• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Kingdoms of Amalur demo impressions thread [Up On 360/Origin/Steam/U.S. PSN]

ironcreed said:
Impressions based on 4 hour hands-on from Newb Review:
Click to expand...
Never heard of those guys, but they sure say a whole lot of nothing. The first third of the preview basically wanks off about the creative team, the middle portion is a bunch of pointless comparisons since they don't explain any of it, and then it closes off with vague, random comments with little description on the "how" and "why". :\
 
Amory Blaine said:
Well sure. It's colorful. But at the very least the character models could have been done on a PS2 or xbox, or close to it.
Click to expand...

You should seriously go back and play a PS2/Xbox game. They look a lot better in your mind.
 
MushroomSamba said:
Never heard of those guys, but they sure say a whole lot of nothing. The first third of the preview basically wanks off about the creative team, the middle portion is a bunch of pointless comparisons since they don't explain any of it, and then it closes off with vague, random comments with little description on the "how" and "why". :\
Click to expand...

I was simply under the impression that they were trying to give a brief run down of what to expect without spoiling anything. While not some fully detailed 10-page breakdown, I was just glad to hear that it apparently is as large and content packed as we have been told. That is the main reason why I posted it.
 
So I hit the 45m limit last night and I got a message that I can continue the next time, skipping the tower and have all items that I exited with intact. I thought....cool....no wasted time in the tower, I can explore right from the start.

I tried playing today and no option was visible to skip the tower section. It went straight into the beginning section. What gives?
 
thetrin said:
You should seriously go back and play a PS2/Xbox game. They look a lot better in your mind.
Click to expand...

yeah, from some of the comments, it would seem my systems were broken last gen because nothing looked as good as this especially when comparing the size of the game.

Personally graphically this spanks both Dragon age games, and again it's a much larger world, with a great deal more content. The people that want Skyrim will never be happy, but that has more to do with the style then anything else.

I really liked this extended look with the art team as I think it really comes off as they really tried to do everything for a reason. I'll take a slight hit in graphics, for a much greater varitey any day.
 
thetrin said:
You should seriously go back and play a PS2/Xbox game. They look a lot better in your mind.
Click to expand...

Bolded is so true, for me at least. Fired up my PS2 for the first time in ages the other day and couldn't believe how low-res everything looked. I've given all my favourite last-gen games a mental HD makeover it seems.

On topic, I've played through the PS3 demo multiple times now, and the thing that really strikes me is that despite occasional camera issues and some crazy graphical glitches, this old build remains such a laugh to play.

Still day 1.
 
ReaperXL07 said:
Personally graphically this spanks both Dragon age games, and again it's a much larger world, with a great deal more content. The people that want Skyrim will never be happy, but that has more to do with the style then anything else.
Click to expand...

You bring up great points. Talk about invisible walls, BioWare never gets called out for that shit. Of course they don't make open world games either, but the fact still remains that games like Dragon Age are loaded with invisible barriers around water, etc. The visuals are extremely dated as well, but that did not stop it from being critically acclaimed.

Don't get me wrong, I love BioWare and the other big boys. I just hate double standards when it comes to games. If I am being honest, I cannot deny that even some of the big games I love to death have serious flaws that get glossed over by the community at large, and even myself. Such as the combat in The Elder Scrolls games, yet we see comments that Reckoning feels like something that should have been released in the year 2000, lol.

Give me a break with that shit, man. I love The Elder Scrolls, but Reckoning stomps all over it in the gameplay department. Let's get real here and give credit where it is due. So many of the critically acclaimed usual suspects continually get free passes on issues just because of the other things they do well, while new or relatively unknown games get called out for things they happen to do better than some of the giants. Just sayin'.
 
thetrin said:
You should seriously go back and play a PS2/Xbox game. They look a lot better in your mind.
Click to expand...

Or just play something on the Wii.

In either case, if you can re-adjust your eyes/brain to pre-HD resolutions, some of the last-gen games actually look terrific, especially considering the extreme differences in tech.

I agree that KoA is far from being gorgeous, but people need to keep their expectations in line with the kind of experience we're talking about (open-world RPG with on-screen mobs, etc.); and people also need to realize that the PC version was designed with two major things in mind: 1) that the engine would translate smoothly to consoles; and 2) that the engine would run on rigs with older guts in them. Both of these things serve to comply with one of Blizzard's main pillars of success: you get the largest consumer base possible.
 
