[First Impressions] KoA, or When Did Fable and Skyrim Get Married and Why Wasn't I Invited to the Wedding?

If you have played any Fable game and you have played Skyrim, you have basically already played Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning.

No, I'm not exaggerating matters.

There are skill trainers as in Skyrim (as well as factions-- and the Warsworn bear an uncanny resemblance in almost all ways to the Companions-- bards in the taverns, etc). The eye meter to see if you've been spotted while sneaking is similar to in Fable, thievery in general is very Fable-esque, which guards running after you regardless of whether you actually were spotted, and you can kill chickens. No, I didn't mean to. It was an accident-- I was trying to smash barrels, also a la Fable. Not that barrel-smashing is a Fable-only invention. It's just that the execution seems very like Fable, a nod-wink to "hey, go over and smash those barrels for loot!" that almost breaks the fourth wall. There is also a stat that counts chicken deaths, as in Fable: The Lost Chapters.

The writing is... poor. Extra poor. So poor it hurts my soul. I expected little better from something R.A. Salvatore took part in, but still.* A bandit who screws over the local gnome alchemist of Gorhart just spills his soul to you with only a question from you. "Yup, screwed this lady over. Ain't it grand? And here's my entire evil plan! Mwahaha!" Uh-huh. That was super realistic. The dialogue options also sometimes contradict themselves in terms of what, precisely, the character in question knows. One of the gnomes of Allestar Glade knew, somehow, that my character was from the Well of Souls, and then in the next option didn't know. The fact that the setting is the Faelands is also hilarious when from the author who became famous for his D&D elves; he didn't travel far from his comfort zone. Not that I'm complaining. The setting is kind of awesome, though at least partially, perhaps mostly, due to the graphics.

So if the game is extremely derivative-- it is-- and the writing isn't great, what keeps me from shutting the game, crying at money lost, and moving on?

KoA is basically Skyrim Lite, so that means that it's a fun game to play, with quests galore and various storylines to see to their ends. The most annoying thing about it is that Faith isn't leveled up the way I want her yet, since she and my Dunmer, Keah, from Skyrim could be twins given my playing style. (Roleplay-wise, Keah is colder and more willing to kill someone she doesn't like; Faith is a bit of a soft touch who steals for the adrenaline of it. She's also more more of a melee fighter where Keah doesn't like to get her hands dirty if she doesn't have to.) There are quirky side quests-- I'm just waiting for the one where I chase chickens-- and the setting is disgustingly pretty faerie land. But in a match up, the reason to play KoA would be the combat.

Combat in Fable III was pretty, though too easy. My character knew how to wield her weapons and did it well, and the magic animations were nice. That prettiness is added to a level of complexity that wasn't there in Fable III. In addition to blocking, the player can dodge, causing their character to roll out of harms way. This additionally gives time to power up for a charge attack. Different charge attacks have different effects and are linked to different kinds of weapons, which makes weapon-selection difficult at times. So far, daggers pwn all for me, since their charge attack enables Faith to move very quickly and no one can land a hit on her. This is even though they are the weakest weapon per hit. She lands so many hits that it's insta-win. Leveling up has given her a poison magic ability too, which can be sustained for a drain in total mp for the duration of a fight. The poison magic provides her with extra damage per hit, and if she has the Smouldering Daggers equipped, which have burn damage too-- well. Win.

Magic is something of a disappointment. Magic, as such, hardly exists in the game, and there are only a handful of spells. Instead, you have staffs and sceptres as two magic weapons that drain your mana when you use them. Though the fighting is nice to watch with these, as it is with everything, it's a little disappointment that bamf magic is more or less missing from KoA and the one spell the play has for early magic users is ye standard lightning. Maybe higher levels yield better spells, but there's still a very limited selection.

The other draw that KoA has is the same that kept me plugging away at Fable III. The collector in me just keeps going, "OMG epic loot! Epic loot! MUST EQUIP NOW." Meanwhile, my pack is getting far too full, and I already purchased extra room as it is. Next up, a house to store my loot in. Fable III suffered from an overabundance of special swords, guns, etc. KoA has just the right amount, so when the player actually gets a special weapon, it feels like something has been achieved rather than the game was scripted to give awesomeness away for free.

