Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning

Dyni wrote:
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.

I'll admit it does show potential, but the demo didn't give me enough to expect it in the full game. If it's there in the final thing I'll happily buy it.

The demo is definitely not enough evidence for me to pronounce that "this game isn't worth $60.00." But it's enough to make me doubt it.

I know the debate about how much a game is worth in USD quickly gets tiresome. I don't want to belabor the point. At the end of the day I'll probably just skip this, unless the goodjer collective convinces me otherwise once it's released. That's the great thing about a forum of people you trust.

Well, I finally played the demo last night. I've been one of the most enthused for this one, but reading all the negative impressions of the demo really cooled me off a bit.

Now that I've actually played it, I liked it, and didn't have many of the bothers that other people mentioned (the camera only annoyed me a couple times, and the animations never did).

I'm not sure this is still a day one purchase for me, but I do believe I'll play it. "Cross between Oblivion and Fable" definitely seems to have been right on. The combat was far better than Oblivion, but not especially good - not compared to a great action game, which was the the story the devs told, and not as good as a great action RPG like Dark Souls.

Still, I had fun and do think I'll buy it. My planned pre-order may not happen now, though.

I think comparing anything to Dark Souls is folly, except maybe Monster Hunter. To you and me it might be a great action RPG, but about 50% of people think it's clunky garbage. They're not even really wrong about the clunky part.

I think the combat is about as good as it was in Darksiders, which is good enough for me.

I think Darksiders was a little more button mashy. The combos didn't require timing, if I recall correctly.

I just finished the demo and I liked it, Im not sure if I will pick it up at launch but it seems like a game I could certainly play more of and I do look forward to playing the full game.

The latest episode of the Final Score podcast has an interview with Curt Schilling. He's a friend of the host but it's a very interesting talk.

I get that the devs want to stylize this game to give it longevity, but imho the art style is just too close to that of WoW, especially my lanky, long-eared, pale gray Night Elf (the sneaky race) rogue character. After spending too much time in Azeroth this world just left me cold, so far. I think I'd dig the art style if I had never played WoW, but you can't unring that bell.

The combat felt good.

I've been off the Azeroth for a year or more, so I actually found the art style nostalgic.

Something I've found about good art style and great art style is that you've got to use it for something.

Warcraft's chunky, comic, exaggerated style works well for portraying great big fantastical things in reasonably low polycounts that are very readable (you could probably have a sub-discussion about armour). It doesn't go to the extent of making what should be familiar (human-like races) 'right', but at the same time the weird and twisted art of everything unfamiliar fits in, as it doesn't contrast to the world. They deliberately stay away from the uncanny valley.

I think Amalur sits between that and realistic. I don't really think there's enough in the demo to really examine their usage of it. On one hand I'm thinking 'this is a nice little village', on the other I'm thinking 'where do these people live and shop?'. Thinking back to my initial comments about how I thought the combat made your character feel 'light', it probably has to do that you are represented close to a real-life person in proportions, fit of clothes, etc, but you're moving around like a gymnast, which doesn't add up.

Overall, the art seems like a lot of other aspects with the game, close to being good/great, but either they don't really show all their cards in the demo, or they need just a bit more. It's definitely not bad, but I don't think it will be memorable enough that you could show me a picture of the game in a few years time and I'll know what it is.

Of the shops I've seen, there were bedrooms in each of them if you looked hard enough.

Played a bit more today during my daughter's nap. Went into Might/Longswords rather than Subtlety/Daggers this time. Also specialized more in Blacksmithing. Followed a different questline.

I'm enjoying the game, but I wish loot were more visible after combat.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Played a bit more today during my daughter's nap. Went into Might/Longswords rather than Subtlety/Daggers this time. Also specialized more in Blacksmithing. Followed a different questline.

I'm enjoying the game, but I wish loot were more visible after combat.

Yeah, the sparkly aura thing isn't quite visible enough and it doesn't seem to appear quickly. I think that non-treasure corpses vanish at least.

What I really can't see are the loot bags.

