1. InnerWarChild

   8

   The dev team for Amalur get a decent amount of kudos from me for this title. There is a lot of work put into this game and most of it really does come off quite well. It's not god's gift to RPG's, so I do think anyone giving this game a 10 is a bit crazy (or maybe this is their first game played in their life). No, it's not a life changing experience (at least when you play it while not tripping on mushrooms). But it is definitely worthy of a buy if you like games like God of War and Fable or action-RPG's in general. Trust me the game has some meat to it, though to be honest it's probably NOT worth $60 whopping USD they are charging for the PC version. I don't understand why it's $15 more on the PC when as far as I can tell there is nothing specific to the PC version that would warrant it. I will do this review in a different way than most and list pros and cons an final thoughts PROS: -Nice art direction care of artist Todd McFarlane -Large game world -Huge amounts of lore. The game was written to some extent by world renowned fantasy author R.A Salvatore, and the lore comes from his novels as far as I know. Every PC you can talk to has a few dialog options to speak about to fill you in a bit deeper on the lore if you care about it. -Fun "God ofWar" like combat -Bajillion sidequests -Fully voiced NPC's -Armor/weaponcrafting, alchemy, gemcrafting -Just a good solid RPG. CONS: -Your character has no voice - Some people don't mind this, but I prefer my protagonist to have a voice of his own. It is just one more thing that adds character and charm. -NPC's are too stiff during dialog- In games like Mass Effect 2, the characters really feel like they are "there". Here, everything is very wooden, and I'd like to see the next game in the series do more with the "acting". -Graphical texture pop in is very annoying and no way to fix it on the PC since it is hard coded into he game cross platform. This was done to make developing for the PS3 easier and so they could launch all platforms at the same time. To me it's very annoying and my eyes are constantly being drawn to these graphical anomalies because they just pop in so close to the character and they are therefore distracting to my game experience. -No worthwhile camera control - The camera is in my and many other players' opinions way to close to the character and there is no way to move it back. They give you an over the shoulder option (think Dead Space) but it's pointless and I don't know why anyone would use it to be honest. In a game like this you need to be able to see all sides of you. -Some claim the game is "too easy" even on Hard mode. -Some of the skills in the skill-trees can be rather "meh", but to get the highest tier abilities, you are forced to take them making some levels seem like a waste. -No autorun key (Trust me you will wish for one, though on the official forums someone linked a tool that you can run while playing the game where you can set an autorun key) -No real easy way to scroll through abilities making it hard to use them in the heat of battle (PC version, I don't know how it is on the consoles) though the program mentioned above allows you to also scroll through them with the mousewheel if you choose. -No real use for gold. I have currently $500,000 and I barely buy anything. There's definitely items that I could buy that will be an upgrade to my equipment, but since I maxed out smithing, I keep waiting to find the "Master" parts to craft top grade items. So in essence I'm running through the game with a slight handicap, but I've invested in alchemy so I pop potions galore to keep me alive. I would like to feel like i NEED to buy these items and do something with this gold though. THOUGHTS: I don't understand how some people are hating on this game. In my opinion these people are very jaded gamers that have seen it all by now and expect games being released now to change their life or something. None of the cons written above even when all combined are enough to stop me from playing and enjoying this game. I like the combat, I want to see what is next in the story, I like the loot hunting, the world looks nice, the story is very competent, and I really don't know what else in this era of gaming an RPG can offer besides that sort of gameplay. I highly suggest you purchase it at some point and show EA that giving a new game franchise a shot is a lucrative investment, or else all we may see is the same old same old. I really want to see what these guys do in a second installment because I think it will be what the Witcher 2 was to its predecessor.… Expand

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     13 of 16 users said yes
2. syaryel

   6

   Despite the massive exploration and tons of lore..RPG-wise felt "empty" playing this game.. gameplay speed is too much for my liking..would give it an 8 if its a MMO title ..just another overrated action RPG… Expand

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     1 of 1 users said yes
3. gehirnspasti

