Just can't get into this game. It looks like if it's just supposed to be your typical mmorpg, but somehow isn't, leaving me with the feeling that I still play an mmo, but alone on a private server.

i just found it dull and uninspiring.

My thought exactly, ever since reveal.

The world is boring and lifeless during exploration.
It looks great with the vibrant colors and artstyle but thats about it interms of looks, its really boring when you start exloring (amazing locations though).

The game is VERY huge, it has loading screens within zones but its still a very huge game and can easily get sidetracked which I like.

I do like the combat alot though, definitely my favorite combat in a action RPG so far (there is Witcher 2 and Dragons Dogma I am waiting for as well).

The quests are generic really, just like most RPGs games out there. Go fetch an item or kill someone and report back to get your XP and other rewards, rinse and repeat

Overal I am having alot of fun, but can get boring (depending on the person) because of running in a empty world waiting for groups of enemies to turn up by guarding nothing in nothingness or a little camp.
So I take some break from the game after hours or days of playing and play something else and come back so it feels a little bit fresh when I play it, works hehe.

To those who didnt know, this game was a MMORPG title at first, publisher wanted to introduce the universe to gamers first so they slapped a SP content to it all so they can do the MMORPG next.
And it shows, not a good design at all.

I do remember it was similair in Fable 3 as well when you started to explore the wilderness alone and such, it was empty until you found NPCs asking for help or random enemies.

Hopefully for the next title they do SP, they do a better job making a proper single player experience world, more immersive one than what they did now.

One of the many things that Dark Souls got right - no fetch quests. This, combat system, uber-awesome weapons and armours are the main things why this game is on my top 5 games for this gen consoles.

I can't get into games like Amalur, Skyrim, Oblivion and other games with millions boring and pointless quests. Crappy combat on Oblivion/Skyrim doesn't help either. :P

Im totally having fun with this game from a combat perspective. I do agree about the story and a lot of the side quests being boring tho. Ive only put it down lately when i wanted to play Shank 2 and BF3 but this game has taken up most of my time. I haven't opened FFXIII-2 and now im thinking about taking that game back.

I just played the demo. Pretty good. Too bad that you can't jump. Would open many ways for more combos/skills and maybe a deeper fighting system.

I see the atrocious texture/geometry pop in is in the retail version... Until this is resolved for the PC I won't be buying it.

There is only one things I hate about the Souls series.
Combat is a absolute bore to me, I hate being limited when I do simple swings, rolls, blocks. I understand for sprint but for simple attacks? hell no and rolls.
I know its part of the challenge but its not for me.Jump would be great, not for combat for me but mostly for like jumping over objects that is knee high or from a cliff.
I hate looking for a jump-section from a hill or something to be able to go down.
Though I do love doing it though, seen the dust and motion blur when your character jumps and hits the ground does a roll, pretty cool.

It's not "part of the challenge", the depth just doesn't come from combos, but from strategizing. Something that a game like Amalur lacks totally.

Yes it is part of the challenge as well.
You cant button mash and do rapid attacks, thats why each swing takes stamina and makes you ALSO think of strategy for how many attacks, when to dodge...etc.
I for one dont like to be limited in my attacks and moves as much as Souls series, really boring to me.

The only game Amalur can be compared to is Fable interms of combat, both have the same concept of using melee and magic and range on the fly and have the delay-input moves, just happens Amalur to have a much better one.

Yeah, but again, if you want a good action game, why even bother with shit like Amalur or fable? just go play Ninja Gaiden and DMC that actually does the combat really well, still has some upgrades for your character and don't look like mumerpegers. I don't see the point in punishing yourself with a complete PoS game becasue the combat might have been nice if they had it balanced right and an AI that wasn't comparable to a wrist watch calculator :P

You can upgrade your stamina. I bet you are not playing DS more than 2-3hrs. In beginning your character is a poo of course, unlike average games like Amalur where you rape the enemies right from the start of the game.:)

Talk to me when you upgrade your stats and get some cool weapons (katana's etc). :)

This game has a big world to explore with good art IMO, finding random dungeons, finding random loot with tons of customization, have alot of various random elemental looking and fun weapons to use (Chakrams and Faeblades), leveling up to gain new abilities, cross-hybrid class, something typical action games dont offer other than generic weapon upgrade.

If you think its a "PoS" dont get the idea other people are "punishing" themselves because if that was the case they would get rid of it, something you should do with the game.I played Demons Souls from start to finish after god knows how much patience lol.
But still, I cant do rapid attacks and continue with it, it was still limited to me.
Bad decision of getting Dark Souls, but I got rid of it quick.

I dont disagree that enemies should have been harder, gave them harder moves to counter move your attacks but not in a cheap way.

But in a RPG this is why when you have good action type of combat you will be in advantage no matter what because you have good feedback and hit detection that makes the enemy not be able to do anything and you are in control of your character's every movement without thinking of stamina every few seconds you do attacks.

From what I understand, hardcore RPG fans WANT to be in disadvantage as much as possible in combat so they can consider it "challenging" from a RPG stand point so they punish the combat mechanics for it.
Thats why Souls have stamina, it limits the shit out of your movement to consider it "challenging" while giving the enemies unlimited stamina and shit ton of damage. Give me unlimited stamina in Souls and I will tell you if I can beat the cheap game or not, which I can by ease, but then again, that will make me have a right advantage which seems wrong lol.

Oblivion/Skyrim having garbage hit feedback so anyone with more and stronger hits in will win the battle because enemies will continue their attack animations like ghosts no matter what, unless you shield bash or do a power move that takes stamina.

