Jump to content

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Demo - Pie Reviews


Elliot

Recommended Posts

My thoughts on the PS3 demo:

Graphically, the game seems at its weakest. There was horrendous amounts of pop-in, the game seemed to lurch at times, the textures are often murky, the mini-map's movement was jerky and weird, textures would sometimes not load or just smudge as the camera moved, things would twitch or flicker randomly, enemies and objects would appear and disappear, the player would teleport about 6 feet in any direction at random occasionally, and the camera would lurch around strangely or just not keep up with the action at all.

The aesthetic is ill-suited to the game - I find its cartoony, overly bright style quite obnoxious and not at all consistent with the tone of the game - I can see that it was trying for something like Fable (of which it is eerily reminiscent), but it really makes me pine for the style (and graphical fidelity) of Dragon Age: Origins or The Witcher.

The combat, I thought was satisfyingly weighty, at least. I liked the two weapon system, thought the unlockable moves were pretty decent at making a more complex combat system than merely button mashing (though perhaps there aren't enough of them to provide depth and keep things interesting for the whole game).

The menus were fine - I thought it was a nice touch to have stars next to the things new since the player last checked, though given the stars are lost as soon as the player highlights an item, and to scroll down the player highlights items, this is somewhat rendered useless for items that need to be scrolled to.

The skill tree and level up system seem passable, the map seems pretty robust and impressive, but other elements of the interface are less impressive. The dialog is split between a Mass Effect style moral choice compass and a simple box listing the choices sequentially, which is awkward and a tad confusing. However, little things about the interface annoy me - for example, there are two loading indicator wheels on the screen at one point, and they're spinning in opposite directions, which seems careless and weird.

The one thing that the game did so well I thought it worth remarking upon was the incredibly fast start-up time. I launched it off the XMB and it immediately went into the EA logo and a few seconds later, the title screen was displayed. Impressively fast.

There are parts of the game that seem lifted directly from The Elder Scrolls - picking parts of herbs for alchemy, going to jail (even the "pay the fine / resist arrest / go to jail" thing is here in its entirety). The player is made to feel as though they have the freedom to explore, but the areas, whilst they look large, still feel linear - a series of corridors. Areas that look as though they should be able to be explored are sealed off by invisible walls. The map, however, seems to be pretty large, so there should be a decent amount of corridor to explore.

The story's premise seems interesting enough - you're the only one not bound by fate, and can change the way things were destined to be by shaping fate around you. It might prove to be more than its generic fantasy entrappings suggest, and it may prove to be one of the redeeming features of the game, but so far, it's not nearly as captivating as that of Dragon Age.

The crafting system might be decent but the game didn't feel like explaining how it worked to I had little idea what I was doing. It seemed passable though.

All in all, it seems like it's trying to be a cross between Fable, The Elder Scrolls and to a lesser extent Dragon Age. Whilst the combat is fun at least for the duration of the demo, I don't know whether it would stand up to the long hours of gameplay the title will probably require to see it through to the end. Visually, it's broken and ugly. I hope this is fixed in the final game, but I doubt it.

Honestly, your time would be better invested in the worlds of Fable, Dragon Age and The Elder Scrolls.

I'd be interested to hear both whether you enjoyed my thoughts on the game (and constructive criticism of my reviewing technique) and your own thoughts on the demo / game. Do please give me both! :)

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Finally got a chance to play the demo this morning and it was pretty good, very Fable like, very glitch though enemies becoming huge and stretched also huge chunks of land just disappeared

Combat is pretty simple but it works, love how you can have any weapon for each button instead of ones just assigned, one thing I had a problem with is that sneaking seems almost impossible, trying to sneak up on an enemy is hard even if the enemy is sleeping

I'll probably get this if I can find it cheaper after it releases, most likely won't purchase it on day one

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just to let you know... i heard this demo was about 5 renditions old... meaning they have improved upon this game 5 times over so the final product will be different...

i hope, less glitchy because i started my first playthrough of the demo without a head, lol... but here are my thoughts...

when i play a game for what it is and don't compare it to another game i find that i have a lot more enjoyment... every game IS and SHOULD BE different... comparing it to another game only hurts the gamer really... i make it a point to find something i like in every game... Everyone likes different games... i usually tend to love games that get the bad reviews for some reason...maybe im just easy to please...or maybe im just less critical... i found the game to be quite enjoyable as an RPG and im looking forward to really diving into the world of Reckoning.

Elder Scrolls is NOT the first and only RPG that uses harvest materials and Alchemy, lol...

Ive played a lot of RPGs... this is a NEW one... and thats another reason why i already like it... Im going to play it for what it is without comparing it to every other RPG and see how i feel about it then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IGN gave it a 9/10 http://ps3.ign.com/a.../1216517p1.html

Metacritic gave it a 80/100 http://www.metacriti...malur-reckoning

CVG gave it 8/10 http://www.computera...verdict-is-810/

MMOSite.com gives it a 9/10 http://my.mmosite.co...3174c8e6a4.html

Gameplay 9.5/10

Graphics 8.5/10

Sounds 9/10

Overall Score: 9/10

Gametrailers.com said 9.3/10

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/kingdoms-of-amalur-reckoning/13588

Will be interesting once i dive into this game... without the demo's muddy water sinking its ship

***EDIT***

GameInformer gave it an 8/10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...