So I'll collect reviews up in here and provide links to their source. For your convenience and my amusement I'll try and keep the OP up-to-date on reviews. Discuss or whatever. Enjoy!

IGN US (PS3 Version) - 9.0 out of 10.  
Buffed.de - 86%  
PC Games (German) - 81%  
Gametrailers - 82%   
G4tv - 2.5 out of 5  
Gamespot - 7.5 out  of 10
Joystiq - 5 out of 5
1up - B+
gamesradar - 8 out of 10
Destructoid - 8.0 out of 10
Eurogamer - 8 out of 10
Gameinformer 8.00 out of 10
OXM - 8.0 out of 10
CVG - 7.8 out of 10 
OXM (UK) - 7 out of 10
GameStar (German) - 80% 
Gamespy - 4 out of 5
Edge Online - 6 out of 10
Gamepro (German) - 85%

Off to an impressive start. 9.0 from IGN is not too shabby at all!

The inconsistent artstyle criticism seem a bit fabricated and not really backed-up with a well-worded argument. On the other hand VOs get praised, without uttering a word about the silent protagonist, which is a bit jarring in this day and age. That said, I'm glad KoA:R found a fan at the IGN offices and I hope I'll be joining the ranks of KoA:R lovers soon, as expected.

Yeah, Colin (the reviewer) has been raving about the game for a while now. He keeps mentioning that the combat is stellar and gets better as the game keeps going. Considering that's all I really wanted, I can't friggin' wait!

@Seppli said:

The inconsistent artstyle criticism seem a bit fabricated and not really backed-up with a well-worded argument.

He's referencing this: "Amalur exudes topographical and geological diversity. Unfortunately, characters and monsters alike don't quite live up to the lofty heights set by your surroundings"

During the livestream, I noticed that at level ~30 he was still running into enemies seen at level 1 in the demo (like rats). This is the first real disappointing thing I've heard about the game; I always hate fighting scaled up/palette swapped versions of the same mob over & over.

@Seppli said:

Off to an impressive start. 9.0 from IGN is not too shabby at all!

The inconsistent artstyle criticism seem a bit fabricated and not really backed-up with a well-worded argument. On the other hand VOs get praised, without uttering a word about the silent protagonist, which is a bit jarring in this day and age. That said, I'm glad KoA:R found a fan at the IGN offices and I hope I'll be joining the ranks of KoA:R lovers soon, as expected.

He went into the inconsistency thing on the live stream I think. Said that the environments and most of the characters look beautiful but that there are some characters distinctly lacking in quality. Probably side-quest characters or something, breaking the immersion a bit.

I'll be keeping my eye on this thread, thanks duder.

is chobot in the game?

I'm glad it got a good score, 'cause I'm interested in it, but I'm leery of an exclusive review where he's been blogging the whole time with EA's approval.

Some collection!

No joke about a guy named Fred collecting reviews?

@EthanielRain said:

@Seppli said:

The inconsistent artstyle criticism seem a bit fabricated and not really backed-up with a well-worded argument.

He's referencing this: "Amalur exudes topographical and geological diversity. Unfortunately, characters and monsters alike don't quite live up to the lofty heights set by your surroundings"

During the livestream, I noticed that at level ~30 he was still running into enemies seen at level 1 in the demo (like rats). This is the first real disappointing thing I've heard about the game; I always hate fighting scaled up/palette swapped versions of the same mob over & over.

Agreed on the lack of diversity in enemy models. There's maybe 10-15 types by my count and that's generous. Some of them, like the boggarts and sprites seem overused - really didn't think we'd run into sprite variants in the endgame area, but there they are.

If that's the criticism, I agree with him. It's not clearly spelled out in the review however, nor did it come over like a well-reflected opinion in the commentary of the live stream.

I really need to hear a valid argument to take any opinion seriously. Given a good argument, I can let points stand I don't necessarily agree with. Lacking a coherent train of thought, it's hard to take criticism seriously.

@csl316 said:

Yeah, Colin (the reviewer) has been raving about the game for a while now. He keeps mentioning that the combat is stellar and gets better as the game keeps going. Considering that's all I really wanted, I can't friggin' wait!

That's the same guy who was playing on their stream?

He mashed one button for most of the 2 hours ocasionally using a different weapon with a second button. Dude didn't perform a single combo, nor any advanced weapon moves (except once to show off the simplest dagger ability) or a single parry. :/

@Seppli: There is an 80 review of the xbox version also up. Keep chacking metacritic for easy updates would be my tip.

