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Kingdoms of Amalur demo impressions thread [Up On 360/Origin/Steam/U.S. PSN]
- Thread starter CrunchinJelly
- Start date
hey_it's_that_dog
benevolent sexism
I was hoping the 360 pad emulator (x360ce) would work with the PC demo (Steam version) but it doesn't seem to. Guess I'll try this thing on PS3 instead.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Maybe I'm missing something but why would you need an emulator? It supports the 360 controller natively.
Revolutionary
Member
Game seems to be pretty cool, but I ran into a lot of bugs. I ran into the "fast forward convo" glitch mentioned above, which was paired with an audio glitch where some sounds were muted while some would cut out, which then devolved into a "oh god where is the floor, I'm standing in the sky" glitch... which forced me to quit the demo.
I then tried it out on PC, where it bugged out even faster than on PS3! lol. No invisible ground this time around, but the fast forward convo glitch reared it's ugly head again. Sigh.
I really want to like this game, but if the freakin demo is this buggy, I can only imagine how much of a mess the full game will be. Therefore, I'll be waiting on a Steam sale. Hopefully by then it'll be all patched and I would be able to enjoy it without it being a STALKER 1-like experience. Sorry Curt Schilling!
I then tried it out on PC, where it bugged out even faster than on PS3! lol. No invisible ground this time around, but the fast forward convo glitch reared it's ugly head again. Sigh.
I really want to like this game, but if the freakin demo is this buggy, I can only imagine how much of a mess the full game will be. Therefore, I'll be waiting on a Steam sale. Hopefully by then it'll be all patched and I would be able to enjoy it without it being a STALKER 1-like experience. Sorry Curt Schilling!
Reading the thread, it seems mostly positive. I can imagine how this game wouldn't feel right w/ M&KB though.
I just started playing for the second time, this time I'm gonna try to hit the 45 minute limit and see how much the game really has to offer. I really fell in love with the game when I started mixing and matching the armor and weapons.
My biggest complaint so far would have to be that I really don't care much what the NPC's are talking about. I don't know how Bethesda pulls it off but I don't feel the same connect to the world yet, the action and gameplay is just so much more interesting than the dialogue... maybe I just need to spend more time in the world and get to know the lore.
lol, really?
There's something about the art/presentation that I really enjoy. The game is striking a DS chord with me. I wasn't expecting anything going in, but after playing it I might pre-order.
I was sadly reminded how much I hate RPG loot.
It's getting worse with every game for me.
Too many crates and barrels.
RPG loot.
I was sadly reminded how much I hate RPG loot.
It's getting worse with every game for me.
Too many crates and barrels.
RPG loot.
crimsonheadGCN
Banned
I think he is using the emulator to play with the PS3 controller.
TheAngryBanana
Neo Member
I really liked it. Similar to Fable, which I also liked. Definitely going to pick it up on PC February 7th. I am excited by the lore with aloof Summer Court and all.
I'm guessing you have no interest in using motionjoy, right? I'm using that to emulate the x360 pad with my ps3 pad and it worked perfectly for Reckoning.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Ah. Derp.
Ah man, I really liked DS3; at least couch coop with my wife.
I hope they give some camera control options, right now it just feels... off to me.
Usually to me, an MMO involves having a bunch of other players around me. In this case, there are no other players around me.
It does appear to be massively single player; so a huge world for you to explore akin to an mmo, but alone.
Huh? If anything, the full game will be less buggy. Demos are always old builds.
FateBreaker
Member
True. If I had to complain about something, it's that the dialogue is just okay. I do really like the plot and characters as of now, but the writing is surprisingly so-so right now. I did just recently complete Dragon Age II, and I know that game has a lot of faults, but writing and characterization is not one of them. So this one feels a little dry in that area.
STILL, the game rocks and I am pretty sure this is a day-one.
It definitely has an MMORPG feel to it. The areas are massive, but in a different way than the Elder Scrolls. It feels like areas you'd encounter in WoW. In fact, the game's art direction kind of reminds me of WoW.
Edit: But it's definitely a solo-RPG. There are too many characteristics of Dragon Age, Fable, and other popular WRPGs that never make it feel more like an MMORPG.
Uh, just use MotioninJoy.
