[SexyPimpAss]

To give my personal impressions on the demo, i thought it was great tbh.

The combat was more fast paced than a lot of rpgs i had played.
The graphic style they chose for the game stands out from almost all the rpgs being released this year. (dragons dogma, skyrim, mass effect 3, witcher 2.)
All the non combat skills seemed to have immediate uses right when you got them that only improved as they leveled up.
The crafting added another layer to the random loot drops, as you can take apart the weapons you don't want and create a whole new weapon. (not to mention every potion i found seemed useful)
It's a preorder for me. Iv'e never played a game that mixed all these things together, and having never been a big MMO guy, the warcraft graphics don't bother me.(although i love Warcraft 3)

[Emerald Dreams]

I feel like I played a different demo then everyone else, seeing all the negativity. The textures and lighting look fantastic and the world looks great, art wise. The combat is fun, especially once you get charge attacks. I was rolling, using magic, countering, charging my dagger attacks, all in a fight with some wolves. And if you took a look at some of the moves you get later on(they play little videos when you highlight them, like in Fable), they look amazing, the animation looks great. From the few dungeons I did, the music was scripted excellently. This great score started as soon as I entered a room with a large chest at the end of it, and it just felt cool sneaking up to it, with that music playing.

There are some low-points, as with any game. The facial animations look wooden, and the voice acting is a bit cheesy at times. The entire world is cliché, but the actual story seems to be pretty well written. The dialogue system feels a bit old-fashioned, with the black bars and whatnot.

I was genuinely interested in the story, after using reckoning mode for the first time, and the fateweaver guy was like "What are you? Nothing short of a god should be able to do what you did!"

I know it doesn't matter to my enjoyment of the game, but the lack of enthusiasm from this forum bothers me a bit. Here's a solid ARPG, with an open world(yes it is open world, you can go anywhere, anytime you want, the definition of open world), good combat, good writing, and a fun progression system. Yet it's getting flak for looking 'cartoony', there not being an option to jump, and the fact that your shield disappears when not in use.

First of all, this game isn't cartoony. It's may be exaggerated at times, but never full on bugs bunny. It is akin to WoW, but why is that automatically a flaw? Is WoW the only game allowed to have that aesthetic? No.

Not being able to jump does not make the game linear. Being a linear game makes a game linear. The game is obviously designed so that jumping isn't necessary, get over it.

About the shield thing, it doesn't really bug me that much. To each their own on this one.

[Eric Hayes]

Unfortunately I keep freezing when it tells me to switch to my secondary weapon, so I'll never know how good the combat can be.

[Jennie Skeletons]

Unfortunately I keep freezing when it tells me to switch to my secondary weapon, so I'll never know how good the combat can be.

The only bug I noticed was the lips not moving during dialogue. What system did you play the demo on? I played it on the PC.

[Anthony Diaz]

PC via Steam. As soon as I equip the bow and get out of the inventory, all the NPCs and my character seem to disappear, leaving only a glowy spot in my place, and I can't exit out of the message box that appears to tell me how to switch weapons.

[Dustin Brown]

PC via Steam. As soon as I equip the bow and get out of the inventory, all the NPCs and my character seem to disappear, leaving only a glowy spot in my place, and I can't exit out of the message box that appears to tell me how to switch weapons.

Huh... I heard turning off post-processing has helped some people. Other then that though, I don't know what to tell ya. The intro to the game is cool, but I found myself really enjoying just running around the world, so you're missing out.

Another thing I'm noticing is that a lot of 'classic' rpg mechanics seem to be in this game. Things are more up to the character skills then the players skills. Like, you can't even equip certain armors without the proper skill requirements. That's something abnormal to the modern ARPG genre(which is pretty sparse at the moment, methinks).

[Alister Scott]

I feel like I played a different demo then everyone else, seeing all the negativity. The textures and lighting look fantastic and the world looks great, art wise. The combat is fun, especially once you get charge attacks. I was rolling, using magic, countering, charging my dagger attacks, all in a fight with some wolves. And if you took a look at some of the moves you get later on(they play little videos when you highlight them, like in Fable), they look amazing, the animation looks great. From the few dungeons I did, the music was scripted excellently. This great score started as soon as I entered a room with a large chest at the end of it, and it just felt cool sneaking up to it, with that music playing.

