Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning discussion

[vamsi_krishna]

Title: Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning

Genre: Action/RPG

Developer: Big Huge Games

Release Date: February 7

Platforms: PC, PS3, xBox 360


Wikipedia Description:

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an upcoming single-player action role-playing game for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.[4] Ken Rolston, the lead designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, acts as the game's executive designer. Additionally, noted fantasy author R.A. Salvatore created the game universe and lore, with Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, working on the artwork, and Grant Kirkhope, long-time composer for Rare Ltd., creating the musical score.

Any one playing this?

[roque]

was thinking of pre-ordering it but saving bucks for syndicate and me3...

[Lord073]

Has anyone tried the demo yet?

[abhidev]

It seems that this one is going to be a huge game....

[vamsi_krishna]

IGN already gave it a 9/10.

[Zangetsu]

poster looks nice....
is it also open-world like skyrim?

[abhidev]

Originally Posted by Zangetsu

poster looks nice....
is it also open-world like skyrim?

it is similar to Diablo i guess

[vamsi_krishna]

The game plays close of Fable. Not a Diablo type.

[Zangetsu]

Originally Posted by abhidev

it is similar to Diablo i guess

Not at all..it doesn't have isometric view like Diablo.

but it doesn't have depth as in Skyrim

[Ethan_Hunt]

If anyone out here has played Lord of the Rings: War in the North, this game plays exactly like it. The inventory, item pick ups and the whole UI, in general, is very similar to it. I just completed the intro quest, which was essentially the same level provided in the demo. The combat is pretty fluid. The camera, however, is screwed up during fights. Lip-sync seems to be all over the place, it never seems to match the voice overs. But it's fun.

[vamsi_krishna]

Camera is really bad. Screws up the situation while in tight battles. Another major trouble is the dodging and blocking mechanics. I don't know how well they are going to get, but right now.. they pretty much suck. The game is fun nonetheless. Reached Level 4. Now doing couple of side quests.

[gameranand]

Completing this demo will unlock some weapon or Armor or both in ME3 & playing ME3 demo will unlock some weapon or armor for this game.

[abhidev]

just read the review...it has over 400hrs of gameplay leaving most of the side quests

[gameranand]

WTH 400+ hrs without side quests ? Damn thats massive.

[Kola2842]

Is it anyhow near dao??

@vamsi what way camera suck? Please explain.

[gameranand]

@Kola
Camera always tries to be cinematic in battles thus not giving good angle for the player to fight and hiding some things.

No its nowhere near DAO. They can't be compared at all, this game is all about you while DAO was squad based RPG.

[Lord073]

Dated graphics, Generic plot & Annoying camera -That's all I have to say about this game after playing the demo. Yeah, the combat feels pretty good but the camera spoils the fun. Pretty disappointing given the reputation of the people behind the creation of this game. Another overhyped and overrated game. I'm skipping it.

[Kola2842]

hmm then how it managed 9/10 on gamespot.

May be money..

[Lord073]

Gamespot gave it 7.5/10 AFAIK. It was IGN which gave a 9/10. Well, they also gave MW3 a 9/10 so...

[Kola2842]

Thats why i prefer user score and self analysis.

[Kola2842]

^^imo should play demo

[gameranand]

Originally Posted by Piyush

so in the end....one who has played Skyrim and Dragon age should play it or not?

Well you see the games you mentioned above didn't got a single negative review. But this game has got mixed reviews so I can't really say whether you would like it or not. My suggestion would be to play the demo first after all demo is free right.

[Piyush]

*reviving*

My Review so far in the game:
Story:Story is good enough to keep you glued.And most of the side quests are equally good (though half of them are "go and fetch" type, still getting high quality merchandise on the way doest seems boring.I dont wanna spoil anything, so....

Graphics:The graphics are good.Don't expect too much, but the visual candy matches the game scenario.So no problems here.Also playing on high settings on low-mid end system isn't a problem.The game will remind you about WoW world.

Sound:Appropriate sound effects.Voice acting is done well.Actually its one of the games that manages to match the voice according to the speaker( read face). There may be occasions when discovering a stone set, the dialogue runs ahead of subtitles.No other issues so far.

