Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning(Released on February 7th)

[you2]

I'm playing on hard (level 1 or level 2) and it is not super hard but not a cake yet. I mean I have to quaff health potions - now if they made it so that health potions slowly increase health (quite a few rpg do this) then it would be a bit more difficult - though outside it is easy to run away.
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I crated my first item (i'm just funking around with picking skills - fir the first level I went with bolt and bow).
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I suppose it will get easier once I get to a higher level but so far it is almost balanced

 

[Rhezuss]

I'm playing on hard (level 1 or level 2) and it is not super hard but not a cake yet. I mean I have to quaff health potions - now if they made it so that health potions slowly increase health (quite a few rpg do this) then it would be a bit more difficult - though outside it is easy to run away.
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I crated my first item (i'm just funking around with picking skills - fir the first level I went with bolt and bow).
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I suppose it will get easier once I get to a higher level but so far it is almost balanced

It will become easier the more you level. Your combos/spells will hit hard. There's some "orange" monsters you'll encounter that will put a little more challenge but overall it's Block/Counter attack - Combos - Block - Finish!

It's doesn't matter to me though cause this game is refreshing and a little more unique than many other RPGs we've seen. I love it and it's keeping me glued to my screen when I fire it up.

BTW, level Blacksmithing, you can craft some powerful items when you get better components.

 

[Anubis]

I seem to have an unhealthy obsession with smashing crates in this game. Probably a quarter of my gold has come strictly from that.

my new fave is using the lightning storm to blow up a ton of them in a large area

 

[cytoSiN]

my new fave is using the lightning storm to blow up a ton of them in a large area

Lightning Storm is my favorite thing ever! I <3 this game! Playing pure mage right now, but once I max out the build I want, I'll have to start throwing points into another tree. I'm thinking finesse, but willing to be persuaded otherwise. Anyone else playing heavy mage with a little bit of something else and feel like weighing in?

 

[Anubis]

right now im playing mage/war almost even 50/50 at this point, someone a page back was playing pure mage.

few of the war talents are nice, Sheld upgreade blocks more damage and give you shield bash, the talent linked to it increases your max HP by quite a bit if you max it out

 

[cytoSiN]

Pure mage is really fun. It seems warrior is based largely on blocking. But as a pure mage, I NEVER block. First of all, my "shield" is just a stat stick, and really doesn't block any damage. Second, the only reason I pull out my shield at all is so that I can use the block+staff attack that sucks all enemies in a cone in front of me into a single spot so that I can throw chain lightning or fireballs at them. Third, mages get "blink" instead of dodge, and at higher levels blink actually damages/slows enemies as you dodge past them, so you're better off narrowly escaping hits than you are blocking them. I was thinking that I would throw some points into the stealth-related finesse talents to make myself harder to see/hit, while still focusing on sorcery for most/all of my combat.

 

[Nahtzee]

Would people say that thsi game is worth getting... as in... it's not easy to get bored of it?

Im looking for an engaging RPG to play

 

[thespyder]

Would people say that thsi game is worth getting... as in... it's not easy to get bored of it?

Im looking for an engaging RPG to play

People here seem to really like it. But without knowing your particular interest, I would recommend that you find and download the DEMO and try it for yourself.

Pretty much what I have seen is it isn't quite as open a world as Skyrim, but the combat is much more fun. The world is not as memorable as you might like, but there is LOTS to do and see. People have compared it to a single person WoW, but I would personally rate it much higher than that experience.

Also, there are fewer bugs than in Skyrim, so for what that's worth.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

It is very YMMV. I shelved it after three days. The combat is fundamentally better then Skyrim - but unfortunately, it's also similar enough to more action oriented that you're not comparing it to skyrim. You compare it to god of war, darksiders, even Batman - and it fares very very poorly in those comparisons.

 

[zinfamous]

People here seem to really like it. But without knowing your particular interest, I would recommend that you find and download the DEMO and try it for yourself.

Pretty much what I have seen is it isn't quite as open a world as Skyrim, but the combat is much more fun. The world is not as memorable as you might like, but there is LOTS to do and see. People have compared it to a single person WoW, but I would personally rate it much higher than that experience.

Also, there are fewer bugs than in Skyrim, so for what that's worth.

Pretty much how I feel after playing the demo and reading people's comments. Even at the beginning of the demo, I enjoyed the mage/finesse play, even though I was only at, I assume, less than 1% of real capability, heh.

My only hope is that the camera speed/angle is different, or at least "more fixable" in the full game.

My plan is to purchase this on first sale....hopefully the appearance of ME3 or some other major title coming out soon will see this on sale at steam.

