Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning

[Aubade]

Downloading the Xbox Live demo right now.

[Aedh]

Downloading on steam. Anyone played it yet?

[Aubade]

"Thank you for playing the Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning Demo, you have unlocked a special armor for Mass Effect 3. Your armor will be unlocked when you purchase Mass Effect 3."

FUCK YEAHHHHHH

[Arnock]

"Thank you for playing the Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning Demo, you have unlocked a special armor for Mass Effect 3. Your armor will be unlocked when you purchase Mass Effect 3."

FUCK YEAHHHHHH

Guess I'll have to give it a try then =P


How big is the file size?

[Aubade]

uhh on 360 I believe it was 1.6Gb, in the middle of the demo right now so I can't leave the game and check. Just spent 15 minutes in char creation >.<

[Levantine]

Trying to download off of steam and it's not letting me. GET OFF MY STEAM EVERYONE ELSE, I WANT THIS DEMO.

[Aubade]

combat is very smooth, reminds me a lot of Dark Souls combat with how fluid it is.

[Aubade]

The inventory system is also extremely nice. There is a "Add to junk" Option for all items, and you have a section of junk stuff to sell. I LIKKKKKEEE

[Brutalicus]

Dear God the demo is awesome. The tutorial has you pick up a sword, daggers, bow, and staff, and I honestly couldn't decide which route would be more fun. I picked magic, which I don't think I've ever done in an RPG before. Was not disappointed.

[Aedh]

I guess this game isn't for me. The demo didn't blow me away.

[Aubade]

From the videos I've seen of the Faeblades, I'm going to go stealth/daggers/bows with my first character when this comes out. I'm glad I decided to dl this demo because of you guys haha.

[Lightbeard]

What I like about it is that the combat appears smoother and more engaging than that in Elder Scrolls, while still having a compelling ability to mix and match magic / face-smashin. Respecs in a single player game also make me happy.

Any game that allows for respeccing always gets a ton of points from me

[Fivelives]

"Thank you for playing the Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning Demo, you have unlocked a special armor for Mass Effect 3. Your armor will be unlocked when you purchase Mass Effect 3."

FUCK YEAHHHHHH

Guess I'll have to give it a try then =P

^ This. Downloading now.

[Lightbeard]

Review from another forum

Graphics - Very stylized visuals, colorful and bright, cartoony. I like it. Not exactly a heavy hitter in the tech department, the graphics are low- to mid- range current generation. Combat animations are great, but facial animations are stiff (basically just frozen faces with flapping jaws).

Sound - It's not a long demo, so I'll only comment that the voice work is pretty standard. Nothing bad, but not great, either. PC is silent except for grunts and shouts.

Customization - Pretty deep. You can choose between 4 races and both genders. Each of these 8 choices have 5 preset faces, and you can customize further. Not as expansive as Skyrim, but decent enough to get the look you want. There are 10 Skills to upgrade when leveling, with 12 points in each. These include crafting, stealth, lockpicking, persuasion, etc. Not only improve effects of the skill, but certain points include new functions of the skill. Like, Alchemy raises your chance to harvest reagents, but with enough points you unlock the ability to combine more components, or add special ingredients, or just learn every recipe possible (at 12 points).

You also get Ability points per level. I don't know how many each level, but at the beginning it's 3. You then spend them in the Might, Finesse, and Magic trees. Abilities don't get better with use, so you're encouraged to mix and match whatever style you want. There are a lot of Abilities in each, with multiple levels of each ability. The highest ranked Abilities require 70 points in a single tree.

And then there's Destinies, which are simply a set of passive bonuses to make your character better at whatever you've built them up to be. Depending on how many points you spend in the three trees, you unlock Destiny Cards. Like, 6 points in Might will get you a basic warrior card, or 4 points in all three will get you a basic jack of all trades card. The highest ranked cards require 109-111 points to unlock (109 for a "pure" Destiny, like Magic only. Or 37 in each tree to unlock the jack of all trades. Or 55 in two trees, like Magic/Finesse.).

And finally armor. You can wear anything as long as your level is high enough. Warrior armor gives bonuses to melee blocking with a shield, rogue armor adds to crit chance, and mage armor gives better mana regen. There are more effects based on the armor or your crafting.


Combat - The main draw of the game, and it's worth it in my opinion. THIS is what Fable combat should have been. You can equip and Primary and Secondary weapon, and go back and forth between them without sheathing. You can also block with a shield at any time, and also do a rolling dodge. And you can equip 4 Abilities at a time, holding the Right Trigger and pressing one of the 4 buttons to use them. Using weapons, you can just mash the button for a basic string of attacks. But different timings can lead to combos, and combos give more exp and fate. Like, with a Sword, you can tap X for an attack, pause for a second, then tap X again to launch enemies into the air with an upward sweep. You unlock more combos to use in the Abilities. Even mage weapons have combos. As you attack enemies, you earn Fate. When you have enough, you can enter a mode where you can move faster and do more damage, leading to powerful and dramatic finishing moves that give even more exp. Potions are also easily chugged, whether you think that's good or bad is up to you.

Crafting - I didn't get to do much, but it seems interesting enough. For Blacksmithing, each item type has a specific recipe (dagger blades + hilt = daggers), and the quality and bonus effects are based on the components you use. As you progress the skill, you unlock more components you can add (starting with 2, eventually having 4 plus a gem). For Alchemy, you have 19 reagents that you can combine, between 2 and 5 different ones per potion. I didn't really get to try this, but there is some experimenting involved. Also, collecting reagents can often fail if you don't raise your Alchemy skill. I didn't even see Sagecraft, making gemstones for socketed items and high level crafting.

Gameworld - From the map, it seems large. It's not exactly "open world" though, as each region is separated and the only way to get from one to the next is a narrow passageway.

Summary - I'm going to recommend this game to RPG fans. It's not going to be groundbreaking or epic, but it's definitely of good quality. Maybe if you're unsure, wait for the price drop. I went ahead and preordered.

Take from it what you will

[Aedh]

I honestly found the "insta-shield" to be one of my "not going to buy this game" things. It sorta broke immersion for me. If I have had a big ass shield to block with, then damn it I want to see the thing all the time.