Kingdoms if Amalur is now on for 70% off over on Steam. Is it worth it? Will I enjoy it if my aim is to relax, see pretty environments and listen to the Bombcast?

It's $12 for the game and all the DLC and just $6 for the main game. What say the GB community?

@buffaloseven: I guess? Personally though even for that price I can't recommend it. Its such a dreadfully boring game in my opinion.

I liked it, it's a good single player WoW experience, if you just follow the main quest, you'll have a decent 20-30 hour combat heavy RPG; it can be a slog if you try to do everything available.

It's good to just turn your brain off and do some quests. The combat system is pretty action-y which is quite fun. It's pretty much generic fantasy tropes though all in all.

I have a question though, who actually gets the money from the sale of this now? The state? or that Korean company that bought up the assets of the MMO? Did they buy up all things Amalur?

Sure, it's perfect for listening to the Bombcast. You don't have to listen to it's bland "dialogues" and you will be doing easy, repetitive, mindless tasks/combat for hours on end. Your brain and attention can easily be focused on the Bombcast while playing it on complete autopilot.

In fact if I wasn't catching up on a bunch of Bombcasts while playing it I would have probably shot my brains out from boredom and monotony. (metaphorically speaking)

go buy it. it was very fun to play back then. you can't do much wrong with this price.

I got it free on PS+ but didn't play too much. I wanted to like it, and almost bought it countless times before, but I just couldn't get invested in it. It wasn't interesting and it didn't "feel" right.

It's not a good game, so I'd give it a miss anyway.

Amalur is the definition of middling. There are far better examples of just about everything it's trying to do. That said, if you're not attached to that $6, or the 20-50 hours you'll spend playing it, then go for it, I guess.

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

I too am curious where the money actually goes with this game nowadays.

Split responses are interesting; I seem to see that a lot while anywhere you look (GB included), everyone seems to give it 4 or 5/5.

@tennmuerti: Thanks for making me laugh; while I like the Bombcast I'm not sure I want to put myself in a position where I'd want to kill myself without it…

@encephalon: Does your statement hold up on the PC? 3rd-person action-adventure games aren't exactly super-common.

man this game has some wild-ass varying opinions. seems like the very definition of divisive.

@buffaloseven: Don't really know how to answer that. Unless there is some crazy Reckoning mod scene I don't know about, being on PC would provide the game no real benefit.

Also I don't agree that there's a paucity of this type of game on PC at all. There's Diablo and its ilk, every WoW clone ever, ports of similar console games...

I'd been waiting on this sale forever. Was not willing to pay more than $10 for it and they just would not give it the discount it deserved. I know better than to pay for the DLC, though.

@buffaloseven: The money would go to EA since they are the publisher. I doubt developers would get some money.

@buffaloseven: I think it gets decent reviews because it has strong base combat and leveling systems, and a large world to explore full of lore. I think it's a bad game because the strong combat system is broken by being trivially easy on the highest setting, which also leaves the leveling system with no punch because you could make the most boneheaded build choices ever and still breeze through. The world is let down by never being particularly beautiful or interesting, even if it is big, although it's hard to tell. You never get a good look at it because the camera is parked too close to your character and refuses to move. The lore, while vast, is similarly mediocre (Some of the fey stuff is an odd bright spot).

Finally, and most damning, the world is split up into 5 large sections. And by the time you finish the first one, you've seen every enemy in the game, and encountered every enemy AI routine. Almost every non-boss combat encounter after the first fifth is a repeat of something you've already done. It is the stupidest shit.

@buffaloseven: Probably EA they still published it and while 38 studios is no more I'm sure EA still sees checks.

Amalur is a game made up of great ideas executed in the most aggressively mediocre fashion possible. I would suggest against buying it.

hmmm, the money goes straight to EA not like the state of Rhode Island?

The main game for $6 seems fine. The game is fun, but repetitive. The combat is good and the world is huge. Following the main quest and playing for 30-40 hrs is good advice. I didn't mind chasing the achieves but I get it when people say it's a slog doing all the side quests. Give it a go is my advise.