It's definitely a single player experience. The MMO feel comes from the world it is set in, because there is an extensive back story and a tremendous amount of lore to be found if you are actually interested in that stuff (http://www.amalur.com). But this was never an MMO, it was always a single player game. It simply got folded into the mix as a way to expand the IP for 38 Studios when Big Huge Games was dropped by their previous publisher.
Thanks Hannar,
I guess I was just concerned that it would feel like I was playing WOW/SWOTOR on my own. Rather than getting a rich RPG experience. I will check out the link that you generously have provided.
shaowebb
Member
Felt single player to me. Tons of sidequests, but unlike the normal fair of bland people to get them from every single person with a sidequest had a very fleshed out character and personality. One was a man who acted like a wolf and for awhile I debated the sanity of. Another is a rogue who wants you to participate in a play reenactment to summon a ring. Even the non sidequest fodder was really fleshed out as characters. Combat felt pretty dynasty warriors initially, but then you start getting levelup abilities like shadow blade and such. Launchers will make it pretty smooth on combo work too once I get moves that pop them high enough and certain weapons induce certain states in enemies. My fire daggers could cause crumple states, knockback to by me some breathing space, and provided hard knockdowns after most hits instead of the usual flinch reaction that ends in them counter striking if you let the pressure off them.
World felt like it had a lot to offer, tons to read (and THEN some!) and I kept finding hidden areas where chests and other things were stuffed away. Its really big and really loaded. Good game.
piratepwnsninja
Member
Not sure how that's possible.
Anyway...for the people that are saying the combat is simple and unvaried, did you get out of the tutorial area and out into the world? I understand saying the combat feels simple in there, but once you level up and put a few points in places, you unlock quite a few new moves that add quite a bit (such as charging up staves, for instance...there is more than that, but just an example.) Now if you just dump the points into increased damage for what you already have, you aren't going to see any differences.
And, as has been noted in here already, while you hit the same button for primary attacks, the timing of the presses produces different combos. I'm not saying there is a DMC-style combo system going on here, but it is definitely more nuanced than some are stating.
Overall I really enjoyed the demo. What I enjoyed the most was the ease with which you can flow from primary to secondary to magic and back. It felt really good once I hit a rhythm doing all of these together.
Franklinator
Member
Played through the tutorial segment and had a blast
TheChewyWaffles
Member
Purchased on Steam. I might even double-dip for the 360 version. Help me.
AwesomeSauce
MagsMoonshine
IIRC you are using an Intel HD gpu on a laptop.
This game is a lot more gpu heavy than cpu. I noticed only ~28% of my cpu is being utilized. I'm on a hex core Phenom II, but disabled two cores so basically it's a standard quad Phenom II @ 4.0ghz.
Sounds great, I will be downloading this demo this evening. Thanks for the feedback on this.
Nabs
Member
That probably means you're doing something wrong.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Okay, 4th time through and some notable legacy issues have began to crop up. "Legacy issues are for games with several entries" you say. True, but this game apes heavily from typical open-world game design. So, let's talk about some of the things that the OTHER open world RPG has gotten raked over the coals about, yet are still present here.
- Omnipresent guards are back! Steal a muffin in a room with no guards and you're going to have to go to jail, pass a verbal skill check or slaughter the whole town the second you step outside. Your ability to steal is set at a percentage that goes up and isn't based on visibility. You can be in an empty room, break into a desk and suddenly, everybody knows you're a thief. Pretty disappointing, but I'm guessing they had to do it because of
- The town you stumble upon is utterly lifeless. This little villa is home to roughly 10 NPC and has a alchemy shop, a general goods shop and...well, that's about it. It's very, very "video gamey." There was no thought into making this a thought out world that exists in spite of the player. This is an issue that was apparent from the videos, and while there was some improvement, it's still not what you'd expect from an open world game.
- Character interactions. So far, every character exists solely as a info dump or fetch quest giver. Pretty cut and dry.
- Respawning NPCs. I don't know if this is a demo glitch, but there are NPCs that you can kill, turn around, and they're right back as if nothing had happened. Kind of weird.
- Combat is sort of Baby's God of War. You can air juggle, roll about, shoot lighting, grow your skills, but in the end, you're still able to kill everything way, way too easily. And I suck at those types of games. When I know I'll have to kick it up to hard to get any sort of challenge, you know your balance is way off.
