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Need to pick this up on sale down the road. Reckoning fatigue set in about 30 hours into the game. I pushed it to the backlog for this summer. Love it still, just a bit burnt. Went from Skyrim to that.
I have loved every moment of Amalur, as I've played around 20 hours, but I had Rage sitting in my backlog (costing me money from GameFly) so I started that and am planning to finish that before I go back to Amalur for a bit (before tackling my backlog Saint's Row 3 and Borderlands DLC).
So many games. So little time. I'll have to wait for a sale. Good to hear it will be worth the few extra dollars.
So many games. So little time. I'll have to wait for a sale. Good to hear it will be worth the few extra dollars.
Gotta say, I disagree with Maurice here. I was absolutely disappointed with The Legend of Dead Kel and regret the purchase. I generally attempt to like everything I play, and I'm usually successful in that regard, so the fact that I didn't like this DLC is uncommon and, to me, noteworthy enough that I've been waiting for a review on it to get a chance to air some grievances.
The best part of Amalur, the retail game, was the loot and the combat. The spells are fun, the attack animations are brutal and entertaining, the parry/dodge mechanic is completely derivative, but well-executed and rewarding, and the loot... oh my god the loot. God I love loot games, and Amalur did SO SO SO much right in that regard.
The DLC though... added absolutely NOTHING to any of the things I just mentioned. The combat is the same old. I gained exactly ONE level the entire time. ONE. Even then, there was nothing new to spend my skill point on. The skill trees haven't been updated. No new attacks, no new spells, no new anything. Same old shit.
I could overlook that, though, if I got to do more sweet sweet loot hunting. Sadly though, that's not the case. I didn't get a SINGLE upgrade the entire trip through Gallow's End. Not one thing. I came across plenty of loot, don't get me wrong, but it was complete crap compared to what I already had, most of which I crafted for myself via Blacksmithing and Sagecrafting.
Speaking of blacksmithing and sagecrafting, they were my favorite things about the retail game. Breaking down gear for components and combining them in the phat lewts of my own design felt awesome. I find it absolutely unforgivable, then, that there were NO new components for either crafting skill in Dead Kel. Nothing at all.
Anyone who played the game and did any blacksmithing knows that the gear you craft derives its primary stats from the base item you start with. For weapons, the best base items are Prismere. For a rogue/mage like my character, the best base armor is Dreadscale. So then, for anything to be an upgrade, there would need to be better base items than Prismere and Dreadscale. There aren't. Those are still, all the way to the end of the DLC, STILL the best available. No new base items, no craftable upgrades. It fucking sucked.
With all due respect to Maurice who wrote a good review, I could not possible disagree more. I absolutely adored Amalur. I despised Dead Kel. Don't waste your money if you haven't already. It's terrible.
The best part of Amalur, the retail game, was the loot and the combat. The spells are fun, the attack animations are brutal and entertaining, the parry/dodge mechanic is completely derivative, but well-executed and rewarding, and the loot... oh my god the loot. God I love loot games, and Amalur did SO SO SO much right in that regard.
The DLC though... added absolutely NOTHING to any of the things I just mentioned. The combat is the same old. I gained exactly ONE level the entire time. ONE. Even then, there was nothing new to spend my skill point on. The skill trees haven't been updated. No new attacks, no new spells, no new anything. Same old shit.
I could overlook that, though, if I got to do more sweet sweet loot hunting. Sadly though, that's not the case. I didn't get a SINGLE upgrade the entire trip through Gallow's End. Not one thing. I came across plenty of loot, don't get me wrong, but it was complete crap compared to what I already had, most of which I crafted for myself via Blacksmithing and Sagecrafting.
Speaking of blacksmithing and sagecrafting, they were my favorite things about the retail game. Breaking down gear for components and combining them in the phat lewts of my own design felt awesome. I find it absolutely unforgivable, then, that there were NO new components for either crafting skill in Dead Kel. Nothing at all.
