Reckoning Demo... Thoughts?

[Fappy]

So I recently tried out the demo for Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning and I have to say... I'm on the fence about this one. The opening, the characters, visuals and dialogue were all pretty bland. I felt like someone smashed together Fable, a TES game and Mass Effect and got Reckoning. The selling point is supposedly the combat and while fun I don't think the demo measures up to the combat promised in the trailer. I don't expect to do some of that stuff in the first hour of gameplay, but then... all I really got to do was run around spamming X like Dragon Age Tw--- a Dynasty Warriors game. I don't know, maybe my standards are too high for fantasy epics.

Kind of expected to be pulled in by a world and story apparently crafted by R.A. Salvatore, but the boring characters/dialogue almost put me to sleep. >.>

What do you guys think?

 

[Dalek Caan]

It was alright. Better than what I thought it would be but not enough to make me buy it. The game did look good and the combat was decent but when I got into a conversation it just seemed really bad. It was a copy-paste of the KOTOR games, but at least back then it felt ok because it wasn't as advance as Reckoning but now it feels clunky. Maybe one day I will rent it but it doesn't matter if I do or don't. To be honest I only played it for the Mass Effect 3 stuff.

 

[daveman247]

i liked it ^_^

And thats saying something, fantasy games usually bore me to tears. But the fun combat and cartoony style help it stay interesting.

 

[Zhukov]

I wrote up my opinion on it in another thread [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.339997-Kingdoms-of-Amalur-A-surprisingly-pleasant-surprise?page=1].

The skinny version is as follows:

- Nice visual style.
- Nice environments with potential for exploration.
- Fun combat, if a bit on the button-mashy side.
- Good RPG elements.
- Lacklustre dialogue and what I saw of the story was mediocre even by the woeful standards of video games.
- Some camera issues and a slightly clunky interface.

Overall, kinda nice. I'll be buying it as a snack to temper my appetite until the next big release.

 

[Smooth Operator]

There about a dozen threads on this already.

But alright, it's a bland Fable TLC, sure they got a better engine but everything else is lacking.
Combat is clunky and dragged out, enemies are easily overpowered but take stupid long to beat down, story and dialogue might as well be some teenagers fan fiction, they got zero atmosphere, the characters feel like empty muppets, sound and effects are surely not from this century, nor it the UI, ... so on and so forth.
This was planned to be an MMO and that is how it's put together, they don't aim to entertain but rather waste your time till the next month comes around.

Even the bloody trailers... they don't know how to put together a good presentation so they just did a few snapshots and have someone read out how awesome all those areas are.
P.S. If this was a $30 thing then it would probably ok but they are asking full price... hell fucking no.

 

[Corven]

I think the very first thought I had on starting the game was "holy shit this game looks terrible." now I know it's taboo these days to base impressions on a games graphics but it just stuck with me. A basic looking ui, graphics that look like they're from 2006, and a ugly dialogue display that covers half the screen.

 

[Rivenart]

-The Good
Interesting Combat, nice attempt to balance the classes and even jack of all trades though fate cards.
It seems massive, and not massively empty like other recent open world games.
Between the graphics and rich filled world it looks like it'd at least be an interesting fun play.

-The Bad
Conversation systems don't have a standard they all work from, ie the wheel unlike Mass effects where left side is questions and right moves conversations forward, it uses it massively inefficiently. On top of that it doesn't use the wheel all the time making use of easy browsing on topics.
Conversation, everyone has something to say on all subjects, for the most part even though it's considered new it'll be the same thing only on occassion having one or two words more. I kind of wanted to see thier opinions on different things but I can see it quickly get boring and me zoning out or ignoring the topics which may cause problems like missing quests or key dialogue.
Sorting though the inventory and junking items or looking for an improvement, assigning weapons to the wheel isn't a smooth and well done as it should have been either.

-The Ugly (may change in full version)
The forest gained laminate wood flooring at one point and it didn't vanish.
While speaking to an elf, she raised her brow to shocking new heights, after the topic was done and moved on to something sad it never came back down. Think there must have been an invisible plastic surgeon that gave her a face lift.

Overall it seems like it may be fun but theres just an overwhelming feeling of being a bit disjointed and not as smooth or good as it should have been. The talent system is very classic WoW with excessive levels for a handful of abilities, I dislike the upcoming one talent per level for wow simplification but having 5 levels for every skill over a skill then other talents that boost them as it scales always feels overly messy, maybe I'm just way too OCD.

 

[everythingbeeps]

I liked it enough that it convinced me to get it. Before, I was going to skip it.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I hadn't hear about it until I got the demo.

Now it's a day one purchase for me. I love the aesthetic, the combat is fun and the RPG elements look varied.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

I turned it off after 10 minutes because I found the game almost offensively bland.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Damn, ok i'll replay the demo to see if the camera doesn't give me a migrane after two seconds like last time.

The combat looks cool (why would you use anything but the insanely awesome daggers?) The aesthetics are ok i suppose but the story looks a bit crap.

And the villain's name is Gadflow... Really game? Really? Just... Go to your room son. I am disappoint.

And again, the camera. Is. Horrible. 'S like Vanquish all over again and that game had an excuse to give me a migrane! Jet boots attack!

EDIT: Just started up the demo. I forgot how terribad the music was... Goddammit

DOUBLE EDIT: I just started playing and i was running around with no head for like 30 seconds.... Not a good sign but damn was it funny!

 

[Fappy]

Damn, ok i'll replay the demo to see if the camera doesn't give me a migrane after two seconds like last time.

The combat looks cool (why would you use anything but the insanely awesome daggers?) The aesthetics are ok i suppose but the story looks a bit crap.

And the villain's name is Gadflow... Really game? Really? Just... Go to your room son. I am disappoint.

And again, the camera. Is. Horrible. 'S like Vanquish all over again and that game had an excuse to give me a migrane! Jet boots attack!

EDIT: Just started up the demo. I forgot how terribad the music was... Goddammit

DOUBLE EDIT: I just started playing and i was running around with no head for like 30 seconds.... Not a good sign but damn was it funny!

Sounds like people were running into a lot of bugs with the demo. I didn't experience them myself. Watched the IGN review before I played the demo and am having strong impressions that it was not 100% legit review considering half the footage was from the demo

 

[Dandark]

I had never heard of it untill I played the demo but now I am going to by it at some point, I can't get it on release because it clashes with "The Darkness 2".

It's not that great a game but I have played Dragon age origins and 2 so many times that I am incredibly bored with them now. The combat is pretty fun and I haven't rn into any major bugs yet.

My only real issue is all the pre order crap they are doing, I hate pre-order bonuses.
However it was pretty fun and the story didn't seem so bad to me, I kinda liked that whole threads of fate thing. I am probably going to buy it to fill in the gap for now, although I kinda dislike the company after that one guy started going on about how Piracy killed the PC industry........-_-

Hopefully the game will still be good though.