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[Gotchaye]

I've been finding the game a bit too easy on Hard (just got out of Dalentarth, upper teens level). I've intentionally avoided using all health potions except for healing between fights (although for quality of life I just socketed a health regen gem and now I don't use potions at all).

I think my big issue with the difficulty is that harder enemies give too much experience. I level up really, really fast when I fight orange monsters for a decent challenge, and sometimes it's too tempting not to use Reckoning to wipe out two or three of them all at once for 10k+ experience.

I've changed my mind on stealth completely ever since maxing out the skill and also getting smoke bomb. Plus you can roll around while sneaking so it's not as horribly slow as it seems at first. It's a lot of fun, and challenging in places.

AI is also a little problematic. I got through the Maid's castle without using a potion or Reckoning, but I accidentally cheesed one fight against two Fae and two snake ladies when I went to the side of a pillar and they came at me one by one.

 

[QisTopTier]

Random question, are the people talking about there being a lack of depth to the characters and stuff DOING ALL THE DIALOG OPTIONS? Because.... pretty much every npc goes over a shit tons of things about the world and other npcs.

 

[moop1167]

I wonder how easy it will be to just drop exp rewards for killing mobs with a patch. Can't be that hard. That will help with the over-leveling part.

 

[QisTopTier]

I wonder how easy it will be to just drop exp rewards for killing mobs with a patch. Can't be that hard. That will help with the over-leveling part.

Just increase the mobs health by 1/2 and reduce how easy they get staggered from finishers it makes stuns and parrying redundant.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Random question, are the people talking about there being a lack of depth to the characters and stuff DOING ALL THE DIALOG OPTIONS? Because.... pretty much every npc goes over a shit tons of things about the world and other npcs.

I love all of the unique dialogue that's been available so far. It helps that I'm actually really interested in the world they created for Amalur. I picked up on a ton of good story stuff by thoroughly talking to everyone in the first town, and that really helped me get invested in the various quests that I found therein.

 

[Derrick01]

You for srs?

Unless something changed he's doing it. I saw that 1 thread where you can petition to do OTs and he was doing it.

 

[Hawk269]

I wonder how easy it will be to just drop exp rewards for killing mobs with a patch. Can't be that hard. That will help with the over-leveling part.

That might be the easiesst thing to do. Lower exp gain fighting enemies, lower exp gained using Reckoning...then add in a limit 10 health potions and that might be enough to balance it out a bit.

 

[Hawk269]

I love all of the unique dialogue that's been available so far. It helps that I'm actually really interested in the world they created for Amalur. I picked up on a ton of good story stuff by thoroughly talking to everyone in the first town, and that really helped me get invested in the various quests that I found therein.

Agree with you 100%. I do like that level of detail. In many RPG's the NPC's when they have the same topic listed in the menu say the same thing. With this game, it is unique and you get alot more back story about stuff. I am really digigng that part of it. Part of the reason is that I am looking forward to the MMO and the more of the lore I know about the world will make it better in the MMO.

 

[Riggs]

One thing I can say the color pallet is so vibrant I love it.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Do all of the other versions than Steam have to be played through Origin? And do you need to use Origin to play the game when you have the Steam version? Because the game is much cheaper outside of Steam here.

 

[Zeth]

WTF @ Gerstman complaining about the large number of side quests. We all know if it had less, that would be the biggest issue he would take with it.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

WTF @ Gerstman complaining about the large number of side quests. We all know if it had less, that would be the biggest issue he would take with it.

His complaint was that there were lots of quests that felt like filler, not that there were a lot of quests. The quality doesn't stay consistent throughout all the content, in many peoples' view.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Seriously... everyone getting heated about overleveling the enemies... what about all the bitching about Oblivion's leveling enemies? It's there in Skyrim too and no one seemed to put up much of a fuss about it.

I suspect it's because the combat is fundamentally broken in TES games and is just about the most boring shit ever, so most people don't have any expectations of it.

However, in a game like Amalur, the combat is deep and quite a bit of fun, but if the encounters aren't challenging, then it stands out more.

At least, that's what I assume. I much prefer satisfying easy combat (although I would prefer a challenge) to bullshit non-engaging easy combat.

 

[thetrin]

Do all of the other versions than Steam have to be played through Origin? And do you need to use Origin to play the game when you have the Steam version? Because the game is much cheaper outside of Steam here.

All non-Steam versions are Origin, yes.

 

[daedalius]

His complaint was that there were lots of quests that felt like filler, not that there were a lot of quests. The quality doesn't stay consistent throughout all the content, in many peoples' view.

Side stuff is always kind of crappy, in just about every RPG I've played.

Its no worse stuff than what you get in MMOs and some of the side-quests in Skyrim.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Just caught up on the last few pages.

