Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Page 2) | Gaming Discussion | Forums

Final Fantasy Online Forums > Video Gaming Discussion > Gaming Discussion

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

< Prev 1 2 Next >

02.07.2012 1:35pm

Veers
Flying High

Yeah, that's weird. Looked fine on my PC.

Jump to Post

02.08.2012 3:13pm

Darth Howie
Darthpool
Administrator

Really enjoying this so far. Don't understand how this game gets bitched at by reviewers for unmemorable NPCs and dull quest goals when they are no worse than the same in the crazy highly reviewed Skyrim. The gameplay's a lot more fun. As far as I'm concerned this is the best parts of Fable mixed with the best parts of Skyrim with better combat. The game is fun as all get out.

Woe unto he who tries to be helpful, for upon him shall be lain the burdens of all.

- Squall 15:11

Jump to Post

02.08.2012 4:48pm

Ashilyn
Career GM

I'm the exact opposite. This game so far as largely bored the hell out of me, and the combat seems boring and generic. The setting is actually a lot better than I expected, but they're pretty right about having no memorable NPCs. At least Skyrim has people I can actually remember and name - it has some personality. I couldn't name to you a single NPC I've encountered in Amalur so far, where as several made very quick impressions on me in Skyrim. The quest goals are pretty run of the mill, but that doesn't bother me. That's definitely no worse than Skyrim or any MMO I love. I just wish the combat didn't seem so aggressively uninteresting when I'm using anything besides a faeblade. The game really does remind me too much of X-Men Destiny in its's combat design.

Jump to Post

02.08.2012 6:39pm

Veers
Flying High

Chakram mage with a dash of rogue is the only way to fly in this game.

Only reason you can say KoA has dull quests is because they've been seen before. The questing is fine; just don't look for something you haven't seen before in any other RPG.

Also, it's pretty boring on easy/normal, "hard" mode is actually fun because enemies survive long enough for your skills and items to actually mean something.

Jump to Post

02.08.2012 7:58pm

Thread Creator

Big Tall
Taller Than Tall

I was up until about 3 a.m. playing this, despite wanting to stop and sleep at about midnight. It has that "just one more quest and then I'll turn it off for the night" syndrome going for it, which means I'm completely hooked. Loving the gameplay, though on normal my mage is just obliterating everything and I'm only level 6 or 7. Can't wait to jump back in tonight.

Jump to Post

02.08.2012 11:06pm

Amer
pew pew pew

I was interested in this and wound up playing the demo the other night. I think I can definitely see the "boring" side of the coin.

It is basically designed like a single person MMORPG. It has the interesting "starting scenario" that kind of draws you in, and the combat was fine from what I played.

But man, the quests. Ripped straight out of MMORPG where they are easily seen for what they are - thinly veiled attempts to level up your character.

Every video game is basically doing the repetitive thing over and over. Good video games make you want to do that thing. Amalur's quests, from the demo, do not make me want to do that thing. Especially when I get bombarded with 10 of them popping out of people's heads in the span of a few football fields. Skyrim is not like this. I feel like I stumble upon the quests and the stories of those quests are linked to the lore of the world. Basically, Skyrim makes me care. From the very start of the game I cared. In the KoA demo, I thought it might be interesting, but now it's just...snooze. You can tell the game started out as an MMORPG, but the problem is I don't have anyone to play with to entertain me through all this boringness. When the scope is this large, the attention to detail is glossed over, and for me the good is in the details. That was what was amazing to me in Skyrim, that with how large the game was, how much detail it had.

I think I would enjoy the combat. I think I would probably enjoy the game, but probably only for 10 to 12 hours on my own. I just can't see getting interested in it beyond that. Maybe for $20 or $30 bucks, if I had nothing else to play. The demo just didn't grab me.

Jump to Post

02.09.2012 1:59am

Darth Howie
Darthpool
Administrator

*shrugs* I fail to see how the quests in Skyrim are any deeper or better written. Hell, nothing in Skyrim was as interesting as the House of Ballads questline.

Jump to Post

02.09.2012 3:23am

Amer
pew pew pew

I think it's just different strokes. Perhaps it's because Skyrim looks more "realistic" or what not so it sucks me in. When I'm in Skyrim, I feel like I'm one part of the world and I'm discovering everything about it. If I was not there, Skyrim would go on. Playing the Demo for KoA, I felt like the world was made for me. The villagers in KoA have mundane problems just so I can take their quest and complete it for XP. Granted, in the full game things might get better, but the WoW like quests just aren't going to do it for me in a single player game. I guess some think that Skyrim quests are the same thing, but for me there's a distinct difference.

