Kingdoms of Amalur: Tedium?

Originally Posted by Thrasher
You do know he meant me as in himself?

OUCH!!! I guess I critically failed my intelligence check .

At least I'll be brave enough not to edit it out and shall leave it there for the world to see my blunder .

Originally Posted by MasterKromm
I think the actual origins and best working definition of RPG elude Fluent…

The following ancient thread from the Dex is still one of the best sources on what constitutes a traditional CRPG. Rosh's posts are spot on(IMO).

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index…fine-rpg.2543/

Hey man, you are the man! Thank you for posting that. I will respond to it when I get more time. I'd like to hold Reckoning up to this evaluation and see how it turns out.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I don't see the word fanatical as a derogatory term. If you do I then apologize. I consider myself to be fanatical about my sports teams. I think being a huge fan of something can skew your perception of it. Heck before the lions 0-16 season, I thought they'd make the playoffs that year. How skewed was that?

I think if you go back and read some of your statements you might see that at least to me they transcend a normal fan who's just excited about the game.

At any rate i'm glad your getting such enjoyment from the game ,just don't expect everyone to feel the same. As someone who feels I gave it every chance I found it to be an ok first effort and look forward to seeing the changes they make going forward. Specifically to balancing.

Fair enough. I probably was being fanatical, I get passionate about things I like. But it's all in good fun anyway.

I too hope they add some better balancing to the game, in particular a harder difficulty. The game isn't perfect. But it's damn good. In my opinion of course.

Originally Posted by Asdraguuhl
At least I'll be brave enough not to edit it out and shall leave it there for the world to see my blunder .

I have to edit my posts all the time because of missed typos. bad eyes + bad typing = lots of edits…

Originally Posted by Fluent
But I don't see PC RPGs being elite and console RPGs being shit, or any mixture of that.

This is the wrong approach.

It's about being different.

Not about being better or worse than something else.

And yes, you should imho really play Drakensang 2 or PS:T - because both (ah, yes, the Drakensang fanboy in me once again ) are among the pinnacles of PC RPGs. With them, you can see the difference best, imho. Maybe with Arcanum and TOEE as well.

Nowasays, even PC RPGs are almost all "console-ish"", so the difference blurs more and more, especially since most PC RPGs are often only ports of console games.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Yes, it is so. Often publishers aren't willing to allocate a decent budget for good PC port. Instead they tell the intern to recompile this shit for PC, and if it runs it will be shipped.

Just finished a cool quest that had some cool consequences, thought I would share. Spoilers ahead, beware!!!

I found a small village in the middle of the Plains of Erathell and decided to check it out. After some investigating it seemed to be a peaceful enough place; all the townsfolk remarked how safe it was, that there was no crime, and that everything was good for them.

I met the leader of the village, a healer and priestess of Lyria (the goddess of fate). She seemed nice enough. She said her magic and Lyria's blessing help keep the village safe.

One thing that irked me was that they don't allow Fae (magical humanoid beings) or war refugees into the village. They shun those people. So for being so religious and all, it was odd to hear them be so hostile towards those people.

Anyway, after some more investigating I got to the town merchant and asked him about the town. After a persuasion skill check, he informs me that a Fae creature had been thrown in jail for no reason, just for being Fae. I found that shocking and decided it was my duty to try and help the poor Fae out.

So after talking to the Fae in the jail, he informed me that not only was he a prisoner for no reason, but that the priestess of Lyria was using a magical circle to steal his magic power and use it for her own. A-ha! That is where her healing abilities came from. So I decided at once to confront her and demand that she release the Fae.

She denied everything and acted like she had no idea what I was talking about. Alas, the only way to free the Fae was to sneak into her bedroom at night and look through her spellbook. I found a page that was folded and on that page was the spell for the magic circle. I learned the words that would break the seal and was on my way.

I also used a persuasion skill check to get the town guardian, a guy named Nil, to give me the key to the Fae's cell. I lied and said I wanted to further interrogate the Fae. So with the key and the magic words, I made my way back to the imprisoned Fae.

I released him and he thanked me with a reward of a magical gem, and he also offered me healing services should I ever need them. He told me to find him on the hill outside of town where he would be residing. We went our separate ways.

But it wasn't over. I went back to the priestess just to talk to her and she was obviously mad at me, claiming I made a huge mistake and ruined their peaceful village, because she no longer had the magic power to keep it safe. She also lost her healing abilities in the process.

Nil on the other hand was not so lucky. Before leaving town the Fae encountered Nil, who had taunted the Fae while he was imprisoned, and used a magic spell that showed Nil the truth of his own soul. This knowledge drove Nil mad, and now Nil can be found in the prison cove talking gibberish to himself all day long.

