Kingdoms of Amalur

I'm not preordering this. I'll be watching this thread for feedback.
 
I went for the pre-order as I enjoyed the demo and I like most of the games that inspired it. Plus, I know it'll run well on my hardware/settings.

I'll try and post some day 1 feedback since I have a late start at work the following day.
 
MavericK96 said:
Not at all, although the art style and graphics do kind of seem similar.
Click to expand...

My first thought about the art style was Fable, but WoW works too. It's not quite as broken (not sure if that's the right word, but whatever) as WoW's look though.
 
The game reminds me a lot of Fable. In particular the first two Fable games.
I've never even actually played WoW.
 
Derangel said:
Alright here is a big post by JoeQ about the camera and his thoughts on it:

http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/...icularly-camera)&p=45367&viewfull=1#post45367

Just to note: The devs have said the game is completely finished and content locked and all that stuff so any changes they make will be done as post-release patches.
Click to expand...

I'm currently keeping that at lower priority since it is A) only affects PC users
Click to expand...

- Camera Distance

REALLY? The problem that bothers me and I know many others the most out of the demo and the comment we get from dev's is "You aren't really that important to us right now..."

Well that sums up how they feel towards PC gamers in my opinion , in a question about the camera issues no less.

I'll be passing on this entirely , if Dev's want me to support there titles they need to stop pretending only 4 people play PC games world wide and not millions upon millions and that somehow makes us a lower priority. If you are going to port it to that platform than FUCKING SUPPORT IT properly or at least say that you will take care of it but not by insulting the user base by calling them out as a "secondary concern".

Getting sick of Dev's treating PC gamers this way.
 
Godmachine said:
- Camera Distance

REALLY? The problem that bothers me and I know many others the most out of the demo and the comment we get from dev's is "You aren't really that important to us right now..."

Well that sums up how they feel towards PC gamers in my opinion , in a question about the camera issues no less.

I'll be passing on this entirely , if Dev's want me to support there titles they need to stop pretending only 4 people play PC games world wide and not millions upon millions and that somehow makes us a lower priority. If you are going to port it to that platform than FUCKING SUPPORT IT properly or at least say that you will take care of it but not by insulting the user base by calling them out as a "secondary concern".

Getting sick of Dev's treating PC gamers this way.
Click to expand...

Over reacting much? God forbid they focus on issues that effect everyone and not just one TINY niche group of people. Like it or not PC gaming is a niche market and it's something we have to accept.
 
Godmachine said:
- Camera Distance

REALLY? The problem that bothers me and I know many others the most out of the demo and the comment we get from dev's is "You aren't really that important to us right now..."

Well that sums up how they feel towards PC gamers in my opinion , in a question about the camera issues no less.

I'll be passing on this entirely , if Dev's want me to support there titles they need to stop pretending only 4 people play PC games world wide and not millions upon millions and that somehow makes us a lower priority. If you are going to port it to that platform than FUCKING SUPPORT IT properly or at least say that you will take care of it but not by insulting the user base by calling them out as a "secondary concern".

Getting sick of Dev's treating PC gamers this way.
Click to expand...

The camera action is more of a design decision than a slap in the face of PC gamers. Not everyone will agree with each design decision. 38 Studios seems pretty on the ball with responses, so lets see what they do for follow up after the game launches.
 
ocellaris said:
The camera action is more of a design decision than a slap in the face of PC gamers. Not everyone will agree with each design decision. 38 Studios seems pretty on the ball with responses, so lets see what they do for follow up after the game launches.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much how I took it, too. Seems like more of an "I want" instead of something they have to fix. They decided the camera should be where it is and that's that. They might look at tweaking it, but who knows if that might affect a hell of a lot more than it initially seems?
I know if I were a developer I'd be more interested in fixes that affect a whole large platform more than an "I want" that affects a limited % of the smallest platform.
 
Derangel said:
Over reacting much? God forbid they focus on issues that effect everyone and not just one TINY niche group of people. Like it or not PC gaming is a niche market and it's something we have to accept.
Click to expand...

As the platform I planned to play it on is getting secondary treatment on a issue that bothers me enough that the only response on the matter from a dev is "yea we're not worried about it at all right now ...as far as the PC is concerned" and I'm overreacting? I mean this game has been in development for how long? And this issue could not be addressed before hand ? I doubt no one bothered to mention it during testing either. The camera position , placement and overall feel in a 3rd person ANYTHING is completely critical to excellent game play experience , how many developers have copied the lock feature of Zelda for third person games? Hundreds probably.