- Graphics. First off, I'm REALLY EXCITED that they used color in the game. It's flippin' fantastic that they used the entire visible spectrum to design the world. Love it. However. To say that they were inspired by WoW would be like saying Batman: Arkham City was visually inspired by Batman: Arkham Asylum. One has better textures...but other than that, they're so damn similar as to take you out of the game somewhat. And I played WoW for the span of the 30 day free trial...so seasoned vets may be a bit annoyed here.
- Classes don't mean jack....so far. This is likely to change further into the game, but early game there is no difference between the classes, save for the visual look of some of the moves. A warrior swings a sword/hammer, a rogue some daggers, a mage a twirly magic stick. You can still picks locks just fine with the warrior, cast spells as the rogue, and slay stuff with a sword as a mage. Again, this is likely to change later on, but for the purposes of the demo the only difference between the three is how you want to look while attacking.
- Why do I care? The game starts off pretty interesting - which is should, considering it jacks the opening from Planescape: Torment - but then deposits you in a world with less direction than THAT OTHER GAME. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but outside of wanting to know what's around that next corner, there isn't a whole lot driving players forward. Maybe I had bad luck, but every quest I ran into was a fetch quest of some kind.
- Enemies. Again, this is likely to change, but one shotting sprites and boggarts got old in just 45 minutes. Hopefully there is some change up and some challenge down the road. If the game throws a bunch of filler enemies, that could get pretty obnoxious, pretty quickly. Especially since they respawn fairly quick.
Alright. Now, it may appear that I'm shitting on the game. I am not. I had a great time with the demo and fully plan to buy it day 1. However, I can't help but shake the feeling that the designers cared far more about the combat than any other part of the game. The demo shows that everything else is pretty damn good...but nothing pops out as great. It's a massive step forward for the open world RPG genre, however, to simply have a game with above average-to great combat.
I hope as you go deeper the RPG elements, the challenge and the world open up a little, but I can only base my opinion on the demo at hand so far.
- Omnipresent guards are back! Steal a muffin in a room with no guards and you're going to have to go to jail, pass a verbal skill check or slaughter the whole town the second you step outside. Your ability to steal is set at a percentage that goes up and isn't based on visibility. You can be in an empty room, break into a desk and suddenly, everybody knows you're a thief. Pretty disappointing, but I'm guessing they had to do it because of
- The town you stumble upon is utterly lifeless. This little villa is home to roughly 10 NPC and has a alchemy shop, a general goods shop and...well, that's about it. It's very, very "video gamey." There was no thought into making this a thought out world that exists in spite of the player. This is an issue that was apparent from the videos, and while there was some improvement, it's still not what you'd expect from an open world game.
- Character interactions. So far, every character exists solely as a info dump or fetch quest giver. Pretty cut and dry.
- Respawning NPCs. I don't know if this is a demo glitch, but there are NPCs that you can kill, turn around, and they're right back as if nothing had happened. Kind of weird.
- Combat is sort of Baby's God of War. You can air juggle, roll about, shoot lighting, grow your skills, but in the end, you're still able to kill everything way, way too easily. And I suck at those types of games. When I know I'll have to kick it up to hard to get any sort of challenge, you know your balance is way off.
- Graphics. First off, I'm REALLY EXCITED that they used color in the game. It's flippin' fantastic that they used the entire visible spectrum to design the world. Love it. However. To say that they were inspired by WoW would be like saying Batman: Arkham City was visually inspired by Batman: Arkham Asylum. One has better textures...but other than that, they're so damn similar as to take you out of the game somewhat. And I played WoW for the span of the 30 day free trial...so seasoned vets may be a bit annoyed here.
- Classes don't mean jack....so far. This is likely to change further into the game, but early game there is no difference between the classes, save for the visual look of some of the moves. A warrior swings a sword/hammer, a rogue some daggers, a mage a twirly magic stick. You can still picks locks just fine with the warrior, cast spells as the rogue, and slay stuff with a sword as a mage. Again, this is likely to change later on, but for the purposes of the demo the only difference between the three is how you want to look while attacking.
- Why do I care? The game starts off pretty interesting - which is should, considering it jacks the opening from Planescape: Torment - but then deposits you in a world with less direction than THAT OTHER GAME. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but outside of wanting to know what's around that next corner, there isn't a whole lot driving players forward. Maybe I had bad luck, but every quest I ran into was a fetch quest of some kind.
