Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning

TOR has problems that extend outside the pricing, though.

Like the fact that it feels like it was developed in a complete bubble after Blizzard launched The Burning Crusade expansion to WoW. Endgame in TOR is pretty much identical to TBC: a few raids, and a lot of hard mode dungeons. Unfortunately, that was quite possibly the worst endgame progression Blizzard's ever done. There is a TON of content in TOR, but it's hidden behind all the stupid MMO stuff that Blizzard and others have solved: getting a group is a horrible experience, and the rewards are completely out of whack from the effort involved.

TOR has the problem that a lot of AAA MMOs launched recently and many more to come out soon have (which Amalur will share if it ever sees the light of day.) There's the fact that these games take an extraordinary amount of time and resources to develop, and if that weren't risky enough, that then means they have to hope they don't become dated throughout that time.

I doubt it was that TOR was developed in a bubble. More that by the time Blizzard and others had changed the formula, TOR was already built off design decisions that were made years before that.

I do agree that the 38 implosion basically needs its own thread. It's too big to be a sub thread topic.

WoW TBC was released in 2007. That's plenty of time to learn from Blizzard's mistakes. And the dungeon finder was added in December 2009.

It's not like Blizzard has added this stuff recently.

New thread dedicated to discussing the 38 Studios collapse over here. I obviously should have created it a long time ago but I linked to the range of posts where the discussions related to the collapse took place so people can catch up if they like.

This was a great game and I'm glad it came out and I got to play it. Also, thank you Curt Schilling for personally forwarding my problem to the developers and getting it fixed. That meant a lot to me, and it works fine now.

Wow I had no idea there was so much love for KoA out there.

I bought the game when it first came out but only put 2-3 hours in. Part of the issue was a migraine cos of the field of vision in the game + I was not all that impressed with the game in those few hours.

All this support for the game makes me think I need to give it another try. Once I get Diablo 3 out of my system that is.

I seriously still love the game and play it fairly regularly (I've still never finished a playthrough yet!). It's one of my two biggest surprise favorites so far this year (Crusader Kings 2 being the other), and I'm very disappointed that the company was so poorly managed that they can't enjoy the success of making a great - and surprisingly polished overall - game.

My game budget for the month is spent and I wouldn't have time to play it right now anyway but I will pick up the PC version at some point and play it through. The demo didn't grab me but many have said the demo doesn't do it justice. I'd like to try it out.

casual_alcoholic wrote:

This was a great game and I'm glad it came out and I got to play it. Also, thank you Curt Schilling for personally forwarding my problem to the developers and getting it fixed. That meant a lot to me, and it works fine now.

It was that kind of involvement on his part that really made it hard for me to read the personal attacks. Was the business mismanaged - it would appear so. Maliciously? It would appear not. Schilling seems like a good dude, and this just seems unfortunately. Damn MMOs.

Lead Designer Ian Frazier left this in his farewell thread on the Reckoning forums; a holiday video that was deemed too silly to release during the holidays.

So, uh, now that this would basically be payment to the state of Rhode Island, would this be a game I would like playing? A lot of the talk I saw when it first came out made it sound like it was primarily focused on the loot grind - which is the least appealing thing about RPGs for me. But on the other hand, I found both the combat and art style appealing. Anyone give me a brief synopsis of the pros and cons of this game and/or whether any of the DLC is worth picking up?

It is not really focused on the loot grind, I disagree with that. It is focused on the combat with a decent quest structure around it with many side stories/quest lines and quest factions. If you like the combat and the art I would say it is definitely worth buying because that is what the majority of the game is with a side of quasi-typical RPG quest tropes.

I am trying to think of cons... the quests are mostly predictable but they are presented well and the combat makes up for it. The game plays best with a 360 controller on the PC so if you are a dedicated keyboard + mouse guy you might be best to adapt. The world is HUGE there is so much to do it can be overwhelming at times and some people begin to skip the optional content halfway through so they can plow through the main quest.

LeapingGnome wrote:

It is not really focused on the loot grind, I disagree with that. It is focused on the combat with a decent quest structure around it with many side stories/quest lines and quest factions. If you like the combat and the art I would say it is definitely worth buying because that is what the majority of the game is with a side of quasi-typical RPG quest tropes.

