible, and no one could do it in less than 200 hours. I often get the impression that games with stylized or cartoony visuals are somehow perceived as being worth less than their more realistic looking counterparts.

I'll agree with you about the graphics part, but just because there's 200 hours worth of stuff to do doesn't mean it's suddenly worth $10 more than a "standard" priced pc game.

Phone posting is hard sometimes.

Nevermind

Montalban wrote:

I'm only basing this on the demo, granted, but Amalur seems like a strong argument that not every new shiny game should be priced at $60.00 now. Seems we're still in this transitional zone where inflation, new pricing structures (including digital distribution and Steam sales) and game quality are all messing with our expectations. A few more years getting used to $60.00 for a PC game and I might not have a problem with that price for this same game.

I dont disagree with your overall point, but i don't think this demo is the one to prove it.

I forget exactly which podcast it was from, but someone asked the developer how much content was in the game. He said that they had tasked a few of the play testers to get 100% completion as quickly as possible, and no one could do it in less than 200 hours. I often get the impression that games with stylized or cartoony visuals are perceived as being worth less than their more realistic looking counterparts.

garion333 wrote:

]I'll agree with you about the graphics part, but just because there's 200 hours worth of stuff to do doesn't mean it's suddenly worth $10 more than a "standard" priced pc game.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to make that point, just pointing out the potential value proposition. I do think that this game shows a lot more promise than people are giving it credit for.

My phone is being a dick.