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

Wallach said:
Daggers felt super weak to me. Won't be using them in the full game anyway, but they seemed really awful.
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The idea is that rogues aren't so interested in base damage as they are with hits per second. The more opportunities to hit, the more likely that high crit % will be activated...and that's where they do their substantial damage. Warriors bank on steady damage, rogues gamble for those all-or-nothing spikes.
 
This game reminds me of Fable a lot. From the art style, to the combat to even small details such as rippling in puddles. It seemed very much Fable with some typical mortality-based dialogue choices in there. The result is I think it's pretty uninspiring.
 
Des0lar said:
Especially console only players who aren't burnt out on WoW will have great fun with this game. I can't see me playing this in the near future though, will probably get it in a sale next year...
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I burned out on WoW a couple years ago. The gameplay/grind was just awful, but I do miss the environments, which is why I think I love Amalur as much as I do. But yeah, every picture they show of the game immediately makes me think of very specific areas of WoW, and I don't think that's a bad thing.
 
I can recognize some of the complaints about the Demo, I have my own; and yet, I really like the game and have played the Demo more times than I thought I would.

I am not quite sure if it is the fantasy setting, the Fable-ish colors, the characters, the fast combat, the possibilities to mix my build and destinies, the varied enemies or what! but I like it.
In this game I feel like things happen! opposed to the slow pace & motion and repetitiveness of other RPG's... you know who you are!

Every time I play this demo I get a different experience, visit a different place, different race and build, quests, etc., and this is an older code not the final game; and we are playing just one area of the whole map.

Perfect? Of course not! like I said before, the game froze a couple times and occasionally had a slow down here and there. The dialogue box is not my favorite and the camera acts weird every once in a while... but, I expect that from a Demo. C'mon we get more bugs than that in final games--I am looking at you Skyrim, New Vegas and others...

I am not saying is better than... or worse... just different and fun. I think we are suffering from post Skyrim fatigue and being overly critical; judging based on our unfulfilled expectations from Skyrim and past games.

All and all, I hope KOAR does well. I look forward to the final game.
 
HP_Wuvcraft said:
Where we the open sky levels in the demo?

That's what made it really feel dense to me.
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The demo area is a more dense area, but if you take the time to look around, you'll notice even some of the dungeons you go into were open. The overgrown thicket, for instance, felt like a dungeon, but was wide open when you look up.

ReaperXL07 said:
there was one with a guy who had stolen an intelligence potion and it was wearing off so he was slowly becoming dumber the conversation was pretty funny, but I havent mess with alchmey much and the only other way to finish you have to go into the Warsworn keep, but not allowed in the demo :( .

Another was
a wolf had been turned into a human (nice little twist),had some crazy eyes though. "TWO LEGS!
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You can finish that quest by buying the potion from the alchemist. They have one available for a few thousand.
 
KKRT00 said:
You mean talent trees that were used in similar form in Diablo 2? What other mechanics are WoW-like? What MMO like features has this game?
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Hey, I played WoW for 5 years, I cannot unsee that talent trees in Amalur look exactly the same. But ok, maybe I'm oversensitive.

But the UI is shit, I play this 1680x1050, and the stuff is just a mess. They couldn't even put the whole information on moouseover, which makes you scroll down just to see skill description. The main menu is also very badly designed.

Plus, the camera is bad, I need it zoomed out BADLY!
 
Castor Krieg said:
Same thing. It's VERY WoW-like, also with mechanics (talent trees, etc.) it's really a single-player MMO. Pass.
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Be honest you have not played RPGs much in your lifetime huh? please don't tell me you think Blizzard invented talent trees... and the no game before WOW had them.

I'd also like to know how this is an SP mmo, i've played many in my life, started with Ultima Online (my favorite), and have moved on to many others. Personally I don't get the single player MMO vibe at all, the dialog/story/combat/dungeon and detail varitey feel nothing like an MMO.

I can understand not liking the the art style, but I don't see WOW in it because WOW did not invent this style either. The style of the art is very close to chunky 90's comics(which Mcfarlane was at the forefront of), and personally it's also something I like, because to me it makes the world feel much more vibrant, and alive. The little ambient touches really add alot to the world.

If the games not for you cool, but don't make stuff up by trying to pretend that WOW invented much of anything in reguards to it's mechanics.
 
