DNF, too bland and generic. Thought so when the original came out and I still stand by it after replaying the 'remaster'.
DO NOT ORDER DRAGON AGE FROM SHEIN!!
In all seriousness, this was one of those "comfort food" games for me. Aside from the surprisingly robust combat system, nothing in Amalur really stands out all that much. The characters are bland, the story gets worse as it goes on, the game looks and feels like an MMO, complete with all of the hallmarks of the genre like braindead quest design, and yet...I can't really say I wasn't having fun playing it. It's more than the sum of its parts and really scratched an itch for me that hadn't been scratched in a while, and that's all I needed from it.
In all seriousness, this was one of those "comfort food" games for me. Aside from the surprisingly robust combat system, nothing in Amalur really stands out all that much. The characters are bland, the story gets worse as it goes on, the game looks and feels like an MMO, complete with all of the hallmarks of the genre like braindead quest design, and yet...I can't really say I wasn't having fun playing it. It's more than the sum of its parts and really scratched an itch for me that hadn't been scratched in a while, and that's all I needed from it.
Not to get all political, but I’m down with using the Kingdoms of Amalur-equivalent of FF7’s Meteor to wipe Webwood off the face of the planet
It’s not even a difficulty thing I’m just the #1 spider hater on the internet
I hate the way that they walk, the way that they stalk, the way that they leap, the way that they sneak
It’s not even a difficulty thing I’m just the #1 spider hater on the internet
I hate the way that they walk, the way that they stalk, the way that they leap, the way that they sneak
I’m not angry at it, just disappointed.
After 70h, playing the game in its entirety, and getting all achievements I can say my opinion about this game with no remorse. I would love to suggest this game, especially after this much time investment, but the only enjoyment I actually had in the game was because I was watching videos in the meantime, and that’s a new one for me.
Buyers Beware
The FATE Edition is not a bundle and cannot be purchased after the main game. Steam will NOT detract the cost of the base game to make you pay the difference. Currently, on sale, Fatesworn alone costs almost as much as the complete package.
Main Game
The game started as an MMO and was converted to a single-player with some obvious remnants of it.
The combat system plays with both melee and magic/abilities at the same time, and the inclusion of the Reckoning mode, which is like a rage mode from other games. The game tries to be a hack-and-slashy type of game, but even a greatsword is often not long enough making the combat frustrating. I had to use the ability to pull in enemies all the time as it was the only way I could reach the enemies 100%.
The game has an Alchemy system, and this is the first game I played where picking up an herb is a chance of taking it instead of being guaranteed. I plucked the plant, how can I not get it it’s beyond my understanding. The Alchemy skill tree can increase the chances. Thanks…for selling me a solution to a problem you made.
There is also a Gem crafting system, but I never used it as the best equipment doesn’t have Gem slots.
Lastly, there is a Blacksmithing system that it’s not useful since enemies drop the loot at your level and equipment can’t be upgraded, including epic equipment.
The game doesn't have a jump button but you can jump from some specific platforms that often don’t give the prompt to, and it’s a struggle to find where you can jump.
In my 100% completion of the game, I did around 300 quests. For a completist, this game is a nightmare as it features uncompletable quests that are forever in your quest log. The biggest problem I have with them is that it’s mostly fetch quests going from A to B. Other than teleporting to a point of interest, you must walk to all your objectives while sprinting is barely faster than running. This makes the game a solo-walking simulator more than people ever thought of Death Stranding. Not a joke, just a fact. It gets quite lonely, especially without a soundtrack, or anything to look at. Sometimes, quests will give you a follower. They fight but I swear I never saw them deal any damage, but at least it's company. I ended up summoning a skeleton fiend to have some company while going around.
The main story is nothing exciting, but it’s ok enough. You might read on websites like howlongtobeat that the main story lasts 20 hours, but truly, most will be walking in silence.
There aren't many sound effects in the game, so the thing you hear the most is your footsteps. Being originally a 2012 title sometimes instead of in-game cutscenes, there are low-quality pre-rendered videos that have these beautiful background sounds, i.e. of a battle, to then cut to the in-game cutscene where it’s completely mute of ambient sounds and you only hear the characters make noises.