 

[thespyder]

It is very YMMV. I shelved it after three days. The combat is fundamentally better then Skyrim - but unfortunately, it's also similar enough to more action oriented that you're not comparing it to skyrim. You compare it to god of war, darksiders, even Batman - and it fares very very poorly in those comparisons.

I find your selection order interesting. While I agree that God of War is at the top of the heap, I found Darksiders to be extremely derivitive and just plain horribly executed. Add to that the camera angle being way to close so that WAR actually blocked you from seeing who was attacking you, that it was a very poor game all around.

Batman, I would agree as being not as good as God of War, but still excellent.

But all that being said, Amalur is much more open than any of those three. Doesn't that give it points? GoW combat = 10 out of 10. Amalur combat 8 out of 10. Amalur is much more open than GoW so gets points there where GoW doesn't?

 

[Glitchny]

right now im playing mage/war almost even 50/50 at this point, someone a page back was playing pure mage.

few of the war talents are nice, Sheld upgreade blocks more damage and give you shield bash, the talent linked to it increases your max HP by quite a bit if you max it out

I almost never block. I'm Might/Finesse and all the might points are in the dmg increase with weps and special attacks. All you need is to activate Relentless Assault (makes you immune to interuption/knockback, and at max level costs 0 armor to use). With that up, and the healing that comes with the next tier, and battle frenzy, I just mow things down. There is never a reason to block unless I want to try to use the Parry counter special attack.

Just beat the game last night, was fun. I was somewhere around 53hrs played and I didn't do many side quests once crossing the river and I never did the arcane school faction stuff.

spoilers about the ending.

Spoiler

The ending was pretty cool, but the story is a tad weak. There is a big deal made about the last fight but since it is somewhat of a "surprise" it isn't that pivotal to the story. And the whole, this is what you did before you died stuff could have been more fleshed out, or just more interesting.

Also the stupid elf girl monologue at the end cracked me up, she tells me not to speak of the secret or she will have to hunt me down... Bitch I just killed a Dragon and am a virtual god, how is that threat even worth mentioning, carries no weight.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

I find your selection order interesting. While I agree that God of War is at the top of the heap, I found Darksiders to be extremely derivitive and just plain horribly executed. Add to that the camera angle being way to close so that WAR actually blocked you from seeing who was attacking you, that it was a very poor game all around.

Batman, I would agree as being not as good as God of War, but still excellent.

But all that being said, Amalur is much more open than any of those three. Doesn't that give it points? GoW combat = 10 out of 10. Amalur combat 8 out of 10. Amalur is much more open than GoW so gets points there where GoW doesn't?

It was actually the order I played those games in, not descending quality.

Amalur does get points for being a more open world. Thing is, I wouldn't put it at 8/10 - it's 3/10 or 4/10.

It's core problem for me has been one of variety. As I level up, I get new moves - but those moves don't actually seem to serve any purpose. They don't do more damage, they don't have wider areas of effect, they don't have special effects that make them worth using, and they don't even add useful strategic elements since there aren't enemies weak to them.

The parry counter special for instance - it's the last one you get. But it actually seems to be a downgrade - if you block and then attack without it, you get your regular attack which has a pretty decent area and does good damage. After you get it, you get a very narrow thrust attack followed by a bash - which doesn't do more damage then your regular attack would, while being a tiny bit slower and having a much narrower area. I have yet to encounter a situation where the parry special is better then a regular attack.

And while most the of the special attacks are equal to the regular attacks, they're not actually better then them.

Compare this to any of those other games - different attacks have notably different characters, and using the wrong one is a problem. In Amalur, pretty much any attack is equivalent. No tactical depth.

 

[thespyder]

Amalur does get points for being a more open world. Thing is, I wouldn't put it at 8/10 - it's 3/10 or 4/10.

Where do you rate Skyrim's combat?

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

2/10. It's a game I played in spite of the combat, not because of it.

Hm. Actually, seems unfair in retrospect. Amalur should probably be at least a 6, and Skyrim a 3.

 

[Glitchny]

It was actually the order I played those games in, not descending quality.

Amalur does get points for being a more open world. Thing is, I wouldn't put it at 8/10 - it's 3/10 or 4/10.

It's core problem for me has been one of variety. As I level up, I get new moves - but those moves don't actually seem to serve any purpose. They don't do more damage, they don't have wider areas of effect, they don't have special effects that make them worth using, and they don't even add useful strategic elements since there aren't enemies weak to them.