Tried the demo just now. Generic intro - skip. Create character - accept default, accept, accept. Why do I need to be dropped back into the cut-scene before I choose a name? Choose a name - accept default. Eventually skip out of the cut-scene. Oh, looks like the black screen wasn't just a stylistic choice to emphasize that their character is dead to even the most daftest players. Got dropped into what sounds like a cave. Screen still black. Navigate around the first corner using the minimap. Oh look, a sword. Let's open the inventory and equip it. A text-based inventory with subcategories - in 2012? Seriously? Oh well, sword is equipped, let's exit out of the inventory menu. Hmm, looks like I exited out, but the inventory window is still on screen. So it's either black screen or a menu window that was open last, but no actual game graphics?

Sorry, 38 Studios, all the bonus ME3 gear in the world won't make me your beta tester. -.-

If you're on AMD graphics hardware and getting a black screen, turn off post processing. The demo was branched from the main game about 2 months ago, and apparently there's a lot of fixes made since then. It seems like a good example of a game to 'wait and see' on to get opinions of those that do buy at release.

Luggage wrote:

A text-based inventory with subcategories - in 2012? Seriously?

Can someone inform me of the expectation for inventories now? I genuinely don't see the problem. Does every game need a floating image of the item? Not even sure what the options are for subcategories... every RPG does that. I'm not trying to be snarky or downplay his complaint, I just don't know what games do menus so much better.

IGN has a "review in progress" of Reckoning running, as they do sometimes in MMOs. It reads more like a series of previews, mostly devoid of any real criticism (to boot, Colin Moriarty is not a very good writer). He does mention that he's playing the final build, and that the game is reliably stable.

Blind_Evil wrote:
Luggage wrote:

A text-based inventory with subcategories - in 2012? Seriously?

Can someone inform me of the expectation for inventories now?

Not to have to clunk through layer upon layer to equip a sword. And then have to repeatedly clunk out to get back to the game? Any decent RPG that isn't just trying to be obtuse and anger the player would let you press 'i' then double click. Done.

Having said that and despite a few other annoyances (camera, movement, voice acting etc.), it's something I could get over and I could see this being a very absorbing game. There appears to be enough depth in the mechanical and world/story side of things to keep it interesting long term. My main problem is that, like a lot of people here, it just didn't 'click' after the demo as a full price purchase, and even then I find myself thinking "well it'd be a great thing to really sink some hours into and get really involved with when I've got a bunch of free time and not much else to play". And that's the crux of it for me, it doesn't quite stack up against the other options...

pignoli wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:
Luggage wrote:

A text-based inventory with subcategories - in 2012? Seriously?

Can someone inform me of the expectation for inventories now?

Not to have to clunk through layer upon layer to equip a sword. And then have to repeatedly clunk out to get back to the game? Any decent RPG that isn't just trying to be obtuse and anger the player would let you press 'i' then double click. Done.

Ah, do you have to use arrow keys to get through there? I suppose on PC that'd be lame. I don't see the "layers" though. Open the menu, equipment, and scroll up and down. Kinda see it now. It's not worse than what I'm used to, but then maybe console menu systems are clunky and I never realized it.

Fortunately it does support mouse navigation, but inventory>weapons>primary weapons>finally equip is irritating even then. It's probably just an effect of the playing distance discrepancy - having fewer things show up larger and be a bit more clunky to navigate is probably less annoying on console than inventory screens with too much detail (to view from the couch) crammed on each screen.

Luggage wrote:

So it's either black screen or a menu window that was open last, but no actual game graphics?

Sorry, 38 Studios, all the bonus ME3 gear in the world won't make me your beta tester. -.-

That was my experience too til I looked up the graphics fix. It didn't help that the first quest is called Out Of The Darkness or something like that, making us think at first that the black screen is deliberate. Thats a good way to alienate a big chunk of your customer base.

Scratched wrote:

If you're on AMD graphics hardware and getting a black screen, turn off post processing. The demo was branched from the main game about 2 months ago, and apparently there's a lot of fixes made since then. It seems like a good example of a game to 'wait and see' on to get opinions of those that do buy at release.

