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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning?

Mastermind

Cognito Elite Material
Patron
Bethestard
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
21,144
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Indeed. It's much preferable to buy the game, no matter how shitty it may be, in order to give BHG a chance to be bought out by EA (who happens to be the publisher) and churn out Amalur sequels on a yearly basis.

If he's playing it for 100 hours he obviously doesn't think it's shitty at all. I haven't even put that much time in NV, which is my most played steam game to date.
 

sea

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
5,698
Armada is too confusing a word for Joe Average. Commander makes me feel like a badass. Shepard is a Commander, and Shepard is a badass! So basically this game is Mass Effect but with Dragons? Fuck, take my $80 and send me the Collector's Edition with day one dragon DLC.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
I'll just settle for the explanation that in order to minmax himself as a developer Lar picked choosing good titles as his dump stat (Divine Divinity? Dragon Commander? At least Ego Draconis didn't sound bad).

Works for me, TBH - what good would be a shit game with good sounding title instead?
:salute:
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,107
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Armada is too confusing a word for Joe Average. Commander makes me feel like a badass. Shepard is a Commander, and Shepard is a badass! So basically this game is Mass Effect but with Dragons? Fuck, take my $80 and send me the Collector's Edition with day one dragon DLC.

You've been spending too much time on the Codex, man. They're going to kick you off Gamasutra and then who'll be our man on the inside? :smug:
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,376
Location
Djibouti
Wait. Why are there Dragon Commander related posts in an Amalulz thread o_O
 

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
Does this game have any redeeming values that make it fun to play? I've watched the gameplay videos and downloaded the "demo" and it just seems like a shitty God of War clone with loot. Does the game even have any stats beyond "HP" and "MP"? I couldn't see anything in the menu, anyway.

Are all of the "dungeons" straight up Skyrim-style rollercoaster rides like the opening dungeon is? I don't have the patience for this shit anymore.
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,236
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
The truly sad thing for this game is that it's being published by EA (an it's retarded Marketing Department demands). As much as I like the dev team (Ian) it's still like having a collection of the best chefs in the world making soup. A big pot of turd soup is still turd soup. No matter how great the cooks are.

With EA's demands their game are mass accessible, dumbed down etc etc... Sadly it's is Yet Another Action Game Labeled a RPG That Has Little Or No RPG Mechanics™ #984765345

When is Knight of The Chalice II coming out? :(
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
Releases later today (midnight) -- I predict many on the Codex will torrent it, play for 100+ hours and promptly declare how much they hate it... although they had to play through 100 hours just to be sure~
 

sea

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
5,698
Does this game have any redeeming values that make it fun to play? I've watched the gameplay videos and downloaded the "demo" and it just seems like a shitty God of War clone with loot. Does the game even have any stats beyond "HP" and "MP"? I couldn't see anything in the menu, anyway.

Are all of the "dungeons" straight up Skyrim-style rollercoaster rides like the opening dungeon is? I don't have the patience for this shit anymore.
Stats are basically resistances, damage bonuses etc. All of it is given via items or fate cards, which are basically presets of passive bonuses/builds. They're basically stats under the hood, just not ones you assign directly. Items require X in sorcery/fighting/finesse which are the sum of your skill investment - dual-classing or triple-classing will mean sometimes you can't use the best gear, but you have access to a wider range of abilities.
 

AlaCarcuss

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
1,335
Location
BrizVegas, Australis Penal Colony
The truly sad thing for this game is that it's being published by EA (an it's retarded Marketing Department demands). As much as I like the dev team (Ian) it's still like having a collection of the best chefs in the world making soup. A big pot of turd soup is still turd soup. No matter how great the cooks are.

With EA's demands their game are mass accessible, dumbed down etc etc... Sadly it's is Yet Another Action Game Labeled a RPG That Has Little Or No RPG Mechanics™ #984765345

When is Knight of The Chalice II coming out? :(

It's an Action RPG (as most are these days) - I don't think it's being labeled as anything but.

With a pretty decent action oriented combat engine (from what I can tell) and lots of options for character customisation - seems ok "for what it is" to me.

Actually, the demo reminded me a bit of DKS - a game which I hated for the first few hours then grew to enjoy very much. Hoping this is similar with better combat and exploration.
 

Heresiarch

Prophet
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
1,451
The real dungeons other than the tutorial is better, even better than SKYRIM OH YEAH in that they have different branches to explore. Detect Hidden skill is critical because without it it seems you'll miss tons of hidden passages. And as I mentioned before the traps in dungeons kick ass - a simple bear trap can hit you for 30% health and I died once to a magical mine, it first hit me over 75% and blasted me to another mine which killed me.

