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

[Sarkile]

The game was shit. I would've considered it for the Switch so I could play it on the toilet.

 

[Tavar]

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.

This can be very confusing when you frequently have to switch between German and English. If you don't pay attention you will mix up the spelling for sure (e.g. "packet" vs. "Paket", "address" vs. "Adresse" etc.). But the best feature of the German language is the unlimited chaining for nouns. It's what gives us expressions like "Wachstumsbeschleunigungsgesetz" (= law of growth accelleration) or "Stadtbahnrückstau" (= city railway backlog). Brilliant stuff.

The game was shit. I would've considered it for the Switch so I could play it on the toilet.

Fear not, I'm sure you will get a switch port with the usual delay of two years and the obligatory visual downgrade. Then you can play a shit game on a shitty platform while on the shitter. Very apt.

 

[Lacrymas]

If you don't pay attention you will mix up the spelling for sure (e.g. "packet" vs. "Paket", "address" vs. "Adresse" etc.).

Oh, definitely. Even my previous German teacher (who is a native speaker) mixed up such spellings. I remember she had to google how Adresse is spelled, whether it's with two Ds or one ;d But all in all, German spelling is more straightforward than English. English is a disaster on that front.

 

[AliceAlcina]

If you don't pay attention you will mix up the spelling for sure (e.g. "packet" vs. "Paket", "address" vs. "Adresse" etc.).

Oh, definitely. Even my previous German teacher (who is a native speaker) mixed up such spellings. I remember she had to google how Adresse is spelled, whether it's with two Ds or one ;d But all in all, German spelling is more straightforward than English. English is a disaster on that front.

She wasn't living in Germany at the time I hope.

 

[Lacrymas]

She was.

 

[Molina]

This game is kind of my guilty pleasure. I love playing doll with my character, doing fights and there are some very well written quests.
I'm really fond of this game. They tried to make something out of it, even though it didn't work out. And I think they learned from their time since the DLCs are still very, very good.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Played it for 6-8 hours or so. The only thing I remember is some goth elf assassin in bikini armor.

 

[flyingjohn]

They should just add co op and better textures.That is all the game needs.
Re balancing the game will end up making it worse.The problem is with both the equipment and zone level ranges which are fundamentally flawed to begin with.

 

[Tavar]

Oh, definitely. Even my previous German teacher (who is a native speaker) mixed up such spellings. I remember she had to google how Adresse is spelled, whether it's with two Ds or one ;d But all in all, German spelling is more straightforward than English. English is a disaster on that front.

Absolutely. If you haven't seen it yet, check out this video where the speaker tries to pronounce English vowels in a consistent way. It is fascinating how much it changes the sound of the language.

The thing with games like this is they have to be tight as a drum, and keep a certain momentum from beginning to end. Even a little jank or padding, which is forgivable in normal RPGs, can ruin the whole thing. That's what seperates Diablo 1/2 from its imitators like Amalur. It's all in the execution, meaning all of these games technically have potential.

Amalur was my favourite game in 8th grade, which is why I'd be interested in a remake or a sequel, but just releasing the same game again is cheap and lazy

I'm not sure I'd compare Amalur to Diablo as the hunt for good loot is not really relevant in it given how overpowered you are. I agree that a tighter game experience would have been nice, but my main problem with the huge amount of side quests is how pointless they are with the messed up balance. Why should I do side quests if I already steamroll everything in the game anyway? That said, I liked the fairy sidequest and the collossus DLC for their rather innovative world building (for the lack of a better term). I really hope that they fix the balance in the remake. That an proper UHD support would be enough for me to buy 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.

Actually I fucked up on the dodge frames - it was the opposite - they displaced the hitbox rather than add immunity frames. See the comment from the guy who worked on it below the post.

https://aztez.com/blog/2012/05/24/the-amalur-problem/

 

[FranticDistortion]

If original didn't have shitty open-world that completely ruins pacing, if devs fixed awful difficulty curve, if someone paid Avellone to write it...

