Recent reviews by Rune

And with this game done I have now officially played and completed every Zeboyd Games game.

This was a pleasant weekends diversion and I feel it's a great choice for a relaxing weekend RPG that respects your time, (Code speak for short and sweet, rather than long and grindy.)

Minor critiques would include that the training wheels that allow the player to choose his party freely come off a bit too late for my personal taste, I understand that showcasing a character or two for the first few chapters to teach the player their mechanics and synergy with the others, but forcing character parties for most of the game works against full enjoyment.

If there were a few more chapters to enjoy and play with varying character setups would have alleviated this feeling as well, but then of course the game would be a bit longer, which in my (humble?) opinion would have been fine as the game could have gone on a few chapters more before the final curtain call and I'd have been right here for it!

Ultimately I'd rate this highly if you enjoyed the style of games Zeboyd is known for.

[This reviews was written for the original release of the game.]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning delivers exactly what it promises: an awesome fantasy RPG, with visceral, intuitive gameplay that is easy to pick up, wildly flexible and just plain fun, in a way that had previously not been seen in the genre. Many people compare it to action games, but it's really more like an updated 3D variation of a Seiken Densetsu / Secret of Mana game. it's an action RPG with exploration, but no real platforming elements, such as no jumping. Lots of neat weapons skills, talents, spells, and combat styles to try out, and a big loot system on top of it that the Mana series only wished it had.

{A General note. I pre-ordered this game when it first came out and thus played it on Origin, where I still have a copy owned. I have three full playthroughs there each with over 130+ hours played, and one has mastercrafted equipment that made me literally invincible [unless I was afflicted with Bleed status]. And a forth playthrough done "fast" with over seventy hours on it. So my time played stats here on steam should be added to those for Origin playtime of an additional 450+ hours.}


SETTING

The world is accessible and vast, offering genre fans plenty to sink their teeth into. One gets the sense that they are watching an entire world unfold before them, one rich with history and lore and life. Amalur opens itself up to the player in a way that is both familiar and refreshing, then empowers the player to do incredible things.

It is important to note that much of the setting lore is in books and scrolls found along the way in the various nooks and crannies of the game world, and discerned from NPC conversations, rather than thrown at you in raw exposition, except for a few areas early on, during, and near the end of the main plot line.

It's basically optional, and people who prefer to play it as an action game can sort of do that, which is where all the "Bland" complaints come from, I think.

I'm really big into exploration and character immersion, and since much of your character is a blank slate at the start, it's easy to create a persona and stick to it in your mind, similar to the style of silent protagonists in the JRPGS of old. Your characters gets no voice and you choose his/her lines as you play, precisely so you can decide which of the options fits your character best, and the game deas a pretty decent job of allowing one to express personality, even if only to rarely alter major outcomes. [But there are a few surprising places where you can indeed make some pretty big or even downright horrible decisions and major setting consequences, but none of them block the mian plot line, just alter the outcome of that particular subplot.]


GAMEPLAY

Amalur looks, plays, and feels like a Secret of Mana / Seiken Densetsu game loaded with combos, super powers, and general badass attitude. Usability and player satisfaction were clearly at the heart of the vision for this game, and it shows. Even without a proper targeting system, your avatar quickly shifts between multiple enemies, flinging all sorts of death dealing nastiness around the battlefield. You never feel weak or hindered in combat. Enemies fall to your reaping as you deal a hurricane of destruction, be you an acrobatic Dervish, stoic solid Warrior, or serene Mage.


CHARACTER PROGRESSION

The flexibility of the system is truly remarkable. You have access to three talent trees based on your standard warrior, rogue, and mage archetypes, and you assign talent points provided you meet the requirement for each allocation. This allows you to make a straight mage, a fast archer or stealthy stabber, a rough brawler, or any combination in between. The developers even encourage these types of cross-class creations, as statistical bonuses for your potential Hybrid Death-Dealer have already been planned out. Trust me, you can play Amalur any way you want. Better still, re-specing your hero requires only a small investment that is a chunk of resources early on in the game, but gets easier to bear (despite it's escalating cost) as you level up and gather more cash.