I like it. It definitely can get pretty boring/repetitive, though. So, unless you just have to do everything, it would be best to avoid doing some of the side quests. Maybe just do the ones that happen to be along the way or whatever.

@demoskinos: Yuuuuup!

i will only buy this if my $6 goes directly to Rich Gallup.

I beat the game and have to agree that it's fairly middling. The combat can be fun, you really just have to turn your brain off to enjoy it. It has some good ideas, but doesn't really deliver on them all in a completely cohesive manner. I would recomend picking it up for that price.

I didn't play the Dlc, so I can only recommend the main game.

It's not a bad game. It's just never very good.

For that price? Yeah, absolutely. It's a good podcast/music game, as it's kinda mindless in a lot of ways but the combat is engaging and there is a shit load of things to do in that game. However, if you want to finish the game and see all the major content, a word to the wise: don't walk into towns and accept every quest offer that comes your way - most of them are not going to be fun to do at all. I played 50 hours of Amalur last year and I think I maybe got halfway through the main story and barely touched some of the side content because I was doing too much dumb side stuff, and eventually I reached a very severe point of burnout. I haven't picked it up since.

Man, I love games like Amalur and the Elder Scrolls, but they would be so much better if NPCs were smart enough to say "oh, you're the fateless one/Dovahkiin/whatever? I won't ask you to do this quest to bring me some turnips then, since you're probably busy saving the world and shit. Alright, later!"

Personally I bought the game whenever it first came out and thought it was pretty good. Frankly it's no worse than Skyrim in terms of being a shallow game. However you definitely have to take the time to do a bit of reading in places and dig for some lore which really makes the game better. A few zones are pretty damn bland, but their are some others that if you take the time to dig into it are pretty rewarding. Also the DLC involving the Giants is pretty interesting, the one with the ghost pirate isn't.

Shame that the studio was so problem-ridden, it was a game that would have benefited mightily from a sequel and I'd say it deserved a second look for certain.

I'd say go for it. It's a decent action-RPG, sitting somewhere between Fable 3 and Skyrim. Stick to the main quest and the factions and you shouldn't experience burnout, especially if you just want something to play while doing other stuff.

Get it! It will probably be longer than what you´d want, but I got a lot out of it. Sneaking around and stabbing fools was fun as hell.

@aristotled: I'm not really sure if I agree with your Skyrim comparison there.

Anyways, Amalur is okay. The main story is good, most of the side stuff is boring as hell. So keep on the main path. Never really liked how that game looked though, the Bloom effect is turned up to 11.

I really liked the game when it was first released and I played it on the Xbox 360, so I went ahead and bought it again on Steam.

@amyggen: When I say shallow I'm just specifically referring to combat and game-play, neither game is particularly complicated, neither are very difficult and both can be broken and gamed in their own ways. However things like exploration are where skyrim pulls ahead, even if every tomb/cave has the same draugr and similar layouts and every mine is filled with vampires or bandits etc.

when i think about it there really aren't that many (if any) hack n slashy MMOs that use a gamepad. i'm probably forgetting something so feel free to enlighten me. might be a good untapped market to an extent.

Final Fantasy XIV and Phantasy Star Online 2, I guess? The latter still hasn't been released here though :(

Star Trek Online (and by extension, probably Neverwinter, which uses the same engine) added pretty good controller support for the ground combat, but they still haven't made it work for the space sections.

cool maybe if a bunch of people buy it it'll finally get a sequel

I still don't think it's a very exciting or interesting RPG. But for 6 bucks it's fine as a time waster i guess.

There are way better ways to blow $6 on Steam.

5.99 right now on Steam.

Quite possibly one of the most boring games I have ever played. Which sucks, because I really liked it for like the first 2 hours.

If it's only 6 bucks then I'd say maybe give it a try, but don't expect anything special at all.

EDIT: Just realized I already commented on this thread a few months ago! Whoops!