Atruvius said:
Well? What happens? You can't just stop there!
Click to expand...

I assumed you all would just go do it. =)

The gnome is dead on the ground, you kill the bear, and out of seemingly nowhere you hear the line about the berry eater being spoken. Then it goes into the cutscene, except where there was once a gnome in the cutscene, now it's just air speaking to you. From beyond the grave perhaps? But I managed to get some gold out of that ghost regardless.
 
AwRy108 said:
Or just play something on the Wii.

In either case, if you can re-adjust your eyes/brain to pre-HD resolutions, some of the last-gen games actually look terrific, especially considering the extreme differences in tech.

I agree that KoA is far from being gorgeous, but people need to keep their expectations in line with the kind of experience we're talking about (open-world RPG with on-screen mobs, etc.); and people also need to realize that the PC version was designed with two major things in mind: 1) that the engine would translate smoothly to consoles; and 2) that the engine would run on rigs with older guts in them. Both of these things serve to comply with one of Blizzard's main pillars of success: you get the largest consumer base possible.
Click to expand...

For me personally, I love how crisp and clean the PC version, and it runs like butter on my rig. For me, those are two major major points that many PC games constantly fail at.
 
Diablo III isn't exactly going to be gorgeous either, but it's made so that almost anyone with a reasonable PC can play the game, yet I don't hear much complaining about that. Same with WoW. But it's the world that is made believable through the art style and design, and that's more important than shiny polygons.

Dark Souls is rather ugly as well, and I will use this game every time I can to make an example of it doing something wrong, yet I hear no one saying it's ugly. Because it still has a believable world.
 
thetrin said:
You should seriously go back and play a PS2/Xbox game. They look a lot better in your mind.
Click to expand...
That should be a requirement for a lot of gamers, tbh. These games look always better in your memory.


That said, the character models and faces in KoA look pretty damn simple. FFXII or even current-gen games like Spyborgs played in 1080p on an emulator has models that come pretty damn close. What has been fantastic for last gen is nothing special now, that's how fast things advance. There's definitely a very dated and mediocre feel to all technological aspects of this game that the good art direction and coherent art style mask most of the time. The overall look is mixed, its clean and crisp IQ and the aforementioned elements the saving grace.

I'd sum it up with "inoffensive".
 
Chemo said:
This was pretty terrible, surprised people seem to think it was decent.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm also flabbergasted when people have opinions disimilar from my own.

But on a serious note, I started the injured Fae quest again (I think I'm playing the demo too much) but this time after I got what I needed from Aery, I treated her rather poorly and now she's dead. In my quest log it now says the quest can't be completed and that my actions may have severe repercussions between the Fae and the mortals. I might head on over to the House of Ballads and see what those repercussions may entail.
 
I know this is probably a stupid question, but if I were to buy the game I'll be starting brand new again right? It won't somehow save what I've done in the demo and let me continue on?
 
EA is saving your unlockables on their server, not your progress. And as far as I can tell, the game doesn't create a savefile when you're done on your HD.
 
Im on the mobile app so hard for me to search if this has been talked about.

Just got done playing the demo but did anyone experience major audio issues? Music playing for 1-2 seconds then stopping. The worst thing though is ill go to talk to someone and it auto skips all the dialog. Is this a common problem?
 
Amory Blaine said:
I know this is probably a stupid question, but if I were to buy the game I'll be starting brand new again right? It won't somehow save what I've done in the demo and let me continue on?
Click to expand...

Yeah, seems we'll likely be starting over. I'm fine with that, for the most part. Would be nice if we could skip the tutorial in the retail release, if it's going to be the exact same as the demo.
Also, I was very pleased with my character's design the first time through. Hopefully I can recreate her as closely as possible in the retail release. (Maybe there'll even be more creation options.)
On that note, I am glad the character creation is so simple. It's a pain in the ass going through all the options for eye spacing, up and down, concave, etc. (Though it's fun to mess with them and make ridiculous looking characters)


bucknuticus said:
Im on the mobile app so hard for me to search if this has been talked about.

