Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review

[Primus1985]

Thanks for the review. Im actually kinda surprised, I had been following this game since its announcement and was preparing for disappointment. A refreshing change.

However with its initial bugs, and the fact their is sure to be DLC down the line, I'll wait for the inevitable "GOTY/Collectors edition" to come out with all of it on their. Like what I did with L.A. Noire.

I still have dozens of quests to complete in Skyrim, at least two hundred hours or more before I might begin to feel some boredom(thats when I wait for its DLC^^) When I get tired of Sword and Sorcery, I just downloaded all the DLC for New Vegas so Im poised for about another hundred or so hours exloring all that.

 

[Primus1985]

Thanks for the review. Im actually kinda surprised, I had been following this game since its announcement and was preparing for disappointment. A refreshing change.

However with its initial bugs, and the fact their is sure to be DLC down the line, I'll wait for the inevitable "GOTY/Collectors edition" to come out with all of it on their. Like what I did with L.A. Noire.

I still have dozens of quests to complete in Skyrim, at least two hundred hours or more before I might begin to feel some boredom(thats when I wait for its DLC^^) When I get tired of Sword and Sorcery, I just downloaded all the DLC for New Vegas so Im poised for about another hundred or so hours exloring all that.

 

[Broken Orange]

If I were to buy this game, it will be because your user created character doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. It's always annoying to spend a good deal of time on creating only to find out it looks like crap compared to the other character models.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

And now I have the joy in saying, it's better on PC. They give you ten ability slots in the PC version of the game, plus the radial menu for potions. I really enjoyed the demo of this game by the way, can't wait to buy it.

Dogs bark, fish swim, yadda yadda.

It's console-town for me (when the price drops, natch.) I'm going to try and enjoy this generation as much as possible in the time remaining. God knows the current... prospects... of the next console generation seem geared towards pushing the PC back on top.

 

[Lucrativ3]

The only real problem I have is the odd behavior of the camera. In combat it sometimes zooms out way to much which makes those fights a bit of a pain. Other than that and the lack of a proper lock on I'm enjoying the game so far.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Sounds interesting, too bad I'm unemployed and can't afford to spend much money on games right now otherwise I'd love to try this game.

 

[Zer_]

People praise the combat, yet I found it to be pretty weak. Block timing can be a real pain in the ass when you're being attacked by several enemies, you can NEVER perform more than one or two attacks in such large crowds. Moving onto your third attack you'll just get knocked back. I also hate having to chug potions constantly, it's the one thing that pisses me off the most. Later in the game, there's a talent that lets you take hits without getting knocked back, at that point, combat goes from tedious to bearable. There have been times where I'd get kocked down, and I'd end up getting destroyed to almost no health from full.

Spells, special abilities and combos are really awesome, yet after a while you just stop paying attention. The best part is using the Reckoning finisher on a gnome... probably the single best part of the game.

The crafting system is broken as well. Stack + damage parts on your items (and % damage reduction) and you turn into an invincible killing machine.

 

[duchaked]

I'll definitely get to this game eventually. Just have so many other RPGs and the like to play still (I'm a bit late to the crowd/party)

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I'm going to skip this for the time being NOT because it's a new IP from a new dev, but because the fantasy world seemed cliched and the gameplay seemed too burdened down by the constant combat. I don't like my RPGs to be God of War thanks.

 

[bakan]

I'm going to skip this for the time being NOT because it's a new IP from a new dev, but because the fantasy world seemed cliched and the gameplay seemed too burdened down by the constant combat. I don't like my RPGs to be God of War thanks.

Actually, there are a lot of quests and voiced storytelling, fighting is maybe 40-60% depending on how much you roam the map (at least for me at lvl 21).

 

[Subatomic]

I played the PC demo, and I absolutely couldn't stand the camera controls. The controls are clunky, heavy and very annoying to deal with, and the camera is absolutely abysmal.

It's a new IP from a new developer and it certainly shows from the demo. I don't know if the full retail copy is different, but it didn't earn a purchase from me with my time from the game. The world seems cool, but the controls are terrible and I'm not a fan of some of the design choices either...

That was probably the biggest failing of the demo... it did give a lot of people a bad first impression regarding movement and camera control, which have massively improved in the full version (the demo was based on a 4 monts old build of the game apparently).

 

[Havoc Himself]

And now I have the joy in saying, it's better on PC. They give you ten ability slots in the PC version of the game, plus the radial menu for potions. I really enjoyed the demo of this game by the way, can't wait to buy it.

Dogs bark, fish swim, yadda yadda.

It's console-town for me (when the price drops, natch.) I'm going to try and enjoy this generation as much as possible in the time remaining. God knows the current... prospects... of the next console generation seem geared towards pushing the PC back on top.

Haha that is true I suppose. I wouldn't mind playing the game on consoles actually, I don't actually own one though, I just have not bought one and I can't thing of a single reason why.

 

[Havoc Himself]

And now I have the joy in saying, it's better on PC. They give you ten ability slots in the PC version of the game, plus the radial menu for potions. I really enjoyed the demo of this game by the way, can't wait to buy it.