Hmm... note to future Kingdoms of Amalur games... please to give me guns? Magic guns.

*Please note at this point that I have not actually read R.A. Salvatore's work. I skimmed through, noted that there was a different tag following every bit of dialogue, and closed, never to actually read for real. (I.E. he said, she laughed, he retorted, she spat, he snarked, she bit out, he sighed, she screamed, etc.) When I picture R.A. Salvatore, who I know so little about, I picture pretty much any elven extra from Lord of the Rings. Brown hair, beard, and quiver at his back.

[First Impressions] Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Demo

After the trials and tribulations of starting a new job, moving, and etc., I'm finally back with my first impressions on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Story

I'm taller! Mwahahaha!

I didn't have high expectations from something made by R.A. Salvatore, but the game's story seems workable. There's a war (the Crystal War) going on between the mortal races and the Tuatha, a cult from the Winter Court of the Fae, who are immortal. The player character is a man or woman who is raised from the Well of Souls by the gnomes. He or she has power over her own fate and is unwritten in the tapestry of the world. Essentially, the player is the world's wild card. It is the player's job to save the mortal races from the bloodthirsty Tuatha.

Graphics

This game seems to borrow heavily from Fable. A swear that a lot of the character animations-- the way that my character, Faith, moved, for example-- seem to be the same as the way my character from Fable III moved. The graphics are smooth, exaggerated, and nice; the color palette is lighter than in other RPGs and everything is brighter.

Combat System

It's so pretty... not snowy at all....

Fable again comes to mind. Fortunately, Fable: The Lost Chapters, for the most part, rather than Fable III. I'm fairly certain that the combat multiplier is extant in KoA, which was missing from Fable III. The game utilizes the middle mouse button to move from one weapon to the other, allowing the player to have primary and secondary weapons equipped. (I, of course, chose dual daggers and a longbow.) The magic takes up a separate space, and having played Fable III, where it didn't, I give a hearty THANK YOU to the world. You can see the slots running across the bottom of the screen in the screenshots. They're attached to the right mouse button, and by choosing the number, the player choose the spell. Mana replenishes automatically, but the player's supply is very limited and makes it so that strategy must be properly utilized. The player can both block and dodge, which have different associated stats and abilities. Also enabled are assassin stealth stabs and stealth long-range attacks. Bows have a limited number of arrows, which will eventually refill on their own. Weapons in the game are staffs, chakram, hammers, swords, and daggers, as well as magic. Combat animations are very nice, and special attacks that come about by charging the weapon (holding down the attack button) are nice to look at as well as interesting. And also, very similar to Fable: The Lost Chapters.

Roleplaying Capability

The character creation isn't unlimited, but offers a nice selection. The piercings the game provides are a little blocky and weird-looking, and don't quite sit right on the character, which I hope they either fix by launch time, or someone patches in for later. Given the bevy of weapons and armor that the player can choose from, as well as the different play styles that KoA will adapt to, roleplaying seems like it might be at a good point in KoA. I'm not sure yet whether the game has any morality inbuilt into it, I.E. whether I can play an evil character. There is pickpocketing, etc, but it's unclear as to whether there's a negative effect. I suspect that morality is in the game, but is judged by an unseen meter. If there were more dialogue options allowing a greater range of character expression, I would be happier, but it seems at least fairly solid as it stands.

The boss battle of the intro dungeon.

Conclusion

If Fable: The Lost Chapters were to have an honest successor-- and if that successor actually had the morality angle (need more definite information, KoA!)-- then I wish that KoA was it rather than Fable III. As it is, I'm happy enough that both games exist. KoA also seems to have drawn some from open-world titles, which makes it more expansive than Fable could ever hope to be, but is narrower and, at times, more charming (certainly less serious) than Skyrim. I will be glad to purchase KoA when it comes out on February 7th, 2012!