Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

As a huge fan of God of War styled brawlers, here's an action RPG that I am looking forward to playing when it releases on February 7th:

^^^ My trusty Dual Shock 3 (via Bluetooth adaptor and MotionJoy) is ready.

Here's a link to the GB video; thanks for the heads up.

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DualShock 3 vibration works fine on the PC. And coincidentally the last pad game I completed on PC a week ago using the DS3 was Limbo. It's really not a hassle.

The thing is, as you progress through this 60-80 hour game (depending on how many of the bajillion side quests you complete), you can easily become an omnipotent, unstoppable demi-god according to reports all around the 'net. This is on Hard difficulty - the game becomes ridiculously easy/ The developer even admitted this and said his team had no time to balance it properly before it shipped. A patch to fix the tight camera and numerous balance problems was in the works before the company went belly up.

The difficulty issues include... crafting armor/weapons is overpowered, crafting gems is over powered, heal potions are too numerous and have no cool down, experience point earning is so fast that you'll max out at Level 40 midway through the game if you do side quests, certain spells, weapons, and skills are over powered, enemies aren't aggressive enough, and there is probably more.

Thankfully, mods exist to fix these issues. I recently started playing this game last week for the first time and I have to say that they all work well. Copied from the Steam thread, here's what I am using:

FXAA Post Process Injector - even though it is made for Skyrim, it works with KoA. This makes the colors POP off the screen (I use the 3rd pack of files). Everything looks a lot richer with this mod enabled (I use the last pack option). It automatically works once installed every time you play. Tap Pause/Break to turn it on and off in-game to see the difference it makes.

Widescreen Fixer - The default field of view is way to close for the kind of action it throws at you. With this mod enabled, you can set the FoV to whatever you want (I use 70). For best results, enable it ("CTRL *" for me) while in the main menu of KoA just after you load a save. Then exit to the main menu and load your save again for it to kick in. This will prevent it from displaying a warped fish-eye effect. You have to load it and turn it as I described on each time you play.

HeatCore Difficulty - The most important mod on my list. It is very easy to over level and make this game a cake walk if you don't have this excellent mod. Beware though - the difficulty spikes up pretty high initially. If you can play Devil May Cry or God of War games on the hardest difficulties, then you have the patience to improve your offense and defense while dying with this mod enabled. This mod t must be enabled each time you play and it can be tricky to do so until you get it to work. Dload and install the complete version instead of the user adjustable version for best results according to several internet comments. Read the instructions carefully and ask me for tips if you have trouble.

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I was up to 3 AM playing this last night - it really is a lot of fun. I have almost a dozen open quests right now and am still in the first general area of the game. The difficulty spike at the beginning from the mod has eased up some now that I have better gear, but I won't do any black smiting or gem crafting since I don't want to take a chance that I get too powerful. Enemies still kill me regularly though if I am not careful, and I run and hide from random mobs at times when I want to be safe. I'm working on finding all the parts of a Ninja outfit for a set bonus (I have 2/5 so far with my pure Finesse build) besides tackling the quests. The combat in this game is the best ever for an RPG, hands down.
Edited by joeblow - 1/31/13 at 7:15pm

Make sure you place the contents of it into your 'koareckoning' folder (because that folder contains your KoA executable file). You might have to alt-tab back and forth to see the change, but once it is in you don't need to mess with it again. It is significant, so if you don't notice it something is wrong.

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Man, I looooove this game! Over 60 hours so far and I am only close to halfway being done with the second area on the world map. I'm level 15 with my knife primary Assassin build. All my talent points so far have gone into enhancing my knives, but I will add some to Sorcery soon so I can beef up my God of War'esque Chakrams, which are my secondary weapons.

The combat engine is by far the best ever in an RPG. It is truly what makes this game shine over anything else. If I hadn't used the nightmare difficulty mod, I would have been bored to tears and quit already. It works extremely well at forcing me to play smart. I also limit myself with no blacksmithing, alchemy or advanced sagecrafting... I mostly use what I discover in my travels or what I purchase. Just to give an idea of how hard it can be, one of the bosses (and her henchmen) that I fought at the 20-25 hour mark worked me over so badly that it took about four hours over a few days for me to defeat her. I might have been a bit underpowered to take her on at that time, but it was definitely exhilarating when I finally put her down for good.

The A.I. is really solid for a game of this type, and I must have died throughout the game over a hundred times before I finally got a decent grip on my abilities and limitations. I use stealth mode and back stabbing assassinations because it helps me survive, not just because it looks cool as it is in most games. I definitely run for my life when I think the odds are too tough for me to handle at times, but I am now getting to be decently strong to where I can handle most mobs if I stay focused.

I have completed maybe 95% of the side quests in the first region before moving on to the second where I am now. I tend to skip past most dialogue options now except the main story and essential info because there are so many of them. This game must have the record for most side quests in one release. Too bad the developer went out of business. They really did do an outstanding job with this release.
Edited by joeblow - 1/30/13 at 9:34am

Maybe the Ori8gin version has issues with it - I don't know. Go to the website and try to dload an earlier version to see if it works.

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I hardly have any mana so a Mage powers are not in the cards for me. Instead, my build and gear focuses almost exclusively on racking up critical hits as often as possible, and making sure the crit damage is as high as possible. I also keep gear with some basic auto healing in place so I do not have to run to a medic or burn through my heal potions between fights too often.