EQUIPMENT & CRAFTING

Then there's the loot. Sweet Lord, is there a lot of loot! Reckoning plays quite similar to Diablo in many ways. You can scour the countryside and find a staff that easily outclasses your current weapon of choice. Maybe you find a turban that gives a massive boost to your mana pool, or perhaps a shield with a substantial bonus to your health regeneration. The character progression and loot acquisition is enough to keep you playing, and that's something I can't really say about a lot of games out there today. In essence, Amalur serves the purpose of providing you with ways to make your virtual death machine as powerful as possible.


COMBAT

Mechanically, Reckoning stands above most current RPG releases in interface and reliability. As mentioned above it's much more similar to a real time spectacle action game with strong RPG elements in a manner similar to the Seiken Densetsu / Secret of Mana game series from Squaresoft, rather than a western free roam or a standard JRPG or ARPG. Add in all the build complexity of character development, random loot, and legendary hand-placed items and self made crafted items, and the amount of flexibility offered is on a very high level.


USER INTERFACE

The menus may appear dull to some eyes, but they are easily read and quickly accessed. A junk button for loot allows you to quickly sift through armaments without any hassle, and this needs to be standard in every game, period!

The PC version isn't exactly optimized for the mouse and keyboard format however. I suggest using a controller if you have one because Reckoning was clearly designed for the consoles. Still, the game looks remarkably better even on a modest machine. Seeing the world run at 60 FPS certainly helps with the slightly cartoony graphics.

38 Studios and Big Huge Games have created a world worth saving, and they have given us some pretty damn cool tools with which to get the job done.

Edited for clarity.

I'll update this with a lot more detail another day, but suffice to say this is a hidden gem of a SRPG, and it wears it's influences from the SNES and early PS era on it's sleeve proudly, all the greats like FF6, Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, and so on.

Excellent controls whether K&M or gamepad, and detailed without being obtuse. Also moddable in minor ways, via the easy editing of save files.

Two thumbs way up for one of my favorite games this year, and the best Strategy RPG in a decade.

It's a pretty good reverse tower defense game, I enjoyed it.

Unfinished demo of a no very difficult action game of some sort, that is literally nothing like the lane defense strategy game I kickstarted.

These dudes basically ran away with our money.

About once a year or so I check back in on the forums, no, there is still no contact several years going now.

[This is posted in May 2019]

[Barely worth it. I'm removing it from my playlist for what it's worth, but it was worth the money on deep sale.]

Well, I finally got it with all DLC in the last sale for $5 about a month ago, and now have a lvl 40 Seraphim and a couple others under level 10.

It was worth the money, but only barely, and to advance in Diety difficulty alone is super anoying and there is hardly anyone to play with..

And when you do find someone to play with they rarely have a headset on, or have their sound on too high and it comes through on your headset, which is ultra annoying. hard to play solo, and hard to co-op with strangers, I'd like to give my final analysis as;

Worth it if you are getting it with a friend or two to play it with, if planning to play it solo, it may give you your money's worth, or perhaps not, depending on how much you might enjoy a shallow Streets of Rage type brawler experience with annoying ground traps everywhere in half of the levels.

on the presentation front, the game looks great and has few hitches beyond a resolution reset display bug, but the dialogue. Oh lord, the terrible, horrendous dialogue. The voice acting is actually fine, even professional, it's the writing, it's super cringy and completely unfunny.

I don't care who you are, if you mute all the sound in the game and play your prefered energy pumping music , then you'll enjoy it one hell of a lot more. The dialogue is really not even worth reading, much less listening too.

*Sung* "I'm freeeeee, to be yooouuur favorite Spirit!" :steamsad:

Pretty fun little advancement clicker, funny dialogue, great art.

