Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

[GerryAtrix]

I picked this up yesterday, played a lot last night. It's a lot like fable but also a little like Dragon Age.....the graphics and overall game feel is Fable-like with menus and leveling more like Dragon Age. It's really nothing like Skyrim at all.

So far, the game is a lot of fun, especially the battle mechanism. The game is well balanced so you can play as a pure Mage, rogue or warrior or mix them as you wish. I'm running a 80 percent Mage/20 percent rogue character but it would be easy to quickly change up your focus as the game evolves.

The game world is huge, seems much larger than skyrim, but I've only seen a tiny area after about 5 hours so I can't judge for sure. Loads of quests, caves, loot and aggressive enemies to fight. You can make potions, poisons, regenerations, etc as well as smithing armor and weapons. Leveling requires points into various skills (sneak, smithing, loot detection, alchemy, persuasion, lock picking,etc) and selecting your abilities to enhance ( weapon proficiencies, magic attacks, etc).

Pros:
A beautiful and huge world to explore, lots of color and nice design work.
The fighting mechanism is fun, maybe the best of any rpg I've played. Button mashing is kept to a minimum and it is pretty intuitive to run battle moves. It has a sort of VATS (Fallout) feature when you build up your fate meter you can unleash a special slo-mo attack to take out the really tough bosses or large groups of enemies.
Quests are many and seem pretty fun so far, although I can see them maybe getting repetitive....but so they are in Skyrim eventually as well.

Cons:
The characters are kind of superficial, and you don't really feel drawn into their stories as they lead to quests...The character facial and voice work is a bit dated I think but adequate.
I don't think this game is as immersive as Skyrim, and it's not as well design graphically but I don't think it's meant to be another Skyrim.

My opinion is that KoA:Reckoning is well worth a purchase if you enjoyed Fable or Dragon Age. It's not Skyrim but that's OK as I expect it to provide me with many hours of entertainment over the next several months, as I move between this, Skyrim and MW3

[GrnMtnDragon [sherpa]]

I have several Forgotten Realms novels that Bob Salvatore signed at a New England gaming convention back before anyone really knew who he was. Even got the chance to play AD&D with him at that same convention, which was a lot of fun. He's a very creative and visionary guy, so I've been watching this more closely since I heard about it. Also, since it's from 38Studios and owner Curt Schilling is a Red Sox cult hero, I'd like to support the studio.

But since I'm completely immersed in Skyrim, I think I'll wait to pick this up for the summer when not as many people are on for MP.

[Dr Zork]

Life keeps interfering (and LoU) so I've barely made it out of Gorhart at this point, about 4 hours of play. I think GA covers it pretty well. I'm enjoying what I've seen and already experiencing quest overload like I did with Skyrim. Every where I turn someone is too damn lazy to take care of their own business .

Although similar in the way they work, I already like Alchemy and Blacksmithing better than Skyrim's, haven't tried Sagecrafting yet. The interface seems less clunky and gives more information. Barely knowing what I was doing I crafted some daggers that were better than the ones I got for pre-ordering. I have a feeling this game will be like Borderlands in that you will be going through lots of weapons and armor. My only concern I have right now is that weapons and armor are subject to durability. Bleh, I hate when games do that because it's just annoying but so far it hasn't been a problem. The menu of alchemy reagents gives you a description that at least provides a clue to what they might do.
I didn't experience any really bad glitches in the demo other than the dialogue menus acting weird sometimes so can't comment on some of the big problems I had read reported but I've not had any technical problems so far and the dialogue menus seem to work fine now. The character speaking animation is still sloppy but that's not something that bothers me much.

Not regretting this purchase and I expect to get in a lot more time this weekend! In fact, I will probably be trading my copy of Skyrim soon.

[krieg87]

Life keeps interfering (and LoU) so I've barely made it out of Gorhart at this point, about 4 hours of play. I think GA covers it pretty well. I'm enjoying what I've seen and already experiencing quest overload like I did with Skyrim. Every where I turn someone is too damn lazy to take care of their own business .

Although similar in the way they work, I already like Alchemy and Blacksmithing better than Skyrim's, haven't tried Sagecrafting yet. The interface seems less clunky and gives more information. Barely knowing what I was doing I crafted some daggers that were better than the ones I got for pre-ordering. I have a feeling this game will be like Borderlands in that you will be going through lots of weapons and armor. My only concern I have right now is that weapons and armor are subject to durability. Bleh, I hate when games do that because it's just annoying but so far it hasn't been a problem. The menu of alchemy reagents gives you a description that at least provides a clue to what they might do.
I didn't experience any really bad glitches in the demo other than the dialogue menus acting weird sometimes so can't comment on some of the big problems I had read reported but I've not had any technical problems so far and the dialogue menus seem to work fine now. The character speaking animation is still sloppy but that's not something that bothers me much.

