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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

vivisectvi

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Kingdoms_of_Amalur_Reckoning_cover.png


Reckoning hits the 360, PC & PS3 a week from today so I figured I would give it it's own thread. At 300 hours of gameplay for the completionist, it definitely sounds and feels like it's going to be a much more than the usual lesser RPG like War in the North.

Overview said:
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an upcoming single-player action role-playing game for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Ken Rolston, the lead designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, acts as the game's executive designer. Additionally, noted fantasy author R.A. Salvatore created the game universe and lore, with Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, working on the artwork. It is being developed by 38 Studios and Big Huge Games. The game will be released on February 7, 2012 in North America and February 10, 2012 in Europe. The first public demonstration was at the Penny Arcade Expo East 2011 held in Boston, Massachusetts, United States on March 11, 2011.

Gameplay said:
Kingdoms of Amalur will feature "5 distinct regions, 4 playable races, and 3 class trees with 22 abilities per tree." The 4 playable races are the Almain (noble Humans) the Ljosalfar (Light Elves), the Dokkalfar (Dark Elves), and the Varani (nomadic Humans). The 3 class (or ability) trees are Might, Finesse, and Sorcery; they correspond to the fighter, rogue, and mage classes respectively. The player starts off as a "blank slate," waking up in a pile of corpses after returning from the dead. The game will utilize a unique "destiny" system, whereby the player can invest in a skill-tree system to unlock various "destinies," which acts as the class system for the game. Combat works based on the timing of button presses, similar to the style of an action RPG, with occasional quicktime events like those in the God of War series. Lead combat designer Joe Quadara, however, emphasized that "twitch skill is only going to get you so far. Strategy and proper RPG playing is going to get you farther." 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling said that the style of the game would be a marriage between God of War and Oblivion.

And now, some videos..

A Hero's Guide to Amalur: A New World to Discover

A Hero's Guide to Amalur: Skills and Crafting

A Hero's Guide to Amalur: Power and Mastery

A Hero's Guide to Amalur: Skill at Arms

A Hero's Guide to Amalur: Destiny and Fate

A Hero's Guide to Amalur: Factions and Fae
 

Mik

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I might be getting to it sooner than I thought. Final Fantasy is apparently only around 30 hours and I've already put a few in.
 

bps21

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First review was an 8/10 from Official Xbox Magazine, though their review read like it had a higher score. The only complaints were that the quests would get repetitive and the story was good but not great. They spent most of the review praising everything. Oh...and don't waste your time building up your blacksmith skill...it really pissed them off for some reason. I mean...really.
 

Mik

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100% completion SPEED RUN with all cutscenes skipped, all fast traveling, etc... by lead engineers who knew all shortcuts took 200 hours!

TWO HUNDRED. Good lord.
 

Conspiracy_Victim

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I played the demo for the Mass Effect stuff, and I thought it was alright. Wasn't a huge fan of the WoW meets Fable art style, but the combat was pretty fluid and the magic, ranged, and melee combat flowed together pretty well. I'll probably pick it up used, I've got enough to keep me busy for the foreseeable future.
 

vivisectvi

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Just rec'd my copy in the mail this morning. Business is about to pick up!
 

bps21

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I bought this today. I'm pretty deep into Rage at the moment so I don't know how soon I'll pop it in...but pretty soon I think.
 

vivisectvi

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When you finish it, let me know if you found Rage to be abnormally short. I didn't even think the end game was what I was playing.. And then, well, that was it.

As far as Reckoning goes. Loving it so far. I think I might even like it more than Skyrim, if not on par. It's not as "real" as far as looks goes, but it feels more alive and I guess has more of an old school "high fantasy" feel to it. The combat is especially gratifying. Apparently you can also buy houses in this and upgrade them. I'm hoping I get an opportunity for that soon as I'm running out of inventory room fast.
 

Mazto

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I bought it sans a Pre-Order and was lucky they had a couple 360 copies to spare (the only system they had some for :)) I only had a couple hours to put into it, but it's pretty fun so far. I've leaned daggers early and have just put points in roguish stuff, but I'm planning to expand my magic down the road since I use magic a bit as well.

The art is very reminiscent of WoW, and lacks the "reality" of a Skyrim, but I find it's more interesting to look at and the two random characters I've gotten quests from had neat little characters so they have that going for them early on.
 

bps21

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SAMCRO said:
When you finish it, let me know if you found Rage to be abnormally short. I didn't even think the end game was what I was playing.. And then, well, that was it.

Well...I finished it. I was doing it on Nightmare and collecting everything/getting 100% so it took me a decent amount of time due to difficulty. Had I been playing for fun on a regular difficulty I can't imagine how much shorter it would have been. And boy...that "ending" sure came out of nowhere. I didn't hate the game...it just feels like it's only half of a game.

Guess I'll be starting Kingdoms of Amalur today!
 

vivisectvi

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Yep, the Rage ending just fell flat for me. Completely. Which sucks because I LOVED the game. I was hoping it was just a swerve and that I'd at least have a few more missions after that. :( If there is a sequel, maybe it will do better.

Interrobang said:
The art is very reminiscent of WoW, and lacks the "reality" of a Skyrim, but I find it's more interesting to look at and the two random characters I've gotten quests from had neat little characters so they have that going for them early on.

I really like the art style too. I like Skyrim's as well, but this style just "fits" with Amalur and what they've created. I've seen a lot of fanboys frothing that the game must suck because of the art style. They are sure as hell missing out.

