Quick Look: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

I'm still on the fence with this one :/

This game looks kinda cool. I don't want God of War in my RPGs but heyho. This game seems destined to get huge Steam sale discounts in a few months. I will check it out then.

This game has pretty middling graphics. Maybe it's just Giant Bomb's usual terribly encoded video, but eesh. Looks like a slightly higher resolution WoW. And the generic-y mechanics doesn't make up for it. I'm not seeing why I should be paying attention to this game. Seems mediocre.

I was really hoping there'd be more to this game after being subject to all the hype spouted by much of the enthusiast press. Still seems like I'd rather be playing Skyrim. Or anything.

Combat which doesn't involve pressing back and left clicking till something is dead? Jesus it's already 20 times more engaging than Skyrim then.

@FoolishChaos said:

I have a feeling that Jeff might have not gotten burned out after 60 hours if he picked more abilities other than "my hitting X now works better". Even with my time in the demo... alot of those abilities are good. I hope he at least tried them out.

I love Giantbomb, but I have come to take how they treat RPG's with a grain of salt.

Yeh that's Jeff and his efficient way of playing games. The really efficient thing to do would be to not play the game at all.

Been playing for the last 2 hours - enjoying it so far!

This game looks really fun, I will probably end up getting it.

Can't wait. Burned out by Skyrims combat after 100 odd hours. It was too much like Oblivion's and I played that game for well over 300 hours with multiple purchases on Xbox and PC.
I loved the demo, and the art style and combat is a nice change of pace.

Picked up this game for the PC for about $25. The graphics are not something to be impressed about, but still look decent. The combat is more engaging than Skyrim's so that's something going for this game. The dialogue can be weird at times, and the game makes an attempt to contextualize the way the lore is delivered, as opposed to "NEW CODEX ENTRY". For me, the game delivers what I expected from it: namely loot, simple progression, and mildly engaging combat.

Could be better, and it could be worse- It could be Two Worlds.

Why complain about difficulty and not change it? You can do it at anytime. On hard ettins can nearly one hit me with their magic spell.

I wonder if the world designers and artists played much WoW... Seriously, this might as well be Azeroth.

Coming away far less underwhelmed (even though the demo knocked me down a few notches as well).

Seems like a game as Jeff said, has some neat ideas and tricks, but at the end of the day -- Skyrim does it's parts better, and Fable does it's as well.

Also I don't know why, but hearing fucking Ralof (the first person who speaks in Skyrim (along with many others)) in KoA totally turned me off. Really? They actually even sampled the same voice cast (with no differentiation in accents)? Pretty weak.

@McDevy said:

Coming away far less underwhelmed (even though the demo knocked me down a few notches as well).

Seems like a game as Jeff said, has some neat ideas and tricks, but at the end of the day -- Skyrim does it's parts better, and Fable does it's as well.

Also I don't know why, but hearing fucking Ralof (the first person who speaks in Skyrim (along with many others)) in KoA totally turned me off. Really? They actually even sampled the same voice cast (with no differentiation in accents)? Pretty weak.

It has combat better than either of those games. You know... the main part of the game they advertised.

@CaLe said:

I wonder if the world designers and artists played much WoW... Seriously, this might as well be Azeroth.

Don't see a problem, WoW has a pretty great world.

this will get 3 stars

a predictable score from a tired old jaded gamer

This seems like it will be a really fun fantasy fix for me at some point. Don't think I'll be picking it up at launch though. I've just got too many other games to play to justify buying it at the moment. Although, it is incredibly tempting.

Is Jeff on speed? He seems to be very up-tempo in this quick look.

You know what would make this game better? Dog companions...

@thebigJ_A: there are books in the world to read, lorestones are more like memories, since a Fae is immortal they die and repeat the same cycle, so they mainly use the lorestones to tell a small tale of their neverending ritual of an individual Fae. Just sounds like sounds like your just venting because the game isn't what you want and that's fine.

@DexterKid said:

@FoolishChaos said:

I have a feeling that Jeff might have not gotten burned out after 60 hours if he picked more abilities other than "my hitting X now works better". Even with my time in the demo... alot of those abilities are good. I hope he at least tried them out.

I love Giantbomb, but I have come to take how they treat RPG's with a grain of salt.