Thanks, that fixed it for me. And yes, I am on ATI graphics. That was strike 3 for them (after the Rage disaster and rare, random PC reboots as soon as Direct3D is initiated). Time to switch to NVidia and never look back.

On topic though, I played 15 minutes and then found that you couldn't save in the demo. Poor choice on the developer side imo, if this really is a 1-2h demo. Still engaging enough for me to plan on playing through the whole thing tonight.

Luggage wrote:

On topic though, I played 15 minutes and then found that you couldn't save in the demo. Poor choice on the developer side imo, if this really is a 1-2h demo. Still engaging enough for me to plan on playing through the whole thing tonight.

It's the tutorial dungeon, and then you get 45m to mess around in the first two areas. Once you're done the tutorial once it remembers on following times you launch the demo so you can just go and mess around with another spec.

Played this demo last night, and I'm with most of you on it... I was really looking forward to this, and came away somewhat disappointed. Some cool things, and some potential, but it just didn't 100% click with me.

I think the combat was really cool, but noticed the "lightness" when walking around. Normal movement didn't feel natural to me. It felt a lot better when doing the acrobatic moves and slaying the bad dudes.

I agree with the loot "aura" being annoying.

I'll prob grab a used copy this summer.

Luggage wrote:

Thanks, that fixed it for me. And yes, I am on ATI graphics. That was strike 3 for them (after the Rage disaster and rare, random PC reboots as soon as Direct3D is initiated). Time to switch to NVidia and never look back.

Same here, I'm on ATI at the moment but next time around it'll be an Nvida card I think.

I'm a weirdo that likes both terribly nerdy fantasy and follows all sports, so this podcast called the Final Score doing a segment on the game with Curt Schilling is going to get a listen before long. He was always a fascinating, sharp interview as a player. Hoping it crosses over.

Luggage, when you fault a game for giving you a few seconds of cutscene between two parts of character generation, it REALLY seems like you're reaching. Does that really bother you? Really?

Scratched wrote:
Luggage wrote:

On topic though, I played 15 minutes and then found that you couldn't save in the demo. Poor choice on the developer side imo, if this really is a 1-2h demo. Still engaging enough for me to plan on playing through the whole thing tonight.

It's the tutorial dungeon, and then you get 45m to mess around in the first two areas. Once you're done the tutorial once it remembers on following times you launch the demo so you can just go and mess around with another spec.

On the pc demo, I quit playing right after the tutorial when the timer kicks in. I was able to go back to my character.

On console, quitting out and getting back in is when I was offered to skip the tutorial.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Luggage, when you fault a game for giving you a few seconds of cutscene between two parts of character generation, it REALLY seems like you're reaching. Does that really bother you? Really?

I suppose you are onto something, but at that point, I had gone through the game hard-resetting my PC and starting it 3 times to get it to sign into EA Online so it would register me playing the demo for the ME3 goodies - unsuccessfully. That on top of the post processing bug pretty much made me a little sensitive to the immersion being broken twice in short succession by what could have essentially been handled better by...

Spoiler:

...just changing the one gnome telling the other one to "just make sure to write down what race the subject is. And don't forget to name it if it's cute. *snorts desparagingly*"

And I'll go back to it in a few hours, so nothing incredibly off-putting.

OK, fair enough. If I had to strangle it into submission with my mouse cable I'd probably be less than charitable myself.

By the way, there actually is a bug with the EA server connection. After you've connected once, it puts a bit of bad data into a .ini file that prevents you from connecting the next time you load up the game. There's a line in the "personal.ini" file (look in My Games) that reads, "blaze_email" along with your e-mail address. Delete that entire line. You'll need to re-enter your info next time you try to log in but it should work.

And I kind of liked that dialog between the gnomes!

"This corpse sure does smell fresh."
"Like freshly blooming flowers on a spring day."
"Yep, definitely not rotted like all the other INSERT RACENAME HERE."
"Nope, not at all. Kind of fetching, really."
"If you like it so much why don't you give it a name?"
"Maybe I WILL."
"Why don't you marry it?"