Multi-Plat Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

[Ecks]

So who else has had the pleasure of playing this awesome gem?

I just recently bought it last week because I finally had the extra money for it and I haven't played it a tremendous amount of time mainly due to work and SWTOR, but I have managed to get to level 11 (almost 12) and in sheer awe of how massive this game world must be. As I am still in the beginning forest area and have only covered roughly 1/3 to half of this area and still have many, many quests yet to do while I still haven't really done a whole lot of the main storyline. The thing is, this is just one of about 5 (or more) huge areas in the game

I already have my own fully expanded house set up in one of the villages I saved along my course, which was a completely optional questline. It was a pretty awesome questline and rightly so the reward was equally awesome. I have a house with my own private storage. (something I was sorely needing)

I was under the impression that you had to play the Mass Effect 3 demo in order to unlock that special armor that loosely resembles Shepard's ME3 outfit, but apparently you get that for free. At least I did, it was just sitting in a chest in the first village I came across. And not only is it just plain awesome looking, it's got the best stats of anything you could possibly hope to come across until around level 10-11.

So far I am really really enjoying this game. The music is great and well placed, the art style while slightly cartoonish (in nearly everything except your own character model) just seems to fit. Colors are very appropriate and more often than not highly vibrant. It's only like playing a game inside a wonderful painting.

Art style is likely going to only become more and more awesome to behold as enemies and armors progress throughout the levels. With the creator of Spawn, Todd McFarland being the lead art designer on this game you should know that it's going to be a visual treat.

To add to that one of my favorite Author's R.A. Salvator had a heavy hand in writing the story and it shows even at my low level of 11. I keep expecting a dwarf to pop out and start talk'n about a hunnerd o' stink'n orcs that he dun tore apart with him bare hands. Yet, suprisingly, no Dwarves to be seen as of yet. And don't anyone spoil it for me by telling me about any dwarves or lack there of. I'll find out for myself (or fer meself). I haven't done much of the main storyline yet even side quest storyline's show Salvatore's unique touch in storytelling. I love it.

But all that great stuff aside, what I think I enjoy most perhaps is the fluidity and flare of combat. It's surprisingly simple. A few mouse/button clicks and you've unleashed a devastating combo, but time them right and you can do a variety of different skills to more devastating effect. Time your block just right and you parry a mob, effectively knocking it back and in some cases completely stunning it. Parrying is probably one of the hardest things to get the timing right on, because every mob type has different attacks and executes those attacks in a different way. So knowing just when you block is very important and can and will keep you alive in situations.

Well that's all for now, about to pass out typing this up. Who else is loving this game?

 

[Strid]

Is the field of view as unreasonably low as it is in the demo, if you've played the demo? If it is then I wont ever touch it, if not, then it's definitely a $20-30 buy, it was a lot of fun but the FoV killed it completely for me.

 

[Romper]

Is the field of view as unreasonable low as it is in the demo, if you've played the demo? If it is then I wont ever touch it, if not, then it's definitely a $20-30 buy, it was a lot of fun but the FoV killed it completely for me.

I thought the same thing that it feels like a fun, incredible game but the camera was bleh. I was like Ill wait for a price drop then realized that no one really cares about pc gamers anymore.

 

[Ecks]

The field of view. I take it to mean the camera? When I first started playing I was a bit bothered by this as you can't pan it out for a wider view. Thing is, during combat it automatically widens to give you a larger scope of the battlefield and to be honest now that I've been playing the game for a little while the camera doesn't bother me at all. All I have to do is move my own view around, it's not unlike actually moving your head around.

I hadn't played the demo so I can't really compare though I doubt much has changed if I had to guess.

I have really been enjoying this game a lot.

 

[Tyrath]

This game is awesome. I had started skyrim recently and got burnt out and jumped to this. The combat is so much more fun than Skyrim. And FFXI players should appreciate the ability to respec your character as you play through.