It is one of the few Action-Rpg games, where action part doesn't feel like complete shit.

Kingdoms of wasted potential.

 

[Tavar]

Interesting, someone has made a level scaling mod for the original game. Besides the fact that this mod comes about seven years too late, I'm not sure whether it is the best approach to fix the game. Scaling enemies are certainly an improvement over the super weak enemies, but scaling tends to negate all your feelings of progess in a game. I hope that they don't go for this route in the remaster, but properly balance the game instead. I've always liked games that allow you to triumph over enemies who were unbeatable earlier in the game (e.g. Fallout, Gothic), so that would be the ideal case for me.

 

[DraQ]

It took level scaling *removing* mods to (allegedly) fix Oblivion (somewhat, for easily amused).
How fucked up does a game (or its audiences) need to be to ever warrant a mod that *adds* fucking level scaling?

It's like it lies so far beyond plain fucking awful that it first needs to be brought down to merely violently nauseating before a hope for any sort of fix can even come to existence.
Undead abomination that has to be slain before you even start thinking of resurrection, as compared to a poisoned, wounded or afflicted that needs to be healed.

 

[Sweeper]

Literally the only thing I remember from the game are the SPQR gnomes in the desert, the forest area early in the game, and swinging large fucking hammers into monsters.
It wasn't good.
Who asked for this?

 

[Lacrymas]

Who asked for this?

The Germans, apparently.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Literally the only thing I remember from the game are the SPQR gnomes in the desert, the forest area early in the game, and swinging large fucking hammers into monsters.
It wasn't good.
Who asked for this?

And of course you can't play as Romanesque gnome in this game Comrade.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

What the hell is a remaster even going to achieve anyway?

 

[Ontopoly]

Interesting, someone has made a level scaling mod for the original game. Besides the fact that this mod comes about seven years too late, I'm not sure whether it is the best approach to fix the game. Scaling enemies are certainly an improvement over the super weak enemies, but scaling tends to negate all your feelings of progess in a game. I hope that they don't go for this route in the remaster, but properly balance the game instead. I've always liked games that allow you to triumph over enemies who were unbeatable earlier in the game (e.g. Fallout, Gothic), so that would be the ideal case for me.

The problem is they already had level scaling just implemented in an even worse way than most level scaling games. The level for the whole area is determined when you first enter it so by the time you go through it you're over powered and if you enter an area then leave it, when you come back you'll be over powered. This was a game I really enjoyed, I didn't expect huge amounts of depth but I had a great time with it. The biggest thing you have to do to enjoy this game is limit yourself, no crafting and sometimes I would use weaker weapons on purpose so there would be some challenge. Some people like to feel powerful over enemies and feel progression but as a bit of a combat whore, I personally prefer a constant challenge. If I wanted to feel powerful I would play on story mode.

Depending on what the remake entails, I'll definitely be buying this game. If the remake is half assed I might just play the original

 

[Sweeper]

The Germans, apparently.

Fucking Anglos. They should have Dresdened all of Germany.

 

[RNGsus]

The biggest thing you have to do to enjoy this game is limit yourself, no crafting and sometimes I would use weaker weapons on purpose so there would be some challenge.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Played it for 6-8 hours or so. The only thing I remember is some goth elf assassin in bikini armor.

I respect a game that doesn't require me to mod in bikini armor.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Horrible game, couldn't care less.

 

[Metro]

Is that HHR's one game-related post for the year so he can justify the other 10,000 in poli-board?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Played it for 6-8 hours or so. The only thing I remember is some goth elf assassin in bikini armor.

I respect a game that doesn't require me to mod in bikini armor.

That armour is only on one single NPC in the entire game.

 

[DraQ]

The biggest thing you have to do to enjoy this game is limit yourself, no crafting and sometimes I would use weaker weapons on purpose so there would be some challenge.

And then you realize the challenge was in you all along.

Spoiler

It was a mental one.

Some people like to feel powerful over enemies and feel progression

That only works when it's earned and should never let you afford being careless.