This quest was cool because while you are thinking you are doing the right thing, you are also creating problems for others. There's that gray area that I really dig. I saved the innocent Fae from doom, but may have doomed the village in the process. I also caused one person to lose their magic, one person to go insane, and opened up a new healer in another area.

The quests in this game don't rewrite the book for the RPG genre, but they are damn solid, and overall very cool. I'll post more if anyone wants to hear about them.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
You do know he meant me as in himself?

I thought I'd briefly chime in here. I haven't read the entirety of the post, but like Fluent, I'm enjoying the game.

However, my enjoyment of the game is mostly predicated on the fact that I think the combat and massive loot kicks ass. The rest of the game I'm chalking up to be a Diablo-alike in a larger world.

Is the story amazing? No, but I've experienced much worse. It's pretty good.

The dialog? Not necessarily the best ever, but the voice acting is pretty great, even if the writing isn't quite up to par.

As for the whole look of the game, people are getting their words mixed up. The 'art style' of the game is the type of look the game has - cartoony, realistic, etc. The 'art design' is the way the look of the game is designed, from the ruined temples and cities to the giant rocks in the Plains of Erathell to the look of the monsters and NPCs. I think the art design of the environments to be fantastic. The monsters are equally fabulous. The NPCs and main characters are pretty generic, as are some of the monsters… but some of them are outstanding. There's been many dungeons in this game where I just paused to look around because it's stunning.

I love loot, so I like the game for that. I love great action games (this reminds me a lot of Spiderman: Web of Shadows and Darksiders for combat, both of which I love), so I like the game for that too. I also like RPGs with interesting skill trees, so I'm liking it for that.

IMO, it might be 'deep' and even 'story-driven', but there is a bunch you have to look past to see that, including the silly WoW quest markers and the cookie-cutter feel to the world. That being said, Skyrim is the exact same, they just hide it slightly better in those games. No yellow exclamation points, less obvious repetition. Six of one, half dozen of the other. But I vastly prefer Amalur's combat and skill trees to Skyrim's. That doesn't mean I think it's better, just different, and I'm having fun with it for that.

I agree with Fluent for one thing - many people are too cynical (imo) before trying something these days. Including me - I was cynical about Skyrim, but I tried it anyway, and will likely come back to it at some point. Just not yet.

If you're enjoying the game, make sure to check out the Legend of Dead Kel DLC. It was awesome, easily some of the best DLC I've ever played. It's just great. Also, The Teeth of Naros DLC is brand new, came out yesterday or the day before. Haven't had a chance to get that one yet since I've been busy playing my Wii, but I'm sure it's good. I'll get around to it eventually. But Dead Kel is a must if you enjoy Reckoning. It adds about 10+ new hours of content, lots of new loot, a new residence, and just a boatload of stuff to do, all backed by a great story about a dead Pirate and his crew. The environment of Gallows End where the DLC takes place is also fantastic, and the atmosphere of the island is just awesome. It's definitely different than anything you've seen in Reckoning. So yeah, I would highly, highly recommend that DLC. It's great!

It took three days for me to get bored with Kingdoms of Amalur. It's too easy and I'm not really that interested in seeing the rest of that world.

Too bad too. I really enjoyed the demo. However, the shiny wears off quickly when I mow down monsters left and right even on the most difficult setting.

Yeah, the game is pretty easy. Curt Schilling has said they are going to address the difficulty with a patch, possibly adding a Hardcore mode or an extra difficulty level. But if you are looking for a challenging game, Reckoning is not the game you're going to want. I played through Reckoning just because I really liked the lore and story of the world, plus I thought the combat and loot and all that was extremely fun to me, even if it was a bit easy.

Skaven did you get bored with easy fights or with grinding the same mobs again and again all over the place that are respawning endlessly?

The question is what would players say if all those respawns would be miniboss-hard-to-kill. I mean… You can't just put endless respawning in the game and then make those respawning mobs almost impossible to kill. At least not if you want to sell millions of copies.

I must have become even poorer at ARPG combat than I used to be, because I really don't get how nearly everyone complains how the combat is too easy. Maybe if I had rolled a fighter and abused the broken block mechanism (which amounts to invulnerability mode), it might have become super-easy. However, I played a mage/rogue and found some of the enemies pretty darn challenging even on Normal.