- Enemies. Again, this is likely to change, but one shotting sprites and boggarts got old in just 45 minutes. Hopefully there is some change up and some challenge down the road. If the game throws a bunch of filler enemies, that could get pretty obnoxious, pretty quickly. Especially since they respawn fairly quick.
Alright. Now, it may appear that I'm shitting on the game. I am not. I had a great time with the demo and fully plan to buy it day 1. However, I can't help but shake the feeling that the designers cared far more about the combat than any other part of the game. The demo shows that everything else is pretty damn good...but nothing pops out as great. It's a massive step forward for the open world RPG genre, however, to simply have a game with above average-to great combat.
I hope as you go deeper the RPG elements, the challenge and the world open up a little, but I can only base my opinion on the demo at hand so far.
CountAntonius
Member
Can't really pick out a single bad thing about the demo yet it still didn't really grab me at all. Not sure why.
I feel like an idiot. I saw some water in the tutorial I can't get in and thought the game would be like that always and commented about that, but then finished the tutorial and came out and I was swimming beautifully.
That little bath gave me the chance to try some lockpicking as well, which is nice.
That little bath gave me the chance to try some lockpicking as well, which is nice.
I agree with a lot of this stuff, but I'm a little iffy on the omnipotent guard thing. As a mage, I don't try to often steal things, but when I have it's been when nobody was around (like in a room by myself) and my steal percentage has never been less than 100% doing it that way.
Playing on PS3
The VO was pretty quiet initially and somewhere during the dungeon I lost all voice sound, I could only hear the music and the hit noises (even during cutscenes).
I also got that bug that automatically skips the dialogue until the next tree that I have to choose.
The gameplay is fun, though. I'll pick it up when it comes out and hope the issues are fixed.
The VO was pretty quiet initially and somewhere during the dungeon I lost all voice sound, I could only hear the music and the hit noises (even during cutscenes).
I also got that bug that automatically skips the dialogue until the next tree that I have to choose.
The gameplay is fun, though. I'll pick it up when it comes out and hope the issues are fixed.
ToastyBanana
Member
I played a little and stopped as I made my mind up to get it for PC. I like the look of it and the combat feels great. I loikes the loots so that's another plus for me.
It ran at a nice smooth 60fps and uses very little vram too, around 350mb most of the time. Not sure what's being done 3D vision-wise but it does kind of work with it. The depth is all there but like a lot of unsupported games the shadow separation is a bit off.
It ran at a nice smooth 60fps and uses very little vram too, around 350mb most of the time. Not sure what's being done 3D vision-wise but it does kind of work with it. The depth is all there but like a lot of unsupported games the shadow separation is a bit off.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I tried it on 2 separate playthroughs. Both times I tried (once as a rogue, once as a warrior) at the alchemy shop with the guard outside (the gnome was behind the counter in the adjacent, but separate room) and both times the guards swarmed my ass as soon as I stepped outside.
Perhaps it's a glitch?
L0st Id3ntity
Member
Plays like Two Worlds, average rpg at best, next...
Maybe. I know even when I'm in a secluded spot like that I've entered stealth mode before stealing stuff. Is it something with just looting owned containers when standing, even though they can't see you?
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I know I tried it both ways, same result. If there was a save game, I'd give it another shot. I don't want to replay the intro again before I buy it though.
Not sure -- because in each of my playthroughs I've been able to lift from that shop when hidden from the guard and the shop owner and make it out without a problem.
Only time I've had a problem with the guards was when I planted my hammer upside the head of the gentleman standing outside the town jail.
Dunno about that but the combat is nothing like Two Worlds, Two worlds combat was a mess and easily the worst part about the game, both the first and second.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Welp, I'll chalk it up to a glitch then. Demos tend to have them. Which is why I didn't go over the audio issues or combat freezing.
Lord knows we've all given that one series enough passes on its glitches.
Shalashaska161
Member
Finished the demo, and I quite enjoyed it. The game isn't perfect, but I'd say it's worth my time.
I had to steal a potion from the alchemy shop for one of the quests. Downstairs, and the guard was in the next room. I entered stealth mode, and could see his eye was mostly filled. I checked the desk, and I had about a 13% chance to steal. I backed out, and watched the guard a bit, and the eye emptied. I checked the desk again, and it was now at 100% chance.
So, just make sure no eyes are filled in the building. (I know, they can see through walls, I guess)