JohnLacke said:
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines has weird covered very nicely when you choose to play as a Malkavian.
I wish more RPGs embraced the insanity like that... I mean, your TV talks to you!

So, the level cap in Reckoning is
40
and the max ability and skill points are
123
and
40
respectively, it seems. (Spoiler tagged for those who don't want to know the numbers.) It seems using trainers, and Twist of Fate cards, the numbers for skills and abilities is a bit higher (not sure how much, total). I'm hoping we can max out most of our skills, as they all seem pretty useful. Of course we have to be pretty choosy at first with the distribution while levelling up, but then are able to work at increasing the rest by finding the trainers, and completing quests in specific ways to earn the proper twist of fate cards to increase our skills.

As for ability points, I'm fine with being rather limited there, especially since we can respec.

I just have a hard time deciding where to throw skill points when it comes to things like Alchemy, Smithing, Enchanting, Detect Hidden, Persuasion, etc. I want all these skills!
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Most of my Dungeons and Dragons characters were always at least a little weird. Some were downright insane.
 
MushroomSamba said:
The idea is that rogues aren't so interested in base damage as they are with hits per second. The more opportunities to hit, the more likely that high crit % will be activated...and that's where they do their substantial damage. Warriors bank on steady damage, rogues gamble for those all-or-nothing spikes.
Click to expand...
Yeah, when I mentioned daggers it was more just the flow of combat that I liked. Some neat animations as well.

Didn't really pay attention to all the damage, but it seemed like I was taking down guys okay.
 
Des0lar said:
The problem I have with the envoremts is that they remind me faaaar too much of WoW. (With upgraded graphics of course)
Thousand+Needles-rock+spire.jpg

ashenvale_enviorment6.jpg

kylredridge.jpg

4609503490_a2b02f186d_z.jpg
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Thats fine with me...I loved the art style in WoW.
 
I don't mind the WoW comparisons, I am burned out on it, but not because of its art direction, I loved that and the general feel of azeroth. In fact I'm actually just remaking my main from WoW in this game, female blood elf, frost death knight.

Also don't judge I play female belfs for practical reasons, there tiny frame makes blizzards obnoxiously large shoulder pads and weapons much small on them, so they look normal and not like crazy people, like male orcs.
 
Fahrenheit said:
Does finesse carry over to swords or do the skills just apply to daggers.
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Investing in finesse will not directly increase the power of sword attacks. However, finesse points will allow you to use rogue gear, the rogue destines, and the hybrid destines in order to increase your chance to land a critical hit an your critical hit damage.
 
Khezu said:
I don't mind the WoW comparisons, I am burned out on it, but not because of its art direction, I loved that and the general feel of azeroth. In fact I'm actually just remaking my main from WoW in this game, female blood elf, frost death knight.

Also don't judge I play female belfs for practical reasons, there tiny frame makes blizzards obnoxiously large shoulder pads and weapons much small on them, so they look normal and not like crazy people, like male orcs.
Click to expand...

I was able to make my female Night Elf in the Amalur demo. And I don't see any need to defend my decision to always choose female characters. It's what I do and no amount of hand-wringing from some random guy on the internet claiming "homophobia" is going to change how I play. Your point about character size is valid in WoW. I loved Azeroth as well, and sometimes I'll buy a month of access and just revisit some of my favorite spots, mostly around in-game holidays because those were some of my favorite times to be in the game (notably Halloween).
 
Well, if nothing else the demo saved a bunch of people some money, and saved the rest of us from reading a lot of hate posts in the OT. Win-Win right? =)
 
Baconsammy said:
Well, if nothing else the demo saved a bunch of people some money, and saved the rest of us from reading a lot of hate posts in the OT. Win-Win right? =)
Click to expand...

I'd like to think so, but the trolls will still drop in to say hello, this is gaf afterall.

Speaking of the OT, i'm pretty much done with it overall, just got to come up with a good title, and add a couple more small things.

Anyone got any suggestions for the OT title?
 
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning |OT| Fable, but with QTE's!

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning |OT| What Peter Molyneux can learn from KoA: R
 
Castor Krieg said:
I play RPG games for close to 20 years now, thank you. You like the game - fine. I don't - fine as well.
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Which is fine. But it's hard to take some criticism seriously. There's fairly legitimate critiques of the game and, "It's a WoW clone, look at those talent trees" doesn't really fit the bill.