For example, I would really have to sit up straight and pay attention every time I fought a thresh with boggart adds. The thresh has a very quick ranged attack which hits pretty hard. I had to keep moving constantly not to get pasted with that. To complicate maneuvering, there were the boggarts (even if they are weak and easy to defeat), that acted as obstacles, restricting movement and dodging. If I'd stop to dispense with these "speed bumps", the momma baddie would machinegun me with the aforementioned ranged attacks, dropping c. 25% of my HP with each burst. Getting up close to trade melee attacks with the thresh amounted to suicide, as the bugger has a pretty good melee attack too and to make matters worse, the "shooting roots" attack staggers/stunlocks you (IIRC). So, I had to trade snap shots (either with spells or chakrams) with it at range, roll in to make a few stabs, roll out, maybe kill a boggart, fire off a few quick spells, rinse and repeat. All in all, sure, I could beat the thresh in a fight, but it was nearly always a hectic and demanding fight for my mage/rogue (with pretty standard/OK gear).

Conversely though, some of the bosses and larger enemies (like trolls), which I imagine would have been difficult to beat were quite easy; even without the aid of yet another broken invulnerability mode mechanism, the reckoning mode.

Anyways, it's been over a month since I quit playing Reckoning as I, too, grew tired of it. I played to the point where the main quest braches off to two locations after the Gardens of Ysa, maybe 25 hours in or so. Even if the main quest interested me, the gameplay had started to tire me. The greatest weakness of the game was the feeling of playing a single-player MMO, with respawning mobs, constant looting and re-equipping (not a strong point for me), really shallow side quests, questing hubs connected with corridors, and so on. Shame really, as there was potential in this.

I played a pure mage. Chackram the enemies at medium range then finish off anyone who gets close with a staff. Throw in a spell every now and then and that's it. Killed everything in my path. I think I may have come close to dying once or twice.

I chose chackrams because I thought it might be more of a challenge than scepters. Scepters were overpowered even in the demo. Hold down the button, shoot, rinse and repeat until dead.

@Joxer I don't mind the same mobs as long as they keep it challenging.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde

@Joxer I don't mind the same mobs as long as they keep it challenging.

Haha yeah that's why whenever it would play one of those mini-cinematics when something the game decided I should think is intimidating appeared (the snake/scoprian thing coming out of the ground over and over or a troll appearing for the thousandth time) I'd just roll my eyes. Not because it was the same mob nescessarily (although that it kept playing those secenes for mobs mobs that were not new types to me was silly) but because I knew all the pomp and pretense of suspense and challenge was hollow and that as soon as it gave control back to my character the monster would be quickly dead.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Yeah, the game is pretty easy. Curt Schilling has said they are going to address the difficulty with a patch, possibly adding a Hardcore mode or an extra difficulty level.

I've heard this a few times and have shelved my game waiting for it but am starting to doubt it. They've released 3 dlc's if you count the weapons and armor pack and haven't touch the difficulty.

Have trust in Curt Schilling. He's a man of his word. That said, he only said they were looking into adding a Hardcore mode, he didn't promise it. So we won't know until the patch comes what it entails. But as of today, there is definitely a patch coming until he says otherwise. He also said the patch would hit before June.

And EA is 100% in charge of the DLC and patch, as confirmed by Curt. However, I don't think EA has done anything wrong by releasing the 2 DLCs before the patch. For one, the patch isn't finished yet. Two, the game is still very much playable by a very large amount of people, that it makes sense to add content to the game for those that want it. But some people are still upset that DLC came before the patch, but for that you can thank EA.

I'm playing the game right now, and I have to say, it's really good. I just hit the 15 hour mark. RA Salvatore is an incredibly talented lore-crafter.

I quited playing after about 30 minutes, right after I saw that gnome picking up a dagger and going ninja on the thuatas. I just dont comprehend these games, they are so over the top. Developers need to step down the "epic" pedal a bit and start thinking on building up interest on the player with proper escalation of plot, characters and the overall presentation of the fantasy setting. It feels like dungeon siege, another series I cant stand. Or then, like any other mmorpg out there.

I just want to say that I appreciate Fluent's passion. What's the world like without fanatical gamers?! Boring! I also think Fluent should be offered a job at 38 Studios.

I just started this game, and I like it so far, although the reviews on this forum have kind of bummed me out and now I'm regretting reading them. I like the graphics. I've never really played anything so "cartoonish" before (or whatever you want to call it), and I think it's kind of neat. I've been playing a lot of Skyrim, so it's a nice contrast to the bleakness of Skyrim.

Originally Posted by dannister
I also think Fluent should be offered a job at 38 Studios.

Fluent already works for 38 Studios. He's the head of their PR department.