I am trying to think of cons... the quests are mostly predictable but they are presented well and the combat makes up for it. The game plays best with a 360 controller on the PC so if you are a dedicated keyboard + mouse guy you might be best to adapt. The world is HUGE there is so much to do it can be overwhelming at times and some people begin to skip the optional content halfway through so they can plow through the main quest.

I agree with all of this. Playing on PC with 360 controller was perfect for me, and really highlighted the very enjoyable action-oriented combat. I'd add also that the graphics and art design are absolutely stunning at times -- it's a beautiful, highly-stylized world.

On the con side... as LG mentioned, the game does get a bit long in the tooth about halfway through, especially if you're anything like me, and feels the compulsive need to complete every side-quest. I finally ended up having to force myself to completely ignore the side-quests after I finished off the western continent. Once I did that, the game re-engaged me. Also, the game can apparently be completely broken by crafting, i.e. you can make equipment that exceedingly trivializes the combat. The simple solution is just to avoid crafting.

I was already planning on going the PC with 360 controller route, and I rarely do crafting anyways. So it sounds like play the game, but stick to the main quest lines for the most part? I might give it a try.

kuddles wrote:

I was already planning on going the PC with 360 controller route, and I rarely do crafting anyways. So it sounds like play the game, but stick to the main quest lines for the most part? I might give it a try.

All the faction quests are of high quality, too. Just not the random tasks from any old villager, but if you're into the lore they also have their place.

BadKen wrote:

Lead Designer Ian Frazier left this in his farewell thread on the Reckoning forums; a holiday video that was deemed too silly to release during the holidays.

That's...

Damn. Just damn.

BadKen wrote:

Lead Designer Ian Frazier left this in his farewell thread on the Reckoning forums; a holiday video that was deemed too silly to release during the holidays.

I thought it was funny that the brit actually said "happy christmas".

Meh, this remains the best thing 38 Studios has ever done.

Wow, coming into this late, but what a bummer. If the game hadn't been super-premium priced, I probably would have grabbed it. My mental price point was around $40 -- new IP, didn't know if I would like it, not overwhelmingly thrilled with the video, but good buzz. I'd have probably bought in at $40.

Even now, I find myself STILL unwilling to part with $60 for this thing.

edit: in scanning this page, I guess I may be beating a moribund equine, but that's how I was thinking about it, even if lots of other people were, too.

Could have been had for $45 on launch day.

I didn't know about it on launch day.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:
necroyeti wrote:

So....Steam sale?

I'd bank on that coming very soon if not this weekend.

Not steam, but on sale http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...

Doh! Nvm, that was an expansion.

The PC download version is on sale at Amazon for $29.99.

Just tried the demo. Wasn't fond of the float of the controls, the position of the camera or, really, the combat. I thought I'd be able to flow / cancel moves into one another, but that didn't seem the case. Also no lock-on targeting was a bit annoying.

-Wrong thread-

edit: Nevermind, I looked it up. Steam version requires only Steam, so I guess I'll wait for that version to drop to something reasonable.

I'll leave the original question up for others, just in case.

********
Yeah, I just saw that Amazon had it for $30, but that version requires Origin. Does the Steam version require Origin? That's a dealbreaker. I ran a temporary OS install to play ME3 (and man, what a giant waste of time that was), but I won't do that anymore.

If anything, I hope another company learns from some of the game's (not the company's) strengths. I thought the world was interesting, and thought their whole fate weaver conceit was a great way to deal with specs. After hearing how easy it is to turn your character into whatever you like on the fly, playing a class-based game like WoW or ToR feel archaic.

mateofalcone wrote:

After hearing how easy it is to turn your character into whatever you like on the fly, playing a class-based game like WoW or ToR feel archaic.

That idea goes back a lot further than Amalur. I'd like if all games allowed it. Final Fantasy XI was maybe (?) the first MMO to do it, and Square also did it in a single player game as early as Final Fantasy V. I'm sure some of the more seasoned posters could name prior examples as well.