There are some low-points, as with any game. The facial animations look wooden, and the voice acting is a bit cheesy at times. The entire world is cliché, but the actual story seems to be pretty well written. The dialogue system feels a bit old-fashioned, with the black bars and whatnot.

I was genuinely interested in the story, after using reckoning mode for the first time, and the fateweaver guy was like "What are you? Nothing short of a god should be able to do what you did!"

I know it doesn't matter to my enjoyment of the game, but the lack of enthusiasm from this forum bothers me a bit. Here's a solid ARPG, with an open world(yes it is open world, you can go anywhere, anytime you want, the definition of open world), good combat, good writing, and a fun progression system. Yet it's getting flak for looking 'cartoony', there not being an option to jump, and the fact that your shield disappears when not in use.

First of all, this game isn't cartoony. It's may be exaggerated at times, but never full on bugs bunny. It is akin to WoW, but why is that automatically a flaw? Is WoW the only game allowed to have that aesthetic? No.

Not being able to jump does not make the game linear. Being a linear game makes a game linear. The game is obviously designed so that jumping isn't necessary, get over it.

About the shield thing, it doesn't really bug me that much. To each their own on this one.

Exactly how i feel where is all this negativity coming from? I understand everyone has their own opinions but some of it seems a little forced (not talking about the bugs)

Huh... I heard turning off post-processing has helped some people. Other then that though, I don't know what to tell ya. The intro to the game is cool, but I found myself really enjoying just running around the world, so you're missing out.

Another thing I'm noticing is that a lot of 'classic' rpg mechanics seem to be in this game. Things are more up to the character skills then the players skills. Like, you can't even equip certain armors without the proper skill requirements. That's something abnormal to the modern ARPG genre(which is pretty sparse at the moment, methinks).

In the developer interviews iv'e read/listened to (been following this game really hard) when the devs had to choose between action or rpg, the rpg side always won out. This game is an rpg first, and an action game second. If an enemy's level is too higher than yours, he won't react to your hits.


If anyone is wondering about the bugs, read my second post on page 4

Edit: they are even taking player feedback on the demo, this post pertains only to the camera but i don't see why they wouldn't be changing anything else about the game. http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/showthread.php?2485-Your-feedback!-(particularly-camera)&p=45367#post45367

[Kayla Oatney]

It's negative in the sense that it is criticism I suppose, but this game feels really dated to me.

Just my opinion.

Not being able to jump in a game only adds to the dated feel, and actually does make a game more linear by definition. This is not to say that thats a bad thing, there are plenty of games without the option to bunny hop.

Its just a whole bunch of minor things that come together to create a summation of "Didn't I play this 10 years ago?" for me.

I could turn the sentiment around and say, "Where's all this positive commentary coming from?"

In the end, it really doesn't matter. If you like it, good job.

This game just feels too dated to me to consider playing on day one, there are older and better titles that function with similar mechanics that I would play simply for nostalgia's sake over KOA. After everyone has given thier $60 (or equivalent regional currency) and the price drops, just about every negative commentator has said they will check it out.

Just another game where the hype didn't live up to reality for me, that's all.

[cutiecute]

Edit: they are even taking player feedback on the demo, this post pertains only to the camera but i don't see why they wouldn't be changing anything else about the game. http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/showthread.php?2485-Your-feedback!-(particularly-camera)&p=45367#post45367

I actually liked the way the camera worked!

snip

Fair enough. I actually like that it doesn't follow contemporary game conventions, for better, or for worse.

[Marguerite Dabrin]

Almost done downloading

[CRuzIta LUVz grlz]

Almost done downloading

Hope it's issue-free for ya.

[LuCY sCoTT]

Is there a Mac demo?

[Sandeep Khatkar]

I actually liked the way the camera worked!



Fair enough. I actually like that it doesn't follow contemporary game conventions, for better, or for worse.

lol i didn't see anything wrong with the camera either but it seems like a lot of the stuff their tweaking is optional like the sprinting.

@http://www.gamesas.com/user/748983-zyghart/
i'd like to apologize if i came off as fan-boyish or if i offended. I just think the demo was great and was wondering about all the disliking and such. IGN seems to like it for what thats worth.

[Queen Bitch]

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/121/1216517p1.html

I'll let the above link tell more about Reckoning, for those still on the fence and others who are curious about the game.

[Amanda Furtado]

Is there a Mac demo?

Nope. PC, PS3, X360.