Just got done playing the demo but did anyone experience major audio issues? Music playing for 1-2 seconds then stopping. The worst thing though is ill go to talk to someone and it auto skips all the dialog. Is this a common problem?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a common complaint across all platforms. Believe the developers said the issue is fixed in the retail release.
 
ParityBit said:
Its a 4 month old build we are playing, and the demo was not cut by the developers actually working on the game. All these key points (including the fact the camera is fixed, etc) should be in the OP. We see so many of the rehashed complaints.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure where you got that info saying the camera is fixed, the developer hasn't said it. It may or may not be fixed prior to release, depending on how much work it requires.

Here is the latest post by lead combat designer on their forum, going over the camera system earlier today.

Link

It's pretty detailed on their thoughts about the system. Wasn't sure I should just copy/paste the post, will update if it's alright to do so, go to the link otherwise.

Regarding the dev comments in the post linked. For the PC version, I would definitely prefer the camera controlling like WoW,SWTOR. While neither is an action game by any definition, they both feel better while controlling the character, compared to Reckoning. I control left/right movement with the mouse. Strafing, fw/bw with keyboard, in both games, and there is no lag between camera/character moving.

It's a little concerning a dev hasn't spoken about the lock on system being extremely flakey in how it works/doesn't work, unless I missed the post.
 
The only time the lockon has bothered me is out of combat. It's a pain in the ass to pull back on the bow with Y and then move the right stick to change targets. In combat it's never been a problem since I just face whoever I want to attack and it's done a great job of targeting that enemy. It's especially useful when I need to harpoon an archer while getting nailed by melee.
 
Baconsammy said:
I assumed you all would just go do it. =)

The gnome is dead on the ground, you kill the bear, and out of seemingly nowhere you hear the line about the berry eater being spoken. Then it goes into the cutscene, except where there was once a gnome in the cutscene, now it's just air speaking to you. From beyond the grave perhaps? But I managed to get some gold out of that ghost regardless.
Click to expand...

"I've had enough of this! I'm going home to Adessa!"
...
"On second thought, I'm pretty comfortable right here, face-down in these flowers."
 
Carm said:
I'm not sure where you got that info saying the camera is fixed, the developer hasn't said it. It may or may not be fixed prior to release, depending on how much work it requires.

Here is the latest post by lead combat designer on their forum, going over the camera system earlier today.

Link

It's pretty detailed on their thoughts about the system. Wasn't sure I should just copy/paste the post, will update if it's alright to do so, go to the link otherwise.

Regarding the dev comments in the post linked. For the PC version, I would definitely prefer the camera controlling like WoW,SWTOR. While neither is an action game by any definition, they both feel better while controlling the character, compared to Reckoning. I control left/right movement with the mouse. Strafing, fw/bw with keyboard, in both games, and there is no lag between camera/character moving.

It's a little concerning a dev hasn't spoken about the lock on system being extremely flakey in how it works/doesn't work, unless I missed the post.
Click to expand...

Seeing their lead combat designer talk so openly on the forums is awesome. I'm glad they are looking into all this stuff, and it seems pretty clear they want to address most of the complaints. At the very least, he seems to indicate they're going forward with including a way to adjust the distance of the camera, which is by far my main concern.
 
I like that you can fail quests and never get a chance to do them again. Doing so puts that quest into your "completed quests" tab with an explanation of what went wrong.

I played the demo 6 times before realizing that the dungeon at the very beginning of the outside world is accessible once the 45 minutes begins. Durrrrr. Not much in there except kobolds, but I do like the doors (which is one of the things Joe said they were most proud of--the various doors throughout the world).
 
This is another case where I find myself playing the demo over and over again, I honestly think the last time that happened was Red Faction: Guerilla. Which is a good sign that I'll be putting plenty of time into this. Having a lot of fun with the game overall despite my gripes with it (the camera and the weird way the game decides when you can and cannot jump off a ledge being the two bigger annoyances). This is definitely scratching an itch that apparently really needed to be scratched.

And thank god you can skip the cutscenes if you want. +10 Bonus points.
 
Playing as a magic user feels really fluid and awesome. I just demolished every single guard in the first town I reached. Only took two hits.
 
