Kingdoms of Amalur
 

Already mentioned in several threads, not to mention Destor's most anticipated game.

Here's a video that demonstrates stuff like gameplay:

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And an endorsement from Penny Arcade:

Once again I was able to beg an early copy of a game. This time I scored Kingdoms of Amalur. I’ve been playing it now for a few days and I am in love. I’m probably not supposed to talk about the game yet but I figured it would be much easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission as the old saying goes.



I’m not incredibly far in the game and I don’t want to spoil anything but I do want to give my impressions. Yesterday on Twitter I said I thought it was better than Skyrim and I want to tell you why that is.



I’ve mentioned before that I have a problem with open world games. When given all these options I tend to get paralyzed rather than excited. for some reason Amalur is different and I think I know the reasons why:
The combat in Skyrim is miserable. If games like Bayonetta and God of War are on one end of a spectrum, games like Skyrim are so far on the other end that they have fallen off the spectrum and actually can not even see the spectrum from where they are. It seems like if you want to play a massive open world RPG you have to give up a fun,energetic combat system. The thrill of discovering a cave full of vampires in Skyrim is diminished by the knowledge that once I get in there, fighting them is just going to be a chore.



Amalur is the polar opposite. The combat system in Amalur is fast paced and incredibly deep. I’d say the way this game handles class choice is one of my favorite things about the title. There are three skill trees, might, finesse, and sorcery. As you level up you earn talent points and can invest them into any branch you like. So far pretty standard stuff. The twist is that throwing points into these trees will slowly unlock hybrid classes. For example, I started off in sorcery and chose a pretty standard wizard type class. I got a bonus to my mana pool and that sort of thing. Then I started putting points into finesse and I unlocked a couple of hybrid classes. Now I’m a spell casting rogue with magic blades! I get a bonus to blade weapons and a boost to magic damage. There are tons of these hybrid classes encompassing all the various combinations of talent points and trees. So as you play the game and shuffle your points around you can also be cycling through different class choices each with their own bonuses and special powers.


Having cool powers and a great class wouldn’t matter if the combat itself sucked though. thankfully Amalur delivers a visceral, smooth, flashy combat experience that I’d put up alongside games like Darksiders and Devil May Cry. I think that in Skyrim, story, exploration and discovery are the things that are supposed to keep you playing. Amalur has all that stuff too but it doesn’t sacrifice the game play to deliver it. This combat would feel right at home in an action game but they have combined it with solid writing and a massive open world.



The other big thing that keeps me in Amalur is the art. Skyrim is nice looking in its own way but I found the gray and brown to be incredibly boring after a while. The world felt procedurally generated to me rather than built by a designer. Obviously Amalur’s style isn’t for everyone. It has been compared to WoW and Fable which, honestly I think is fair. If that sort of style doesn’t turn your crank then Amalur isn’t for you. personally I lost interest in exploring Skyrim and Dragon Age 2 because I never saw anything that looked very interesting. A big part of the reason I play games is for “new art”. That is the thing more often than not that keeps me progressing. What will the next level or zone look like? Amalur in my opinion is absolutely beautiful. This world has been thoughtfully and artfully constructed. It is vibrant and unique in a way that makes me hungry to explore over the next hill.



In the end I just want to make sure this game doesn’t slip past your radar. I think it would be easy to look at it and think it’s a pretty standard RPG. In reality Amalur is a unique experience full of great ideas. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
-Gabe out

Got this preordered and can't wait to play it in full. The demo wasn't perfect, but it got me salivating.

Is this Curt Shiling's "other thing"? The not MMO? I feel like he's been working on that MMO for like 7 years now. I think even when he was still playing he would be interviewed about it and mention it.

I played the 360 demo and wasn't exactly sold on the game. I didn't mind the graphics and really did enjoy the world design. Would agree with PA on combat, shit was fun.

Main reason I got the demo though was so that I could get special armor in Mass Effect 3.

Dunno, demo didn't really hook me. It wasn't bad, and I'll probably download/play it at some point after it releases, but I don't understand this mass of excitement toward this game. It was fun, but there was nothing awe-inspiring about it.

