Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning....

ToddMcF2002

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I finally fired up the Gamers Gate "KOA Collection" I picked up for the absurd price of $14.99 on Xmas eve. I just checked and it is back at $49.95. Ouch.

Anyway... as I'm sure many of you know it is basically an MMO with realtime combat and full voice acting. There really is allot of quality voice acting in this game, which surprised me. Otherwise the quest "depth" feels MMO. The world looks MMO. The world "density/size" looks MMO. The big difference then is the combat and the lack of players.

Thing is, the only thing I don't like about MMOs is the general lack of NPC uniqueness and the lame combat systems.

I won't say the NPCs here have a ton of depth in Amular but they do have "enough" personality to keep things interesting. Sort of like Fable's NPCs, right down to the english accents, but quite a bit chattier....

The combat does shine in my opinion. I currently have 3 options - ranged magic for softening targets and then shield/sword for the heavy damage. It is basically the type of combat I was hoping for watching the Dungeon Lords trailers back in the day. In Amular you have all the same "drop and roll" maneuvers necessary for mob tactics in Dungeon Lords. Of course this is all very "actiony" but it feels great. I haven't abused the "soul charge up" mode because I like my kills to be natural, not a cut scene. I reserve that mode for situations where I'm clearly going down otherwise and/or I want to see my opponent die a truly gruesome death.

I'm just getting into the crafting and alchemy so I have no comment yet, but I can craft weapons with 3 ingredients now so I'm looking forward to trying it.

So is this a great game? Honestly I don't know but if I would say that if you like MMOs and all that brings with it and you like action combat this is a bit of a no brainer. After playing Beyond Divinity my grey matter needs a rest. Amular is like a fairy tale vacation... with killing.
 
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I don't have KoA as it's always on sale for NA or UK only.

But from everything I've read about it I've understood that it's a huge areas game polished more than Skyrim with not-so-interesting story and utterly annoying endless mobrespawns/chestrespawns on each area transition.

Now that kinda doesn't sound like your impression, so please, play it a while and correct me if I've understood older descriptions completely wrong. :)
 
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I'm early in and haven't seen respawns but they could be there. This doesn't seem to be a game where you would backtrack to an instances area (like a cave for a side quest) so I'm not sure really. I detest respawning too which is one reason I hate Sacred and Dungeon Lords, so I'll be sure to report back what respawns and how it affects gameplay. Light respawning doesn't bother me as creatures do wander, but Oblivion or Sacred level core gameplay mechanic respawning is completely unacceptable to me. Add level scaling to respawning and I would delete the game.
 
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Yes, Reckoning is a great game. No, it doesn't feel or look like an MMO. It feels like a deep single-player RPG.
 
I found combat to be pure action (I prefer combat based on character skill, not player skill), and the large world surprisingly soulless. Found the first dozen hours fun in a cartoony way, then it started to feel hollow and repetitive. You can totally play it on autopilot just by following the quest compass and doing your same 3 routines in each fight. In the end, there was not enough there to keep me from moving on to Legend of Grimrock and then other things.
 
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I own KoA+DLC and really enjoy it, I'm about halfway through the game and play it on and off still.

It feels more console-ish than MMO-ish to me and has a ton of quests, some more interesting than others, good visceral combat and never really noticed any re-spawn problems.
And I had to use the KoA World Map(+enemy levels)-http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/51070/t1718667-koa-world-map-enemy-levels/ because "The exact level of the enemies you face in each area is locked as soon as you first step foot into that area"
which is important to know to avoid becoming too overpowering too quickly in the game.


Also the Widescreen Fixer-https://www.widescreenfixer.org/ app is mandatory IMO to be able to set how far you want to zoom in or out on your character, the default was way too closely zoomed in for me.

But overall a really well made good looking action RPG worth playing IMO.
 
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I liked KOA for a while, although it does have it's substantial flaws. I'm a bit confused by the MMO comparison, I've played lots of MMOs and I can't say it reminds me remotely of any of them.