Baconsammy said:
Well, if nothing else the demo saved a bunch of people some money, and saved the rest of us from reading a lot of hate posts in the OT. Win-Win right? =)
Click to expand...

Honestly, it probably increased the amount of hate posts in the OT.
 
The only similarities this has to WoW is the graphics. If anything it's closer to Diablo but with action based combat and an in depth story element.
 
ReaperXL07 said:
I'd like to think so, but the trolls will still drop in to say hello, this is gaf afterall.

Speaking of the OT, i'm pretty much done with it overall, just got to come up with a good title, and add a couple more small things.

Anyone got any suggestions for the OT title?
Click to expand...

Kingdoms of Amalur: For Every |OT|, a Reckoning!
 
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning |OT|: It's WoW without other people. A dream come true!

ParityBit said:
The only similarities this has to WoW is the graphics. If anything it's closer to Diablo but with action based combat and an in depth story element.
Click to expand...

The questing is VERY WoW ish. It's what is attracting me to the game, honestly.
 
My history with RPGs is very limited, so I don't know exactly what their influences were. The questing to me feels more like Borderlands than it does WoW. Choosing from one of 3 paths feels like WoW to me, but I would have preferred that Sorcery, Finesse, and Might each had 3 trees, so in that regard it's very un-Wow like. Again Borderlands is more like WoW than Amalur. The environments are almost carbon copies of WoW areas, and I love it. Each region in the game being tailored to a specific range of players levels feels like WoW to me as well, but WoW may have taken that from some other game too. I've played all three Fable games and none of Amalur feels like Fable to me.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (OT) Jack Shit of All, Master of None

I keed I keed. I love this game.
 
Most of the ideas attributed to Wow (sans giant shoulderpads) were indeed created long before it came around. There are a lot of standard RPG conventions here, just mixed with hopefully a compelling story and what looks like much better combat.
 
I've played all three Fable games and none of Amalur feels like Fable to me.
Click to expand...

Amalur feels like what fable was supposed to be, not what fable is, if that makes any sense. Peter promised some big things with fable 1 that he didn't even come close to delivering.

Also quests are just generic WRPG quests, its only really similar to WoW because there is an abundance of them.
 
Loved the demo but never got around to finding a set of faeblades. Are they in the demo? I think for my first character, I'll be sticking with daggers (faeblades if I find them) and chakrams. Those two seem to suit my playstyle the best
 
Khezu said:
Amalur feels like what fable was supposed to be, not what fable is, if that makes any sense. Peter promised some big things with fable 1 that he didn't even come close to delivering.
Click to expand...

That makes sense then.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning |OT| Molyneux's Wet Dream Come To Life


Yeah, raz,
the Faeblades can be found by going to House of Ballads and accepting the quest from the guy on the stairs. You'll end up in a dungeon and fight a boss. You'll get a purple set of faeblades, a purple ring, and even a piece of two of Gold armor (set pieces for the Fae)
 
razgriz417 said:
Loved the demo but never got around to finding a set of faeblades. Are they in the demo? I think for my first character, I'll be sticking with daggers (faeblades if I find them) and chakrams. Those two seem to suit my playstyle the best
Click to expand...

Yes,
you may get a set by completing the Gorguath dungeon, which is the second part of the Fae quests, started in the House of Ballads.

If you go through that dungeon at level 4, it seems like there are more chakram drops as well. I was able to play with both.
Hope that helps.
 
Hannar said:
Yes. Pets, housing, storage, etc. Can even get yourself an island fortress.
Click to expand...

I'm talking more about buying other people's houses and charging rent, furnishing them etc. Also the sims-like aspects of interacting with other people. That's what makes fable unique, and if those things arent in amalur i don't see the fable comparison at all.
 
Well the demo saved me some money, definitely won't be picking this up any time soon.

I didn't hate it, it was just very underwhelming in every aspect. I didn't like the camera controls, the graphics are very meh, I dislike the art style in general, I don't like the way the shield is implemented, I had frame rate drops, it was too linear, story was uninteresting, and I just didn't have fun playing it.

I think I'll go back to it and try and make it all the way through to get the mass effect unlocks, hopefully it will grow one me some more, but as of right now I have no interest in playing the full game.
 
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