Gameplay :Well I've clocked over 150hrs with main quests (halfway through)and completed few side quests.Not to forgot, I haven't touched the "tasks" as they are repeatable.So you can imagine the length of the game.If side quests are combined with main plot, it will easily surpass any of the Bethesda's creation.Oh yeah, 2 DLCs haven't been included in my review.So add more gameplay

Combat:Like every fantasy RPGs, this game also provide 3 main classes, namely Mage, Warrior and Assassin.The unique feature is that you can play as the combination of those classes which will eventually unlock even more ways of playing the game (read fighting combos and spells).I'm playing the Universalist path, i.e., the one who focus on all 3 classes and tbh, he has become almost invincible (only one NPC is stronger than me now, but I think its just a part of main plot).Also, you can change the way you play at any point of the game by resetting the skill points by NPCs known as Fate weavers .Of course, it will cost you coins, and the amount increases in succession.I've used it like 8 times and the next time it will cost me around 100k coins .

Merchandise:Hell lot of items to be found.I mean you'll be in stuck in many situation just thinking, "what to use?" There are items in color from White->Green->Blue->Purple according to rarity. Yellow is only for armors apart from other 4 color codes, that come into sets and will give you set bonus, and tbh they aren't so easy to find and will generate randomly when the game initializes for the first time (leaving some exceptions).
Also you can create your own weapons, armors and Gems(like enchanting in Dragon Age Origins and TESV:Skyrim).Potions can be created by Alchemy skill.

Treasures:Whats in a game which offers no treasures and secret places?KOAR is heavily blessed with this stuff.You can find hidden treasures in tree logs, pile of rocks, pile of loot, stashes, boxes, etc...They are all hidden from you.You can "see" them in your mini map if you have decent "Detect Hidden" skill.Lockipicking is common but new type of locks are added in KOAR and are unlocked with "De-spelling" skill (they put curse on you if you fail to De-spell ) .I always use F5 before De-spelling

Abilities:Tons of 'em!!!You'll not get bored .Each class offers powerful abilities, making you feel secure even if you are focusing on 1 play style.I try to use each and every ability and spell to make game looks fresh as ever. Some of the abilities are so cool, for example, Harpoon will catch an enemy and will drag it towards you.It can do reverse effects if the enemy is large and heavy Lunge is also cool thing to perform, it'll make the player dash into an enemy , making us to go behind him and SMASH Tons of like these more.I haven't unlocked even half of them.

Issues:Only 1 bug encountered so far and it was fixed on quick load. Camera looks creepy in the beginning but you'll get used to it after a couple of hours.No glitches so far.Performance issues for some cards are solved in 1.0.2 version IIRC.

Enough of reviewing. OK my stats so far:

Level- 35
Fate Card- Polymath (universalist path)

Spoiler:

Fav Longsword- Dragon Fang
Fav Greatsword- Life drinker (funny art) and Kellerac's Sword (against Tuatha)
Fav Hammer- Ward of the North
Fav Faeblades- The Dove Wings (beautiful yet deadly)
Fav Daggers- Heart pins
Fav Staff- The Aasha's song
Fav Chakrams- Solice
Fav Longbow- The Sin
Fav Spectre- none so far
Fav Amulet- The Thresh Seal
Fav Rings- Gladiator ring and Hero's Signet
Fav Destructive spell- Meteors
Fav non-destructive spell- Harpoon

[cyborg47]

The developer 38 Studios and its subsidiary Big Huge Games are shutting down, unfortunately.

[Piyush]

Originally Posted by cyborg47

The developer 38 Studios and its subsidiary Big Huge Games are shutting down, unfortunately.

yea...read that article today itself

[gameranand]

Seems like a real nice game. Will play it for sure.

[sameer.pur]

Completed a few days back. Finished all side-quests, faction quests and some of the repetitive tasks as well, (No DLCs included). Clocked 92 hours. (Mentioned on save files. )

Two major boss fights are there. I was level 40 and maxed out before I finished the main quest.

[gameranand]

^^ Looks like you rushed the game as Piyush is halfway through and already at 150 hrs. Or may be you have a different kind of play style.

[Piyush]

finally!!!!!
reached level 36 and now I'm an Universalist (read god like personality )

[topgear]

^^ Playing this game for last two months - more than 1 hour each day - will post my level/gameplay and other details later.