I think the difficulty issues would be helped a lot if potions were changed somehow. Whether that be by adding cooldown or by adding of some kind of risk to using them (short animation to drink, etc.), I think it would go a long way to making the game more difficult at least early on. Either that or make potions a lot more rare/expensive? I don't know. Maybe things get tougher later on--I hope so at least.

 

[FlyinJ]

For people talking about not being able to pick up lockpicks/potions/etc when their inventory is full-

It seem that lockpicks, health and mana potions do indeed take up inventory space. I'm not sure about other potions. They don't take up 1 space each, but more like 1 space for every 2-5. If you are ever at capacity, it will not let you pick up an additional health/mana potion. If you have 1 space left, you can pick up a few before it clicks over to one space on inventory consumed.

I haven't done enough experimentation to figure out exactly what percentage of 1 slot each potion takes though.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

Side stuff is always kind of crappy, in just about every RPG I've played.

Its no worse stuff than what you get in MMOs and some of the side-quests in Skyrim.

"No worse than" doesn't mean "good".

I like how people defending against the quest complaints keep bringing up Skyrim and MMOs, as if every single person who doesn't like the sidequests in Amalur has mentioned Skyrim and MMOs as good examples of questing.

 

[Justin]

A loading screen tip said you could find vendors that sell bags to increase your inventory space but I have not found one yet. Where is the first vendor you can find that has larger bags?

 

[Hawk269]

A loading screen tip said you could find vendors that sell bags to increase your inventory space but I have not found one yet. Where is the first vendor you can find that has larger bags?

lol..in the very first town you come too. It costs 7500 gold if I remember correctly.

 

[ironcreed]

Random question, are the people talking about there being a lack of depth to the characters and stuff DOING ALL THE DIALOG OPTIONS? Because.... pretty much every npc goes over a shit tons of things about the world and other npcs.

Agreed with this. I love how you can dig into details on even side quests. On top of that, the voice acting is very well done for the most part and the characters do a good job of conveying expressions and feelings with body language.

If you actually take the time to look into the little details, you will notice a lot of little nuances here and there that make this game special. While the high fantasy premise and setting is nothing original, it is not some half-assed, low budget, generic land RPG, as many have tried to claim. A lot went into this game and it is very well made.

 

[Hawk269]

For all my bitching about difficulty and some other little things, I just got back from Best Buy picking up the 360 version as well. I already have the Steam version, so now I own 2 copies of the game. Main reason was that the PC I use is a gaming rig hooked up to a big screen TV and the TV is not always available to me so when others are using it, I can game on my 360 in the other room. Plus the kids are digging the game as well.

Anyways, as of last night the DLC that is available on the 360 and PS3 are not available through Steam...WHY??? The Finise, Might and Sorcery Bonus packs are up for the consoles but not the PC?

Also as we booted the 360 version we got a patch..anyone know what they fixed/changed? I know yesterday PS3 owners got a patch and now the 360 version has one...what about PC?

 

[Justin]

lol..in the very first town you come too. It costs 7500 gold if I remember correctly.

lol I knew it would be something stupid like that. I thought I looked at every vendor but I must have missed it.

 

[Wallach]

For all my bitching about difficulty and some other little things, I just got back from Best Buy picking up the 360 version as well. I already have the Steam version, so now I own 2 copies of the game. Main reason was that the PC I use is a gaming rig hooked up to a big screen TV and the TV is not always available to me so when others are using it, I can game on my 360 in the other room. Plus the kids are digging the game as well.

Anyways, as of last night the DLC that is available on the 360 and PS3 are not available through Steam...WHY??? The Finise, Might and Sorcery Bonus packs are up for the consoles but not the PC?

Also as we booted the 360 version we got a patch..anyone know what they fixed/changed? I know yesterday PS3 owners got a patch and now the 360 version has one...what about PC?

I was asking this yesterday here, made a topic over on the official boards to see if I get an answer.

If you check out store.origin.com, under the Amalur page you can see they have a $5 pack (which sounds like the entire bundle) but the link for it doesn't go anywhere.

 

[CitizenCope]

as an older gamer (37 here) i find the difficulty just fine. i just want to explore and have a good time. some early spider battles actually made me use strategy. the difficulty has been just right for me. i want to enjoy the little gaming time i have. my days of high difficulty are over. this coming from a guy that beat ninja gaiden and battletoads on the nes and can do a no death run of the original contra.

edit: but i totally understand those that want a higher difficulty level. i'm just throwing in my 2 cents for what it's worth (probably less than 2 cents).