But hey , I'm overreacting so whatever.

Love it :p
 
Godmachine said:
As the platform I planned to play it on is getting secondary treatment on a issue that bothers me enough that the only response on the matter from a dev is "yea we're not worried about it at all right now ...as far as the PC is concerned" and I'm overreacting? I mean this game has been in development for how long? And these issues could not be addressed before hand ? I doubt no one bothered to mention it during testing.

But hey , I'm overreacting so whatever.

Love it :p
Click to expand...

As was said above the camera is a design decision. They're not saying they won't do anything about it, but at the moment it's low priority.
 
Godmachine said:
As the platform I planned to play it on is getting secondary treatment on a issue that bothers me enough that the only response on the matter from a dev is "yea we're not worried about it at all right now ...as far as the PC is concerned" and I'm overreacting? I mean this game has been in development for how long? And this issue could not be addressed before hand ? I doubt no one bothered to mention it during testing either. The camera position , placement and overall feel in a 3rd person ANYTHING is completely critical to excellent game play experience , how many developers have copied the lock feature of Zelda for third person games? Hundreds probably.

But hey , I'm overreacting so whatever.

Love it :p
Click to expand...

Did you try with a gamepad? Just curious... The game definitely feels like they were thinking more about gamepad users than KB/M users.
 
Derangel said:
As was said above the camera is a design decision. They're not saying they won't do anything about it, but at the moment it's low priority.
Click to expand...

A "design decision" for them does in fact mean low priority but I've played enough console games from the early 90's that had lousy 3rd person camera issues that I'm no longer going to deal with getting killed by something off screen that I can't see because the camera is lagging too much when I want to turn it in the direction I'm being attacked from.

Personally I'm done with that shit. If this game is going to need to be patched for me to enjoy playing it then I won't dump $60 to get it at launch and perhaps only down the line.

They can call it low priority or a "design decision" but if people bothered to post about it often enough that a Dev had to get on the forum and discuss it directly with those interested and the words offered are "only effects PC gamers so its a secondary issue.."

Seems I'm alone then on my sentiment on this issue then , which is fine.
 
Godmachine said:
A "design decision" for them does in fact mean low priority but I've played enough console games from the early 90's that had lousy 3rd person camera issues that I'm no longer going to deal with getting killed by something off screen that I can't see because the camera is lagging too much when I want to turn it in the direction I'm being attacked from.

Personally I'm done with that shit. If this game is going to need to be patched for me to enjoy playing it then I won't dump $60 to get it at launch and perhaps only down the line.

They can call it low priority or a "design decision" but if people bothered to post about it often enough that a Dev had to get on the forum and discuss it directly with those interested and the words offered are "only effects PC gamers so its a secondary issue.."

Seems I'm alone then on my sentiment on this issue then , which is fine.
Click to expand...

The camera annoys me a little, but not enough that it is a major issue. We'll see how the full game is though.
 
ocellaris said:
Did you try with a gamepad? Just curious... The game definitely feels like they were thinking more about gamepad users than KB/M users.
Click to expand...

Yes I did actually , a 360 gamepad and I can feel the lag and found it quite annoying honestly. There was a point in the demo when I was being attacked off screen and could not get my character to that attacker fast enough which for a 3rd person game is just not a good amount of reaction time.
 
Godmachine said:
Yes I did actually , a 360 gamepad and I can feel the lag and found it quite annoying honestly. There was a point in the demo when I was being attacked off screen and could not get my character to that attacker fast enough which for a 3rd person game is just not a good amount of reaction time.
Click to expand...

That sucks. Gotta say when using the bow, there were a few times I had NO IDEA what I was targeted at.
 
ocellaris said:
That sucks. Gotta say when using the bow, there were a few times I had NO IDEA what I was targeted at.
Click to expand...

I'd be happy if there was a way to cancel your current target when charging the bow. You can change by moving and turning the camera, but a cancel would be nice.

I've done the demo quite a few times and enjoyed it a good deal. Tried a lot of combo's of class/eq/weapons

Bow is very tactical, but the finesse bonuses make it very worthwhile IMO.
 
