KoA: Reckoning - The beauty of Kingdoms of Amalur

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Well most of us here have various opinions about Kingdoms of Amalur, but a writer at VentureBeat tries to explain the beauty of the game to the readers.

There are a few games I hype up like crazy. This is one of them. I know a lot of people don’t like the “cartoony” style of it. This isn’t a childish cartoon though. It just doesn’t have realistic graphics. It confuses me that people don’t like it just because of the actual fantasy styled art direction. Fantasy is the reason I play video games, read comic books, and watch cartoons!

I only have eight hours played on Skyrim but I can easily lump the two games in the same category. They have a similar style of gameplay. I definitely like the duel-casting in Skyrim though. They’re both enormous, and I can’t stress that enough about KoA. I’ve heard the same of Skyrim and I’m sure it’s true. But I have fifty-six hours played on KoA so I can attest to that one more, for now.

Why Do I Love It?

Well, first of all the graphics are incredible. Don’t stop reading! Of course that’s not even half of the reason, or the main reason. But graphics do matter. They’re the first thing you see, and they’re your eye-candy through every second of a game. The art was done by one of my all time favorite comic book artists, Todd McFarlane! Yeah! So awesome! And I can see the love he and the other artists put into this game man. Every single part of the world breathes life. Everything moves. Plants come to life as you walk past them. Tree leaves blow in the wind. Shadows are also always alive. I don’t want to mislead you though. Not every single plant you come across will come to life, but at least half of them do. It’s amazing.
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Skyrim and KoA in the same category? So much more to do in Skyrim than just run around killing stuff. TES is my preferred game for "living" in a fantasy world. KoA...saw no reason for staying in a location after all the quests there are done. Eventually, I didn't even care for sidequests anymore.

If he spent 56 hours on just one character in KoA, I'm thinking nothing's a challenge anymore. Just doing the main quest and running on the highest difficulty was easy enough. Actually spending 56 hours grinding (and that's mostly what KoA was to me) would make the game lose what little challenge it had.

On the other hand, I can go way beyond just 56 hours on 1 character in a TES game and easily into the hundreds, other characters considered. To be fair though, I can barely spend 10 on the unmodded game so...
 
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KOA was an okay game, but not great.

It was a first (too ?) ambitious try for a new crprg franchise.
 
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As the type who loves doing sidequests, I can easily agree on the time. According to Steam I played Amalur for around 75 hours before beating it. I don't disagree with the assessment that it was easy, though I found Skyrim quite easy as well. Neither game was a bastion of difficulty.
 
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An underrated gem. Sure it had its flaws but it was really enjoyable to play.

For some weird reason, many TES fans considered it as some sort of threat and decided to denigrate it, pouring scorn and hatred upon it. Why can't somebody enjoy a TES game and KoA simultaneously? Fanboys are weird...
 
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I'm trying to work up the motivation to actually play KoA, mostly because I need something to do after finally deciding that Wizardry 8 is a derpfest. But this... article doesn't really do a good job of it
 
I'd suggest waiting for a Steam sale (maybe soon) for KoA and it's 2 add-ons. If the whole bundle is priced at $30 or less, I would say it's a great offer.
 
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An underrated gem. Sure it had its flaws but it was really enjoyable to play.

For some weird reason, many TES fans considered it as some sort of threat and decided to denigrate it, pouring scorn and hatred upon it. Why can't somebody enjoy a TES game and KoA simultaneously? Fanboys are weird…
I agree with you. In spite of its flaws, I've really enjoyed playing the game.
More than 100 hours, not bad.
 
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I'd suggest waiting for a Steam sale (maybe soon) for KoA and it's 2 add-ons. If the whole bundle is priced at $30 or less, I would say it's a great offer.

I actually got it in a sale, it's just sitting there. Ah well, I think I'll give it a try. I know what to look out for now (moving trees & other flora ;) )
 
$30?!
I got KoA for 5 bucks a month or so ago on Origin. And I wouldn't pay more for endless respawn grinder. Didn't bother with DLC. If there was respawn stopper DLC, I'd pay 50$ for it.
 
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$30?!
I got KoA for 5 bucks a month or so ago on Origin. And I wouldn't pay more for endless respawn grinder. Didn't bother with DLC. If there was respawn stopper DLC, I'd pay 50$ for it.

Hah, I wonder if it was some obscure junk game you would like it better.
 
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Obscure, junk, whatever but no-endless-respawn? Sure, I'm giving it a shot any day. Gimme link please.
 
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Why compare KOA to Skyrim at all? I suppose they are both big but that's about it.

Skyrims setting and combat are more realistic whereas KOA's is cartoony and arcade like. The lore is totally different.

Skyrim is open world, KOA is not. It's broken into several different areas and if you actually just set off to explore these areas you will lock each area at it's lowest level and effectively break the game as nothing will be a challenge at all.

Therefore to keep any kind of difficulty you need to play area by area.

The settings and atmosphere's are also totally different. I really can't see how someone could play one and be reminded of the other. They feel totally different to me in just about every way.
 
KoA may not have been obscure, but it sure was junk.
 
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KoA may not have been obscure, but it sure was junk.

Oh whatever, it was well made..sure it had some growing pains as a irst game for the company but it had a lot going for it.
 
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I can't say it was junk... Can't force myself to start playing it to find out. Still hoping some modder will do it right. :)
 
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I'm trying to work up the motivation to actually play KoA, mostly because I need something to do after finally deciding that Wizardry 8 is a derpfest.

I'm not sure what a "derpfest" is, but given the choice, I would choose Wizardry 8 over KoA in a heartbeat.
 
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