The overall design of dungeons is actually better than DKS - the size is bigger, there's very few copy & paste rooms/passages so far, and there are more hidden stuff.
 

BLOBERT

FUCKING SLAYINGN IT BROS
Patron
Joined
Jun 12, 2007
Messages
4,233
Location
BRO
Codex 2012
BROS DARK SOULS THAE CODEX RPG OF THE YEAR 2011 WAS AN ARPG SO DONT GIVE UP HOPE BASED ON THAT
 

Zed

Codex Staff
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
17,068
Codex USB, 2014
I thought the demo was too short so I thought it I'd try the "bigger demo". This time I got out of the tutorial area at least. I played like 4-5 hours or something in total before I gave up. Probably won't pick it up again.

I played a pure sorcery build. Sorcerers have 3 weapons - Staffs (close range) Chakras (throwing discs - mid range) and some sort of Wands (long range). I chose to specialize in Chakras and the heavy nuke spell you start out with.

Combat was quite decent once you got a few abilities. The QTE finishing moves (for extra experience gain) are dumb, but at least I always got 100% bonus exp gain with my APM fingers of doom. Most encounters followed one of three types: 4-5 mobs encounter (use AoE and dodge), 1-3 with ranged charge-up/charge skill (use dodge), or dumbfuck mob (just spam Mouse1).

The story, characters and lore are super generic. It's also very PG-13. So it's just boring. The background lore seems to be quite rich though. Lots of names and history and shit. But that doesn't really matter since it's all boring. Who is actually excited by dark/light elves and dwarves anymore? "oh no, the dark elf king is corrupted with evil and you are the chosen one hohuhuho" fuck you.
The game world is too big. Areas are too sparse when it comes to... well, interesting stuff. It's all mobs and loot chests and fedex sidequest-givers ("Hello, bring me 4 deer heads! I know I'm a hunter but I will ask you, stranger, to hunt in my place. Because fuck you I'm lazy"). Towns are all hub-structured (3-4 questgivers, shop, healer, smith, etc.), with very few intractable characters besides the questgivers. Pretty much like a MMORPG.

Speaking of being like a MMORPG. Every quest including the main quests feels like they're taken directly from a MMORPG. Felt like playing SWTOR again. Main quests and sidequests - only difference is main quest got recurring characters and some cinematics.

The interface is horrible. Probably developed for consoles first.


TLDR; The game is a singleplayer MMORPG, much like Two Worlds II. It has a horrible interface and a camera/turn-system that takes like an hour to get used to (earlier I couldn't finish the demo because I became nauseated). Combat plays like Zelda - dodge, attack, dodge. Plot and characters are PG-13 cardboard cutouts and boring - don't expect xtreme bioware tableflipping or romancing or anything like that. Writing is not horrible but it's absolutely not interesting.
I expect only a few percentage of people who play this will actually finish it. It can be very tedious. Your character grows boring fast - and since it's a single character game that kind of sucks balls, no?

I give the game... 30%! 3/10. 1.5/5.
 

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
I tried playing Anular briefly with a PS2 controller, and I must say that it seems like it might be an enjoyable mindless hack/slash to play with a controller in front of a TV. I suppose I'll give it a chance later tonight since a few people here seem to think it might be okay.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
I thought the demo was too short so I thought it I'd try the "bigger demo". This time I got out of the tutorial area at least. I played like 4-5 hours or something in total before I gave up. Probably won't pick it up again.

I played a pure sorcery build. Sorcerers have 3 weapons - Staffs (close range) Chakras (throwing discs - mid range) and some sort of Wands (long range). I chose to specialize in Chakras and the heavy nuke spell you start out with.

Combat was quite decent once you got a few abilities. The QTE finishing moves (for extra experience gain) are dumb, but at least I always got 100% bonus exp gain with my APM fingers of doom. Most encounters followed one of three types: 4-5 mobs encounter (use AoE and dodge), 1-3 with ranged charge-up/charge skill (use dodge), or dumbfuck mob (just spam Mouse1).