Yeh that's Jeff and his efficient way of playing games. The really efficient thing to do would be to not play the game at all.

Yeah i don't get it. he does it a lot. If that's the way you play games? fine, but for the review process? i mean he's obviously done due diligence and tried other stuff, but man tapping X a bunch is not what you're confined to. Sure it's just 2 buttons and a block right? but those weapon combinations and more importantly those skills. I've seen them all in action on the Reckoning website, plus demo, they look bloody great!

I don't see myself ever being tired of the combat or anything in this game, sure i've only played 3 hours of it but damn, if this isn't my kind of game. I think the combat is enough of a selling point (aside from the world) so many RPG's have clunky combat, even my beloved ES has had it's long history of never getting it quite right, but in this game, it's just straight up good from the get go. Though, 'Character Action' game styled combat isn't everyone's cup of tea. If there is one bad thing i could say about the game it is the UI, it's real bad.

I think the world definitely encourages exploration...y'know, if that's the sort of thing you want to do, which it bloody is...

Bottom left corner of the map is probably reserved for DLC.

Found the demo to be really boring - it just failed to grab me. And in the end I just killed everything I saw until the timer ran out.

The combat system is... ok. It's better than Skyrim, sure - but I'd still take Skyrim over this every time. Nothing in the world of Amalur makes me want to spend time there, for some reason. Part of the reason is probably the art style/graphics - very reminiscient of WoW in my opinion and it looks really dated.

@88Fingers said:

this will get 3 stars

a predictable score from a tired old jaded gamer

I'll bet you 5$ he gives it a 4.

man, this game sure looks pretty on the PC. I am enjoying it so far. I bumped up my difficulty to Hard, hope it feels like a challenge!

@smokething said:

I reckon I'm first.

FUCK. YES.

Really looking forward to this, sort of wish Jeff had shown more of the sorcery and might. Damn living in UK though, have to wait till Friday till I can be a kick ass Wizard with a big sword

@Dunchad said:

Found the demo to be really boring - it just failed to grab me. And in the end I just killed everything I saw until the timer ran out.

The combat system is... ok. It's better than Skyrim, sure - but I'd still take Skyrim over this every time. Nothing in the world of Amalur makes me want to spend time there, for some reason. Part of the reason is probably the art style/graphics - very reminiscient of WoW in my opinion and it looks really dated.

You and me both, brother. Seems like there is a lot of content in the game, but for some reason it smacks of 2005 video games to me. This one and Darkness 2 both look kind of low rent and... I dunno, bleh. If I wanted an RPG I'd play Skyrim, if I wanted action I'd play Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. It makes me feel like these guys want to be all these other games but don't really have a clear vision of their own. Plus, I'm not really a fan of Salvatore or McFarlane. Blah all around.

@Spookie said:

Combat which doesn't involve pressing back and left clicking till something is dead? Jesus it's already 20 times more engaging than Skyrim then.

YAY now its press FORWARD and click till dead

@Slaker117 said:

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

"I definitely don't hate it." -Jeff Gerstmann

That quote should be put on the back of the box.

I dunno... This seems like an average by-the-numbers videogame to me.
Combat looks pretty regular, upgrading stuff seems pretty regular, and the characters are all everyday medieval fantasy RPG characters, right? 
 
Kinda makes me wanna take another look at Dark Souls, cos at least that has the hook of being insane.

Combat was neat but the overall game really didn't interest me.

Hm. Looks.... alright. The art style isn't very interesting or unique, nor are the quests. But it's not ugly and it doesn't seem boring. I've heard it has a lot of content... but quantity is no guarantee of quality, and I no longer have the time to play these long RPGs.

@I_smell: yes you should, dark souls is the reason i am no longer interested in this game.

Also, the thing that probably bugged me the most of all? The omnipresent bloom. BLOOM EVERYWHERE! Gross.

Picking this up

Because, like Jeff, I'm a sucker for persistence. Whenever I got a new piece of armor in the demo, I had a big grin on my face.

...What's wrong with me?