A game like Amalur, they had action combat mindset in it, having unlimited attacks, dodges, blocks and parries. Every hit will make the enemy react as it should hence why they cant fight back, and considering you dont have stamina to pull you down you can constantly do attacks and kill them faster.

Its fine if you guys like that, but to go off and call Amalur combat bad when you are playing one that isnt anything better other than "limitations" and stating it as a fact is just dumb IMO.

I wanted one were combat had that action-vibe and RPG and I got it considering I have tried all other titles with real time combat in it and I consider them "PoS" for me.

Aside from quests - that's the biggest bummer in amalur for me. Combat is mindless-mashy and the battles are mega-unsatisfying. The sense of completing something in Amalur is 0. Casual game, so yeah that's why a lot of people hate it. :P

But loot is utterly pointless, put a few points in blacksmithing and BAM, you make stuff at least 50% stronger and better than any loot you'll ever find! Again, the only reason the cross class thing works out is becasue the enemies are such pushovers. If you had any semblance of challenge those mixed classes would suck, because you wouldn't get the most out of your weapons and skills. And what does that shit even ultimately mean when the game is so bloody worthless that you can easily win fights blindfolded? You just mash away at that attack button and pop a pot every now and then.

I've forged 9 weapons in total. i've forged at least 3 of those just to sell them. I've yet to find any loot that comes even close to being better. Same with armor. And you are swimming in money, so potions and stuff? Just buy it, don't need to find it or even brew it yourself. And what's the point of searching random dungeons in Amalur? It's not like you are going to find something exciting in there anyway.

Tons of weapons? You have, sword, big sword, dagger, bow, hammer, chakram, fae blades and staff. Amazing. And customization? yeah, like add fire, frost, poinson or electric sparks. The end. This is the ancle deep kiddy-pool of RPGs.

I feel like what weapons and ninpo i use in NG has WAY more inpact on how i play the game than all the choices in Amalur, same with DMC and certainly with demon's/Dark Souls. You may have fewer options, but they are MEANINGFULL options. Options that really impact how you play the game. I mean, in Amalur it doesn't really matter what weapon you pick, you are still just going to hammer the attack button in the enemys face. In Gaiden, if i play with the Dabilahro i'll have to take an entierly new approach to enemies than i would with the Dragon Sword.

And thats why alot of people like it, its random and hard to generlize by saying "alot". Some like it, some dont thats just the bottom line really.

And yes it is button mashy, but if you have alot of stamina in Souls that game will be exactly the same. I mean I even "trigger-mashed" in Skyrim when I had it.
In the end, when your character in a RPG gets to a point you can do alot of damage it will get button mashing.

Besides, in action games it is button mashing anyways, if you want to use simple terms. But there you got dial combo for light and heavy attacks, in Amalur you got delay-inputs which means if you delay your attack you do various stuff and another button has another weapons that is the same concept.

IMO the battles are fun when you can start doing these sort of stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3SKFrVxfwo#t=13m33...
I am all for stylish combat moves in such games, Amalur has it down perfectly IMO.

@Megido

I agree with the blacksmithing, but not the combat department. All games are button mashers in the end anyways.

If I can do stylish combos like that video and have elemental chances to kick in on enemies I am good.
Thats why I only focus on Faeblades and Chakrams, only weapons fun using because they are unique designs I seen in a game.

Thing is the only reason why I play action RPG is to run around in a big world (something Skyrim did really well), kill enemies, gain XP and level up, get cool looking loot or make them myself and do awesome moves and gain cool abilities and do some combos with someone that is speedy and has agility combined. There are tons of people out there that does that as well. I am not a hardcore RPG like you guys so I dont care really.
As long as I have fun with what I am playing, in the end, I am the one with a satistfying mind.

No, the stamina caps in Dark Souls, you can never just mash or turtle.

And you disagree? With what? That you can forge better shit than you loot? That the combat is a retarded mashfest? That most choises are without any kind of impact?

It's not about what you CAN do in the game, it's about what feels meaningful. You can do different combos in Amalur, but you don't have ANY incentive at all to do so as the regular mashing works just fine. At least it did for the 20 hours i've played. Yo just have like 3 ways of doing the exact same thing; mashing the poor sod in to a corner untill he is dead. There is no skill involved at all, rendering different combos completely moot.

I mean, if i felt that juggling an enemy actually meant that i made the encounter easier or i avoided damage by keeping them in the air, then that would be cool, but it's just tripping yourslf up!

Anyways im done, we can agree to disagree.

game cool 9/10

As an RPG fan I think you're wrong. People don't just want challenge for the sake of challenge; most of the emphasis on an RPG is stats and character progression, relying on your stats as opposed to combos and such. That's the difference, not just seeking punishment for the sake of nothing more than a challenge.

Yeah i mean, i don't by any means want a game to be super hard just for being hard. But just mowing down legions of artard enemies isn't fun either. There needs to be an element of challenge to keep me interested. Combos can work fine but when i feel like i'm pretty much just hitting static targets that barely fight back, where is the fun in that? It's like Dynasty Warriors or something. Just endless hordes of idiots that basically run in to your sword. Where is the fun in that?

Can you not like, up the difficulty in Amalur? Does it make any kind of difference to AI behaviour, or just a bit more health for the enemies?

From what i noticed you simply make the gap between downing pots a little smaller :P

This game does rely on stats and progression as well, its just happens that considering you have combos and no limit to your moves you have easier time to not let the enemy do their moves unless they are big ones.

I do agree on the weak enemies though, not all all of them, but most of them.