Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning - remaster from THQ Nordic with Fatesworn expansion

[vortex]

3 problems of Amalur are:

1. voiceacting
2. voiceacting
3. writng is immature for the codex

 

[Dodo1610]

Actually the MMO and KOA are unrelated, KOA existed before 38 Studios bought Big Huge Games but then got rebranded as a Copernicus Spinoff which was 38 Studios' upcoming MMO.
I still love the game's fluid combat and free class system. Sadly the devs had no idea about quest design but still decided to fill their game with tons of dialogue which makes this game a weird chimaera of 3d Diablo and RPG but it fails to be good at either genre. The devs then decided to make this game as easy as possible which means that the great combat system became irrelevant since you can just kill everything with blind button mashing. For the icing on the cake, this game has the dumbest Level scaling, enemies are always several levels below you. Also, the lore and the world are just unimaginative and plain boring, most Ncps are just lore dispensers all thanks to Salvatore the loser who wrote the Drizzt books.

I really wanted to like KOA because it was one of the few games in the genre where the combat is actually fun and fluid but of course, incompetent devs managed to fuck up everything else

 

[Shackleton]

I remember Curt Schilling popping up on the FoH boards promoting this turd. When it came out, almost everyone said it was ruined by being so easy that 80% of the mechanics were pointless as button mashing was all that was needed. Our Curt said all the playtests had shown players didn't want a hard game so they purposely made it dead easy.

Yeah, that worked out so well for them. This was the game almost bankrupted Rhode Island wasn't it?

 

[bylam]

Blocking did an automatic pushback to *everything* around you. Dodge made you effectively immune to everything.

Combat was fluid, but severely hampered by these design decisions. Not sure I would describe it as good combat.

 

[Zlaja]

TW had decent crafting and magic system but yeah, everything else screams bland.

You forgot that the game did add some awesome new words to the english language like "forsooth" and "mayhap".

 

[Mastermind]

I remember Curt Schilling popping up on the FoH boards promoting this turd. When it came out, almost everyone said it was ruined by being so easy that 80% of the mechanics were pointless as button mashing was all that was needed. Our Curt said all the playtests had shown players didn't want a hard game so they purposely made it dead easy.

Yeah, that worked out so well for them. This was the game almost bankrupted Rhode Island wasn't it?

The demo was reasonably difficult, people bitched, and they listened unfortunately. Which is too bad because enemy ai is generally pretty good. first game of this type i remember where enemies coordinated attacks.

 

[TemplarGR]

templar is back! συντροφε δεν ειχες δωσει ορκο στον τρισμεγιστο Δια οτι δεν θα ξαναπατησεις εδω?

Ε είχα θυμώσει με τη μαλακία που μου κάνανε στο θέμα με το Fallout 4. Αλλά οκ είπα να ξαναμπώ ενάμισης χρόνος πέρασε. Δεν ορκίζομαι σε κανένα Δία, είμαι Χριστιανός.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

As to people asking why it's getting a remaster: it has essentially become a cult hit after its initial bomb. It has a very high userscore on Steam(nearly 90% approval with over 10k reviews) now. It's a combat heavy RPG with fun combat, good character progression/customization, and decent interactivity. A lot of the side quests have fairly grey morality choices. It has a good bit of acknowledging when you do things you weren't supposed to do

Spoiler

as an example, iirc there's a quest with a really squishy guy who runs into a horde of monsters you can save if you act really fast and he pretty much acknowledges he was supposed to die as fate demanded him to(and the developers expected), neat touch

Also, you can kill most NPCs that aren't part of the main quest.

The main story is meh, the overall plot/backstory is alright. If you didn't intervene, then the world would simply proceed as normal: you are not important to the story anymore, your part of the story already happened before you even start the game, your fate has already been fulfilled. Everyone must do what they're doing because fate demands it.
One of my bigger pet peeves in RPGs is when they setup a main story that's so grand and important that you can't explain why your character is off doing side-quests and other various activities(deadfire is a really good example of such.) In Amalur, you're essentially rewriting parts of an already written book.

Spoiler

An example of this working out badly is in the magic guild or w/e's questline. Nothing bad would have happened if you just didn't do shit. Simply by being there, you accidentally unleash an elder abomination on the world. Good job.

If you played it and only made it about an hour in, I'd suggest giving it another try when the remaster rolls around. It gets a lot better after a couple hours. The colorfulness of the beginning of the game is pretty much a setup.

Spoiler

The world is pretty dark, life is so shit that the fateweavers praise you like a messiah because there's essentially no way the world could get worse from you being involved. The fateweavers are basically unemployed because people were so tired of being told how things are only going to keep getting worse.

Hoping the remaster includes a difficulty rebalance, because it's one of the biggest things the game needs.
It's not like the game is awful, it's just OK. The hate it gets is just bizarre, maybe it doesn't have enough snarky twitter conversations for codex's taste.

 

[Jedi Exile]

I've tried it once, and it was actually fun to play, although I don't really like this kind of games. The only thing I didn't like was the absence of a walk toggle (I know most people don't care about this, but for me this is important).