The biggest disappointment for me though was the final boss as it was introduced so greatly, but you don’t even get to fight it. What you actually fight is some enemies until you charge the Reckoning ability and that damages the boss.
Re-Reckoning? More like Re-Release.
Re-Reckoning presents itself as a remaster, but the real remaster work seems to be the texture upscale, which looks like it was done with Photoshop’s Preserve Details 2.0. It looks like just an upscale, and if the detail was not there to begin with, it just looks blurry. The in-game HUD has a scaling option between too big and too small while the rest doesn’t scale. I’m not a fan of the new HUD because whatever they did, now you can see color-bending in most things, especially the health bar of enemies.
This new version comes with its own new and improved bugs and crashes. I had lost 9h of progress because the game would not read my profile and I saved it thanks to some tinkering that included reinstalling the game, creating new profiles, and using save managers. I suggest checking the Nexus for tools like the F2 Console as that saved me from many bugs the Remaster did not fix and from new ones that are just for the remaster, like a quest that requires 6 items for completion but the game only has 5 in it.
DLCs
Dead Kel
It starts with this in-game cutscene of your character stranded on a beach, and as it stands up the devs decided to use every sound the character could make in the perfect silence of the in-game cutscene. You’ll see your character do the impossible as you moan, cough, and lament all at the same time.
The DLC itself is a very linear story but has a very small map that at the end of the DLC story gets re-used with side missions that make you backtrack all of it just to make the DLC last longer.
There is also a new Faction where you become the Lord of a keep in the DLC, but these missions are repeatable so they never go away. You also get the chance to adopt pets like wolves, rats, bears, etc. Finally, I can stop summoning that skeleton for some livelier company. Except pets can only stay at home and give the player a permanent buff, which makes them collectibles. Being the Lord you’ll be asked to do some more fetch quests from your subjects. Last but not least, a random woman you got as part of an alliance will force you to marry her to complete the quest. Although the quest does not complete, instead, it just stays in your quest log saying “Quest completed”. The game never featured romances except for some jokes during the story, but now I can get married to a random NPC that is a woman regardless of your sex.
Once in the DLC map, you can only leave by talking to the ship captain, who is a woman. I never hinted at anything, but in the dialogue where I asked her to bring me back, she hints at the fact that we had intercourse. So 10m after getting married I cheated on my wife.
Teeth of Naros
This DLC story is not too bad but the map is really small. In the DLC, for the first time Contract Boards refill, without notice. A quest you get from an NPC asks you to find some treasures in the DLC and bring them, except the items are NOT in the DLC[amalur.fandom.com].
The maps are very vertical and hard to navigate, especially the sewers. You can’t climb ladders, just like in Skyrim they only teleport you to the other side, but in this DLC they decided to use them everywhere inside the map. The developers must have decided to showcase the limits of the game engine. It’s confusing for my skeletal friend too as he was always stuck at all the ladders.
The DLC adds a new type of damage in this DLC: Beast damage.
Good thing you read about it here cause it’ll be the only time you ever think about it.
Again, in this DLC often you’ll be asked to go to the same maps for small fetch quests, which I think is just diluting more what it offers.
Conclusion
I started this game with the mindset of WANTING to play it, fooled by the God-of-War-y combat. Sadly, the more I went on with it the more I realized that what seemed beautiful in the demo was just smoke and mirrors. I enjoyed that in all that brain-dead fighting and walking around I could watch something, but I cannot suggest a game because it was fun to do something else in the meantime.
I wanted to give it a negative review and a 6 when I was around half the main game, but the rest of it lowered it to a: 3/10.
Strongly not suggested.
After 70h, playing the game in its entirety, and getting all achievements I can say my opinion about this game with no remorse. I would love to suggest this game, especially after this much time investment, but the only enjoyment I actually had in the game was because I was watching videos in the meantime, and that’s a new one for me.
Buyers Beware
The FATE Edition is not a bundle and cannot be purchased after the main game. Steam will NOT detract the cost of the base game to make you pay the difference. Currently, on sale, Fatesworn alone costs almost as much as the complete package.
Main Game
The game started as an MMO and was converted to a single-player with some obvious remnants of it.
The combat system plays with both melee and magic/abilities at the same time, and the inclusion of the Reckoning mode, which is like a rage mode from other games. The game tries to be a hack-and-slashy type of game, but even a greatsword is often not long enough making the combat frustrating. I had to use the ability to pull in enemies all the time as it was the only way I could reach the enemies 100%.