The story, characters and lore are super generic. It's also very PG-13. So it's just boring. The background lore seems to be quite rich though. Lots of names and history and shit. But that doesn't really matter since it's all boring. Who is actually excited by dark/light elves and dwarves anymore? "oh no, the dark elf king is corrupted with evil and you are the chosen one hohuhuho" fuck you.
The game world is too big. Areas are too sparse when it comes to... well, interesting stuff. It's all mobs and loot chests and fedex sidequest-givers ("Hello, bring me 4 deer heads! I know I'm a hunter but I will ask you, stranger, to hunt in my place. Because fuck you I'm lazy"). Towns are all hub-structured (3-4 questgivers, shop, healer, smith, etc.), with very few intractable characters besides the questgivers. Pretty much like a MMORPG.

Speaking of being like a MMORPG. Every quest including the main quests feels like they're taken directly from a MMORPG. Felt like playing SWTOR again. Main quests and sidequests - only difference is main quest got recurring characters and some cinematics.

The interface is horrible. Probably developed for consoles first.


TLDR; The game is a singleplayer MMORPG, much like Two Worlds II. It has a horrible interface and a camera/turn-system that takes like an hour to get used to (earlier I couldn't finish the demo because I became nauseated). Combat plays like Zelda - dodge, attack, dodge. Plot and characters are PG-13 cardboard cutouts and boring - don't expect xtreme bioware tableflipping or romancing or anything like that. Writing is not horrible but it's absolutely not interesting.
I expect only a few percentage of people who play this will actually finish it. It can be very tedious. Your character grows boring fast - and since it's a single character game that kind of sucks balls, no?

I give the game... 30%! 3/10. 1.5/5.
All I needed to know.
:salute:
 

MaroonSkein

Augur
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
347
Location
St. Petersburg, Russia
I failed my will saving throw and acquired the extended demo. I had played it for 15 hours before guilt kicked in and I uninstalled it. Here are my thoughts on what I saw.

The combo system is nowhere as complex as I thought it would be from reading the ability descriptions in the demo. Most special attacks can only be done after dodging or blocking, which makes them very combo-unfriendly. Some can be linked after a launcher, but it's hardly the best option you have at the time. The most complex combo you can do is attack, attack, attack, launcher, attack, attack, attack, attack, spell. Lack of jumping and everything that comes with it (air-to-air and air-to-ground attacks, jump cancelling, enemy step) really holds the combo system back. If you see someone favorably comparing Reckoning to DMC and Bayonetta, know that this person either hasn't played the game for more than 45 minutes, or doesn't understand what makes combat in those games special.

The good news is that combat is still quite good. What makes it good is encounter design. Some examples:

1. Kobolds. They mostly come in two varieties: spear wielders and javelin throwers. Spear wielders use the range of their weapons to prevent the player's character from reaching javelin throwers. They tend to stick pretty close to each other, so it can take up to 10 seconds to find an opening.
2. Wolves and ettin warpriests. Wolves are very weak at this point of the game, but their fast attacks can still put you in a second of hit stun and prevent you from dodging otherwise easily avoidable ettin's hammer strikes, and hammers hurt a lot. 3 hammer strikes can kill your character on normal.
3. The Widow boss fight. The Widow is a spider summoning witch who keeps herself surrounded with 4 respawning spiders. 2 spiders are small and fast and spit poison projectiles at your character. 2 are larger and slower and mostly stick to close range combat, but they can also paralyze your character with a web projectile. The Widow herself has two staff attacks (a basic projectile and an AoE attack that targets the ground around her) and can teleport around the room. You have 5 enemies to deal with, and the only one that can be permanently killed keeps running away. Fun.

Finally, a word of advice to people planning on playing a melee character: do not use longswords or daggers. In my experience, reach is far more useful in this game than speed.
 

Heresiarch

Prophet
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
1,451
I thought the demo was too short so I thought it I'd try the "bigger demo". This time I got out of the tutorial area at least. I played like 4-5 hours or something in total before I gave up. Probably won't pick it up again.

I played a pure sorcery build. Sorcerers have 3 weapons - Staffs (close range) Chakras (throwing discs - mid range) and some sort of Wands (long range). I chose to specialize in Chakras and the heavy nuke spell you start out with.

Combat was quite decent once you got a few abilities. The QTE finishing moves (for extra experience gain) are dumb, but at least I always got 100% bonus exp gain with my APM fingers of doom. Most encounters followed one of three types: 4-5 mobs encounter (use AoE and dodge), 1-3 with ranged charge-up/charge skill (use dodge), or dumbfuck mob (just spam Mouse1).

