Kingdoms of Amalur

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I have read about this game here and there and it seems somewhat interesting (except for the fact that it is published by EA, they are chaotic evil to the core). Anyone played it? I am a bit low on things to play at the moment, I still have more things to do in Skyrim but it needs to rest a bit and we only raid once or twice a week in WoW. Anyone up for being a guinea pig? Don't want to pay full price for a game I am completely unfamiliar with. RA Salvatore's involvement is a mixed blessing. This might sound silly but I read one review where they bemoaned the fact that you can't jump and that is a big problem for me as well. The inability to jump in a game is a serious downer, it makes everything feel so rigid. It is one of my biggest peeves in Dragon Age. In Skyrim you can jump, not that it matters much but just the ability to do it adds a ridiculous amount of freedom sensation.

 

I tried the demo, and it made me want to poke my eyes out. Utter *****.

 

KOA is sort of a cross between Fable and the elder scrolls games so take that as you will.

 

I tried the demo as well and did not like it. A cross between Fable and Elder Scrolls sounds about right except that it is worse. But at least playing the demo unlocked two items for Mass Effect 3.

 

Never played Fable but the initial reaction I see from people here is not positive. Maybe I should check out the demo before I do anything.

 

Yeah try out the demo and make the judge for yourself. I am personally liking the game myself. but the only one who can tell you if you like it or not is yourself and the demo will easily let you get your feet wet and give you long enough to know if you wanna continue playing it or not.

 

The demo looked really bad but I could never play as everything turned black when I got control of my character. I could check my inventory and move following the mini map, at first I thought that my character was blind and it was meant to be all black but when some enemy showed up and my screen got filled up with frozen health bars I knew that something was wrong. If I can't run the demo probably I will not spend money on the game not to mention that the game feels "off" somehow. I bought Bastion instead.

 

You could check here to see what it is that your pc lacks

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/

and if I remember right the game is also on consoles as well so you might be able to find a demo on one of them as well.

 

I already checked that and I am supposed to be able to run it without any problems.

 

Hmm ok then its possible its a driver issue as an older driver may just cause issues sometimes. or a new one may be causing issues as well.

 

I am enjoying this game, a pleasant change of pace from Skyrim. Unlike Skyrim the focus is more on tactical (ground) combat and player skill. It's not a game I would readily recommend to a Skyrim player unless he enjoys games like Fable or even God of War (you don't have to actually love God of War, just be fine with the mechanics).

Although character building is also important to this game Skyrim's mechanics are a bit more sophisticated, since KoA is more about skill/ability combos and well-timed attacks. Lore-wise KoA is also superior, though the way lore is implemented into the game may irritate a lot of players. Story-wise... think Drizzt books - great minor plots/characters, but the overall story arc is meh. Though in all fairness, so is Skyrim's main quest.

KoA is not as forgiving as Skyrim should you choose to ignore the main quest for too long - a lot of the game's niftier features are tied to the main quest, and you can't buy Master-level spell scrolls to get you out of a though bind in KoA. In Skyrim if an approach failed you can simply try a different approach, in KoA depending on your class (or "destiny") you may have no other choice but to repeat the same fight over and over, although you could simply try a different build more suited to your playstyle (like Skyrim you can leave in the middle of doing most quests in KoA, and you can easily respec to a different build for a a decent sum, like Titan Quest).

Happily the game is nowhere near as difficult as ARPGs of old even on hard mode. The graphics are actually very good, much more cartoon-ish than Skyrim but appropriate because this game has all manner of inhuman creatures, from popular fae to ogres to naga-like ghostly beings.

 

I agree with what you wrote; though I got bored about 40% into the game and put it away for now...

 

It is now owned by EA, but they didn't develop the game. It was developed by the now defunct 38 Studios. And sadly, this game is probably the biggest reason for 38 Studios demise. They poured a ton of resources into it, it didn't sell nearly as well as they hoped, and the company went bankrupt.

 

The problem I see with KOA is the game is big, very big. They could have made 2 games out of it. They created 2 DLCs, which was great but even without those you are playing game that is roughly 100+ hours long if you did everything. That said, they should have made two games and 2 DLCs for each game. They would have gotten 2x the financial support required to keep the studio alive; instead they release 1 massive game with 2 good size DLCs….

The game got boring because it is so long…

 

Well, that's a sorry state of affairs for the gaming community then. If there's a game I REALLY like, I can't get enough of it. Like Baldur's Gate, Skyrim, Civilization, and the less heralded (but still excellent IMO) Pirates. Saying a game isn't as good because it's "too big" is sad. Now I understand that the people who absolutely LOVE a game and don't mind pouring 100+ hours into it is small compared to the gaming population as a whole, but for most games, I wish I had more, not less. Like the Tomb Raider game I just completed. I thought it was very good, and I really can't level any criticism at it, but I'm somewhat saddened that there's only about 15 hours of gameplay - maybe 20 if you try and do everything.

 

The way I look at KOA; it is a good in between game that you may not beat the first time you sit down to play it. Graphics are decent, story needs a bit more polishing but ok enough, and there is plenty to do; however, there is too much to do, which is why I had to put it down.

I put it away for a bit to play Skylanders with my daughter; in fact, I find that game better; the story makes me laugh and there is some pretty funny adult humor that most kids would not get.

 

Oh I completely understand what you're saying. In order to be able to pour 100 hours into any game, it would have to be an epic game. Granted, that also comes down to personal opinion, but chances are that KOA isn't that. I have only seen gameplay and never actually played it myself, but from what I have seen, it appears to be a quite linear game. (Correct me if I'm wrong. I haven't seen hours and hours of gameplay. It may be that my experience would be the equivalent of watching a playthrough of BG2 in the opening dungeon, and concluding from that expereince that BG2 was a completely linear game.)

Now, some games are necessarily linear - they have to be for story purposes. But any type of RPG is going to suffer if there is linearity in the story. A game line Tomb Raider, or something that is solely action focused like God of War is going to be fine with it, but KOA is trying to be an action RPG. There's a whole skill development tree, character classes and everything. If you're going to do that, and then not give the character the freedom to go where he likes and do as he wishes (and yes, the inability to jump is odd), you're definitely going to lose something.

But anyway, in order to be willing to pour 100+ hours into any game you're going to have to really like the game. I know there are certainly games I have played for over 100 hours. And I'm sure that many gamers can say the same. But it's never the same game that gets played that much. Player A may have sunk 100 hours into Game X, Player B into Game Y, and Player C into Game Z. In order for a game this size to be popular, you'd need to have a majority of players feel that way about it, which isn't a realistic expectation for any game to have.

So I guess the real question is when does really big become too big? You need a line somewhere I guess where you keep the casual gamer, and yet satisfy the fans of your series. Although some games are really big and still immensely popular. I imagine if you wanted to do "everything" in a game like Skyrim, you'd easily exceed 100 hours on a single playthrough. I guess the difference here is the main storyline is actually pretty short. If you don't want all that other stuff and just want to finish the game, that can be done in ~20 or so hours I'd guess. But again, I don't think this is present in KOA.

 

Aldeth Think Elder Scrolls meets Fable and you got it basically. Its an open world with plenty to do. Even the Elder Scrolls games are linear in their tutorial areas basically. Same with this once you get past that it opens up just like they do and it gives you plenty to do. You can spend hours upon hours not doing the main story and doing plenty with factions and the like.