The game has an Alchemy system, and this is the first game I played where picking up an herb is a chance of taking it instead of being guaranteed. I plucked the plant, how can I not get it it’s beyond my understanding. The Alchemy skill tree can increase the chances. Thanks…for selling me a solution to a problem you made.
There is also a Gem crafting system, but I never used it as the best equipment doesn’t have Gem slots.
Lastly, there is a Blacksmithing system that it’s not useful since enemies drop the loot at your level and equipment can’t be upgraded, including epic equipment.
The game doesn't have a jump button but you can jump from some specific platforms that often don’t give the prompt to, and it’s a struggle to find where you can jump.
In my 100% completion of the game, I did around 300 quests. For a completist, this game is a nightmare as it features uncompletable quests that are forever in your quest log. The biggest problem I have with them is that it’s mostly fetch quests going from A to B. Other than teleporting to a point of interest, you must walk to all your objectives while sprinting is barely faster than running. This makes the game a solo-walking simulator more than people ever thought of Death Stranding. Not a joke, just a fact. It gets quite lonely, especially without a soundtrack, or anything to look at. Sometimes, quests will give you a follower. They fight but I swear I never saw them deal any damage, but at least it's company. I ended up summoning a skeleton fiend to have some company while going around.
The main story is nothing exciting, but it’s ok enough. You might read on websites like howlongtobeat that the main story lasts 20 hours, but truly, most will be walking in silence.
There aren't many sound effects in the game, so the thing you hear the most is your footsteps. Being originally a 2012 title sometimes instead of in-game cutscenes, there are low-quality pre-rendered videos that have these beautiful background sounds, i.e. of a battle, to then cut to the in-game cutscene where it’s completely mute of ambient sounds and you only hear the characters make noises.
The biggest disappointment for me though was the final boss as it was introduced so greatly, but you don’t even get to fight it. What you actually fight is some enemies until you charge the Reckoning ability and that damages the boss.
Re-Reckoning? More like Re-Release.
Re-Reckoning presents itself as a remaster, but the real remaster work seems to be the texture upscale, which looks like it was done with Photoshop’s Preserve Details 2.0. It looks like just an upscale, and if the detail was not there to begin with, it just looks blurry. The in-game HUD has a scaling option between too big and too small while the rest doesn’t scale. I’m not a fan of the new HUD because whatever they did, now you can see color-bending in most things, especially the health bar of enemies.
This new version comes with its own new and improved bugs and crashes. I had lost 9h of progress because the game would not read my profile and I saved it thanks to some tinkering that included reinstalling the game, creating new profiles, and using save managers. I suggest checking the Nexus for tools like the F2 Console as that saved me from many bugs the Remaster did not fix and from new ones that are just for the remaster, like a quest that requires 6 items for completion but the game only has 5 in it.
DLCs
Dead Kel
It starts with this in-game cutscene of your character stranded on a beach, and as it stands up the devs decided to use every sound the character could make in the perfect silence of the in-game cutscene. You’ll see your character do the impossible as you moan, cough, and lament all at the same time.
The DLC itself is a very linear story but has a very small map that at the end of the DLC story gets re-used with side missions that make you backtrack all of it just to make the DLC last longer.
There is also a new Faction where you become the Lord of a keep in the DLC, but these missions are repeatable so they never go away. You also get the chance to adopt pets like wolves, rats, bears, etc. Finally, I can stop summoning that skeleton for some livelier company. Except pets can only stay at home and give the player a permanent buff, which makes them collectibles. Being the Lord you’ll be asked to do some more fetch quests from your subjects. Last but not least, a random woman you got as part of an alliance will force you to marry her to complete the quest. Although the quest does not complete, instead, it just stays in your quest log saying “Quest completed”. The game never featured romances except for some jokes during the story, but now I can get married to a random NPC that is a woman regardless of your sex.
Once in the DLC map, you can only leave by talking to the ship captain, who is a woman. I never hinted at anything, but in the dialogue where I asked her to bring me back, she hints at the fact that we had intercourse. So 10m after getting married I cheated on my wife.