The Characters are great, and not just how they look, each has their own personality that shines through in their click, gift, date and interaction dialogues. There's even some sort of story going on, but you can only see hints of it [such as it is] in the beach dats, and I love that the Temple date location for sightseeing is where you find one of the late game date girls.

It's very moist.

Restart often to advance faster, the usual clicker game gig.

I recommend saving all diamonds and only spending them when absolutely required, best use of them is on the Time increment upgadre packs til you get to max time you can purchase. It's the best deal and all you really need to spend them on, the other options appear to be very sub par.

Seethis short guide as too why. []

Do not spend diamonds on things like costumes or to circumvent normal currency items, that is a giant waste, but know there are a few spots here and there where you have to spend some diamonds to advance but it's very late game and by then you're probably willing to throw a few bucks at the devs. I know I did! Search the forum to learn more about it.. oh and if you save them like I said too, the free diamonds you earn for advancing the game and getting achievments will allow you to pass these spots, just try to save 10 diamonds up and keep them unspent.

MOIST!

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning delivers exactly what it promises: an awesome fantasy RPG, with visceral, intuitive gameplay that is easy to pick up, wildly flexible and just plain fun, in a way that had previously not been seen in the genre. Many people compare it to action games, but it's really more like an updated 3D variation of a Seiken Densetsu / Secret of Mana game. it's an action RPG with exploration, but no real platforming elements, such as no jumping. Lots of neat weapons skills, talents, spells, and combat styles to try out, and a big loot system on top of it that the Mana series only wished it had.

{A General note. I pre-ordered this game when it first came out and thus played it on Origin, where I still have a copy owned. I have three full playthroughs there each with over 130+ hours played, and one has mastercrafted equipment that made me literally invincible [unless I was afflicted with Bleed status]. And a forth playthrough done "fast" with over seventy hours on it. So my time played stats here on steam should be added to those for Origin playtime of an additional 450+ hours.}


SETTING

The world is accessible and vast, offering genre fans plenty to sink their teeth into. One gets the sense that they are watching an entire world unfold before them, one rich with history and lore and life. Amalur opens itself up to the player in a way that is both familiar and refreshing, then empowers the player to do incredible things.

It is important to note that much of the setting lore is in books and scrolls found along the way in the various nooks and crannies of the game world, and discerned from NPC conversations, rather than thrown at you in raw exposition, except for a few areas early on, during, and near the end of the main plot line.

It's basically optional, and people who prefer to play it as an action game can sort of do that, which is where all the "Bland" complaints come from, I think.

I'm really big into exploration and character immersion, and since much of your character is a blank slate at the start, it's easy to create a persona and stick to it in your mind, similar to the style of silent protagonists in the JRPGS of old. Your characters gets no voice and you choose his/her lines as you play, precisely so you can decide which of the options fits your character best, and the game deas a pretty decent job of allowing one to express personality, even if only to rarely alter major outcomes. [But there are a few surprising places where you can indeed make some pretty big or even downright horrible decisions and major setting consequences, but none of them block the mian plot line, just alter the outcome of that particular subplot.]


GAMEPLAY

Amalur looks, plays, and feels like a Secret of Mana / Seiken Densetsu game loaded with combos, super powers, and general badass attitude. Usability and player satisfaction were clearly at the heart of the vision for this game, and it shows. Even without a proper targeting system, your avatar quickly shifts between multiple enemies, flinging all sorts of death dealing nastiness around the battlefield. You never feel weak or hindered in combat. Enemies fall to your reaping as you deal a hurricane of destruction, be you an acrobatic Dervish, stoic solid Warrior, or serene Mage.


CHARACTER PROGRESSION

The flexibility of the system is truly remarkable. You have access to three talent trees based on your standard warrior, rogue, and mage archetypes, and you assign talent points provided you meet the requirement for each allocation. This allows you to make a straight mage, a fast archer or stealthy stabber, a rough brawler, or any combination in between. The developers even encourage these types of cross-class creations, as statistical bonuses for your potential Hybrid Death-Dealer have already been planned out. Trust me, you can play Amalur any way you want. Better still, re-specing your hero requires only a small investment that is a chunk of resources early on in the game, but gets easier to bear (despite it's escalating cost) as you level up and gather more cash.


