KOA: Age of Reckoning

[Aaron MkII]

Picked this up the other day to carry me over till Syndicate and coop. For Hav;

3rd person
Dress up
Fantasy rpg

Its kind of like what i imagine WoW would be if it was single player. The art style is very bright with none of the gloomy shit in bethesda games. You play a pc who is capable of changing fate, in a world where everything is fixed. So much so that there is an order of fortune tellers that are 100% reliable.

Game play is fairly basic, smash x to hit things, or y to us a secondary weapon. And it uses a radial menu for potions. Huge map with lots of caves and dungeons. I find combat to be fast as a rogue but as a warrior its slow.

I wasn't expecting much seeing as its a new studio (owned by a retired baseball player) but its easily better then the recent rpg releases from big developers.

Funny as shit the first time you conjure up a harpoon and shove it through a trolls head.

[Vendetta]

I am quite enjoying my time in Kingdoms of Chopping.

The design really shows how Bethesda are focusing on the wrong things with Elder Scrolls. Everything is much more streamlined. Alchemy, for instance, rather than four thousand ingredients that all have 4 different properties there are about 25 that have one each. That means there's much less dead time in the alchemy skill and you can get useful results out of it much more quickly.

And the combat is infinitely better, I'm playing on Hard as a rogue/mage, so I'm properly squishy, but when I die it's largely my fault for not dodging properly, or animation locking myself (you can cancel out of ordinary attacks to block or dodge, but not your combo ending special).

Also, because it follows a more traditional XP award system there's an incentive to do quests that I never felt in Elder Scrolls, where the results of doing so were usually trivial and the same character progression would have happened had I done them or not.

[The Yosemite Bear]

why was I immagining a first person camping simulation, where you had to fnd off hoards of ugly americans in RVs?

for those not familiar KOA is also the name of Kampgrounds Of America, a chain of RV parks, full of well, trailer people...

[SirNitram]

It was quite fun, having alot of what I wished was in Skyrim. What a pity the demo made my computer overheat.

[Stark]

Im curious to hear from you guys how the pace and balance holds up over the game; the demo was fun and had neat combat, but you never know when the game will end up broken or one of the tree trees will become obviously superior.

[Aaron MkII]

I have no idea how far I am, just defeated some giant fat git with a laser eye?

But it seems to hold up well, my Rogue is holding her own with faeblades and poison specialties. Stealth is still difficult, as it works kind of like real life.

[Stark]

Yeah, I really liked the stealth implementation. Not based on dumb shit like PERCENTAGE INVISIBLE, but line of sight and gamey timers.

The combination perks you get for spending skill points are pretty neat; picking up teleportation or other new abilities indirectly through 'class' makes the skill synergies more interesting. I thought you'd be melee, though.

[Aaron MkII]

I will next play through, as a warrior. I found it to slow so I switched to rogue. As the powerful warrior weapons are massive hammers and they get three hits in for your one, hard to connect with an enemy.

[Stark]

Are the demo unlocks useful for long or are they poop? What's the class combo card thing they give you?

[Havok]

I am playing the demo now.

Review to follow.

Seeing McFarland's name attached intrigued me. On his best days I enjoy his style, On his worst, it is still interesting to look at.

It already added to my Mass Effect 3 dress up as well, so bonus points there.

[Stark]

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, because there's a lot of Fable about the combat (although its much more complex/interesting).

[Havok]

Man, it's a trip you brought up Fable, because there was a specific part where I though exactly that.

If it weren't for the fact that I could murder the entire Demo without growing horns, this game wouldn't be much different.

It's not just the combat style, but the design of the game and the characters. This could easily be Fable IIII with a few modifications.

I'm not sure if that is good or bad.

I'll probably pick this game up, but not because the demo blew me away. but because I just want to see where the story goes.

[Stark]

The gypsy/destiny thing is pretty fable, it's true.

[Havok]

I just played the demo for Dungeon Seige III, (I think it came out last year) and aside from the view... ugh... I liked it it more story and design wise.

It's not all, OMG YOU ARE SUPER UNIQUE GO SAVE THE WORLD!!! It's more like, you are kinda special, now go save your family.

[Havok]

The gypsy/destiny thing is pretty fable, it's true.

It's the style too. The oversized boots and gauntlets. The giant weapons. I was kinda hoping McFarland would have come up with something at least more distinctive, if not original. Maybe he didn't have that much input in designing the look as I thought.

I do like the ability/skill tree.

[Stark]

I've only played the demo, but I liked the idea that you could dabble in shit without penalty, but focusing was beneficial - ie, you're not punished for being flexible - you're rewarded fro being focused.

Like you can buy the harpoon-throw on might tree with one point and be fine with it forever, but putting points into it makes it better/lets it do more/unlocks other shit.

Or the scepters that use mana to shoot, but they use so little its trivial and meaningless for anyone who has put points into magic stuffs.

And having a class tree that is 'spread points evenly' that gives bonuses to stats and damage but not so many characterful special abilities (like teleport etc) was a neat idea.

The entire appeal of the game for me is the character build stuff; I skipped the entire story. If Sherry found out there were hobbits in there, I'd be in real trouble. :v

[Havok]

Yeah that is going to be what keeps me going in this game I think. Doing one build that is super focused and one that is Jack of all trades, and that fact that you get bonuses for doing both.

[Havok]

The dress up hopefully will be better too.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I haven't played Fable III, but I enjoyed the combat in the KoA demo a heck of a lot more than Fable II's combat. Fable's II combat wasn't bad, but it was really fucking simple. Once I found a style that suited me I didn't feel any need to experiment at all and coasted through the game.

KoA's mixed-skill classes and dearth of weapons - of which you can pick ANY combination of two to fight with - makes me feel like it's a game with a lot of experimentation and replaying with different builds for the heck of it.

I'm not going to be able to pick up the game for a while, but it's on my short list.

[Aaron MkII]

The end game does drag a bit, three times I thought it was done, only to keep going.

[Stark]

Is that plot-wise, or like action-wise? Domtheynkeep saying more lame shit you want to skip, or does the combat become samey?

[Aaron MkII]

Plot wise. The action was decently handled.