Teeth of Naros
This DLC story is not too bad but the map is really small. In the DLC, for the first time Contract Boards refill, without notice. A quest you get from an NPC asks you to find some treasures in the DLC and bring them, except the items are NOT in the DLC[amalur.fandom.com].
The maps are very vertical and hard to navigate, especially the sewers. You can’t climb ladders, just like in Skyrim they only teleport you to the other side, but in this DLC they decided to use them everywhere inside the map. The developers must have decided to showcase the limits of the game engine. It’s confusing for my skeletal friend too as he was always stuck at all the ladders.
The DLC adds a new type of damage in this DLC: Beast damage.
Good thing you read about it here cause it’ll be the only time you ever think about it.
Again, in this DLC often you’ll be asked to go to the same maps for small fetch quests, which I think is just diluting more what it offers.
Conclusion
I started this game with the mindset of WANTING to play it, fooled by the God-of-War-y combat. Sadly, the more I went on with it the more I realized that what seemed beautiful in the demo was just smoke and mirrors. I enjoyed that in all that brain-dead fighting and walking around I could watch something, but I cannot suggest a game because it was fun to do something else in the meantime.
I wanted to give it a negative review and a 6 when I was around half the main game, but the rest of it lowered it to a: 3/10.
Strongly not suggested.
Played the original back on 360 and enjoyed it - figured it was worth a replay and the remaster was a good excuse. I don't even think it's a particularly amazing game, the narrative is confusing as hell. But the gameplay is superb. I 100% the game with every achievement.
One of the most definitive RPG experiences I've ever had, whilst also bringing something to the table wholly original that sets it apart from most.
What I instantly noticed straight off the bat was this game's resemblance to the Darksiders games, very loosely. The dungeon crawler approach reminded me so much of this and compelled to want to go back to Darksiders in the near future. I came for the gameplay, that I had seen in a YouTube video, and didn't expect much outside the realm of that but I was surprised to learn that this is a pretty solid game in almost every aspect. An intriguing narrative, addictive gameplay and a world that keeps you wanting more with arguably one of the best player insert RPG protagonists.
To say that the gameplay is good is a gross understatement. While it's skill and build system isn't as complex and intricate as others in the RPG genre, it still holds pretty well on it's own. You will find that you will experiment with various weapons, all which are pretty solid on their own, but eventually you find the combination that fits your playstyle which definitely does vary based on what skill tree/weapons you might invest in more than others, which I really enjoyed having the freedom of choosing. It's very true to the nature of it's narrative, essentially forging your own destiny, and it does a great job and making you feel like you really do have that freedom, even if it could be a bit of an illusion (I'm not sure whether this game has multiple endings or not, would be a shame if it really doesn't.) The combat is great, I love being able to mash up combos, making it super satisfying. Once you reach higher levels, you become an unstoppable force, which makes you want to engage with enemies even more because of how satisfying decimating Tuatha canon-fodder can feel. However, there were some instances where I felt as if the combat was a little rough around the edges at times. Very rarely, the camera will be your worst enemy, because you can't really move it around too much in encounters. There will be some environments that are a little bit of a tight squeeze and your view will be obstructed either by objects or the world itself. There were very few bugs that I came across personally, mostly just things in the real-time cutscenes with NPCs, where my character would be off-camera and it'd look like the NPC was schizophrenic, or even the camera being too zoomed into an NPC. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but some of the pre-rendered cutscenes were also missing SFX. Maybe it's like that in the original game, too, I wouldn't know, but it was a little bit jarring and mildly ruined big moments.
As for the open world, and it's lore, it is very intriguing. I'm glad the world isn't largely huge, either, because you will be running everywhere. There are no mounts. But this isn't an issue, there are tons of fast travel points and honestly, being able to take in the sights as you do is very therapeutic and freeing. The lore itself reminded me SO much of Tolkien, certain plot points actually felt like they were directly ripped from The Lord of the Rings, even the way the world was laid out. Rathir felt like Minas Tirith and Mel Senshir, Minas Morgul. Alabastra itself was basically Mordor, and the surrounding Klurikon being the Dead Marshes. Is this a bad thing? No, it actually made me resonate with the world more and I really appreciated the parallels, even if they weren't intentional.
