I picked up this game after playing the demo a while back, and I’m sorta surprised there’s no thread on it.
Playing the demo, at first, I thought it was a bit too FPS-y to me. Seemed like a lot of fancy fighting and not so much role-playing, but I stuck with it, and it drew me in enough to buy it.
Now? I’m pretty happy with it. Is it a groundbreaking, never-before-seen game? Heck no. You see bits and pieces of WoW and Dragon Age and Elder Scrolls and a hundred other RPGs in it. Nothing is truly unique. But they did put it together really well, it’s beautiful, and it has that fun quality that can be so elusive.
And it’s HUGE. I’ve been playing pretty steadily since it came out, and I thought I’d gotten through at least 75% of the game. Then I ran to a new city, and 3 new areas opened up on my map, all of them looking to be as big as the couple I’d already been in (and was not even close to finishing.) Now I see they’re releasing DLC in a couple weeks that adds even more to the game.
I tried to play the demo, and they immediately pissed me off by asking me to register for some EA network thing.
Then the game started, and didn’t render anything past the intro cinematic - I had sound and the UI, but nothing in the actual game engine showed up - just a black screen.
Yeah, same for me, though I turned all the visual effects to a minimum and it worked. Seems interesting enough to buy when it goes on discount; might even spend as much as 30 bucks on it.
I had the same issue with the demo; I don’t remember the one video option toggle you have to make to fix it, but Googling “kingdoms of amalur black screen” turned up the answer for me.
Unfortunately I didn’t make it through the demo because I kept dying to some giant monster. :smack:
So I bought it on 360 a few weeks back and here’s my mini review:
I was enjoying Skyrim but wanted to play something a little more, i dunno, different? So I got this game thinking it would feed me loot and let me level etc… And it does do that. The graphics are very WoWish. There is a ton of loot and lots of crafting skills to work on. The combat mechanics are much more involved than Skyrim and are action based like Batman Arkham Asylum, but only watered down. It really delivered on everything the game promised.
But…
There is something about it that just doesn’t grab me. The story is not very compelling and I found myself skipping straight to the “forward progress” dialog option for every conversation after only having played a few hours. I really didn’t give a shit about any of the characters. It feels like it literally took about 5 different blockbuster games (Skyrim, WoW, God of War, etc…) and mashed them together but only grabbed about 75% of what made those games great. The crafting feels like a huge pile of stuff all thrown in for you to sort out. It’s hard to explain but it feels like there is a ton of “content for contents sake” in here. The WoW aspect of the game actually works against it as it does feel like WoW, but with you being the only guy on the server.
I dunno, I don’t think I did a very god job of explaining why this game is a 7/10 or so for me but someone else will probably come along and do it.
I do believe that the sequel, whenever that comes, will probably be stellar as this is a good game for the first in an IP.
I like the game (I’ve got it on PC, via Steam), but every time I launch it, there’s about a 50/50 chance that the camera will be pinned to either the ground (so all I can do is look at the ceiling) or the sky (so I can see about 5 feet around the character). Every time it autosaves or quick saves, there’s a chance of this happening as well. Hitting “” for shoulder cam works for as long as the character keeps moving, then the camera drifts back to the ground/sky and gets stuck there again.
The only fix? Esc->Exit->Yes, I know I’ll lose my saved game->Yes, seriously, I just said so twice!->Exit again->Confirm again that I just said I wanted to exit…four or five times now. Then sit through the unskipable opening branding cinematics again…and hope it works this time.
What is it with the multiple-step game exiting these days? Do people really confirm that they’re going to exit four or five times, then change their mind?
Nice game, nice world, -100% points for interface. Even when it’s working, the camera control is the worst I’ve ever seen in a game, and they knew about it during beta (and said they’d fix it…they didn’t.)
Funny - I had the complete opposite impression. I do agree with you that they borrowed a LOT from other RPGs, but I found that they took the good stuff and left out the annoying bits. Don’t at all feel that there’s content for content’s sake - even the side quests are well-thought-out and fun to me.
Crafting? Meh. Maybe you have a point there. Personally, I’m not a crafter. It’s never really done much for me in any game, so I’m not looking for it to be great. I do like it that you’re not limited to just one or two crafts. It’s nice to be able to put a bunch of points in, say, blacksmithing, but have just a few in alchemy so you can throw together some minor potions.
Like I said in the OP, it’s not a great, ground-breaking game. There’s not a lot “new” to it. But I’m finding it a lot more fun than I expected to.
As far as technical issues, I haven’t experienced even one. In fact, the game is remarkably stable for me. Really happy with it in that sense.
I’ve played the demo (on the XBox) as far as it would let me (timer ran out). The environment and gameplay is VERY much like Fable, so much so that I assumed the same studio developed it (I don’t know if that’s true). The same limited-access physical environment; the same glowy objects (chests, etc); similar control scheme (hold a trigger, press X-Y-A-B); even the voice acting seemed very similar.
Which is not to say it was not an overall enjoyable experience, but one of the reasons I gave up on Fable was that, unlike something like Fallout or Skyrim or even GTA, you really are forced to walk in a relatively limited area (“stay on the path”). Heck, I had one area where a small area that I could clearly see had my physical access blocked by 12-inch-high rocks (invisible wall, would not let me jump over the obstacles).
One of the other reasons I abandoned the Fable franchise was the lack of on-demand saves, and this apparently is the case here, too. [my distrust in the autosaves in Fable was primarily because of Fable’s bugs, which could render the last savepoint useless and, hence, you’d have to start over from the beginning]
This is a very, very pretty game. And it’s combat system combines an intuitive interface with a variety of options, in a very simple package. The only thing that alters between being a thug swinging around a gigantic hammer and a spell-slinger is range and timing, but for the most part, when you get the hang of the system, it works no matter what you’re using.
That being said, the plot is very formulaic, and somewhat repetitive. Most of the little side missions don’t add anything to the story, really. And perhaps most importantly, the characters don’t engender the kind of sympathy that makes the best RPGs (the good Final Fantasies and Dragon Age I stand out in particular) unmissable.
In the end, Amalur has some fantastic scenery, and some cool looking monsters (although there’s only about 10 different kinds). Even on Hard, it’s not that difficult. And the ease of reclassing and the lack of repercussion for your decisions make replaying this game totally unnecessary. I’m glad I played it, but it’s not worth the cost of a new game. I got it as a gift, but if I was to buy it, I wouldn’t want to pay more than about $30 for it. Definitely a game to wait for its price to drop and to pick up used.
So any other opinions now that the game’s been out for a while? Reviews are generally positive, and the price is coming down to about 30 bucks used. I tried the demo and while it didn’t really grab me, I got the sense that it was a perfectly adequate game.
Its certainly worth thirty bucks and has many hours of playtime within. It is a good game but the story didn’t grab me for whatever reason so I got rid of it.
Hrm… thanks. I think, though, that without a compelling story I may wait until it’s in the 20-bucks-or-less category. Not 100% on it, but from what I’ve read combat is awesome while most reviewers echo your take on the story. For a game with good combat and an only okay story, I might as well get a used copy of Dynasty Warriors, or what have you.
To be fair, the RPG aspects of the skill trees and such do seem reasonably cool. But have you played it Athena? Everything I’ve read pretty much agrees that the story is banal and forgettable and all that really shines in the game is the combat. No?
