5 things Kingdoms of Amalur does better than Skyrim

GamesRadar writes: The Elder Scrolls is the king of the genre - everyone knows that. We gloated about it in our review, posted countless videos of the wonders and oddities we discovered, and even named it as a runner-up for our game of the year. Needless to say, we never expected that 38 Studios’ Kingdoms of Amalur would come anywhere close to providing the massive, overwhelming world that Bethesda put together in Skyrim.

But despite being a smaller game from a smaller studio with smaller goals, there are certain areas in Amalur that shined especially bright, and even some spots where the newcomer bests the grizzled veteran.

[Knight_Cid]

BUT it also does 5 things alot worse

1) quests
2) characters
3) world
4) enemies
5) dialogue

I dont like how either turned out or will

[BldyShdw]

How do you know any of those things are "a lot" worse if the game is not out? or are you a fancy pants reviewer and have a early copy?

Because unless you are then you are being pointlessly negative.

[soundslike]

Enemies?

Dragons, ok. But as far as the majority of baddies you fight and actual boss fights (besides dragons) KOA wins by miles

[admiralthrawn87]

Quests? lmao...skyrim quests involved walking, talking, and getting to the end of identical caves

characters? i can't comment on yet

world? amalur wins by a mile. varied environments, beautiful artwork. skyrim - bland snowy mountains and boring caves and dwemer ruins with only moments of beauty, even though that was ruined by glitches

enemies - i think you encounter variations of the same 5 enemy types in skyrim. i got bored of it after 3 hours
5 dialogue - amalur by far, skyrim dialogue feels awkward when you walk into a bar and the lady sweeping the floors tells you what she thinks of everything and her life story, and then says it again the next time you walk in the bar.

[Saladfax]

Yeah... Bethesda needs to keep working on their NPC dialogue. For one, their pool of voice actors is still pretty laughably small when compared to works by, say, BioWare.

To have the same voice spouting the same line in seven different cities doesn't really increase immersion in a world. There were something like 13 voice actors, 2 of were Sir Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean (1 character each). So hundreds of NPCs are split between 11 voice actors. Skyrim increased this number, but the tendency for repeated dialogue remains.

[telekineticmantis]

FUN!!!! Definitely fun. Definitely Melee. All KOA needs is better Graphics, Better Dialogue with your character actually having a voice. Mounts. Everything else is better, a streamlined open world was a GREAT IDEA, instead of players just getting lost in openess(new word).

[bwazy]

Art style > graphics any day.

[telekineticmantis]

I want a more captivating/visceral experience, believable worlds so on,so on, you want games that look like games. to each his own.

[Armyless]

"Art style > graphics" could not agree more.

[StraightPath]

skyrim needs a reset skills option, that way you can allocate perks differently and experiment more this would be way more fun.

[Derpy]

Based on the Amalur demo, I'd say they both have their strong points and weaknesses. I have to say that I was very disappointed (but not surprised, it is EA after all,) that Amalur will have online pass for a single player experience. This means I won't be getting it on day one, as I make it a personal rule never to pay full price for a game with online pass. But I'm not too put off by this wait as Skyrim still has a lot of play left in it for me to get my RPG fix until then.

By they way, the reason I have this rule is that I know that there is always the chance that I may need to replace my PS3 someday and have to pay for the online pass to continue playing the full game. So by getting the game cheaper I can justify buying the online pass should I ever have too.

[Godchild1020]

"By they way, the reason I have this rule is that I know that there is always the chance that I may need to replace my PS3 someday and have to pay for the online pass to continue playing the full game. So by getting the game cheaper I can justify buying the online pass should I ever have too. "

The online pass is tied to your account and not the PS3. So, even if you had to replace the PS3, you can download the pass again. Just go to your recent Download list in the PSN store.

Both games are enjoyable in their own right. In the end it's personal preference.

[Clipper13]

To add on to your post, I install dlc purchased with my psn onto my brothers PS3, he is then able to use that dlc with his own account at the same time I use it. I've been doing this since Borderlands, most recent being Rage... So if that works with Rage's Anarchy Edition <sewers> and all other dlc I have A feeling it will work with this one too.

[Derpy]

Thanks for filling me in on that. Guess I was misinformed about that.

Though I'd rather not have to deal with online pass, it's good to know I won't lose it if I ever have to replace my PS3.

[SilentNegotiator]

Based on the Amalur demo, I'd say KOA has incredibly boring, generic gameplay/combat and an iffy camera.

[Series_IIa]

This game is bad to say the least... If the demo was that boring I hold little hope for the full game...

- Bland textures
- Bad art direction
- Bad voice acting
- Really bad control layout on PC
- Poor sense of life in the environment
- Generic NPCs who seem to be copy and pasted from Fable

Play Divinity II if you want a real contender to Skyrim...

[aPerson]

"Play Divinity II if you want a real contender to Skyrim."

I'm sorry, but that made me laugh. I had to return Divinity II because it was so awful. You criticize KoA for the faults you listed (which I disagree with entirely) and then say Divinity II does these things better? What a joke...

[jwk94]

The demo is of a three month old build and is not an accurate representation of the final product.

[josephayal]

KOA (arcade game) vs Skyrim? Jejeje this is funny , Skyrim is one of the Best game ever made in gaming history, c'mon guys?

[Godchild1020]

Could this be the BF3 & MW3 of 2012? Just with RPGs and not FPSs.

[Captain Qwark 9]

i think its safe to say at this point thats a fair comparison. the only difference is people think skyrim is the top fantasy rpg to beat becuase it sold so well. in terms of quality though, it was easily bested by dark souls and from what i hear and will soon experience, the witcher 2.

modern warfare 3 on the other hand had sales and was/is really the only other good military fps on consoles. so in the case of BF3 vs MW3 it was top dog vs underdog and in the case of skyrim vs amalur its what the masses think is the top dog ( they simply dont know any better ) vs the underdog

[admiralthrawn87]

i dont see why. its like arguing for 3rd and 4th. Dark Souls and The Witcher 2 both blow skyrim and (from what i played of the demo) Amalur out of the water.

[Canary]

Let me take a guess before reading....

1) Writing
2) Voice acting
3) Stability
4) Game design (quest structure, etc.)
5) Combat

Why those 5? Because you'd be hard pressed to do worse than Skyrim in any of those respects without calling your game Oblivion.

[Bladesfist]

Witcher 2 is my favourite RPG of last year and I have preordered Kingdoms of Amalur as it looks like a Fable game that does not suck. Im looking at fable 2 and 3 here.

[CrzyFooL]

I agree with the combat and skill progression. Rest is a lie!

[NeoTribe]

I'm all for another rpg fix but koa seems alittle fableish. That's not a good thing. Well see wut happens.

[reznik_zerosum]

Kingdoms of Amalur is so console rpg,unplayable, and skyrim is so generic i wanted my money back

[maniacmayhem]

KoA's combat was 100% better than Skyrim and because of that alone (imo) made that game way better than Skyrim.

I also like their UI set up much more intuitive than Skyrims.

Can't wait to play this game, time to send Skyrim back to Gamefly.