Obviously, though, the narrative itself wasn't nearly as captivating as anything Tolkien has written. But, it was still pretty decent. I think what motivated me to get it finished was anything to do with fate/destiny, the themes of forging your own story instead of playing to the rules laid out by someone or something else resonated with me personally and the ending definitely held some words to live by. A very common theme explored in media, but done in a very different and unique way, I felt. Even outside of the main storyline quests, there are still some pretty interesting narratives to get yourself caught up in. The side quests and faction quests are just as interesting themselves and I feel like I'll probably spends hours more in this world just to get the most out of it. It is a very forgiving open world that doesn't make the task of doing something like that feel as daunting as most other open world RPGs would. Skyrim will always be in it's own league, of course, but I feel like this game is severely overlooked by many because of that.
If you're into this genre, this is a must-play. It's a great game overall, despite it's minor flaws.
What I instantly noticed straight off the bat was this game's resemblance to the Darksiders games, very loosely. The dungeon crawler approach reminded me so much of this and compelled to want to go back to Darksiders in the near future. I came for the gameplay, that I had seen in a YouTube video, and didn't expect much outside the realm of that but I was surprised to learn that this is a pretty solid game in almost every aspect. An intriguing narrative, addictive gameplay and a world that keeps you wanting more with arguably one of the best player insert RPG protagonists.
To say that the gameplay is good is a gross understatement. While it's skill and build system isn't as complex and intricate as others in the RPG genre, it still holds pretty well on it's own. You will find that you will experiment with various weapons, all which are pretty solid on their own, but eventually you find the combination that fits your playstyle which definitely does vary based on what skill tree/weapons you might invest in more than others, which I really enjoyed having the freedom of choosing. It's very true to the nature of it's narrative, essentially forging your own destiny, and it does a great job and making you feel like you really do have that freedom, even if it could be a bit of an illusion (I'm not sure whether this game has multiple endings or not, would be a shame if it really doesn't.) The combat is great, I love being able to mash up combos, making it super satisfying. Once you reach higher levels, you become an unstoppable force, which makes you want to engage with enemies even more because of how satisfying decimating Tuatha canon-fodder can feel. However, there were some instances where I felt as if the combat was a little rough around the edges at times. Very rarely, the camera will be your worst enemy, because you can't really move it around too much in encounters. There will be some environments that are a little bit of a tight squeeze and your view will be obstructed either by objects or the world itself. There were very few bugs that I came across personally, mostly just things in the real-time cutscenes with NPCs, where my character would be off-camera and it'd look like the NPC was schizophrenic, or even the camera being too zoomed into an NPC. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but some of the pre-rendered cutscenes were also missing SFX. Maybe it's like that in the original game, too, I wouldn't know, but it was a little bit jarring and mildly ruined big moments.
As for the open world, and it's lore, it is very intriguing. I'm glad the world isn't largely huge, either, because you will be running everywhere. There are no mounts. But this isn't an issue, there are tons of fast travel points and honestly, being able to take in the sights as you do is very therapeutic and freeing. The lore itself reminded me SO much of Tolkien, certain plot points actually felt like they were directly ripped from The Lord of the Rings, even the way the world was laid out. Rathir felt like Minas Tirith and Mel Senshir, Minas Morgul. Alabastra itself was basically Mordor, and the surrounding Klurikon being the Dead Marshes. Is this a bad thing? No, it actually made me resonate with the world more and I really appreciated the parallels, even if they weren't intentional.
Obviously, though, the narrative itself wasn't nearly as captivating as anything Tolkien has written. But, it was still pretty decent. I think what motivated me to get it finished was anything to do with fate/destiny, the themes of forging your own story instead of playing to the rules laid out by someone or something else resonated with me personally and the ending definitely held some words to live by. A very common theme explored in media, but done in a very different and unique way, I felt. Even outside of the main storyline quests, there are still some pretty interesting narratives to get yourself caught up in. The side quests and faction quests are just as interesting themselves and I feel like I'll probably spends hours more in this world just to get the most out of it. It is a very forgiving open world that doesn't make the task of doing something like that feel as daunting as most other open world RPGs would. Skyrim will always be in it's own league, of course, but I feel like this game is severely overlooked by many because of that.
If you're into this genre, this is a must-play. It's a great game overall, despite it's minor flaws.
Decent remaster. Decent game mechanics.