I take it you don't have a Bootcamp install of Windows on your Mac?

[Melis Hristina]

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/121/1216517p1.html

I'll let the above link tell more about Reckoning, for those still on the fence and others who are curious about the game.

That's some extremely high praise coming from IGN. I want to see Gameinformer's review as well.

[Adrian Powers]

just in case anyone wanted to know more about the game, they have a lot of developer Q&A on their forums http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/showthread.php?1334-Weekly-Community-Q-amp-A-Archive

[lillian luna]

I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had never played Skyrim; seeing as how Skyrim basically ruined every game for me.

It reminded me a lot of Fable. So if you like Fable, then you'll probably like this game.

[Portions]

Tried playing the demo but I constantly get a black screen. Then when I bring up the menu, it stays there. Really interesting seeing all the enemy names pop up while not being able to see them.

[Michael Korkia]

Tried playing the demo but I constantly get a black screen. Then when I bring up the menu, it stays there. Really interesting seeing all the enemy names pop up while not being able to see them.

Turn off postprocessing. It fixed that issue for me.

[Killah Bee]

I'm not really sure about the negativity. People either seem to enjoy the game or just downright loathe it. Very few people are in the gray area here, or anywhere that talks about this game. It is indeed an odd phenomenon. My very first few seconds were horrible, not knowing about the post processing bug that makes the screen black. Once all that was sorted I started enjoying myself. I got through the tutorial, which, by the way, can be skipped when and if you make a new character. This will probably be in the full game, so they've already one up'd bethesda there [don't hurt me]

On the PC, inventory menu's seem a bit clunky, but Skyrim had already prepared me for that. Combat was very fluid and fun to play with, can't say I care too much about my shield popping from nowhere. World had beautiful art and graphics were very nice. Not Skyrim realistic, but they were pleasing to the eye. Seeing all the different browns grays and whites in Skyrim and seeing a world full of color sure does wake one up.

All in all, good first impressions. I'm pre-ordering the game for the PC. It seems like people dislike it because of the setting. Too cartoony, too colorful, too Fable-esque. Some people like realistic visuals, others enjoy a splash of magic in their fantasy. I happen to enjoy both.

[Nicole M]

I played through the whole Demo yesterday and really tried to like this game (since I was excited with Ken Rolston being on the dev team), but Ugh, I found myself completely underwhelmed with it and actually felt I was playing an inferior Divine Divinity DKS clone. It also had that Fable type vibe going on for me but with WOW graphics.

I hated the colourful, cartoony, fluffy WOW style graphics with the oversized weapons and body styles with glowing outlines etc..
I found the combat was completely boring and shallow, even with that "fatethread" stuff. I just ended up mashing the X button to melee enemies with the firestaff and lobbing the occasional lightning blast.
The dialogue speech kept skipping forward on my demo, weird bug already. The 4 Races you pick from, I found were realy poor and I didn`t fancy picking any of them to be honest.
I had completely lost interest in the game and any NPC quests by the time I got to the end of the Demo.

Overall I found the game completely underwhelming and it felt like playing a mix of single player WOW crossed with Fable and some Revenant thrown in. Revenant was a great game though.
I cannot believe that people have actually rated the combat in this game as better than Skyrim`s. It felt like playing a cutesy wutesy button mash hack`n`slash game. Give me the grim and visceral combat of Skyrim any day.

Very disappointed. Will wait for Dragons Dogma next and see how that turns out.

[Amy Masters]

grim and visceral

Personally, I like a mix. Having something with a bright art style is a nice change from all the "grim and visceral" that's been going around the past few years. As it is, I've always liked WoW's graphics, too. (Well, maybe not many of the completely-over-the-top end game equipment ).

But, to each their own.

(As for the "it's just button mashing".... that IGN article that was linked seems to suggest that it gets harder, that the button-mashing is just the early intro. Good plan to ease players into it, bad plan for the demo - people see the easy combat and think that's it.)

[RObert loVes MOmmy]

I know it doesn't matter to my enjoyment of the game, but the lack of enthusiasm from this forum bothers me a bit. Here's a solid ARPG, with an open world(yes it is open world, you can go anywhere, anytime you want, the definition of open world), good combat, good writing, and a fun progression system. Yet it's getting flak for looking 'cartoony', there not being an option to jump, and the fact that your shield disappears when not in use.

