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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     15 of 19 users said yes
2. ShadowNotSeen

   5

   This is not a great game, nor is it a bad game. High points: world size is large and backstory (concerning the fae and other races) is consistently woven into the main and side quests and is at least mildly interesting. The graphics are not immersive but are otherwise of good quality - the main play areas (maps) are diversely painted though the different geographies have no impact on play (it all works the same whether your in forest, plains or desert.) The role-playing element is non-existent - your dialogue interaction with NPC's serve only to acquire/update quests and be spoon fed backstory. Opportunities to alter game course with persuasion or dialogue options appear limited. Low points: combat system is simplistic and the game presents few real challenges. I am at best an average quality gamer and on normal level the game presents no difficulty. I'm about 60-70% through the game (estimated on portion of world map revealed) and have not touched the options to reswizzle your character (throughout the game you can change from fighter to rogue to sorceror focused character.) Why not? The game has given me no reason to. I knew that was an option so I started with what I assumed was the simplest model - put on some armor, grab a sword and start hacking. And to this point (my character level is somewhere in the 20's) I've had no reason to change. Further, the game gives you access to various maneuvers as you level but I can hardly tell you what they are because I don't have to care. Mash the square, pepper in the occasional dodge (circle) and the monsters fall like rain. The monsters fall into one of about 4 types and are easily dispatched. Mini-bosses and tougher monsters are child's play with the fate shift ability (monsters are essentially paused and you get to hack the crap out them while they do little or nothing to you.) Again, I'm on normal level and leveled in the 20's and I can't remember the last time I died. Heck, I hardly need health potions and if you do, they're as abundant as grass. (And if your answer is: the game is harder as a rogue or sorcerer, in my mind that's still a "fail" - my career choice should not affect difficulty at least to this degree.) Aside: like every other frpg I've ever played the economic system is broken (and therefore it does not factor into my rating.) There are multiple crafting options - potions, weapons, gems (for socketing into items) but there seems little reason to do so other than for the satisfaction of having done it. I put some effort into sagecrafting and it does make items better but as soon as I did it, I found a better option on fallen enemies or in treasure chests. Perhaps a simpler description: I have 800,000gp and nothing to spend it on. Conclusion: on normal setting, my simplistic, brute force play style should produce the occasional death or drive me to consider other tactics. (Counter example: in Uncharted 2 and 3 on normal, I died frequently enough to be annoying - which tells you about my skill level.) With all this negative feedback, why do you keep playing? I'm stubborn, spent over $50 on the game and I'm something of a dinosaur - hack and slash appeals to me. But if you're reading these reviews and thinking this game has a cool combat system - umm, No.… Expand

   • Helpful?

     2 of 2 users said yes
3. lsrngb

   4

   Based on 55hrs of game play. I was really excited about this game, and I probably would have rated it about 8.0 after 10 or so hours, but that number seemed to continue going down the longer I played. The main issue with the game is that I don't find it immersive, I want a sense of wonder from my games, and this game did not have that. I can't find any compelling reason to finish the game. The game world feels plastic, the side quests feel like tacked on fetch quests, and I just don't care about the story. The game is very repetitive with quests and with combat. It felt very constraining to be able to unlock many different skills, yet only be able to use 4 at a time. At first, this destiny system seemed it would allow to create the kind of player that you want, but in reality it is much more constraining than many other RPGs. The ability to only use two weapons also seemed to put be constraints on play style. It was a very cumbersome process if you wanted to say use 1 magic weapon, one melee weapon, and a bow. Also, the most useful fighting method in the game is to merely spam the melee weapon button. Stealth is useless. The bow is also pretty pitiful, and many of the magic abilities you can't use much latter in the game because they have very long casting times, and because the enemies attack relentlessly it renders much of the magic useless. Therefore you just use melee, over and over and over. There are also camera angle issues. The game can be pretty, but mostly you just see the ground behind your character. I don't want to look at the ground the time when I could be looking at beautiful vistas. This game also does too much hand holding. You never have to search for a quest, you never stumble into a quest from a random dialog with an NPC. Amalur puts an exclamation point over the head of any NPC with a quest, so there is no point to explore and talk to anyone else. Also the dialog you need to choose is always the first option, and is highlighted. Dungeons are also too formulaic. They almost always have a circular shape so you can't get lost. Two days ago I had an epiphany when I realized that this game had become a chore to play. I was trying to finish it solely because I had spent money on pre-odering it. (oh, the pre-order bonuses were worthless. Do not PAY for them. You will have better equipment after about 8-10 hours.) I took the game and traded it in without finishing it...and I feel free. It's a game that I am happy to be rid of and sorry I wasted as much time as i did on it. Some of you may love this game..anyways this is my view.… Expand

   • Helpful?

     3 of 3 users said yes

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