Combat is a lot of fun in the game, and the world is pretty open. I like the skill system and character development, the non combat skill trees were a nice touch as well. I think the main reason I stopped playing though was that it started to seem really unfocused, the story failed to remotely interest me and while there was clearly a lot of work put into building the game world, none of it was really well integrated into gameplay. So there really wasn't much to keep me going once the combat/exploration started to feel a bit repetitive.
 
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The game is average and the sales speak for itself. It didn't sell well enough to keep the developer open. It's not bad but it has a bunch of flaws that become apparent that it is in fact designed as an mmo. Sadly this discussion has been done plenty of times.

My final advise is to play it with no expectations and you will enjoy it.
 
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that become apparent that it is in fact designed as an mmo.

This is utter BS. The game was not "in fact" designed as an MMO. The ONLY reason the MMO thing gets tossed around is because people confused Reckoning with the Amalur MMO that 38 Studios was also working on. Some bogus news story came out saying Reckoning was previously an MMO-turned-single player game and that was quickly debunked by the developers, however, the gamers who read that story never read the debunking by the devs so the MMO label stuck with Reckoning.

Now you read all this garbage about how the game "feels like an MMO" because ignorant people have it stuck in their heads that Reckoning was once designed as an MMO. Not to pick on you or anything Couchpotato but I'm just sick of seeing the MMO nonsense whenever Reckoning is brought up.
 
This is utter BS. The game was not "in fact" designed as an MMO. The ONLY reason the MMO thing gets tossed around is because people confused Reckoning with the Amalur MMO that 38 Studios was also working on. Some bogus news story came out saying Reckoning was previously an MMO-turned-single player game and that was quickly debunked by the developers, however, the gamers who read that story never read the debunking by the devs so the MMO label stuck with Reckoning.

Now you read all this garbage about how the game "feels like an MMO" because ignorant people have it stuck in their heads that Reckoning was once designed as an MMO. Not to pick on you or anything Couchpotato but I'm just sick of seeing the MMO nonsense whenever Reckoning is brought up.

Comparison to MMO is because of map,quests and instances are exactly like those in majority of MMOs.Also MMO comparison came before it was public knowledge that studio was working one.
 
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I wouldn't say it feels like an MMO really. More like an action-adventure game designed for consoles.

That's not to say it's a bad game. Just don't expect anything like a deep crpg.
 
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I would say that it feels inspired by MMOs, but it is still different enough from most MMOs to not be "like an MMO".

The best part of the game was the first part. The problem with the game is that it lacks depth and has an inverted difficulty curve, meaning that the game actually gets easier and easier the further into it you get. Well, I can't speak for the last areas, as I only reached Detyre (the 3rd major area, the first being the forest, the second being the plains), before I got bored. And yes, I played on the highest difficulty level.

So my recommendation would be to play the game until it starts getting stale. You'll still probably get your moneys worth out of it, but don't expect to actually beat it.
 
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This is utter BS. The game was not "in fact" designed as an MMO. The ONLY reason the MMO thing gets tossed around is because people confused Reckoning with the Amalur MMO that 38 Studios was also working on. Some bogus news story came out saying Reckoning was previously an MMO-turned-single player game and that was quickly debunked by the developers, however, the gamers who read that story never read the debunking by the devs so the MMO label stuck with Reckoning.

Now you read all this garbage about how the game "feels like an MMO" because ignorant people have it stuck in their heads that Reckoning was once designed as an MMO. Not to pick on you or anything Couchpotato but I'm just sick of seeing the MMO nonsense whenever Reckoning is brought up.

No offense taken. ;)

I'm not basing mine on a news story but by playing the game. That's my opinion not fact. I know you love the game so your opinion differs. Not Everyone will agree or love/hate things you do.

To me the whole game world and questing system feels and plays like an MMO. Compare World Of Warcraft to it and it is on par with everything in the game. Though if you compare it to Morrowind you can see the influence on the game also.

I never said it was garbage or not worth your money just tamper your expectations to play it.
 
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Liking or disliking the game has nothing to do with what I'm saying. The point I'm making is that the game felt like a single-player RPG, not like an MMO.