 

[AliceAlcina]

I've tried it once, and it was actually fun to play, although I don't really like this kind of games. The only thing I didn't like was the absence of a walk toggle (I know most people don't care about this, but for me this is important).

there was run-walk toggle ??????

 

[frajaq]

who the fuck asked for this

 

[JDR13]

TW had decent crafting and magic system but yeah, everything else screams bland.

You forgot that the game did add some awesome new words to the english language like "forsooth" and "mayhap".

TW was a masterpiece of incline compared to KoA.

 

[mikaelis]

Kingdoms of Banalur needs re-banalization. Who would have known...
Hope it is released still this year to put the final nail in the coffin to this disastrous year 2020 , and we will positively reset our lifes in 2021 .

 

[Metro]

Keep in mind Rusty likes Fallout 76, so...

 

[Commissar Draco]

The combat system was kinda neat.

Enjoyed the game when first played but tried it again just before Covid... and it was meh over all, the oblibion style architecture, Korean MMO styled weapons and armors and story line which although competent never managed to glue Commissar to monitor... they are far better action RPGs out there now and this is clearly cash grab.

 

[Lacrymas]

Have we run out of marketable classics to remaster that they are looking at any vaguely well-received minor game out there?

 

[Dodo1610]

Have we run out of marketable classics to remaster that they are looking at any vaguely well-received minor game out there?

I have read on a german gaming forum that several people there think that it's an underrated masterpiece, so it seems to have its fans and they are willing to buy it Source

 

[Lacrymas]

I wouldn't say they are bursting with joy and praise. They are criticizing that the game let you get to level cap like halfway through and then it got boring. But the Germans have always had ...specific tastes in games, so maybe they are shaking in their gaming chairs from excitement, who knows. Sometimes, they are the only ones who keep franchises afloat (Spellforce, maaaybe Two Worlds). And I always confirm to myself German is unreadable without the proper commas.

 

[Mastermind]

The combat system was kinda neat.

Enjoyed the game when first played but tried it again just before Covid... and it was meh over all, the oblibion style architecture,

The architecture was nothing like oblivion (which was extremely repetitive because they had 1 guy making all the dungeons). Arguably, it's the best looking hiking simulator ever made, I've never seen so many well done, unique looking areas in a game before. It's too bad most people haven't gotten past the intro forest.

 

[thesecret1]

I remember the game being the most mediocre thing. It felt like I was playing WoW in single player, yet tended to be not-shit enough to actually slog it all the way to the end. None of the characters were memorable, the lore was actually kinda okay, only delivered shittily, I don't even remember the plot, but I know that at the end my feelings about the game could be summed up as "meh". I don't know how THQ intends to salvage this game without redoing it all over, but I guess that if they at least make it not look like a MMORPG, it'll still be a considerable improvement.

 

[Metro]

The architecture was nothing like oblivion (which was extremely repetitive because they had 1 guy making all the dungeons). Arguably, it's the best looking hiking simulator ever made, I've never seen so many well done, unique looking areas in a game before. It's too bad most people haven't gotten past the intro forest.

Most of the areas/zones are ripped right out of World of Warcraft in theme. Never mind most of the space/area in the game is pointless filler.

 

[Silverfish]

Have we run out of marketable classics to remaster that they are looking at any vaguely well-received minor game out there?

Weirdly enough, no. Publishers just make weird choices. Like Saints Row 3 being remastered before the classic SR2.

 

[Sykar]

I wouldn't say they are bursting with joy and praise. They are criticizing that the game let you get to level cap like halfway through and then it got boring. But the Germans have always had ...specific tastes in games, so maybe they are shaking in their gaming chairs from excitement, who knows. Sometimes, they are the only ones who keep franchises afloat (Spellforce, maaaybe Two Worlds). And I always confirm to myself German is unreadable without the proper commas.

<- No

 

[Tavar]

who the fuck asked for this

I did. I really liked KoA back in day. It is an enjoyable game with good world building and a nicely streamlined character system. Sadly, it was incredibly easy due to the fucked up level scaling. If they fix the interface so it properly works in UHD and solve the scaling issue, then I'll happily buy the remaster (for a reasonable price).

I wouldn't say they are bursting with joy and praise. They are criticizing that the game let you get to level cap like halfway through and then it got boring. But the Germans have always had ...specific tastes in games, so maybe they are shaking in their gaming chairs from excitement, who knows. Sometimes, they are the only ones who keep franchises afloat (Spellforce, maaaybe Two Worlds). And I always confirm to myself German is unreadable without the proper commas.

Well, that's awkward as I'm German and looking forward for this remake. KoA is not a master piece by any means, but it was fun, so I consider this as incline. And yes, German can be quite unreadable without proper punctation.

 

[Lacrymas]

And yes, German can be quite unreadable without proper punctation.

I always get a kick out of seeing them using the English spelling for similar words in German (brilliant instead of brillant in the third post for example) ;d And yeah, without the commas/punctuation it's sometimes a word salad you have to decode.