Anyone who played the game and did any blacksmithing knows that the gear you craft derives its primary stats from the base item you start with. For weapons, the best base items are Prismere. For a rogue/mage like my character, the best base armor is Dreadscale. So then, for anything to be an upgrade, there would need to be better base items than Prismere and Dreadscale. There aren't. Those are still, all the way to the end of the DLC, STILL the best available. No new base items, no craftable upgrades. It fucking sucked.
With all due respect to Maurice who wrote a good review, I could not possible disagree more. I absolutely adored Amalur. I despised Dead Kel. Don't waste your money if you haven't already. It's terrible.
More of the same isn't enough with this game. Everything was tedious and unrewarding in the main game, why would I want more of that? Then again, I found Amalur's story and dialogue to be trite and formulaic. To each their own.
So the review says it offers new environs and characters which isn't as good as a bunch of numbers and an ability that does more numbers. RPG gamers are weird. I don't want more location and story, I want my numbers to change a little!
Loved Amalur, but totally agree with the burn-out sentiment so many are expressing. I totally had enough by the time I got to Klurikon (~30 hrs in) and literally *raced* to the end to be done with it and move on.
About halfway through I just stopped taking new side quests. If you had an exclamation point over your head, I avoided you like the plague.
With so much content I never even experienced in the original campaign I just can't justify a DLC purchase. Maybe if it's on sale some rainy day in the future... maybe.
About halfway through I just stopped taking new side quests. If you had an exclamation point over your head, I avoided you like the plague.
With so much content I never even experienced in the original campaign I just can't justify a DLC purchase. Maybe if it's on sale some rainy day in the future... maybe.
From the reader comments, it sounds kinda like the Island or Dr. Ned DLC for Borderlands. New monsters, new areas, no new gear.
@Trist
Don't don't disagree at all, but since you seem so passionate about it I'm curious if you think the point of the DLC was to just give you more of the same to do, specially if you haven't' finished the game yet, or that they simply just dropped the ball?
Don't don't disagree at all, but since you seem so passionate about it I'm curious if you think the point of the DLC was to just give you more of the same to do, specially if you haven't' finished the game yet, or that they simply just dropped the ball?
With oh so many games from 2011 (and earlier) that I still would like to play, I am certainly waiting to pick up the special edition copy of KoA with all the DLC that is sure to come out. Good review though, definitely made me want to give it a try.
@ DrDonkenstein - Just as Tristrix pointed out, the DLC adds nothing new, just more of the same that you can find in the main story. And trust me...there is more than enough to do in the main story itself. I too am burnt out and have stopped taking on side quest and just want to be done with this game, cause its more or less doing something similar to what you've been doing for the past 50+hours. Great game still...but spoils you to the point of stalling.
@BoomingEchoes
Well I mean, I'll tell you what I expected... or at least what I hoped for. I hoped for a new continent (check), a new main quest line with several side quests (check), a bump in level cap with several more levels, a new top tier of talents in the skill tree beyond what we already had to give us some new abilities and spells to play around with, and metric fucking shit-tons more gear and crafting components.
I feel like that should have been pretty much a given for any major content DLC for a game like Amalur, particularly one (and I hate to bitch about money but it's relevant) at a 10 dollar price point. I just don't feel like basic, reasonable expectations were met.
Well I mean, I'll tell you what I expected... or at least what I hoped for. I hoped for a new continent (check), a new main quest line with several side quests (check), a bump in level cap with several more levels, a new top tier of talents in the skill tree beyond what we already had to give us some new abilities and spells to play around with, and metric fucking shit-tons more gear and crafting components.
I feel like that should have been pretty much a given for any major content DLC for a game like Amalur, particularly one (and I hate to bitch about money but it's relevant) at a 10 dollar price point. I just don't feel like basic, reasonable expectations were met.
@Darren
And that's another thing. I didn't see ONE goddamned Good Burger the whole time I was playing this DLC pack. WTF, man?
And that's another thing. I didn't see ONE goddamned Good Burger the whole time I was playing this DLC pack. WTF, man?