@Tennmuerti said:

@Seppli: There is an 80 review of the xbox version also up. Keep chacking metacritic for easy updates would be my tip.

That's an 8 out of 10 from OXM, which is a magazine, no way to source that badboy. Maybe that'll be up on gamesradar. OXM is affiliated with them I suppose? But hopefully they'll give it the full editorial SuperReview treatment. Love those.

Looking forward to tuesday.

Hey dude, congrats on your sixtieth thread consisting of A) an article about Amalur and B) you saying "THIS GAME IS GONNA BE RAD AS HECK GUYS, STOP SAYING IT MIGHT NOT BE SUPER GOOD BECAUSE I WILL TELL YOU YOU'RE WRONG"

In other news the lead designer on this game kinda takes a shit on Dark Souls: "I do not admire it’s mean-spirited treatment of its users"

Source

@TentPole: I'd say it sounds more like he more or less respects it, but it's not his thing.

I'm not a fan of exclusive reviews. It sounds good, but I'll definitely hold off until all of the big sites (and GB) weigh in.

I see absolutely nothing appealing in this game.  RA Salvatore is a horrible writer, most of the DnD fiction is just awful and his stuff is no better, so that holds no appeal for me.  The game looks stylistically like a mature WoW, over stylised cartoon look which doesn't seem to have a reason behind its choices, aside from simplifying the workload and the enemies look bland.  I think bland sums it up imho.  I'm glad that some people are thrilled about it, but personally it does nothing for me at all.

@SeriouslyNow: I don't think anyone expects anything more than what you said, or at least I don't. It is a more skill oriented WoW with all its components drawn from every popular western RPG of the last 10 years. Some people think that sounds amazing (OP), some are utterly bored (you), and some don't know what this nonsense is about (myself).

Nothing personal, but given how much you've been plugging this game, I would find it immensely hilarious if you ended up hating it.

@Seppli: Sweet, thanks for the post - I shall keep an eye on other reviews. The demo was meeeehhhh....so I'm curious to see how the rest of the game plays out.

It's little more than a more expansive and slightly more mature Fable clone with less fart dynamics.

@SeriouslyNow: Which i am totally ok with :)

The FOV in the full game is still terrible.

Who is Fred? :)

Anyways I think this game will be low/mid 80s.

I really want this game to be good but I lost all interest when I came to the village in the demo.

@Liber: Yeah, I've put over 10 hours into the retail game currently and the camera is really bumming me out. It's very inconsistent at zooming out in larger fights and it really messes up the situational awareness that other games like Dark Souls and Arkham City seem to nail. The default camera fov is also wayyyyy to close and even more-so inside.

I don't know what to think honestly. Going just off the demo, I don't like the graphics much at all. I am not entirely against the cartoonish style popularized by World of Warcraft but I don't want it in fantasy RPGs because, well because of WOW and many other MMOs. There it makes sense because not all PCs are equal and so the graphics mustn't be too taxing so they play on the majority of the systems in use. Consoles, since they all have the same specs, can and should do better. The art style is merely functional for me and that's not a plus. Now, having said all that, I played the demo a couple of times and I found it to be rather addicting. Even if it was just some simplified DMC-like action, I dug switching from fire staff to freezing staff to tossing off a quick succession of lightning bolts at a group of enemies. I liked looking for chests and gearing up (even if the gear all looked the same). For now, I will stick with my original observation. It looks like a good diversion, but it's not a full price game. Keep in mind, I didn't pay full price for Skyrim or Saints Row 3 and I really dig them; bugs and all.

@Liber: Yeah, I've put over 10 hours into the retail game currently and the camera is really bumming me out. It's very inconsistent at zooming out in larger fights and it really messes up the situational awareness that other games like Dark Souls and Arkham City seem to nail. The default camera fov is also wayyyyy to close and even more-so inside.

I would say even if metacritic posts a review from a mag, I would still list it and the link to the summary that they usually do. Anyway, I'm still not sure about this game so going with my gut and doing the New Vegas DLC first then will look at it again.

@SeriouslyNow said:

It's little more than a more expansive and slightly more mature Fable clone with less fart dynamics.

You make that sound like a bad thing.

Anyway, I've put about four hours into the game so far (on the PC) and I have to say that I'm having a lot of fun with the game, much more than I would have expected coming off of the demo. The combat is incredibly fun and enjoyable, which is not something that can often be said about RPGs, even action RPGs.