I haven't played a ton of MMOs, but the ones I did play were nothing like Reckoning. And I do believe the whole MMO thing came from people parroting the word MMO once G4 reported that Reckoning was supposed to originally be an MMO (which is not true). Since then it seems people always say the game feels like an MMO. Even in debates I've had with people they specifically cite that story to give themselves credibility and say, "See! It WAS supposed to be an MMO! Therefore it feels like one", etc.

But hey, if you guys think it feels like an MMO, that's your opinion, I just disagree. But it has nothing to do with how much I like the game.
 
But hey, if you guys think it feels like an MMO, that's your opinion, I just disagree. But it has nothing to do with how much I like the game.

Ah but it does you have some crusade to defend the game in every topic. I already told you people are not always going to agree with you. What you think is your opinion not fact also. Just as mine is also just an opinion.
 
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I realize not everyone is going to agree. All I'm doing is giving my side of the argument, you give yours and we go from there. That's the transaction. I don't really see what you're trying to say. I'm on a crusade? Okay?

My argument is that the game doesn't feel like an MMO. Obviously some people think it does, so that's their opinion. I just very much disagree.

I really don't see how that translates to a crusade to defend the game.
 
Hot damn guys nice angry debate here. Fluent… I don't consider my self ignorant and I'm hardly an Rpg noob. The game to me feels like an MMO in terms of the world, the simplistic quest structures and the instanced dungeons. Pretty hallmark stuff. Then blend it with an action game and you get Amalur.

Of course this is just my opinion and my impressions. I never saw the G4 review or any review claiming the game had an MMO heritage.

Edit: also I like the game so far - these were observations not critiques...
 
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I've played the game up to the Klurikon region after Mel Senshir and completed 130 quests and agree with Fnord's general analysis. Play the game until it gets boring then stop.

The lore is somewhat interesting once you understand the Fae but its not very compelling in and of itself. I thought it was very clever storytelling if you want explain instancing in game in an MMO for what its worth. I can sort of imagine what they would do for the MMO using this lore. FWIW, the game felt somewhat like Asheron's Call to me and therefore like a single player MMO.

The thing I liked least about the game was the item management. I'm not really an ARPG player so dont like the lottery/random item stuff though the junk pile was a useful feature.

My rogue wanted better looking clothing than was offered as troll and hexweave armor looks like crap to me. Eventually I figured out how to cheat me some better looking armor (by copying models from NPCs) in doing that I cheated myself a ring to rule the all (move 50% faster, fast regen, …) and just started ploughing through the game starting around Detyre when it started to get boring.

Mel Senshir is kinda fun but anti-climatic yet worth doing if you plan on quitting just before it. I don't think you really have to do Detyre at all to advance that part of the plot as I successfully landed there and then backtracked before entering the fortress.
 
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Hot damn guys nice angry debate here. Fluent… I don't consider my self ignorant and I'm hardly an Rpg noob. The game to me feels like an MMO in terms of the world, the simplistic quest structures and the instanced dungeons. Pretty hallmark stuff. Then blend it with an action game and you get Amalur.

Of course this is just my opinion and my impressions. I never saw the G4 review or any review claiming the game had an MMO heritage.

Edit: also I like the game so far - these were observations not critiques…

Then my post was not directed at you.

Sadly, many people were influenced by the bogus G4 story and many people were subconsciously affected by it (my opinion) and that leads to a lot of the "it feels like an MMO" thing I've seen on the internet. As I've said. some people who say it feels like an MMO even directly quoted the bogus G4 story to back themselves up.

And again, I am not commenting on your opinion because I'm offended by someone critiquing the game. I just simply do not feel the game in any shape or form really resembles an MMO. At least none of the MMOs I've played.

If I came across as angry in my posts I apologize, and I was not trying to pick on anybody. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the game.
 
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No offense taken, I appreciate your comments. Kids are about to go to bed and I'm going to fire up Amular. This is what we did all day :)
playing3.jpg


They have a ways to go still
dm_mode_full.jpg
 
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