For my character I picked the Varani (second human race) and went with a Rogue build to start. I've been slotting in random Sorcery skills here and there as well so I'm hoping to go that route from here on out. I may try a warrior character on another go-through, though. Been using a lot of the daggers, chakrams (so awesome) and bows. I've also maxed out my lightning spell and have just unlocked another "active" spell that blocks something like 15% of damage. Good times! ;)

All of the pre-order shit filled up my inventory pretty quick so I took to the closest town where I could acquire a house with storage (thank you internet) and was able to unload all of my loot. The storage chest is linked to any other house you buy, too, so you don't have to worry about transferring stuff (though it does have a contents limit). You can upgrade the shit out of your house, as well. I added on an attic and three basement expansions. One of those upgrades came with an area that lets you change around the look of your character. Not their race/facial features/shape, but you can change hair, hair colour, facial hair, piercings & facepaint. I thought that was pretty cool and something that was lacking in Skyrim (unless you use the console commands on the PC version). I love little things like that. I've also read that you can get housepets.

After that I just followed a natural progression of sidequests and ended up joining the Travelers (thieves guild). They had me steal a bunch of shit to join, which was pretty fun as I love how stealth works in this game.

Also, a first for me. I'm actually using the alchemy skill. I found that in Skyrim and Oblivion there was always enough health potions to loot or steal or even buy. In Reckoning, they're around, but definitely not as widespread. So, luckily there is a good amount of plants to harvest and create the potions from. Finally the skill doesn't feel useless to me.
 

Mazto

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The house I stumbled across had a mirror (the device which he's talking about for minor character modifications dubq is talking about) in it already. *shrug* I also liked that little bit. I might have to run all the way out of a dungeon to load up on potions to kill a boss fight I came across, stupid Widow kicking my ass like there's no tomorrow.

One minor complaint I have so far is that you don't generate health out of combat (I don't want it nearly instantly healing me, but some go back would be nice) so if you get hit hard right before... say a boss fight, you have no hope.

Edit but not really; I do have a disease... which might be why. I might want to look into getting rid of that.
 

vivisectvi

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I'm not sure how health regen works in this, I haven't really payed attention. I know I have an item that has +1.5 health regen per second, so I know it's at least possible.. I'm just not sure if it does it as a default as I've always been using potions.
 

AlaskanHero

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I believe that health doesn't regen unless your armor specifically has regen on it.
 

bps21

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That's good to know since I spend much of my fantasy questing hiding in corners waiting for the red to leave the screen.
 

Mazto

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Had today off and have started pretty deep into the House of Ballads stuff, fun concept. Finally got a Chakram that wasn't totally balls at level 11, so I'm running around with wicked rad Feyblades and Chakram that shocks people although I did just stumble across a really nice Greatsword, so maybe I'll start evening out my playstyle, but I'm enjoying being an Arcanist at the moment.
 

vivisectvi

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Fuck me, I love this game. I just had an epic boss battle against this crazy elf witch and about 30 of her giant spider minions! Good times!
 

Mazto

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Yeah, that was the one that was kicking my ass earlier.

I lost three hours of game time leading to the House of Ballads finale (I assume) and died, no biggie, I wasn't paying attention and clicked "Load Last Save" instead of going and picking the last auto save... :(

On the plus side, most of that was just fucking around with side quests that popped up as I was running back to the guy I needed to talk to, so I really only have to do one quest over to continue the plot of the Ballads.
 

Mazto

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So turns out I didn't lose all that playtime, it was just not the first option on my loading. Way to scare me Reckoning!

Finished off the House of Ballads, thought about joining the Warsworn, then got distracted doing the main plot now I'm running around Ysa smashing the shit out of things because I feel antsy. I'm tempted to drop some coin on Fateweaving because I put some points in shit I never use (Mage Shield I'm looking at you) but I'm going to play a bit more to solidify my play style before really wiping the slate clean and repointing.
 

Mik

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Just started this last night. Loving it.

I really appreciate how all the minor side quests are worth doing because you get something great.
 

Mazto

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I'm finding that while I'm mostly Finesse, (well I'm Fin/Magic as a Warlock) my two main weapons are a Greatsword and Chakrams. I just got a Chakram that just SHREDS people with fire/lightening damage on top of physical with a chance to deal more damage over time with fire and throw my Envenomed Blade points on top of it? Everything dies.

I'd like to go back to Dagger/Chakram combo, but I keep getting these high end Sword drops and crappy dagger ones. I tried smithing a pair of daggers, which got me somewhat closer, but I find myself working the daggers to start the fight usually clearing out one enemy, then switching back to the Greatsword.
 

vivisectvi

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Yeah! I'm using a combo of very similar chakrams - fire/ice/physical damage + faeblades that do poison damage. Slicing through muthafuckas like buttah! ;)

I still haven't left the "green" area of the world map and I've got over 20hrs into my save, so far..
 

Mazto

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I only ventured into the next area over because I started doing the Warsworn plot more and that sends you all over. I think I found another place to buy in Rathir, but need to find out who i need to talk to for the purchase.
 

bps21

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Yeah I didn't get a freeze but I did get the "unreadable disc" error that I haven't seen in over 2 years. Oh EA. I installed and haven't had a problem since.
 

Mik

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I'm loving this even more since I switched it to hard. That coincided around when I got the dash move with the B button instead of the simple roll and now I'm really enjoying some of these battles. The extra challenge makes it fun.
 
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