The story, characters and lore are super generic. It's also very PG-13. So it's just boring. The background lore seems to be quite rich though. Lots of names and history and shit. But that doesn't really matter since it's all boring. Who is actually excited by dark/light elves and dwarves anymore? "oh no, the dark elf king is corrupted with evil and you are the chosen one hohuhuho" fuck you.
The game world is too big. Areas are too sparse when it comes to... well, interesting stuff. It's all mobs and loot chests and fedex sidequest-givers ("Hello, bring me 4 deer heads! I know I'm a hunter but I will ask you, stranger, to hunt in my place. Because fuck you I'm lazy"). Towns are all hub-structured (3-4 questgivers, shop, healer, smith, etc.), with very few intractable characters besides the questgivers. Pretty much like a MMORPG.

Speaking of being like a MMORPG. Every quest including the main quests feels like they're taken directly from a MMORPG. Felt like playing SWTOR again. Main quests and sidequests - only difference is main quest got recurring characters and some cinematics.

The interface is horrible. Probably developed for consoles first.


TLDR; The game is a singleplayer MMORPG, much like Two Worlds II. It has a horrible interface and a camera/turn-system that takes like an hour to get used to (earlier I couldn't finish the demo because I became nauseated). Combat plays like Zelda - dodge, attack, dodge. Plot and characters are PG-13 cardboard cutouts and boring - don't expect xtreme bioware tableflipping or romancing or anything like that. Writing is not horrible but it's absolutely not interesting.
I expect only a few percentage of people who play this will actually finish it. It can be very tedious. Your character grows boring fast - and since it's a single character game that kind of sucks balls, no?

I give the game... 30%! 3/10. 1.5/5.
All I needed to know.
:salute:


Come'n draq, if you're really really really not wanting to try this game you won't bother keep getting in this thread to find mini reviews to persuade yourself not playing it :smug:

But yeah, it is essentially a single player hack & slash MMORPG, with a rich background story and tons of loot and fights. Don't bother looking into it if you're after something like at least at good as TW as its depth is even worse than Dragon Age or Mass Effect. If you're looking for something like Fable done right then this is good.

BTW, I find one more plus for this game: the non-combat skills works really good as the improvements they provide is very remarkeble. For example, Detect Hidden is a must have because without at least a couple points in it, you'll miss out 90% of the hidden loot. Persuasion is very important, as the difference of one skill point can spell out from 25% to 90% of chance of success. Alchemy, blacksmithing and sagecraft (gem crafting) can give you very powerful potions/equipments/gems, but you must focus on one of them to truly reap the benefits, and since skill points are rare (only 1 point per level) and you level up slowly (I've played for 8 hours and got only to level 6), you can't really make a character that's wielding ultra-smithed weapons, wearing hyper-enchanted gears and drinking godly-brewed pots at the same time (Skyrim/Oblivion/Morrowind I'm looking at you).
 

sea

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
5,698
Only thing is, respecs are so cheap as to basically be free, so you can dump all your points in crafting, make uber gear, then respec and keep it. Kinda devalues the non-combat skills in my opinion, though at least it means you aren't stuck for a 200 hour game with a build or gear you don't like.
 

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
I played a few hours using a PS2 controller.

It's definitely more of a console game than a PC game. It plays well with a controller for the most part, and it seems much more enjoyable as a game to screw around with while sitting on the couch than with mouse and keyboard. The only problem is that the small text is virtually unreadable from a distance at 1920x1080, at least on my 24" screen. Dropping to 720p made everything much clearer, but then the game seemed a little claustrophobic.

It seems like a decent hack/slash/loot game, but the promotion leading up to the release lead me to believe it was an open world game like the Bethesda games. It's not really at all, though. It reminds me more of a Zelda-type game than an open world RPG. The game itself reminds me of the recent Wii game Xenoblade for whatever reason. Combat reminds me of Arkham Asylum.

Having only played a few hours, I can't really judge, but it seems like an interesting (although dumbed down) diversion. At least the loot and skill system seems far more fun and involved compared to something like Witcher 2, which I thought was awful in both areas.

Only thing is, respecs are so cheap as to basically be free, so you can dump all your points in crafting, make uber gear, then respec and keep it. Kinda devalues the non-combat skills in my opinion, though at least it means you aren't stuck for a 200 hour game with a build or gear you don't like.
I'm glad to see that you can respec. What you said there makes it seem like it's pretty easy to cheese out and pull a Elder Scrolls style total max-out, but I've never found that fun. You might as well just play normally and respec if needed, but don't do it to abuse the crafting stuff.
 

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