EQUIPMENT & CRAFTING

Then there's the loot. Sweet Lord, is there a lot of loot! Reckoning plays quite similar to Diablo in many ways. You can scour the countryside and find a staff that easily outclasses your current weapon of choice. Maybe you find a turban that gives a massive boost to your mana pool, or perhaps a shield with a substantial bonus to your health regeneration. The character progression and loot acquisition is enough to keep you playing, and that's something I can't really say about a lot of games out there today. In essence, Amalur serves the purpose of providing you with ways to make your virtual death machine as powerful as possible.


COMBAT

Mechanically, Reckoning stands above most current RPG releases in interface and reliability. As mentioned above it's much more similar to a real time spectacle action game with strong RPG elements in a manner similar to the Seiken Densetsu / Secret of Mana game series from Squaresoft, rather than a western free roam or a standard JRPG or ARPG. Add in all the build complexity of character development, random loot, and legendary hand-placed items and self made crafted items, and the amount of flexibility offered is on a very high level.


USER INTERFACE

The menus may appear dull to some eyes, but they are easily read and quickly accessed. A junk button for loot allows you to quickly sift through armaments without any hassle, and this needs to be standard in every game, period!

The PC version isn't exactly optimized for the mouse and keyboard format however. I suggest using a controller if you have one because Reckoning was clearly designed for the consoles. Still, the game looks remarkably better even on a modest machine. Seeing the world run at 60 FPS certainly helps with the slightly cartoony graphics.

38 Studios and Big Huge Games have created a world worth saving, and they have given us some pretty damn cool tools with which to get the job done.

[Updating my review, edited for clarity.]

My favorite MMORPG so far, Champions Online has a wonderful action oriented combat system with crunchy character bulding, stat management and power selection systems that allow a detailed player to build something extra potent! "Be the Hero you want to be!"

CO also has a wonderful Free to Play option that takes out about 90% of that complexity and thus serving as an excellent hand holding introduction to the funnest elements of the gameplay without the harder stat managing aspects, which some players such as myself love, but some don't. It's definitely easier to learn the basics of the game with.

An adaptation of the Tabletop RPG Champions, Champions Online is a 2009 Super Hero MMORPG offering a wide variety of power and costume customisation options. While the storylines and environments are usually an Homage to a Silver Age style, light-hearted and brightly-coloured, occasional Bronze Age consequences and morals are hinted at. Player characters display a wide range of styles, from The Cape through The Cowl to the Nineties Anti-Hero.

Various departures from the Pen & Paper game are noticeable, including the absence of the concept of acquiring character flaws in order to gain extra points. However, there is a lot more power growth compared to the Pen and Paper experience.

The intellectual property rights to the Champions setting are now held by Cryptic Studios (themselves owned by Perfect World Entertainment), the original developers of the MMORPG City of Heroes. They bought the setting outright rather than licensing it. The IP is licensed back to the original developers (who still own the underlying Hero System) for the Champions pen-and-paper game.

As a Superhero MMO with a sense of humour about itself, there are numerous references to other works. It features just about everything on the list of comic book tropes.

As of January 2011 it is free to play, downloadable from its website; later in June it came to Steam along with a few other such games. Another fairly notable update came in the form of "On Alert" in April of 2012, which changed the logo, made more content available to everybody (and with it added more premium content) and added the titular alert system. The alert system is effectively a new type of mission, and one of several ways to gain the resource questionite, which can be used directly to buy some things, or traded player-to-player in an stock exchange type system for the cash store's currency, at this point Perfect World's ZEN.(In addition, several missions and bosses which were already present were edited to reward questionite—including the adventure packs, which as of that update became free for all.) In late 2012, vehicles were introduced, becoming a customizable feature in December with the Reloaded update.