The camera is terrible, this is how it looks on 16:9

There is no option to zoom-out and it feels like the camera is always centered around your ass, it becomes worse when you fight multiple enemies then the camera goes completely apeshit.

@WilltheMagicAsian said:

@Liber: Yeah, I've put over 10 hours into the retail game currently and the camera is really bumming me out. It's very inconsistent at zooming out in larger fights and it really messes up the situational awareness that other games like Dark Souls and Arkham City seem to nail. The default camera fov is also wayyyyy to close and even more-so inside.

Fuuuck. I hoped this was fixed in retail.

@csl316 said:

Yeah, Colin (the reviewer) has been raving about the game for a while now. He keeps mentioning that the combat is stellar and gets better as the game keeps going. Considering that's all I really wanted, I can't friggin' wait!

Same.

@PenguinDust You just made my day with the pic. My son watches the Fred movies on Netflix the time.

I've played through the demo a couple of times, I like the game, don't care for the art style, every time I see a building or an NPC, I immediately think WoW, but technically it does look a lot better than WoW. The camera stuff isn't great, but it hasn't really caused any issues for me. I'm looking forward to sinking more time into it and seeing more of the world. I definitely see it more of like a Fable or Zelda kind of open world adventure than a Skyrim or Risen, but the combat is seems satisfying and the story seems adequate, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

@SeriouslyNow said:

It's little more than a more expansive and slightly more mature Fable clone with less fart dynamics.

You make that sound like a bad thing.

Anyway, I've put about four hours into the game so far (on the PC) and I have to say that I'm having a lot of fun with the game, much more than I would have expected coming off of the demo. The combat is incredibly fun and enjoyable, which is not something that can often be said about RPGs, even action RPGs.

Any review for the PC version?

I can't wait to get this tomorrow.

@Tennmuerti said:

@WilltheMagicAsian said:

@Liber: Yeah, I've put over 10 hours into the retail game currently and the camera is really bumming me out. It's very inconsistent at zooming out in larger fights and it really messes up the situational awareness that other games like Dark Souls and Arkham City seem to nail. The default camera fov is also wayyyyy to close and even more-so inside.

Fuuuck. I hoped this was fixed in retail.

FoV and Camera fix in day 1 patch presumably. The game ain't officially out yet. Since there should be an online activation for the PC version and I doubt that it is activating prematurely - people who already play the PC version likely play a pirated file with a crack. Shame on you guys!

Game Informer gave it a 8.0

I am on the fence, originally i was going to pre-order it but I haven't yet..only 3 hours to decide. What should I do GB community!?!?!

@emem said:

@Still_I_Cry: In moments like these I feel good about living in Europe and having to wait 2-3 more days for most games. ;) But in all seriousness... just wait for more reviews and the QL in a few hours if you are not sure about it. The pre-order stuff doesn't look like it's worth it anyway and I honestly feel bad even mentioning the pre-order bonus nonsense, it's just disgusting in some cases (imho).

Haha, I was pretty much joking :P I think..

Some of the stuff looked good, like the Faeblades..but you're bound to get better from the loot in the game.

@TentPole said:

In other news the lead designer on this game kinda takes a shit on Dark Souls: "I do not admire it’s mean-spirited treatment of its users"

Source

You are taking that quote out of context and twisting the meaning. Either you have some serious reading comprehension problems or you're intentionally misusing the quote to incite an argument. Either way, you're an idiot.

Some German reviews are in. PC Games gave it 81%. Buffed (RPG-centric PC Games offshoot) gave it 86%. Not gonna add 'em to the OP. Gonna keep it major US gaming sites only.
 
Main issues are the pale main story and silent protagonist and cumbersome UI. Main attractions are the character progression system, the loot and the combat mechanics, as well as the value proposition. Faction quests got lauded too.

@Seppli Would you have added them to the first post if those scores were higher?

@Seppli said:

@MB said:

@Seppli Would you have added them to the first post if those scores were higher?

What's the point of sourcing German reviews on a English site. And 8+/10 ratings are great ratings.

It seems weird you aren't linking to these reviews at all. It's almost like you are purposely trying to create a biased view by controlling what you show us.

I'll just do the actual work then, by linking to this website I'm not actually fond of for well established reasons. It's sitting at an 80, and since it's before the release, expect it to drop to low 70s in the next week or so, since this will be the side the OP doesn't want us to see.

@MB said:

@Seppli Would you have added them to the first post if those scores were higher?

Nope!