The potentially interesting part about it is that this is the 'world' in which their MMO will be based. It is just the single player counterpart to that game. I'm guessing the art style will stick with it to a point as well.

Bah. Beat me to it.

Anybody else knew Curt Schilling was a gamer? I read an article a couple days ago he put up $35 million of his own cash to get the project going. It's now over $60 million.

Joe Buck would ALWAYS talk about how he creates hot/cold zones for each batter and logs which pitches he threw in between innings and would then log those into a laptop. Any sort of interview he would do would most of the time touch on the games he plays and possible career in gaming after retirement. His obsession with gaming was prevalent even in his playing days. That's why (to me) it feels like this MMO has been taking forever.

The game looks like fun. Something I'll Goozex and play later down the road because of all the games on my to do list but definitely something to look forward to.

The next KoA game is going to be an MMO, so this is technically an MMO predecessor.

I couldnt be more hyped. been staying away from footage as i over hyped myself for skyrim and refuse to make that mistake again. but long story short: i cant wait.

Don't usually bother much with game footage myself. I only posted it because it's almost obligatory to post some sort of video. Not to mention I have no interest in story vids because I don't want to "spoil" it.

Demo was definitely enough to sell me, which is frustrating. I want to go back and muck around in it, but I don't want to wear out before I can save my progress.

my only gripe with the demo (ignoring bugs) is how frequently gear was dropping. i hope that is for the demo only to let you play with different styles. otherwise they kill item progression. i think it was just the demo tho seeing as they all had the same cosmetic style (one rogue, mage, and worrior armor types but with dif stats.) fingers crossed i guess.

I didn't mind loot frequency because most of the gear didn't really help my specific character much, and the stores didn't have much good (specifically for me), either.

This seems to be completely random, though. My first playthrough I got some cool stuff that happened to befit the Rogue build I had in mind, and my second magey playthrough, I didn't get much in the way of cool magey stuff. I got less mage stuff than my Rogue playthrough. If I had known that, I might have tried out spellcasting first.

the thing im most excited for in this is its the first rpg i can think of that doesnt punish you for cross classing, in fact the rewards for late game cross classing are sweet. my biggest hiccup right now with trying decide what i will do with my first playthrough is that the birth signs are different for each race. (some crossovers some not.) tons of options. no idea what im going to be.

Also detect hidden is rediculously cool.

I like the fact that with just a couple ranks of stealth, you can nuke people and their friends don't seem to notice unless they're already looking at you.

yeah games like this the stealth always seems to break the game pretty quick :'(

played a jack of all trades, went with ice blast, sword, and bow. had tons of fun...might do that my first time.

Thing I hate is that I almost never got near enough to do the backstab as a Rogue.

I imagine a few more ranks and I'd break the game, but I was really more enjoying trying out multiple things.

the skills tree is hard to get an idea what to level because you dont get far enough in the demo to really be able to figure out how these thigns work. i do know that detect hidden is a must. but other than that i dont know...choices...i did read that threw the most playthroughs you will be able to max four of them...

cant see me taking stealth unless im a rogue so at least thats one checked off.

You can also buy skills, I don't know if that's factored in. What you can buy appears to be limited, but I don't know yet.

I've spent a good chunk of the week joking to friends about stealth nukes, so I might. But I haven't decided.

Plus, I think you can respec for a fee.

the game is very friendly to respecting, like a lot of rpgs now they're trying to find ways around people having to restart because of poor early game descisions. i dont know how i feel about this, but its in there.

and training cost a crazy ammount of money

Kinda wish instead of respeccing there was more effort into explaining things in the first place. Then you could make informed decisions.

Of coure it does. but it's there and worth it.

true on both counts

Yeah, I saw him at the Natick Mall a couple of times checking out the RPG game books when they had a bookstore at the mall. He was really into Everquest when it was huge.

This game looks pretty freakin' sweet. I never imagined his games were going to be a cross-platform. I really expected him to just launch a few indy-PC games. Good for him for getting EA Games into it. I know he's got another online RPG in the works too.

Just checked the demo since I've been hearing about this everywhere, and I'm definitely intrigued. Combat feels like God of War more than Skyrim. May have to pick this up.