Yeah this is me but a little older. Not so great at these action games lately. Like yourself I could not be stopped with my determination back in the day.
I think the latest Ninja Gaidens put me over the edge where I can't put up with the harder difficulties. I finished them but not without wanting to break something. Those days are over for me. I'm not as determined.
Don't think I died in the last Fable but I enjoyed it. Would like a little more of a challenge and so far I've gotten it with this game.
I do understand you youngins though. Just don't try and take potions away from everyone.

 

[QisTopTier]

Yeah this is me but a little older. Not so great at these action games lately. Like yourself I could not be stopped with my determination back in the day.
I think the latest Ninja Gaidens put me over the edge where I can't put up with the harder difficulties. I finished them but not without wanting to break something. Those days are over for me. I'm not as determined.
Don't think I died in the last Fable but I enjoyed it. Would like a little more of a challenge and so far I've gotten it with this game.
I do understand you youngins though. Just don't try and take potions away from everyone.

Just craft hp regen potions not the regular ones, they are better anyways.

 

[Riggs]

BTW is black smithing op like skyrim?

 

[scy]

Just craft hp regen potions not the regular ones, they are better anyways.

Master Regen potions fully heal me every 7 seconds.

At Level 31 :|

BTW is black smithing op like skyrim?

Actually, I'd say no. You're limited component wise to stuff your level range and the raw damage of them isn't actually better than Uniques of that level range. You do get to fully customize all the bonuses on them, however.

Though, you can make some absurd combinations if you choose to do so. Like, maxing out on Damage Resistance absurd.

 

[Wallach]

BTW is black smithing op like skyrim?

Not from what I've seen. But then I've never come across crafting as broken as Morrowind/Skyrim either.

 

[CTE]

Also as we booted the 360 version we got a patch..anyone know what they fixed/changed? I know yesterday PS3 owners got a patch and now the 360 version has one...what about PC?

I got the patch yesterday when booting up for the first time around 4(CT). Still haven't figured out what it did/does.

 

[Visceir]

Random question, are the people talking about there being a lack of depth to the characters and stuff DOING ALL THE DIALOG OPTIONS? Because.... pretty much every npc goes over a shit tons of things about the world and other npcs.

It's probably the bad presentation that is at fault.

Best comparison I can think of would be the stabbed Fae in the first town vs. you entering Markarth and seeing someone get stabbed. In Skyrim I was genuinely interested in what just happened and what was going on, In Reckoning I just saw the yellow arrow above an NPC and really just wanted to get through the dialogue to the blue text line and then run to the yellow circle and get my exp/loot.

Had they set up that scene differently and maybe actually given some personality to the Fae then I might have been interested in saving her and wouldn't have done 10 other sidequests before getting back to that.

(it was probably a bad idea to mention Skyrim)

 

[Ken]

This game has terrifying NPCs.

 

[Riggs]

Laughing so hard at that pic! I am sage atm gemd up like a boss. Thinking of Bs for my warrior playthrough thnx all.

 

[QisTopTier]

This game has terrifying NPCs.

LOL it happens when you start a convo off to the side of them. It's fucking hilarious

 

[krpiper]

So I was in town running errands and I decide to pick this up, and I'll just cancel my newegg order or something. as soon as I pull into the driveway I get the "your package is shipped" email.

Well guess I'll just return the newegg copy to walmart then

 

[daedalius]

"No worse than" doesn't mean "good".

I like how people defending against the quest complaints keep bringing up Skyrim and MMOs, as if every single person who doesn't like the sidequests in Amalur has mentioned Skyrim and MMOs as good examples of questing.

Shit I never said they were good either.

I said side quests are usually shitty earlier, and they are. I haven't really found an RPG, mmo or otherwise, with decent side quests; and by that I mean the side-side quests, not like faction lines, etc. Those are usually pretty interesting.

 

[Justin]

Shit I never said they were good either.

I said side quests are usually shitty earlier, and they are. I haven't really found an RPG, mmo or otherwise, with decent side quests; and by that I mean the side-side quests, not like faction lines, etc. Those are usually pretty interesting.

I think Fallout 3 did it perfectly. Only have 10 or so side quests that have long narative arcs that span several quests. They were much better than the main quest.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

One thing I can say the color pallet is so vibrant I love it.

Except that after playing Skyrim for the past couple of months Reckoning is blinding in its vibrancy.

I played last night for over an hour. Here's some quick impressions:

+ Combat is awesome. I like the mix of strategies, throw a spell, fire an arrow, followed by a blade or staff combo. All without pausing the game and switching things (ala Skyrim). Definitely reminds me of Darksiders, which is one of my favorite games of this generation.

+ Loot is awesome, and this game has hit on the right balance of leaving chests around that allow you to swap stuff for better stuff or finding cooler stuff than what you have on fallen enemies.