The parry counter special for instance - it's the last one you get. But it actually seems to be a downgrade - if you block and then attack without it, you get your regular attack which has a pretty decent area and does good damage. After you get it, you get a very narrow thrust attack followed by a bash - which doesn't do more damage then your regular attack would, while being a tiny bit slower and having a much narrower area. I have yet to encounter a situation where the parry special is better then a regular attack.

And while most the of the special attacks are equal to the regular attacks, they're not actually better then them.

Compare this to any of those other games - different attacks have notably different characters, and using the wrong one is a problem. In Amalur, pretty much any attack is equivalent. No tactical depth.

The special attacks add dmg over time to the target at 2nd rank and at 3rd they award bonus fate when you hit an enemy. That's the only real reason to use them a lot. They are also different attacks based on the wep. The longsword's charge move is a straight dash, the greatsword's is a swirling attack that is very useful for large packs.

 

[thespyder]

2/10. It's a game I played in spite of the combat, not because of it.

Hm. Actually, seems unfair in retrospect. Amalur should probably be at least a 6, and Skyrim a 3.

Yeah, see we have different scales entirely here.

GoW combat = 10/10. Really very little that I would change to make it better or more fun. Just about perfect.

Batman: AC combat = 9/10. Good smooth combat and an improvement over Batman: AA. Decent combinations and ease of execution. the ability to use different attacks/types of attacks over time depending on how you develop your perks.

Skyrim combat = 5/10. Functional and to a purpose. Different moves do impact combat (power attacks vs regular) and spells/abilities can be mixed up for variety, but not really what I would call engaging. Some good "Special" animations for kills.

Dragon Age 2 combat = 2/10 excessively over-flashy. No tactical relevance what so ever. Exploding corpses are totally unnecessary. Combat "Waves" one of the worst ideas I have seen. Monster Bosses who's only real Power are excessively unbalanced power hits and bajillions of Hit points. Healing and potions needlessly borked simply to make boss battles "More challenging".

Can't think of a 1 off the top of my head but I am sure I have played them (briefly).

To me, Amalur combat falls comfortably between Skyrim and Batman: AC. There is tactical relevance to different abilities and manuvers. Enemies use tactics to some degree. There is variety in weapons/powers/feats. Balancing seems to be well designed. Dodge "feels" right and appropriate.

Other factors I consider are:

does combat with spell casters feel the same as with warriors. In Amalur, I think the answer is no. Each style feels unique (to me).

does it make a difference what weapon you use. Again, Amalur gets this right. Although Swords and Hammers are (seemingly) well balanced, combat "Feels" different if you play with different weapons.

can you button mash to any advantage. From my experience and from what others have said, i would say no. Timing and tactics still have value and impact.

 

[slpnshot]

Skyrim combat = 5/10. Functional and to a purpose. Different moves do impact combat (power attacks vs regular) and spells/abilities can be mixed up for variety, but not really what I would call engaging. Some good "Special" animations for kills.

Dragon Age 2 combat = 2/10 excessively over-flashy. No tactical relevance what so ever. Exploding corpses are totally unnecessary. Combat "Waves" one of the worst ideas I have seen. Monster Bosses who's only real Power are excessively unbalanced power hits and bajillions of Hit points. Healing and potions needlessly borked simply to make boss battles "More challenging".

I think you got this backwards if anything, at least if Dragon Age 2 was anything like Origins(never played 2).

The first failing of Skyrim was the clumsiness in changing between weapons and spells. Sure switching from a 2 hander to another 2 hander was easy, not to mention going from 2 hander to a preset L/R spell combo. But switching between L/R spells and a L/R weapon was a pain in the ass. And while DAO didn't exactly give a damn about this either, Skyrim was the game that focused on the flexibility of the character's archetype with the 18 skill tree access so they should have done this better.

And some of the spells within Skyrim was as over-flashy as Dragon Age. You might not have been able to bring in a blizzard(or a firestorm combo) but you could call down a Dragon. Not to mention being able to summon a practically-immortal Dredora Lord.

Now what really killed combat in Skyrim for me was the non-magic combat. Unless you were going the one-hander and shield route you had two options in early Skyrim: Outdamage your enemy before he kills you or kite him to death. There is NO entry level abilities that allows something like 'Cheap Shot' or a CC equivalent that would allow a person to try and take down a powerful character with finesse rather than brute strength.

Skyrim was an awesome game, but the combat aspect of the game always felt like an afterthought to me.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Can you button mash to any advantage. From my experience and from what others have said, i would say no. Timing and tactics still have value and impact.