DLC done right. Of course EA didn't fuck this the devs too much on this game. If there is a sequel you can bet they will have their greedy stubby fingers all over it.
DLC done right. Of course EA didn't fuck with the devs too much on this game. If there is a sequel you can bet they will have their greedy stubby fingers all over it.
So in the main story, I've gotten as far as visiting Rathir for the first time. Got this DLC and I figured I'd go ahead and head to Gallows End since I was there already. I've just gotten into it and it's already my favorite part of the game.
DLC done right unless you want the PS3 version where EA fucked you out of trophies. (I don't care about trophies but that's some bullshit)
All I really wanted was a nice set of pirate clothes(they already had the Shadowskin set and this DLC has a pirate theme, so why not?) any maybe a little more to challenge high-level characters...at least something up to the task of forcing the player to have to put some armor on their character to take down.
The ability to safely and soundly trounce huge monsters in nothing one's underpants should be reserved for super hero games!
Both had best be hiding very well in one of those 600 or so megabits of data or I might have to advise prospective purchasers of this package to follow Dead Kel's example and just pirate this DLC.
The ability to safely and soundly trounce huge monsters in nothing one's underpants should be reserved for super hero games!
Both had best be hiding very well in one of those 600 or so megabits of data or I might have to advise prospective purchasers of this package to follow Dead Kel's example and just pirate this DLC.
Great, good for Amalur, I hope they keep on putting out good DLC, I'll definitely be picking this game up at some point, and if that happens to be an edition in the future that comes with all the DLC, that's just groovy. I like it when a new IP does well.
Are you sure there are stabs at Fable 3? This game is awesome, but it is pretty much a loot grinder's take on the Fable series. The graphics and the combat are ripped straight out of Fable.
The lack of trophies on PS3 really made me angry. BHG/38 Studios have said on their official forums this is not a mistake or a bug, and have not said whether it will be patched, only that they cannot explain why trophies are missing for legal reasons out of their control.
I know the "who cares about achievements" brigade will post something flippant about this. And I know that the DLC has value of its own and certainly does not need trophies. But I really enjoyed doing all the trophies in the main game, hunting all of them down. That's the way I played Amalur, it was both fun and satisfying. It fucking sucks that Steam and 360 gets achievments, and they fail to implement PS3 trophies. I grabbed it as soon as I saw it on the store, expecting the same trophy support you get in Bioware and Bethesda RPG DLCs, and I now regret the purchase. I am sitting on it until we get some information about whether they will put trophies in, and whether future DLC will get trophies.
I know the "who cares about achievements" brigade will post something flippant about this. And I know that the DLC has value of its own and certainly does not need trophies. But I really enjoyed doing all the trophies in the main game, hunting all of them down. That's the way I played Amalur, it was both fun and satisfying. It fucking sucks that Steam and 360 gets achievments, and they fail to implement PS3 trophies. I grabbed it as soon as I saw it on the store, expecting the same trophy support you get in Bioware and Bethesda RPG DLCs, and I now regret the purchase. I am sitting on it until we get some information about whether they will put trophies in, and whether future DLC will get trophies.
Its kinda funny that this sounds much more enjoyable than amalur itself. I bought Amalur on impulse and its a very average experience, with all of the compliments surrounding boiling down to "it took this element from this other game but mixed them SO well" (why is that hard? apparently i have higher expectations than most). That, or game reviewers merely want to encourage a new entry into the heavy weight field, as well as "dreamteam" dynamics like this one (Todd mCfarlane was what made me give this thing a second glance). But unless you havent played an rpg for a long time, and dont need a good story Amalur is not worth its price. This dlc sounds like better attention was put into DESIGN, but i cant justify spending more money on Amalur. (the reviewers point about memorable characters is bang on. I heard they wanted to "make their own middle earth" but this is not even remotely close to nailing it. at all) Im still expecting better from the big boys, Skyrim (make me give a shit about the people in the world please. i murdered my girl's husband so fast when i saw how they handled marriage lol) and Bioware (go back to how awesome you were when i played Kotor 1,2 and Jade empire....please...)
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