- Camera is still acting wonky. I got into a fight with some kobolds and the camera kept shifting and not giving me a clear view of them. I had to fiddle with it while also trying to fight. I also had a little fight with a couple of wolves on a hillside and the camera got stuck on the low side of the hill, basically showing me the lower half of my character as I beat on the wolves. Very strange.

- The colors are so vibrant as to be distracting, actually. The one thing I love about Skyrim is that it feels authentic. Yes, the color palette tends toward the dreary, but it feels like I've been dropped into a living, breathing world full of possibilities. Reckoning so far feels like I've been dropped into a cartoon.

- No co-op. This is the kind of game that's meant for me and at least one other (my bro, specifically) to play online. Bums me out that it's only single player.

Bottom line: The Diablo-like loot system combined with the combat mechanics will keep me playing this for a while. I literally expected to stop much earlier than I did last night, but I kept saying "one more room, one more chest, let's see what's around this corner first."

 

[moop1167]

Is pc getting those item packs? I have it on Steam and see nothing about it.

 

[Rokam]

14 hours in, just now finished House of Ballads, I outleveled it by quite a bit, and still have a lot left in the area below my level, but that's alright. Although I will need to skip ahead at some point to get the achievement for killing something high level. Solid game.

 

[DualShadow]

I'm trying to decide between pure Might or Might with a bit of magic thrown in, thoughts?

 

[mjc]

I can't believe Giant Bomb is complaining that there's too many sidequests. Such a weird problem to have with the game.

 

[QisTopTier]

I can't believe Giant Bomb is complaining that there's too many sidequests. Such a weird problem to have with the game.

Cause complaining about things you DONT need to do is logical

Also curt, please have them get rid of that limit on the skill trainers, it serves no purpose outside of being annoying. *only 3 ranks in blah blah is the limit past that you cant learn* Ok.... now let me go all the way back, respec, then come back and learn it, then redo all my points again and set up my hotkeys -.-

 

[Dresden]

I'm trying to decide between pure Might or Might with a bit of magic thrown in, thoughts?

Do both, just respec as needed.

 

[Hawk269]

The more thought I have given the difficulty thing and hearing people that do too many sidequests out-leveling the enemies, the easiest and most effective things to patch would be:

1. Increase the amount of experience points needed to level up. This can be an easy change. For example to go from Level 0 to 1 you need 500XP, change it 1000 and adjust all them after that. This does a few things:

a) If a player does side quests, they have alot more exp to earn before they level up and in-turn keeps them closer to the mob levels in the area.
b) It encourages those that do "main quest" only to try some, not all side quests because it gains them XP they will need because they need the xp in harder area.
c) It rewards those that explore. Due to exploring, you will encounter more loot, more enemies. If a xp nerf is not done, exploring almost forces you to level up too fast since you have to fight the mobs.

2. Still decrease the amount that potions heal, or the amount you can carry and/or the cost of them.

3. Health and Mana related potions should count towards your inventory as individual bottles of health or mana. A stack of 50 health counts as 1 item as it is now.

4. Fate generation needs to be nerfed. It fills up way to fast. -or-
4a. Reduce the amount of XP gained from using Fate/Reckoning mode.

Just a few simple ideas/suggestions.

 

[shaowebb]

Remember everyone that voted on the Day 9 streamathon Kindoms of Amalur Day of Reckoning polls to return to the threads tomorrow on the 9th at 5pm to see who won each prize.

 

[ironcreed]

I can't believe Giant Bomb is complaining that there's too many sidequests. Such a weird problem to have with the game.

Some will love them and others will find them boring, but I feel compelled to do every single one I come across in this game because it is just so damn fun to play. It has an addiction factor that takes me back to playing games like Champions of Norrath, but in a much larger and more beautiful world that is packed with content and things I want to do. Not to mention much better gameplay and a flexible class system where every possible path you can take is fun as hell and you even get perks for mixing styles.

 

[Klyka]

Whoever says the NPCs in this game are lifeless and forgettable???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U_3iqK4hSo

 

[Hawk269]

Some will love them and others will find them boring, but I feel compelled to do every single one I come across in this game because it is just so damn fun to play. It has an addiction factor that takes me back to playing games like Champions of Norrath, but in a much larger and more beautiful world that is packed with content and things I want to do. Not to mention much better gameplay and a flexible class system where every possible path you can take is fun as hell and you even get perks for mixing styles.

Same with me...just know that if you do all of them you will out level the content way too fast and later it will become even more easier than it is now. I love doing sidequests in games like these and so far the ones early on in this game have been great..sidequests that are completed lead to more sidequests etc.

 

[Hawk269]

Whoever says the NPCs in this game are lifeless and forgettable???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U_3iqK4hSo

lol that was good. It is also funny when you click on a person playing a flute, yet they are still able to still talk to you and play the flute at the same time...now that is some talent there!!!