This is actually the central rub I have so far - As far as I can tell, the answer to this one is effectively yes. I've been piling points into new combos, but their actual utility is next to nil. Dodge, attack, and an occasional block are sufficient, and even changing weapons feels effectively the same.

Every time I go to start the game, I think about it and end up playing Riddler Challenges in Batman instead, simply because there I've got a much wider variety of moves and it makes a huge difference which ones I use.

I think you got this backwards if anything, at least if Dragon Age 2 was anything like Origins(never played 2).

Unfortunately, Dragon Age 2 really didn't have much in common with DA1 in terms of tactical depth. There are several very large threads about DA2, and there weren't many people with nice things to say about it's combat. Should be easy enough to dig em up if you want to see.

 

[you2]

I find your comment odd about dragon age having tactical depth as I felt that was the weak point of the game. Bsaically I liked everything about dragon age 'cept the combat which I found quite lame. Dragon Age 2 was better than I expected (given the review) but basically I found it more similar than disimilar to Dragon Age (though the reuse of areas and rather poor map design in general) did sink it. Dragon Age did not have great maps either but had a wonderful presentation.
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So far I found that skyrim and DKS had the best maps; but skyrim is devoid of emotion (much as this game is so far). Dragon Age had heart as did DKS. As for combat I think (so far) I kind of prefer DKS best; but even then I rather go back to the older games (ice wind dale and perhaps bg 2 or toee).

 

[MetalMat]

I finished the game a couple days ago.

One thing is that the sorcery tree is wayyyyy overpowered. It was bad enough when I was able to one shot most things with tempest but when I got meteor is was just hilariously easy. And its not like my equipment was anything super, I did not blacksmith anything and only had a few socketed items. I was casting my most powerful spells using little to no mana, meteor has a cool down but tempest can be cast over and over again. I never got into a situation where I needed to use a mana potion during the last half of the game. I was normally doing 3-5k damage to anything in the spell area and was going well over 11k damage in some cases and I was only level 25 or 26.

 

[SLU Aequitas]

I finished the game a couple days ago.

One thing is that the sorcery tree is wayyyyy overpowered. It was bad enough when I was able to one shot most things with tempest but when I got meteor is was just hilariously easy. And its not like my equipment was anything super, I did not blacksmith anything and only had a few socketed items. I was casting my most powerful spells using little to no mana, meteor has a cool down but tempest can be cast over and over again. I never got into a situation where I needed to use a mana potion during the last half of the game. I was normally doing 3-5k damage to anything in the spell area and was going well over 11k damage in some cases and I was only level 25 or 26.

Try meteor with >+50% damage gear. It's easy mode ++ lol. I never run out of mana either. Still, if I'm stupid, I can get stunlocked/mobbed to death...at least until my meteor gets off cd.

There was some debate over meteor's cost/effectiveness...there shouldn't be. It's the only high-end spell without a charge up time (well, to be fair, there is an animation, but it doesn't matter--if you get attacked while casting, the spell still casts). I'm also taking the OPness in stride--time to move onto the next area, I'm overlevelled, and it's also a nice change from the beginning stages of being a mage where (at least for me) mana management and mob damage made life difficult.

 

[Mem]

I don't know how you guys have finished already,I'm doing all possible quests and my level 31 rogue is a powerhouse,still crafting my own stuff since its still better then anything I've found.

Finally became

Spoiler

Archsage and Queen of ballads

,still doing the other quests.

I would rate the game around 7/10 with all its flaws.


Anyway still having fun with KOA.

 

[Anubis]

Mem, i finished it this afternoon, 63 hours, and im pretty sure i did every single quest

sorc tree is OP as hell, with the right gear Blizz + Light storm + meteor will kill pretty much anything besides a boss or a prismatic troll, however with crits ive seen it happen, think my dude was sitting at + 80% or so magic damage with a sorc/war build (80/43)

 

[Mem]

Mem, i finished it this afternoon, 63 hours, and im pretty sure i did every single quest

sorc tree is OP as hell, with the right gear Blizz + Light storm + meteor will kill pretty much anything besides a boss or a prismatic troll, however with crits ive seen it happen, think my dude was sitting at + 80% or so magic damage with a sorc/war build (80/43)

Anubis,I will play a bit more today but not much since got Tera mmorpg Closed Beta One to play before it shuts down for this weekend(there is no NDA for Tera btw).
I will say Rogue is fun to play , use dodge with either range magic or traps and those critical fast fire/poison enchanted melee attacks with daggers or faeblades take most things down fast.

Think I'm only using the mages shield and elemental range spell,rest is all rogue finese skills.
I think hidden detect is one skill that is underrated in this game,it is really useful especially higher levels.