The combat system in God of War isn't great either, it's mostly button mashing. Skyrim's combat is absolute shite. I haven't encountered anything better than in Demon/Dark Souls.

No, GOW-style combat isn't fantastic, but it's leagues better than Skyrim-style. Also, the videos I've seen seem to indicate that the combat gets deeper, or at least more varied. Enough to get me considering a purchase.

Amusing in the light of one of the guys working on this recently bitching about how piracy is why there are so few big PC exclusives (as opposed to consoles).

Cappy, of course, already called Skyrim's combat shit, so I'm not sure leagues better will be much of a benefit here.

Still, it's what I would call good enough.

Tommorow...cant come soon enough

Can't wait to play.

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What do they give it?

I'm headed to bed.

9.0, the written review and the video are VERY positive.

9.0

Damn it Destor.

Also, the bright colorful art style is a bit of a turn off for me. When it comes to Fantasy games, I prefer the more realistic tone of Skyrim, and Dragon Age. Personal preference though, and not a knock on Amalur in any way.

That said, I am intrigued enough by the combat and class customization to give it a look once the price drops. Helps that R.A. Salvatore is involved.

i can see how that art style could influence some people, personally i think the brighter pallet is refreshing from what is the norm. good change of pace, but like wise, just a personal taste thing.

I want realism in my fantasy games.

Yep.

Got it. might not be able to play til this evening, though.

Dunno, I read a lot of Fantasy stuff as a kid. Mostly R.A. Salvatore stuff. When I read it, my vision of the characters and the world they inhabit was more in tune with that gritty realistic style. That's how I liked to envision it, and it's stuck with me enough where I see something like World of Warcraft, and it's jarring.

When I think Dragons, Elves, and Mages, I just automatically think of that art style. That's my reason anyway.

Loving this.

it picked the worst time to come out, im working out like 3hours in the am and then 3 hours in the pm plus work in between... :'(

i have it and i've gone threw the tutorial dungon, fixing to do cardio then IM GONNA PLAY TILL MY FINGERS BLEED.

I've only gotten about as far as I did in the demo. I can't wait to really crack this fucker open.

Love this game. Seem to be chugging health potions like crazy tho, probably because of my terrible timing at blocking/dodging then it is a game thing however.

I had only used one until I took a specific quest, then I downed three in one fight alone.

Minor health potions are easy to make.

So if you're having trouble blocking, at least you can snag some healing easy.

I'm pretty good with the roll, but even I screw up sometimes. Less quick with the block button, because I'm not used to having two weapons + a shield.

Definitely interested in this, as I love fantasy action type shit. Any major gripes and/or praises worth mentioning/singing? Did they fix the bugs from the demo? How is it compared to Dragon Age and Skyrim and shit?

I don't have many huge praises to sing. Things have changed a lot from the demo, starting with the inability to spam magic (There's now a cooldown), which takes me some getting used to.

Having not had any glitches save one in the demo, I can't comment on the difference. I'm not getting the one, random texture issues, anymore, though.

The games runs pretty smooth. Most of the tweaks are minor, far as I can see.

I've seen multiple reviewers say that they've played the game for X hours and are yet to see any major bugs, which is probably a good sign.

The controls are probably too "floaty" for you though.

Yeah, that's known since 1999, when Curt Schilling bought the rights to his favorite board game, just so he could make sure the people who make it could stay well-funded.

Who knew that athletes could be nerds, too?

:le gasp:

I remember reading that after games when all of the players would go out and drink, Schilling would go back to his hotel and play Warcraft or something.

The bugs form the demo are gone. i have had some minor bugs tho. had my camera get stuck for like 5 seconds once and my subtitles got stuck on the bottom of the screen once. also had a charecter that was doing a mission with me fall in battle...but i could still talk to him lol...nothing bad tho

DA:O might be my fav game of all time but this is light years beyond DA2 in terms of gamplay and level design and production value. So far i prefer it to skyrim but i think skyrim might be the second most dissapointing game of all time (right behind DA2.)

things that Ive REALLY liked so far:

• Being in able to equip staight from chest/fallen enemies/etc. not the first game to do this but it is ALWAYS welcome.
• the art design. really digging this. winter court was kinda purdy.
• level design. im playing a pure rouge, and focusing on stealth. i like how many rooms cant be spammed stealthed, a lot of enemies will just pour into the room or teleport. keeps you on your toes.
• crafting systems. this is how you make money if no one has noticed. i really liked how they lock you out of the higher tier sagecrafting, letting you make them (and sell them) but not equip them. the crafting has an insane ammount of depth and structure. very welcomed.
• combat is great. everytime you level you add a layer of depth and strategy to your PC. slowly crafting how the game controls by leveling. pretty brilliant approach.
• some of the quirky things you run into. example: the wolf who just hates pants...
• that ability to know exactly which dialogue pushes forward the story. on first playthrough this doesnt matter for me but on second playthroughs this will be awesome.
• money is a bitch. (early game of course.)

there's prolly more.

things that should be mentioned:

• lip sync is very awful (not that it affects me.)
• wish hard was just a little harder.
• something feels...off. about the camera. it functions great but something feels...tighter? i dunno how to explain it. somethign about it makes me wanna find a way to change it...but to what i dunno.
• It would seem as if there will be roughly 11 dif armour designs per class. so we get a lot of drops with dif stats but look the same.

there is prolly more

(ftr the record skyrim was a great action game but shitty rpg)

Is this online, or what?

The camera's kinda loosey goosey. More to the point, it seems to pivot in a slightly different focal point than most other games. The camera is my only real gripe so far.

And yeah, I've got a nice amount of money off of sagecrafting without even really trying. I pick up a lot of the suckers, a lot more than I can ever use, so it's a good thing they sell for a decent amount.

It's a disc-based game that's single player. I think that covers all corners on "online."

Well, I got the achievement for beating an enemy at least four levels higher than me. I actually killed two, but a third got me when I had him down to a sliver of life. They were taking huge chunks off if they hit me even once, so there were many buffs involved. As well as a lot of rolling. My health regen and damage resistance potions died off at the last minute, and I didn't notice.

Still, it was nice to confirm they were just too badass for my level. And fun to whip them once I figured it out.

so im now cuaght up to where i got in the demo. really wish i had went with detect hidden. prolly gonna start leveling it now. hadnt realized there were secret doors in the world.

I checked the skill levels in the demo. You can't gain the levels, but yuo can check them out.

I think they changed some stuff, speaking of. I think you needed a lower skill level to sell fenced goods to regular merchants in the demo. Could be wrong; I'm not redownloading just to check.

What, really? Gonna have to start putting points into it.

lots of little things have been changed (all for the better imo)

i've noticed a chime in certian locations where i believe there to be a hidden door. cant confirm if you need the skill to enter or not.

i take back what i said about items. you get some awesome rare items through questing. the drop stuff all has a basic look depending on your level it seems, and as you pregress the stats increase increase until you pass certian cap then it gets both a stat upgrade and a cosmetic, im sure these quest items are scaled too (hope not) but they are both fantastic and look really sweet. also im completely in love with this game.

Yeah, I'm unclear on whether Detect Hidden is required to access them.

after getting the skill yes you do need them. already completed a lorestone set thanks to it so i'd highly advise taking detect hidden up to level 5 no matter what type of charecter you have.

Got it!

No game effect (beyond the obvious them being weapons) but it's awesome running around with flaming Chakrams on your back.

Have you seen any minor quests effect npc dialogue yet?

what do you mean? i've molded the outcome of entire towns in sidequest if that helps...they now speak to me accordingly.

i still havent toyed around with them...but they're awesome. you going mage? i was very tempted to go mage.

Yeah, I wanted to go between Rogue or Mage, and finally decided on Mage. The fire spell is completely badass. Unfortunately, it sometimes doesn't respond.

i dunno if you're to webwood yet but you'd sail through it with a fire spell...really wish i had one. im a poison based rouge...webwood was a pain. everything there laughed at my poison game... :(

anyhow the spells seem to deliberately have delays and unspoken rules about casting. i havent really figured out why or what cause these slight delays yet, but i think it's by design.

Yeah, I've dealt with webwood. I'm using an ice staff and fiery chakrams right now. The two work decently as a pair, but they're mostly backup. I use mostly magic. Most things die to one or the other.