First of all, this game isn't cartoony. It's may be exaggerated at times, but never full on bugs bunny. It is akin to WoW, but why is that automatically a flaw? Is WoW the only game allowed to have that aesthetic? No.

The negativity isn't appearing otu of thin air. Well...it might be for some people. But mostly there are legitmate reasons.

It's not an open world becuase the world is devided but walls. In a boxing game, the enitre 'world' consists of the boxing ring and you can go anywhere in it - that doesnt make it an open world game. KoA is a bunch of seperated areas with a main paths and a some side paths you can exploit- just like in fable and dark siders. You can't just say to yourself ' i'm going to walk east ' and then just start walking. If you want to move on to different areas - you have to follow the right path: thats not an open world.

The 'hidden' treasures aren't random, they're set, so once you find it - you'll always know where to look.

The writing is standard, it doesnt exactly stand out. It seems to me like a lot of people are willing to overlook things becuase it was written by R.A Salvatore instead of some no-name writer. I'm not saying it was terribly, but it wasnt great or compelling- it was there.

The combat is smooth but it's repetitive. You have the option to dodge and block but you generally don't have to do either unless you just feel like dragging the fight out. Comabt mostly consists of mashing teh attack button fast enough that the enemy cant fight back - unless they're strong enough to attack through your attacks, in which case it generally falls into the standard action game sequence - attack, attack, attack, dodge, repeat.

The progression system is standard and they played it safe. It looks just like the progression system in Titan quest and games like it. the difference is at any point you can change your 'desitny' so you can change between a rogue, mage, or warrior on the fly- which to me (personal opinion) hugely breaks immersion.

And lastly, yeah it's getting knocked for it's cartoon-y aspect and absolutely it should be. WoW is incrediably outdated - graphics wise. KoA looks like a disney video game, with cliche dwarves and elves. I give it props for adding blood and the occcasional gore, but that doesn't change the fact that the developers had the great Todd McFarlane on their team and they came out with mediocre graphics and steroetyped creatures. It's not really ugly to look at, i mean, they did get the graphics to atleast look smoother than WoW, but they had the abillity to really raise the bar in design and the didn't even try.

[Red Bevinz]

The negativity isn't appearing otu of thin air. Well...it might be for some people. But mostly there are legitmate reasons.

It's not an open world becuase the world is devided but walls. In a boxing game, the enitre 'world' consists of the boxing ring and you can go anywhere in it - that doesnt make it an open world game. KoA is a bunch of seperated areas with a main paths and a some side paths you can exploit- just like in fable and dark siders. You can't just say to yourself ' i'm going to walk east ' and then just start walking. If you want to move on to different areas - you have to follow the right path: thats not an open world.

The 'hidden' treasures aren't random, they're set, so once you find it - you'll always know where to look.

The writing is standard, it doesnt exactly stand out. It seems to me like a lot of people are willing to overlook things becuase it was written by R.A Salvatore instead of some no-name writer. I'm not saying it was terribly, but it wasnt great or compelling- it was there.

The combat is smooth but it's repetitive. You have the option to dodge and block but you generally don't have to do either unless you just feel like dragging the fight out. Comabt mostly consists of mashing teh attack button fast enough that the enemy cant fight back - unless they're strong enough to attack through your attacks, in which case it generally falls into the standard action game sequence - attack, attack, attack, dodge, repeat.

The progression system is standard and they played it safe. It looks just like the progression system in Titan quest and games like it. the difference is at any point you can change your 'desitny' so you can change between a rogue, mage, or warrior on the fly- which to me (personal opinion) hugely breaks immersion.

And lastly, yeah it's getting knocked for it's cartoon-y aspect and absolutely it should be. WoW is incrediably outdated - graphics wise. KoA looks like a disney video game, with cliche dwarves and elves. I give it props for adding blood and the occcasional gore, but that doesn't change the fact that the developers had the great Todd McFarlane on their team and they came out with mediocre graphics and steroetyped creatures. It's not really ugly to look at, i mean, they did get the graphics to atleast look smoother than WoW, but they had the abillity to really raise the bar in design and the didn't even try.

+1 to all of this. Maybe my mind would be changed if I could get through the demo. As it stands now, though, I won't be buying the game until it's cheaper. It looks like it's very good, a lot better than most of the stuff that comes out these days. It's just not what I was hoping it would be and I don't have enough of a drive to play games anymore to look past that.