Not regretting this purchase and I expect to get in a lot more time this weekend! In fact, I will probably be trading my copy of Skyrim soon.

Sagecrafting works very similar to alchemy in that you combine two elements to form a new third element which you can then put into socketed weapons and armor. I'm loving the combat in this game, so much more fluid and natural as compared to Skyrim. Areas also feel very different from one another. You might be walking through a dark forest only to come out in a sunlit field. Upgrade and perk system is much easier to understand and experiment with than in Skyrim.

[GerryAtrix]

I reached level 8 last night and am really enjoying this game more and more. I started as a Mage/rogue character but have switched to Mage/warrior for one reason: The war hammer is awesome! I found a suped-up enchanted Hammer in some loot and it is a blast pounding enemies into dust, so I switched to putting perks into "might" instead of "finesse". I'm also enjoying the Chakra weapons, which are kind of like boomeranging frisbees of enchanted death. I run Chakras for crowds of enemies, bow for ranged and hammer time for melee with some prodigious destructive magic ( fire, shock, ice) thrown in. The battle mechanics are the most fun in any game I've played so far. I can see me putting 100+ hours into this game easily.....

Alchemy is much more useful to me than in Skyrim, maybe because it is a little easier to find out recipes and what the reagents do. The quests are numerous and have been varied and unique enough to keep it very interesting. Sage crafting is pretty cool which is the means to amp up your weapons and armor with enchantments via using crystal shards of various properties to create gems of power and placing them in your armor/weapons.

The two coolest quests for me so far are the spider (Widow) quest and the Fate theater quest...very well done stories....

[krieg87]

I reached level 8 last night and am really enjoying this game more and more. I started as a Mage/rogue character but have switched to Mage/warrior for one reason: The war hammer is awesome! I found a suped-up enchanted Hammer in some loot and it is a blast pounding enemies into dust, so I switched to putting perks into "might" instead of "finesse". I'm also enjoying the Chakra weapons, which are kind of like boomeranging frisbees of enchanted death. I run Chakras for crowds of enemies, bow for ranged and hammer time for melee with some prodigious destructive magic ( fire, shock, ice) thrown in. The battle mechanics are the most fun in any game I've played so far. I can see me putting 100+ hours into this game easily.....

Alchemy is much more useful to me than in Skyrim, maybe because it is a little easier to find out recipes and what the reagents do. The quests are numerous and have been varied and unique enough to keep it very interesting. Sage crafting is pretty cool which is the means to amp up your weapons and armor with enchantments via using crystal shards of various properties to create gems of power and placing them in your armor/weapons.

The two coolest quests for me so far are the spider (Widow) quest and the Fate theater quest...very well done stories....

That Widow was hard to beat. Took quite a while.

[GerryAtrix]

That Widow was hard to beat. Took quite a while.

yeah, the Widow was the toughest enemy by far in my travels so far, I died a lot and almost lowered the difficulty (playing normal mode). There is a strategy to beat her which I finally figured out.

Heres one for a spoiler if anyone knows the answer: One thing I haven't figured out yet is some caves have portals which I can't open which say "this door is opened by unusual means" ....WTF are the unusual means?

[Dr Zork]

One thing I recommend to anyone starting is to put at least 1 point in Detect Hidden. I've already found a lot of hidden treasure that I missed not putting a point in this in the demo.

[krieg87]

One thing I recommend to anyone starting is to put at least 1 point in Detect Hidden. I've already found a lot of hidden treasure that I missed not putting a point in this in the demo.

I actually put four point total into it so far. It's well worth it. I can even see AND disable traps whereas before I could only see them.

[PhazeZero]

I am totally blown away by this game.

Like Skyrim? You will like this.
Like WoW? You will like this
Like Borderlands? You will like this

Like good music, pretty graphics, quality voice acting, endless supply of quests, weapons, upgrades, monsters? You will like this.

The pacing is also great. Leveling takes just long enough that I find myself really anticipating each advancement. Unlike some games where you are Level 10 in an hour...this game hits the sweet spot for player advancement.

Serious Game of the Year potential as far as I'm concerned.

Phaze