 

[Ecks]

This game is indeed awesome. Those of you thinking to hold out until the price drops are missing out on an amazing game you could be playing right now. This game is worth $60, totally.

If you're worried about the field of view, don't be. It fits this game perfectly and adjusts when you need it to.

 

[Romper]

Decided to make use of Gamestop points and got Reckoning for 49.99 which I was willing to compromise about.

 

[Romper]

WHY DID I NOT FIND FAEBLADES SOONER!? (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

 

[Ecks]

lol They are a pretty badass looking weapon type. I haven't really used them at all myself. I'm going for the Might/Sorcery route and I'm sticking with long sword and great sword as my weapons of choice. If I decide to play through the game a second time I might focus on the Finesse tree a bit more with a female character, but that's a long ways away.

I feel like I've put so much time into this game and I'm nowhere near halfway finished with it. Hit level 26 earlier today and I'm still only in the Plains of Erathell and haven't even discovered all of the area.

Oh and word of advice. Don't go rushing to explore new areas in this game. The areas scale to the level you enter them in. So in other words if you are level 16 and reach Plains of Erathell all of the monsters in the open part of the world will be close to lvl 16 and if you decide to go back to Dalentarth to finish up quests there then come back, Erathell will still only be lvl 16 while you might be level 20 and getting less experience for monsters you'd have to kill anyway.

Friend of mine found that out the hard way. It wasn't how I was playing so I didn't notice. I've been doing every quest in one area until all the quests appear done and my main story quests and faction quests all take me to a new area.

Amalur Map: http://www.giantbomb.com/kingdoms-o...0/wmplayer_2012_01_20_20_04_35_16/51-2109662/

As you can see there are only 5 different (but massive) areas to explore so rushing through will seriously hinder your character development.

 

[Romper]

lol They are a pretty badass looking weapon type. I haven't really used them at all myself. I'm going for the Might/Sorcery rout and I'm sticking with long sword and great sword as my weapons of choice. If I decide to play through the game a second time I might focus on the Finesse tree a bit more with a female character, but that's a long ways away.

I feel like I've put so much time into this game and I'm nowhere near halfway finished with it. Hit level 26 earlier today and I'm still only in the Plains of Erathell and haven't even discovered all of the area.

Oh and word of advice. Don't go rushing to explore new areas in this game. The areas scale to the level you enter them in. So in other words if you are level 16 and reach Plains of Erathell all of the monsters in the open part of the world will be close to lvl 16 and if decide to go back to Dalentarth to finish up quests there then come back, Erathell will still only be lvl 16 while you might be level 20 and getting less experience for monsters you'd have to kill anyway.

Friend of mine found that out the hard way. It wasn't how I was playing so I didn't notice. I've been doing every quest in one area until all the quests appear done and my main story quests and faction quests all take me to a new area.

Amalur Map: http://www.giantbomb.com/kingdoms-o...0/wmplayer_2012_01_20_20_04_35_16/51-2109662/

As you can see there are only 5 different (but massive) areas to explore so rushing through will seriously hinder your character development.

I've only been through the first zone, started bits of the 3 factions, finished the webwood (fully upgraded manor), finished the first main story quest and haven't set foot outside. I'm only half way to 13 though as I've been trying to get my stealth and blacksmithing up first before anything else. The stealth is kind of crappy. It seems best to be rolling in to get off the instakill stabs.

Faeblades are awesome because they like to do arc slices and hit things around. Pairs well with daggers honestly. Just dropped my faeblades though because I got the epic daggers out of the finish the main part of the quest line with only like 46% chance to persuade the little gnome.

It's a fun game and will be put on the backburner for Mass Effect come Tuesday. But I'm trying to have games to play when I go away in the fall.

DLC coming out already too which seems really soon. I wonder how much DLC they're planning for the game.

 

[Ecks]

So, after the SWTOR kick, the GW2 craze (still an awesome game though, still play and hope to get my buddies to get back into it) and a fun time playing Boarderlands 2 (which I will still play with friends) I found myself slightly bored (okay, incredibly bored) when my friends weren't online. So a few days ago I got back into Kingdoms of Amalur again right where I left off before all of the MMO madness. And man, this game is great.

