Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning

This is a phenomenal game...anyone else playing it? I'm playing on the PS3, the game looks and runs great, fortunately none of the issues from the demo carried over into the final game.

You can tell the developers really put a lot of thought into how to make a fun open world rpg.

The combat is an absolute blast and the control setup is great. Right from the controller you have access to primary and secondary weapons, your shield, sneak mode, evade, 4 spells/abilities, a radial menu for 8 potions/items.

Great loot system. The crafting systems are also really well done. Creating armor and socketting gems for abilities (and you can get the gems back too!)

Fantastic fantasy environments. Nicely varied and very colorful and imaginative. The exploration and quests are a lot of fun because the combat is so polished.

Don't like how your character is progressing? You can respec and get every point back to try a different class!

Really great voice acting, I don't know how many voice actors they used but every npc sounds different. The music/sound is also really well done.

The world and local map have some really nice touches, like being able to set way points on the local map or to see which services are available in a given town, healer, merchant, etc.

If you enjoy rpgs or action games don't pass this one up!

40 hours clocked so far (about 35% of map explored) and I have a lot to say. For now I will make a very simple statement: Amalur>Skyrim on many different levels and overall a game I am enjoying more (FYI I loved Skyrim too and said it is one of the best games this gen). I am sure I will have more to say in the coming days and will elaborate on the above statement but for now I am just too busy getting lost in this enchanting world, the only RPG I can remember that made me feel as if I was playing an interactive fairytale :)

Last night I just just met the High King of the Fae in Ysa :D A good milestone I would say. So far I am just so surprised at how good of a game it is. It just popped out of no where with some of these big names behind it, with a some-what risky plan. A completely new universe full of rich lore, larger than life environments, unique fauna, packed with quests around every corner and an amazing spectacle fighting system mixed with an rpg. From the moment when I first saw this games trailer (with the yogscast's commentary dubbed over :P) I knew this was a game I couldn't avoid. Needless to say it didn't disappoint. I'll share some thoughts in bullet points.

- Are hammers ever viable? I am always tempted to use them, but just about everything can step back and avoid a good thwack.
- The camera kind of bugs me sometimes
- Practicing your profession does nothing, that's new to me :P
- Finding it hard to be evil, I have found a few instances of being asked to slaughter people/villages but it seems that morality isn't a big player in KoAR
- I love how the game rewards you for being nosey and checking nooks and crannies for chests, in which there are! :D

I am playing a frost/lighting character with the Battle Mage card (Might/Sorcery) Blinking (teleporting) about like a lunatic because dodging is for suckers. I use this frost long sword that is of "purple" rarity and has some name I forget, and lightning chakrams for the larger crowds. Oh boy are chakrams fun.

Buying this today :D

I didn't think that much of the demo, it showed promise but didn't blow me away so I didn't do much exploring after getting out of the training area...so glad I bought it anyway. The camera is indeed a little weird at times, but I've gotten used to it. The other areas (once you leave the initial woods area) are much more impressive and open; I really like the design of the various towns.

I'm closing in on 40 hours and I've hardly touched the main quest, I've done 2 faction quests and tons of side quests and that has mostly been in just 2 areas...this looks to be a game you can sink quite a lot of hours into!

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Originally Posted by Littlebigdude805

Are hammers ever viable? I am always tempted to use them, but just about everything can step back and avoid a good thwack.

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I think pretty much whatever you want to do is viable. The combat sure is fun...but on normal difficultly the game seems pretty easy. I love my chakrams and spells but now that I'm the most powerful mage in Amulur I'm thinking of giving up magic and giving melee/hammers a go. You might need to unlock a few moves for the hammer, but I'm sure it's got something for crowd control. I've been using the special armor sets (yellow) just because they look cooler and sticking with whatever rare weapons (purples) that I find even though I have the blacksmith skill maxed and can create way better stuff.

* The Faer Gorta summon cracks me up. He's a great tank/distraction when he chooses to help you, sometimes he likes you watch you get pummeled. Try summoning him in a town...he REALLY hates chickens!

Received it today.
But I have to play ME3 multi extensively before booting Amalur.

Already have this beauty in my possession, pre-ordered ME3 and waiting for Jak Collection. February and March will be amazing :D

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Originally Posted by SnipySev

Already have this beauty in my possession, pre-ordered ME3 and waiting for Jak Collection. February and March will be amazing :D

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I've read your recent comments on that "other" game and I agree with you 100%. I think you'll like how quests are presented and the general game progression much better in this one...I know I sure do!

