If you’ve never played Amalur and don’t have a bunch of other ARPGs in your back pocket judging you for not playing them, it was excellent mindless popcorn entertainment. I like it but have no interest in replaying.
The main point to remember if you do get it is this was originally going to be a MMORPG so it has a shitton of side quests that will make you hate the game if you’re a completionist. Moral to the story, if a sidequest doesn’t seem interesting, skip it.
Yup. I’d have jumped on that if I hadn’t already bought it for a bit more over the summer. Without that, though, this is an easy pass for me.
I really enjoyed revisiting Amalur, need to get back to it in fact. More games need chakrams.
Yeah I remember how it was supposed to be like a MMO but single player, which again it didn’t sound like a game for me.
I assume you end up with a questlog filled with unfinished quests.
I wish RPGs offered ability to go to questgivers and tell them nope, not gonna do that and get the quest removed.
The singleplayer stuff was fun, you’re always moving and consuming new content. Remember how much content you need to build for a MMO. Amalur was hardly a great game but if you enjoy ARPGs and any of that sounds interesting, you’ll probably like it.
It was many years ago but I recall skipping the sidequests entirely, never picked 'em up. Don’t know if there’s any way to drop a quest from your log.
Imagine doing that in Witcher 3, you would miss 60% of the game and many of its best moments. I am a completionist, but if sidequests suck in a game, well that can make me dislike it real hard.
Quick skip for me, the same comments as @TurinTur. I enjoyed the hour I played of Raji.
There’s also Ghost Song to play on their subscription app, but that’s included with gamepass too.
If it bugs you, it bugs you. I was fine with it, although this obviously isn’t ideal. Much like the first zone in Dragon Age Inquisition I could see past it.
I disliked Dragon Age inquisition a lot…
Not exactly. 38 Studios was started to make an MMO and they created Amalur as its setting. Separately, Big Huge Games started making a single-player RPG. Then 38 Studios bought Big Huge, had them rework their game to fit in the Amalur world. They published it with EA’s help and it turned out to be the only thing 38 released because the MMO was a giant mismanaged financial boondoggle and Curt Shilling was a piece of shit. (And I’m not saying this because of his political views, but because I have friends who one day just discovered that they weren’t getting their paychecks and it was still weeks before they even knew if their jobs or the company existed.)
I still feel like it was intended to be a MMO just due to its structure, but if you know people who worked there that’s pretty definitive-- thanks for the correction.
Sure, a lot of RPGs these days pick up some influence from MMOs, so I bet you’re right. Could have even been a structural change after the acquisition. But the two games and teams were definitely separate.
Anyone know if this version of Amalur is balanced any better than the first game? The game was kinda bland and I didn’t finish it because it got so easy - maybe did too many side quests. Now Aiko’s Choice should be good, but that can be had for < $6.
Not many balanicing changes (*) , I think. I’ve played it on normal on the PS5 and died maybe 15 times in 100+ hours. Mostly during boss fights and early encounters with a certain type of enemy.
The remaster sharpened the textures a bit, increased the inventory drastically and apparently fixed a few important usability things - but that’s it.
(*) I forgot something. See next post.
I enjoyed KoA a lot. It’s quite easy though, and definitely too long for a completionist like me. I reached the level-max maybe 10-20 hours before the end. So skipping side quest shouldn’t be a problem. Nowadays I quit games when I’m no longer having fun. KoA was enjoyable enough to keep playing. I was in the mood for a game which doesn’t get in my way, though. I can understand anybody who says KoA is an average game in the 7-8/10 range.
AFAIR the remaster changed the level scaling to a more realistic level. So early areas are still a minor threat.
If you decide to play it, definitely play a mage. Mixing everything is possible, though.
One thing I was really surprised about in this enjoyable but also pretty mainstream, non-comittal game, is that a few quests indeed had consequences. At one point I found the dead body of a certain NPC. He had tried what I suggested - and failed. Happened very really, unfortunately.
It was surprisingly ambitious at spots. Felt like a clear case of troubled development, where in the end they rolled a natural 20 and ended up with a fine (but certainly not 10/10) game.
Thanks for the info. The remaster probably isn’t worth it to me I guess since I wasn’t crazy about the original.
Thank you. Nightgaunt is correct.
Amalur was intended to be a single player game all along, and the main game was mostly built by Big Huge when 38 Studios acquired them. Big Huge was then tasked with converting the game they’d already been working on into the Amalur universe and with that lore.
The neverending sidequests came about because Curt Schilling was never one for non-MMO rpgs, and so he also tasked the team with adding a ton of meaningless quests for unneeded XP, because he was using the classic WoW model of quest hubs and didn’t understand that players in a single player game didn’t need to grind for levels in the same way as that MMO model.
And yes, he ran the company into the ground, claiming tax credits from Rhode Island he had no eligibility for, and the company stopped paying insurance premiums for its workers about 6 weeks before it was shuttered. Some employees discovered right before the plug was pulled that they lacked health insurance when they were doing prenatal doctor’s visits.
See also:
Robo Quest is the only reason I haven’t opted out of Humble Bundle yet. Still on the fence, especially if they offer 4 dollars off.
12 months for $89 promo is going on. w/ voucher : HOLIDAY22
I was monthly, so I gifted myself a 12 month membership. Worked fine on applying to my own account.
With tax it came out to $7.86 a month. And I can still skip a month if the games are bad.