Since it's been so long, I am a little foggy on exactly what's going on in the main storyline but it's laid out to where I can read it and get a general summary of the quest I'm on, for any quest. I haven't even gotten back to doing the main storyline quests since I started playing again a few days ago. Instead I finished most of the side quests I had open and have picked up and finished countless side quests that I didn't previously have. Worked on my different faction quests and even completely finished one of the faction's quest chain.

My toon is lvl 29 or 30. I can't remember, but I've just recently discovered my next set of weapons (and consequently armor, which I don't have yet) is the Prismere set and ...they look amazing. I can't imagine how awesome the might armor is going to look.

I've totally fallen in love with this game again and plan on playing it a lot in the days to come. It's a shame the 38 company didn't fare well. I would love to play another grand RPG like this one made by them.

 

[Strid]

It is a shame what happened to them. The top brass deserves no more than to be locked up in prison right now. Even I could have told them, given the reports I've read, what was going to happen in their business model. The staffers, I'm guessing were in the dark on a lot of the financial and economical aspects of their employers (though a lot of public red flags could have lead them to knowing to jump ship was a good idea...), and well, just really sucks for them despite most of them being taken in by more sophisticated, smart companies since. It's just so terrible to look at.

It's sort of a testament to their love of the game though in a way. Given how stupid all of this was, for them all to actually go through with it proves it to be a product of much passion among the staff. That's fairly rare anymore. That doesn't make it smart, but it sure shows dedication to their craft.

That said, I'd love to play this game but ugh, that FoV being so low, I'll boot up the demo and try from time to time and after about 20 minutes not even care. Seems like a good game, but the oh so typical crappy port.

 

[Ecks]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by field of view. There's a toggle that switches the Over-the-shoulder camera to be a bit more back from the player. I mean sure, you can't scroll your camera way out or scroll it at all for that matter. But as I've been playing this game, that isn't really needed. The camera automatically adjusts and expands when you are in combat and it works very well. I think the normal non-combat camera mode gives the game a very cinematic feel when you are looking around.

I have to say though, I hate the quests where you are suppose to sneak around. Ugh, totally doesn't suit my play style. Thankfully though (with exception to some of the later Travelers missions) they are mostly short experiences.

Well, since yesterday I was almost level 35 and have completed all of the faction storylines and they were all really cool. But surprisingly I think I enjoyed the Scholia Arcana storyline the most (though I absolutely hate fighting mages). I also found out that I had completely out-leveled the entire Detyre area to where all of the side quests in that area were laughably easy and unchallenging. The faction and main story quest parts were the only things that I wasn't too high of a level to fully enjoy the challenges while in Detyre.

I was also pleasantly surprised to learn you get more than just one personal home. That's all I'll say about that, other than that it's pretty cool how you get "them" and that they all have a different style. I'm still not quite done with the game though so.. there may be even more player homes than what I've discovered.

Come to think of it, I just remembered I never even stepped into the House of Valor that's in Detyre. I might be missing out on some more side quests and subsequently experience. :O This game is great.

But Strid, I didn't exactly keep up with the actual events of what happened with Studio 38, so much of what you explained doesn't quite make sense to me. All I know is that they went under due to financial problems. Didn't seem to hurt R.A. Salvatore too much, and I doubt it really effected Todd McFarland either. Can't really tell with that baseball player guy though (as I don't even know his name).

 

[Ecks]

Figure since I'm able to post (hopefully) I should do so. Been trying to post this for a bit.

I finally finished the game and it was good. Very easy, but good. The ending (after the final boss fight) left a little to be desired, and the fact that the game caps at level 40 put a damper on my plan to further advance my character in skills.

Still, this is a very beautiful game if you can look past the few flaws it has, and so it is screenshot time.

*****SLIGHT SPOILERS ON LAST PIC******