Man, the systems in this game are as far from unique as they fucking get. Other than maybe the super kill thing, it ALL looks like it was lifted almost directly out of other games. Even the temp based combat was in Fable 2 (and maybe 3?). Sustained abilities just changing your max mana is a DnD/Dragon Age thing. The visuals, specifically the environments look a LOT like WoW. The weapons and the general glowiness also remind me a lot of WoW. The destiny stuff is just the specialization thing from DnD/Dragon Age. Even the voice cast is has some Bethesda RPG voices in there. And that town violence toggle is from Fable as well.

Now, I don't mind taking inspiration from good ideas. Dragon Age is fucking FULLLLL of tropes, partially due to it's ties to DnD, but I never really found myself thinking "Oh man it's that one game" because I just thought of it as a DnD experience and the other inspirations and tropes were maybe a little broader and felt very Dragon Age because they did it the way they did the rest of the game. This however just felt like (and looks like it continues to be) a Frankenstein monster of RPGs. Admittedly it's cool how much of the genre it takes "inspiration" from, Fable is pretty far from Dragon Age, and Skyrim/The-Bethesda-RPG is off on its own little section. But it doesn't seem to make those things it's own, and a lot of them are pretty damn specific. That arrest dialogue wheel is just Elder Scrolls, plain and simple. I can't think of another game to use that exact same D-Pad command to pop an icon off and allow to flip the safety off of your character and murder fools, other than the Fable franchise.

And on top of this lack of identity, a lot of the game, the interface and combat in particular, doesn't come off as super unique or engaging or interesting. Kind of bland and simple, mostly. The combat feels fine, but it isn't engaging.

@Dagmar said:

@McDevy said:

Coming away far less underwhelmed (even though the demo knocked me down a few notches as well).

Seems like a game as Jeff said, has some neat ideas and tricks, but at the end of the day -- Skyrim does it's parts better, and Fable does it's as well.

Also I don't know why, but hearing fucking Ralof (the first person who speaks in Skyrim (along with many others)) in KoA totally turned me off. Really? They actually even sampled the same voice cast (with no differentiation in accents)? Pretty weak.

It has combat better than either of those games. You know... the main part of the game they advertised.

Most of the people I know who've played both would disagree. Including myself. Skyrim's combat is pretty enjoyable, especially with the difficulty set to a more challenging level/a good character build. The combat is a big part of why I have over 150 hours of time in Skyrim. It's still not boring. Even with flaws, it was at least engaging and visceral. Not to mention how much more depth and diversity there is. You have a lot more options. I just started a character that uses a shield in one hand and a spell in the other, specializing in Destruction, Conjuration, and Restoration. So I suppose it's a matter of taste.

Hmmm, not my thing after watching this. That'll save me a few bucks.

ol' vindigo frostwalker delivering his daggers

I had a bad feeling once I realized there was no jumping. These are the things that really matter to me in life.

@masterpaperlink said:

@I_smell: yes you should, dark souls is the reason i am no longer interested in this game.

Agreed. I'd rather go on my fifth Dark Souls playthrough than subject myself to the genericness of Reckoning.

I just tried the demo of this the other day. Other than having the dialogue bug out and disappear, the sound jumping in and out and it being kinda easy, I liked it fine.

After putting a couple of hundred hours into Dark Souls I could go for something breezy and flashier, so maybe I'll pick this up at some point.

Those stealth animations are brutal and AWESOME!

Also, there is a difficulty setting, right? How does that affect things?

Looks pretty meh compared to Skyrim and what else is out there...

I just have to say, regardless of the actual game's quality, it's UI design is atrocious.

Those ridiculous button prompts, and all the menu and leveling screens look like straight up amateur-hour.

Besides that, the game itself looks somewhat decent. I might pick it up when it's a little cheaper down the line.

@masterpaperlink said:

@Spookie said:

Combat which doesn't involve pressing back and left clicking till something is dead? Jesus it's already 20 times more engaging than Skyrim then.

YAY now its press FORWARD and click till dead

Or like in Dark souls: block, wait for enemy to attack, press right trigger until dead.

Those stealth animations are brutal and AWESOME!

Also, there is a difficulty setting, right? How does that affect things?

There are a lot of gripes about the art style and graphics but I think they are quite refreshing during a time in gaming where most everything has a nice brown tint to it.

More like Kingdoms of Amalur: Boring, am I right.

I'm so torn about this game. I wish the demo had some later game stuff in it to give a better feel for higher level combat.