I want to complain about the camera in KoA:R...but I just started playing Neverwinter Nights 2 for the first time, and the abomination of a camera/movement system in that game is absolutely unparalleled in the annals of RPG history. Three camera perspective options and each one manages to find a new way to be completely un-intuitive and rage-inducing.

Anyways, the KoA demo left me still interested and wanting to see some reviews. Not quite enough to get me to commit to a pre-order though. I need to know that they solved the technical issues I ran into in the demo (having to alt-tab every single time a cut-scene plays in order to continue is kind of annoying...). Plus the lack of character customization is a sore point. Still, I can see the game filling a nice niche that's currently unfilled, as far as an ARPG with a satisfying combat system.
 
AmberClad said:
I need to know that they solved the technical issues I ran into in the demo (having to alt-tab every single time a cut-scene plays in order to continue is kind of annoying...)
Click to expand...

I didn't have that issue, but I did encounter:

- A LOT of texture streaming problems (like turning around would cause everything to look blurry and shitty, and then slowly fade into a higher LOD, kind of like RAGE)
- Sometimes when a cutscene started models would just disappear and reappear (like in one the dwarf guy's head was just missing for a few seconds in the cutscene before it reappeared again)
- Weird freezing where on occasion the game would just lock for like 2-3 seconds (usually when something like rocks falling or whatever occurred)

Definitely a few things to iron out. I can accept it as a beta but if it were that way in the final copy it would be inexcusable.
 
Played through the demo and definitely has potential. If they can manage to fix and add customization to the silly camera, and maybe improve inventory but that's not a deal breaker, I'll definitely purchase it.
 
With how many times I heard "hardcore RPG" mentioned about this game, I expected more RPG.
 
There's nothing "hardcore" about this game except the hardcore bad camera from pre 2000.

If people really go into this expecting a "hardcore RPG" they are setting themselves up for needless, big time disappointment.

Fable on steroids is probably a much more accurate "quick summary" of this game if I had to boil it down to a handful of words. Take it or leave it.
 
Last edited:
Q-BZ said:
Fable on steroids is probably a much more accurate "quick summary" of this game if I had to boil it down to a handful of words. Take it or leave it.
Click to expand...

Fable meets Street Fighter was how I felt to me.
 
Umm, what defines a "hardcore" rpg then? If it's not lots of dialogue/choies/quest/exploration but rather combat that defines tit, then oyu can have it.

Having old turn based/die roll heavy combat imo has nothing to do with how "hardcore" an rpg is, it lies in how the game plays, the openess of choice/customization on how to develop your character, and how many quests/locations there are to explore.

To me, KoA does character building better then many "hardcore" rpgs because of how it leaves the choices open to the player.

So many rpgs you get stuck on pigeon holed "Classes," you hardly ever have free reign to make your character EXACTLY how you want.

So many rpgs I wanted to have an awesome mage/warrior, but so many rpgs pigeon hole you into either "mage" or "warrior" and not both.

Look at Dragon age 1, they had an awesome arcane warrior that allowed people to mix those two roles and have that type of character. Then you had DA2, no more arcane warrior, you had to be either a stuffy old generic mage or a warrior.

That made it less "hardcore" then DA:O imo, among other things such as the change in variety of locations, quests, etc.

To me, it seems you oguys are saying it's NOT a hardcore rpg because it has action oriented combat. That is something tihey've been EXTREMELY up front about the entire time this game has been out there.
 
Godmachine said:
- Camera Distance

REALLY? The problem that bothers me and I know many others the most out of the demo and the comment we get from dev's is "You aren't really that important to us right now..."

Well that sums up how they feel towards PC gamers in my opinion , in a question about the camera issues no less.

I'll be passing on this entirely , if Dev's want me to support there titles they need to stop pretending only 4 people play PC games world wide and not millions upon millions and that somehow makes us a lower priority. If you are going to port it to that platform than FUCKING SUPPORT IT properly or at least say that you will take care of it but not by insulting the user base by calling them out as a "secondary concern".

Getting sick of Dev's treating PC gamers this way.
Click to expand...

That was an older post anyways. He was posting in another forum I am on and just yesterday he said he has been working on tweaks for the camera for all users. It's just a matter of getting them approved.