Dogs bark, fish swim, yadda yadda.

It's console-town for me (when the price drops, natch.) I'm going to try and enjoy this generation as much as possible in the time remaining. God knows the current... prospects... of the next console generation seem geared towards pushing the PC back on top.

Haha that first sentece is true I suppose. I wouldn't mind playing the game on consoles actually, I'm not completely faithful to my gaming rig. I don't own a console anymore though, ever since my 360 got the red ring I have not had the extra cash to upgrade my PC and get a new console.

 

[Havoc Himself]

And now I have the joy in saying, it's better on PC. They give you ten ability slots in the PC version of the game, plus the radial menu for potions. I really enjoyed the demo of this game by the way, can't wait to buy it.

Dogs bark, fish swim, yadda yadda.

It's console-town for me (when the price drops, natch.) I'm going to try and enjoy this generation as much as possible in the time remaining. God knows the current... prospects... of the next console generation seem geared towards pushing the PC back on top.

Haha that first sentence is true I suppose. I wouldn't mind playing the game on consoles actually, I'm not completely faithful to my gaming rig. I don't own a console anymore though, ever since my 360 got the red ring I have not had the extra cash to upgrade my PC and get a new console.

 

[Havoc Himself]

Oops..... ^^' anyone know how to delete posts?

 

[TokenRupee]

I care about keeping good companies in business and letting bad companies fall to the wayside, yes.

Yes, Valve isn't the best and it may not be fair to force Steam onto people who would rather just buy the disc, but they don't charge you for it. Steam is free.

Good and bad is a matter of perspective.

EA's been criticized for Project 10 Dollar, which requires people who buy used games to pay an extra 10 dollars to access all the content.

But with Steam you cannot even buy or sell used games.


I've heard people criticize EA for a lack of, or poor, customer support.

Valve doesn't even support their customers on the 360, citing some xboxlive practice as the excuse for not providing their left4dead customers with the same content the PC cusomters have received.


And I've also heard people criticize EA as not the best place to work.

But at the same time, EA's hired a lot of people who are right out of school, giving them the experience they need to obtain work from other studios.


So there's two sides to every perspective.
With EA I bought Battlefield 1943 and 3, the first I never played a game of because the thing could never connect but the second one worked fine. I also bought Deadspace and Mirror's Edge, the latter of which was one of my favourite games this console generation.

With Valve I bought incomplete products from the store, some because they required steam, and some because as a company they've failed to finish their own project (Episode3). They released a sequel to a game before releasing promised free content, then made excuses when they didn't support their console customers (which I'm sure had NOTHING to do with the fact that microsoft refused to allow Steam on xbox, harhar). They also seem to be making less and less single player experiences.


I'm all for supporting good companies but if I want to support, what is in my mind, a good company I'll go to GOG.com, a digital distribution service that lets you download and own COMPLETE games with NO DRM.

Yet Steam sells their games for cheap while EA keeps them at full price, even if it's not very good. And the reason Project 10 is criticized is because they are punishing the consumers for the stores' practices. That isn't very good form.

EA does have pretty poor customer support and maintenance. Yes, Valve isn't very good with their console offerings in terms of support either. However, they only didn't offer the content for Left 4 Dead free to players on Xbox Live because Microsoft requires that people charge for content and pay them a percentage. So people would've complained anyway if they had offered it because they would say, "Why does PC get the content for free, but we have to pay?"

EA hires people right out of school because they can burn through fresh-faced graduates who are willing to work under any conditions because they don't know any better and are excited to have any job. Sure, a lot of companies do that, but just because EA hires new graduates doesn't make them saints.

Yes, Valve does seem to be making less single-player experiences, but can you really say EA isn't? They've put a lot of money into their two biggest titles for the past holiday season- Battlefield 3 and The Old Republic.

At least we can agree GOG is pretty good.

I never said I EA's games. I am frustrated with their business practices and refuse to support them while they continue to engage in such activity is what I mean.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I'm going to skip this for the time being NOT because it's a new IP from a new dev, but because the fantasy world seemed cliched and the gameplay seemed too burdened down by the constant combat. I don't like my RPGs to be God of War thanks.

Actually, there are a lot of quests and voiced storytelling, fighting is maybe 40-60% depending on how much you roam the map (at least for me at lvl 21).

Sure there are quests, but is their non-combat based gameplay much? Like in Fallout or Dragon Age or Elder scrolls?

 

[Baralak]

I'm going to skip this for the time being NOT because it's a new IP from a new dev, but because the fantasy world seemed cliched and the gameplay seemed too burdened down by the constant combat. I don't like my RPGs to be God of War thanks.

Actually, there are a lot of quests and voiced storytelling, fighting is maybe 40-60% depending on how much you roam the map (at least for me at lvl 21).

Sure there are quests, but is their non-combat based gameplay much? Like in Fallout or Dragon Age or Elder scrolls?

Not really. There's crafting and the like, but it's a bit like, as a friend of mine put it, Diablo 2-lite mixed with Fable-lite. Still an awesome game, though.