When you get to an area you'll be given quests...for that area!!! In the course of doing these you'll discover other quests in the same area as well as some that take you to adjacent areas, etc. You can still take off an explore if you want, some places are initially un-reachable, ex. you need a boat to get to one area (I haven't even been there yet).

It's also a lot easier to get around, the mini-map/radar is excellent and I've already mentioned how much I like the full screen map. It also helps that the terrain isn't full of inconveniently placed mountains that your character is too feeble to interact with properly.

KoA does do a strange thing with "jump points", you can't walk off a 1 foot drop but you can leap of a cliff if it's marked as a jump point...not a big deal, the jump points/jump animation is fun, it's just strange but I can appreciate why it was done from a technical standpoint. I rarely find myself feeling compelled to fast-travel which really helps with the immersion.

Oh yes, when I was deciding who my character was going to be I wanted to be a death/plague knight inspired by the DK's from warcraft. It's hard to stick to a character though, everywhere you go you find new and better equipment that doesn't match your aesthetic but it is so much better. So I just take what I get for now, anyway, building this type of character means Faer Gorta for sure. I named him Gordy, and he can take crazy punishment but is otherwise useless. He has no lungs, yet he can still manages to create the most awkward breathing that ever graced your ears. For someone with no stomach, he sure has an appetite. I was skipping through the Wolds twirling my collection of freeman armbands and as I came in the Ayten he let out the most disgusting squee of joy and proceeded to slaughter every bit of live stock in sight.

Some more notey mahbobs:

-Set pieces cost a fortune to repair
-No point in upgrading Gordy
-I have yet to dodge a bomb throw
-Blink is still awesome.

As usual, I couldn't decide between going for a Battlemage build or a stealthy assassin. After much thinking, I'm going for the mainly melee-based warrior with a handful of useful spells. Loving it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Littlebigdude805

-Set pieces cost a fortune to repair
-No point in upgrading Gordy

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Yeah repair costs are insane...but repair powder is cheap and plentiful...never pay for repairs, buy powders and save! :)

I maxed "Gordy", the 70% health restore is nice...I never need to heal in battle.

I'm only at the first Gordy bit that can upgrade his health, which I as far as I know doesn't need to be maxed to invest in the higher tiers. Splitting between two trees is a good bit slower, but very fun.

Is having 9.000 of gold much for the first 5 hours of play? I have been selling useless guff like crazy and never bought anything once. When I was new to the RPG genre I used to hoard even the stuff I'd never use.

9k isn't much...did you purchase any backpacks? They are lke 8k. How able trainers, the low level ones are 15k. There's a town with shops selling gear over 700k a piece...which is weird because the stuff isn't that special.

I respec'd to a melee/hammer user last night and visited a dozen or so trainers while allocating my points, it was pretty expensive. I don't think $ is much of an issue in general, I have about 100 purple weapons I could sell off and will need to soon to free up space for armor sets.

The hammer is great so far, has some really good area attacks...I kinda miss gordy, it's lonely in those dungeons without that bag of bones hobbling after my character. :)

The backpacks give you more inventory space? I actually haven't even browsed the goods sold at any stores I've encountered. Until now I only sold stuff.

I haven't yet figured out this card thing. For now I only have those 4 basic cards available. So I choose to have an active card and that gives me perks, is that it? And can I change them anytime I want? The cards I choose during a level-up aren't permanent or something?

Am I screwing anything up? Like that time in Fallout 3 when I didn't realize I was choosing stats in that children's book, spread them too thinly and had to start over again because my character sucked :p

You can always pay a fate weaver to completely over haul you're stats whenever you want. Just got my full set of prismere plate armor + prismere greatsword. Finally have an epic gem slot :D I went with "+75 chance to electrocute on hit" come at me :kz:

I started to have this problem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMcim...ature=youtu.be

It's like there's a costant quake.
Reboot, new save, turning the PS3 off, nothing works.
It's unplayable.

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Originally Posted by OmegaSlayer

I started to have this problem.

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Wow that's annoying. Does fast-travel to another zone help any (this resets merchants and such). I haven't encountered any major bugs with this game and I've done 180 quests.

No, nothing works.
I tried to contact BigHugeGames via twitter, offering to give them my save data.

I have a code to download the Destinies Choice Pack on PSN, but I sold my KoA copy long ago so it's useless to me. If anyone wants it, send me a PM. First come first serve.

Even if you have the game but don't play it anymore. Or if you plan on buying the game in the future. I just want to get rid of the code without wasting it.

Edit: the code has found an owner!