Sysgen said:
That's what struck me. Production values and their asking $60.
Click to expand...

I see a lot of cool art, detailed etchings on walls, huge statues, lovely environments. I also see some bad menu-design choices, but overall it made me feel like I couldn't pre-order the bloody game fast enough.
 
Baconsammy said:
I see a lot of cool art, detailed etchings on walls, huge statues, lovely environments. I also see some bad menu-design choices, but overall it made me feel like I couldn't pre-order the bloody game fast enough.
Click to expand...

TBH the menus are horrific. Menus are part of the presentation. If every part of your game and presentation aren't polished then don't charge $60 on the PC.
 
I only heard about this game because a couple of the designers were on Weekend Confirmed.

The way they talked about their ideas and RPGs in general sold me on at least trying the game.
It was literally the most articulate and intelligent conversation I've ever heard about game design.

So I thought I'd love the demo. I didn't. Too bad!

It just didn't engage me.

I'll probably give it another shot at some point, I suppose.
 
I don't mind the menus at all. Guess I'm used to such structures from the classic RPG days.
I just wish they separated the different armor and weapon types by tabs.
Though it may be unnecessary since you can't carry that much at once, anyway.

In any case, I like the menus just fine.
 
boardbrtn asks... Colin, I'm curious if you would compare this to Dragon Age: Origins. From what I'm reading, this seems to be similar in a lot of aspects.

Colin answers... I wrote IGN's strategy guide for Dragon Age: Origins, so I obviously spent an incredible amount of time with that game... far more than anyone really should. While I think Origins' heart was in the right place, almost everything about the game was utterly underwhelming. I just didn't care much for the game. So far, just about everything Reckoning does, from presentation to combat to overall usability, feels light years ahead of what Dragon Age: Origins did.
Click to expand...

I don't know how to feel about this. Clearly the man is crazy for not being in awe of DA:O, but at the same time, this makes me really excited about Reckoning.
 
FateBreaker said:
I don't know how to feel about this. Clearly the man is crazy for not being in awe of DA:O, but at the same time, this makes me really excited about Reckoning.
Click to expand...

I can't stand DA:O and I've tried to like it 3 or 4 times now. Believe it or not some people just don't think it's that great.
 
Mike G.E.D. said:
play it on a PC
Click to expand...

Wouldn't address any of the real problems I had with the game (although I hear the combat is less clunky). Performance, isometric camera... these things aren't that big of a deal. Boring game, mind-numbing linearity, romances (rolls eyes), characters that just aren't interesting to talk to, dungeons that go on forever, bad animation, and probably imo the worst offender... the most uneven difficulty I can ever recall in a game. Clear an entire dungeon and kill an archdemon, only to get wiped out --eviscerated-- by a pack of nine thousand wolves in a random battle on your way back to camp. :(

I don't know man... I just didn't feel that game at all.

Except for the music. That was awesome.
 
FateBreaker said:
I don't know how to feel about this. Clearly the man is crazy for not being in awe of DA:O, but at the same time, this makes me really excited about Reckoning.
Click to expand...

But then again, if he wasn't in awe of DA:O, then there's something not right in his noggin.

I'm still downloading the demo so I'll withhold judgment, but with Mass Effect 3 coming out a month after Reckoning's release, I don't think I'll be able to devote enough time to Reckoning to justify a purchase.
 
As a stand alone game DAO was alright, not to great, not bad. However bioware branded it as a spiritual successor to BG, and in that regard it was completely underwhelming.

The PC version helps, but it only lifts the combat system from bad to average.

Actually I can't remember if bioware themselves said the BG thing, or if that was made up by fans, either way it was bleh compared to BG, even had more fun with those dark alliance games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Half-Life Element 64 revealed, demo on Steam now!
29
467
IbizaPocholo replied
The Demo's Thread
11
131
Plague Doctor replied
Drakengard 3 Original Soundtrack is now available on Steam
24
331
EDMIX replied
Anno 117: Pax Romana Demo is LIVE on Steam
2
74
3K
calico replied
[Digital Foundry] Hands-On With Steam Machine: Valve's Beautiful PC/Console - Specs, Impressions And More
Analysis  6 7 8 9 10
450
5K
pacman4000 replied
Top Bottom