One last modification I did to this game that I forgot to mention: I used a hex editor program to increase my inventory size to 500. I still buy every back pack I find (as few of them as there are), but because this game is monumentally HUGE and loot can be found everywhere, I felt too much time was wasted going back to town to sell my junk after every few missions. I can now comfortably roam the countryside without worrying about this anymore. If anyone wants instructions on how to do this, let me know because the process can be tricky.
Edited by joeblow - 1/30/13 at 10:55am

It has been $60 on Steam from day one. I hear that Rhode Islandis in control of deciding the sale price outside of EA's Origins (who produced the game). That's why it never gets a discount on Steam.

I bought it full price on Steam and it has been more than worth it with the mods installed. Right now, it rivals Dragon Age: Origins as my favorite modern PC RPG (which had a more engaging storyline). Either way you go, you will easily get 100+ hours of quality game time with KoA.

That's exactly how I am when it comes to these brawlers. Going back to the days of Streets of Rage 2, I preferred cranking up the difficulty to make sure it would be a challenge to beat it or die trying.

In my post above, I link to the HeartCore difficulty mod for KoA. You need that mod (and the cheat engine that it works with) in order to have a satisfying time with this game. The company exec admitted himself before the company went under that they did not have time to balance it right, so this mod should be used if you pick this up.

It works REALLY well; I've died over a hundred times easily after 60+ hours of play and I am not halfway through the game yet. This is in a game that has a rep of being one of the easiest games ever made once you get to a certain point - it is impossible to die according to quite a few posts I've read.

So not only does this mod make the enemies harder and you weaker in a variety of ways, the A.I. is pumped up so that more enemies attack more aggressively (instead of taking turns). You are also gimped on how much healing you can receive, how fast you get XP points, and how much gold you can earn. All of this helps to keep you vulnerable throughout the game.

You still have to impose other restrictions to keep from getting to over powered - the mod designer recommends not earning more than 5 points (out of 16) in Blacksmithing or Sagecraft because you could then create armor and epic gems that would make you unstoppable (I do buy new gear in stores though). I also don't make potions, choosing to live off of what I find. So I stay away from armor creation altogether and only use the weakest Sagecraft gems. I may be too cautious, but as I get stronger because I do most of the side quests, I don't want to overpower the game.

Other tips I've read include not going into a new region too early so as not to gimp the enemies there, which scales random enemies to your level at the time and doesn't toughen them up (each region takes 20-30 hours to get through). Also, save often with multiple files. At least two quests can be buggy at times: ("Righteous Fury" in Gllette and "Silence Falls"), so you should be ready to reload if needed. Use a game pad! This game is not as enjoyable with mouse+kb (you still need a kb to F5 quick save and F9 quick load). Lastly, turn the Sprint toggle mode on so you can tap the button to run. This let's you easily use the camera with the right analog stick, which is too difficulty to do if you keep the hold-to-run option enabled.

You can aim at whoever you want to aim at with the left analog stick.
Max in SoR2 was a beast! I squeezed every little trick out of him that I could to survive Mania mode.

Firstly, Max's rear attack Mule Kick (face away, then tap B+C using the Genny button scheme) is very under rated. It is extremely useful in all difficulties, but it may be his best non-special move on Mania. As you know it hits up to two times, and it has decent range. The key benefit it gives you however is that it is one of his fastest non-special attacks while also being a knock-down move.

On Mania, where the enemies are very fast, you can really notice the difference in how often you have attack priority on a rushing foe when you use his rear attack and when you try to use his normal attacks. In fact, you can really see it shine if you are facing a corner and have a pack of enemies coming at you in bunches - just turn your back and start spamming this move and down they go. The game options lets you map the B+C to one button to make it easier if you wish.

There are sooooo many places where its speed is useful. Basically, an ytime you need a FAST counter attack to breathe, aim opposite of the threat and try the Mule Kick since punching, jump kicking, etc. is much slower. Even the slide needs a double tap, or a triple tap if you are facing the wrong direction.

Another situation where the speed of this move works really well is when I want to do extra damage from Max's normal combo. As Max, I go up to a single foe (or several foes bunched together) and hit punch, punch, hammer cross for the first four hits, and as the last double attack is ending I point away from and deliver the Mule Kick for a final, powerful knock-down combo. You can even add a drop elbow at the start for the stun and extra damage. The entire thing would be:

Jump, down+B while in the air (get deep without grabbing), tap B,B,B, aim away from enemy and instantly tap B+C. That does more damage than the normal Hammer-fist ender. At any time of course, I can end the normal B,B combo with the Mule Kick if enemies are closing in.

On a related note,the sword and pipe also have a similar benefit as the Mule Kick in Max's hands. While Max can hit both sides with one swing using these weapons, it is important to note that he FIRST hits the enemies coming at him from behind.

I use this knowledge to keep foes knocked away from me in the same way as I describe for the Mule Kick. The fastest threats running at you should be dealt with using the rear swing of these weapons if you don't have time to use the superior reach of the front-facing weapon swing to your advantage. It helps when you are semi-surrounded too since the more immediate danger is hit first if you are facing away from it before the slightly lesser threat tries to attack.

I agree with you that Koshiro's music in SoR2 was epic. To this day I listen to modern remixes of those songs, and even added them to my console to play on stages in fighters. SoR2 is one of my most perfect games of all times.