Thing is, there seems to be a weird irregularity with the fire spell. Like, the lightning one has a definitive cooldown. The fire one I can literally spam, but sometimes won't trigger. I don't think it's a delay or unspoken rule. It's just a bug.

could be, i havent played with it obviously. :-\

I was reading how someone destroyed a village in a sidquest and nobodymentioned it. Except that the town was then a ghost town..

i assume this was web wood. people dont really go into that forest so word not reaching other places isnt really illogical.

I've been reading a lot of reviews that said shit about the game that I've found absolutley untrue. Dunno.

yeah one said that there were no descisions, that what you chose ends up the same. this isnt even remotely true.

Lets use metacritic and Kotaku to point out erroneous critisims.

Was that 1Up? I read the same thing, but I don't remember where.

I didn't read many reviews. I was already sold on the game.

And you don't have to get that far in the game to know that.

the reviewer admitteded to having only played it for 20 hours. which isnt even remotely enough to review this game in my opinion.

I keep hearing about bugs, and Xplay gave it a 2/5 because of bugs. But the only bug I've encountered so far was, after coming out of the Reckoning mode, got stuck in an incline and had to reload.

Other then that the only other thing that was buggy was the camera once, was so far zoomed in that all I could see was my characters and enemies feet.

dont understand how skyrim gets a pass on bugs from these poeple and then nothing else does. and yeah the three tiny bugs are the only bugs i've encountered. (unlike skyrim were i ran into a game breaking bugs every few hours forcing me to reload old saves.)

Honestly, I think it's because of the new engine Skyrim had. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed Skyrim, but I just think it's bugs got overlooked in reviews because of the new engine/graphics and because it's a Bethesda game, bugs were expected.

exactly tho, they get a free pass to have the comsimer play test their games...anyway...Amalur is alrgely been bug free minus a few quirks.

also skyrim wasnt a new engine, yes beth claimed it was but that was them blowing smoke.

Double standards in gaming? Why, I never!

I've had a couple bugs, such as subtitles staying on screen too long.

That's kind of the problem with modern gaming. A lot of games are more than 20 hours long, though many are much shorter. Including multiplayer, you need a lot more time than any other medium.

To review a CD, you need a few hours (80 minutes max, multiple listenings). A DVD? a few more (Let's assume a thorough job, a 2 hour movie is generous, plus possible bonus features). A book? Depends on how fast you read, but a novel should take less than a day to substantiate. Even a play or other live performance, you're unlikely to spend more than a couple hours on. Sometimes people see multiple showings, but it's less common.

Some of the reviewers are talking 50+ hours of time, and they're on a single play. Even if you rush through the game to the ending, you're looking at a huge investment.

Not every game needs this level of investment, but somethign like KOA does. A lot of sandbox games need a heavy commitment, and any game with multiplayer will if you want to accurately tackle it.

It's a bitch, and worse, you're usually doing it for comparably less money and a less appreciative base. Game reviewers are now getting death threats for reviewing games an 8 out of 10. A fucking 80%!

in sad news i found that the level cap is 40...i will cap 40+ hours AT LEAST before completetion. if not 60. im 27 hours in and at level 15.

Didn't Epic Games throw a fit when Destructoid gave Gears 3 an 8/10?

Something like that.

Yeah, the level cap's been known since before the game came out.

Seems like a fairly arbitrary number.

I like the fact that Detect Hidden can sometimes change dialogue options.

Hard to believe I have 51 quests done and I've barely touched the main story.

That's good. Lots of shit to do = win.Probably gonna pick this up down the line when the price drops in a couple of months. UFC 3 is out next week and I've my heart set on it something fierce.

the ammount of side questing is insane. ive mostly just done side quest not even factions and have completed about 40 quest. im working it pretty well though. completing all side quests in a section before moving forward. seems how they structured the game tho, if you stay caught up in you questing (factions and main) you keep working your way across the world map. only completed 2 main and maybe 3 faction tho, so backtracking may come into play. (with fast travel back traking isnt a negitive, but id rather run my ass across the world tbh.)

Enjoy your gay coitus simulator.