   4

   First off, I was SUPER EXCITED for this game. All the interviews and pre-release footage made me hope for an RPG that was as good as Skyrim in story, atmosphere and open-world gameplay, yet with refined action combat so that the countless hours I was gonna spend playing would be fun and, most importantly, challenging. But this game turned out to be a letdown. I'm 50 hours in and have absolutely no desire to finish this game anymore. When I first started my new game I was incredibly motivated to keep playing, explore the world and do as much sidequests as possible. The combat is fast, fluid and really felt like, well, combat (as opposed to e.g. Skyrim). The skill system seemed fine and I very much enjoyed the first 15 hours of the game as rogue, hacking, slashing and backstabbing my enemies. I also appreciate that both rogue and warrior have access to magic. The abilities are fun and fit well into the playstyle of each class. The cartooney style of the world isn't exactly 'beautiful', but it worked for me, granted the size of the game I didn't care all that much about graphics. To this point I was happy I bought the game. As I continued playing though, I noticed how the game wasn't increasing in difficulty. Sure, I could still pull off sick combos to make the combat more fun, but it really would've been enough to just mash the square/triangle buttons the whole time. To spice things up a little I decided to reset my skills and tried out different classes. At this point, as I realised how easy COMPLETELY overhauling your character is, and how you wouldnt have to face any consequences, like being a really weak warrior when you were a mage before, I started to lose interest in my character. Usually you care about your character in an RPG and about the decisions you make, but in this game, where you have absolutely no disadvantages for doing whatever the hell you like, this is not the case. There is no reason for you to really commit to this game, and this is what really bugs me. We were promised a "hardcore open world RPG with fast action combat", but what we got is a mediocre button masher that has RPG elements like an open world, lots of quests and skill trees. These RPG elements however are so badly put together, that this can't be called a real RPG. Let's take a look at each aspect more closely: The world: It's big, more or less open, has capital cities and lots of dungeons. Exploring it might be fun at first, but as the world isn't fully open (like Skyrim) and you're unable to jump, you cant scale cool structures you might come across or get into really secret places, which ruins the overall experience. Other than loads of random loot, of which only about 5% are useful, there is no real reward in exploring. Even finding set pieces becomes annoying as they are very frequent and often pretty useless (also there are basically no item requirements, another reason why not to care about your character and equipment). The world quickly gets boring, as every big area is divided into 5 to 8 smaller areas which basically look all the same. There are forests, plains, a canyon/desert and the obligatory dark/evil final-boss-area. Quests: Meaningless. That's probably the most accurate word to describe it. I appreciate how every NPC got its own little backstory and the voice acting is mediocre to good (the facial animations were truly terrible though). But the quests they give are always, ALWAYS, "get that thing out of that dungeon", "kill these guys" or "talk to that guy". The quest rewards are usually the same garbage you find when exploring and collecting random loot, so no point in delving into the storylines and paying attention to what's actually happening. The skill system: At first glance it might appear deep. As you continue playing, however, you quickly realise there is no depth at all and you'll quickly have reached the final talent in your tree not even halfway through the game. Getting your ultimate would feel like a huge accomplishment in any other RPG, not so in KoA. It sure is fun to use those talents at first, and you're very powerful when doing so (too powerful even), but it's impossible to care even the slightest about them, as you can reset your skills as you please. What disappointed me most, is that there is an OUTRAGEOUS imbalance between each skill tree. While it was fun to play rogue, playing a mage is so absurdly easy, that it's almost insulting to call this a video game. Even on the highest difficulty there is no challenge whatsoever. If you're not completely dull, you won't die, and as mage you'll one-shot downright everything. When I play an RPG, I want challenge, depth and a character I care about. KoA has none of these. It looked very promising, as it was supposed to breathe new life into the genre with its refined combat, but this game is nothing but a HUGE disappointment. 4 points for the fun start and how the game runs almost without bugs/glitches whatsoever.… Expand

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     8 of 8 users said yes

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