Granted, I have something like 33 days of playtime logged in WoW, so maybe I'm just tired of that formula, even though I've not touched it in almost 4 years.

Jump to Post

02.09.2012 5:32am

Ashilyn
Career GM

Darth Howie said:

*shrugs* I fail to see how the quests in Skyrim are any deeper or better written. Hell, nothing in Skyrim was as interesting as the House of Ballads questline.

Again, I couldn't disagree more. The Dark Brotherhood and Companion questlines are much better written and far more exciting than anything I've done in Amalur so far. Even the main quest was pretty boss. Both those questlines are also what should shut down anyone complaining about a lack of personality in Skyrim - the Dark Brotherhood members are some of the most memorable in the last few years, and that plotline was amazingly well written. I still can't name a single NPC I've encountered. The game nails asthetic personality - the House of Ballads and all the fae places look so cool and are fairly memborable. Character personality, it has almost none of. The House of Ballads quest is the bset thing I've odne in Amalur so far, but I wouldn't say it's better than most of Skyrim's big quest lines.

Amer said:

It is basically designed like a single person MMORPG. It has the interesting "starting scenario" that kind of draws you in, and the combat was fine from what I played.

But man, the quests. Ripped straight out of MMORPG where they are easily seen for what they are - thinly veiled attempts to level up your character.

There's a reason for that - when they started development on Amalur, it was going to be an MMO, and later in development they shifted what they had into a single player game and started work on a seperate, different Amalur MMO. This is why the open world (with it's dungeons and fairly clear cut zone-like structure at times) and quest design seem so reminicint of an MMO - they originally were.[/i]

Jump to Post

02.09.2012 6:16am

Darth Howie
Darthpool
Administrator

I'm not willing to give either Skyrim OR KoA a lot of credit for the characters. The characters are pretty damn bland in both games. At least the House of Ballads concept is original. Skyrim's quests have a been there done that vibe about many of them. And none of them feel very consequential in the long run. You'd think what you did in the Dark Broterhood questline would have SOME impact on the Civil War questline, for example. I don't know if the House of Ballads quest will tie in with the main quest directly or not, but at least they have a strong thematic link concerning fate. I'll have a stronger point of view once I finish the game, but the main quest in Skyrim was ansillary. It was pretty dull and pointless and basically seemed an excuse to make you run across big chunks of the map and fight a bunch of dragons.

Jump to Post

02.17.2012 10:31pm

Darth Howie
Darthpool
Administrator

Double post ahoy!

Finished the main plot last night. Ending wasn't great, but the journey was a lot of fun. Restarting in hard with a pure finesse character. Don't play this game for the story. Play it because of the gameplay or don't bother. Trust me on this one. The faction quests are good, but the other quests are mostly nothing special. The world is pretty huge and fun to mess around in and the combat offers a LOT of options. Both my wife and I are doing second playthroughs. I'll probably come back to this one from time to time down the road.

Jump to Post

02.18.2012 12:25pm

Thread Creator

Big Tall
Taller Than Tall

I was wondering how the story wrapped up. I've been distracted by SWTOR and the ME3 demo lately so I haven't been playing this too much. Agreed on the "play for gameplay" angle though. Thankfully the gameplay is incredibly fun or this wouldn't be much better than Sacred 2.

Jump to Post

02.19.2012 8:18am

Glenn565
Registered Member

Welp, just got hit with a gamebreaking bug. The Quest "Her Righteous Fury" would never trigger the end even though I completed all the objectives, and now I can't fast travel anymore. I'm playing on PC, but I believe it affects all versions.

Oh well, I was pretty much at the point where I'm like 'Fuck sidequests," so I'm just going to go finish up the main quest.

Jump to Post

02.26.2012 11:02pm

Atma Weapon
I Am Pure Energy

I played the first couple of hours today. So far it looks like an offline MMO button-masher filled with tedious quests that add nothing to the core experience of the game.

I hope I'm wrong because the reviews have claimed that Amalur has excellent gameplay. I would like to hear some words of comfort from someone who's further into the game. How long does it take to start getting fun gameplay?

Jump to Post

02.28.2012 3:23pm

Darth Howie
Darthpool
Administrator

Well, the more you level up and mess around with the skills and abilities the more fun the game gets. As far as quests, the faction quests are the most entertaining by far. If you just focus on those you'll probably be fine.

Jump to Post

< Prev 1 2 Next >

Jump to