His exact quote:

"It's definitely not going to be changed day 1. We're working on some tweaks, but I cannot guarantee when or if it will happen (but I'm very persuasive, so it probably will). Purchasing the game would speed that decision along though... :)"

For the people not liking the UI... it's not really that bad. Obviously I would prefer a much more old school rpg approach, but this is actually pretty intuitive for how it's set up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adTi3masn-4

MavericK96 said:
I didn't have that issue, but I did encounter:

- A LOT of texture streaming problems (like turning around would cause everything to look blurry and shitty, and then slowly fade into a higher LOD, kind of like RAGE)
- Sometimes when a cutscene started models would just disappear and reappear (like in one the dwarf guy's head was just missing for a few seconds in the cutscene before it reappeared again)
- Weird freezing where on occasion the game would just lock for like 2-3 seconds (usually when something like rocks falling or whatever occurred)

Definitely a few things to iron out. I can accept it as a beta but if it were that way in the final copy it would be inexcusable.
Click to expand...

The same guy pointed out that the last two points you have are merely DEMO issues, and are not present in the full game. Any of the bugs pretty much are ironed out, this coming from both Curt Schilling and Joe Quadara. The LOD is something he responded to when asked about, but only that he would try to find out and get back to us.
 
Last edited:
fornarmr said:
The same guy pointed out that the last two points you have are merely DEMO issues, and are not present in the full game. Any of the bugs pretty much are ironed out, this coming from both Curt Schilling and Joe Quadara. The LOD is something he responded to when asked about, but only that he would try to find out and get back to us.
Click to expand...

Good to hear. I figured something like that would be fixed in final, anyway. Be pretty sad if it wasn't. ;)
 
As far as the UI stuff goes, I know I would prefer something like an old school RPG where I can just click and drag stuff around, but I understand why they are not doing it. My main problem is how many clicks it takes to change weapons. If I want to go from daggers to a staff, feels like I need to click more times than I would expect. I suppose in the full game, I won't be switching weapons all the time though...
 
Stiler said:
Umm, what defines a "hardcore" rpg then?
Click to expand...

Well, personally I'd say games like Baldur's Gate are more hardcore RPGs. KoA I'd say is more of a casual RPG but on a grand scale. Not saying that's a bad thing, it's just not very "hardcore".

As far as the UI stuff goes, I know I would prefer something like an old school RPG where I can just click and drag stuff around, but I understand why they are not doing it. My main problem is how many clicks it takes to change weapons. If I want to go from daggers to a staff, feels like I need to click more times than I would expect. I suppose in the full game, I won't be switching weapons all the time though...
Click to expand...

It's definitely a game designed with consoles in mind, and as such the menus, inventory, etc have to be able to be navigated with a controller. Just wish they'd design two systems, one for PC and one for Console :)
 
RealityCrunch said:
It's definitely a game designed with consoles in mind, and as such the menus, inventory, etc have to be able to be navigated with a controller. Just wish they'd design two systems, one for PC and one for Console :)
Click to expand...


Just remember, it is still better than PC Skyrim :eek:
 
Stiler said:
IGN is about to do a live play through and Q&A with some of the developers:
http://games.ign.com/articles/121/1217519p1.html

Also their review will be up today (most likely after the live stream), however the score was already posted and taken down quickly after the error, it got a 9.0.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. Maybe now we'll start getting more specific details of what the final game has over the demo in terms of refinements and such.
 
I liked the demo...I'll get it just to support Schilling and his MMO title in the works. One thing that annoyed me was the shield mechanic though. You just randomly pull a shield out of your ass regardless of your weapon type, and block. It should show up on your back and you can only use it if you are wielding a 1h weapon. I know that's a little nitpickey but it just looks stupid and I can't see the reasoning behind it. The plus side is I'm too [H] to use block so I'll never see it anyway.
 
AmberClad said:
I want to complain about the camera in KoA:R...but I just started playing Neverwinter Nights 2 for the first time, and the abomination of a camera/movement system in that game is absolutely unparalleled in the annals of RPG history. Three camera perspective options and each one manages to find a new way to be completely un-intuitive and rage-inducing.
Click to expand...

I couldn't finish NWN2 because I hated the camera so much. Conversely, NWN's camera was (IMHO) perfect for 3rd person. Amalur's camera is going to need some tweaks/patching to really grab me; I felt like I was staring at the ground most of the time.

Considering lack of interest and a huge Steam backlog, Amalur is looking more and more like a Steam sale buy over Christmas.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top