Seems to be the remaster of a PS3 / Xbox 360 title. The name rings a bell, but I never played it.
Some context on the remaster (not mine)
For those who never heard of the game, it’s a remaster(?) of an old PS3 Action RPG that apparently had a real rocky development. And you’re absolutely gonna notice some rough areas with quests that don’t really resolve, story wise, or choices that seem big having few(if any) consequences while others will turn a whole faction into your sworn enemy.
Despite all that, there is certainly fun to be had here. I’m playing a pure rogue build at the moment and the shit I can get up to is downright silly. In town I rob basically everyone. If the pockets can be picked or the chests/drawers/desks/etc can be looted, I’m taking a look. I’ve got a smoke bomb to drop the odds of being detected to near 0%(or literally 0% when not picking pockets), and I use alchemy to craft potions to turn me invisible when the smoke bomb is on cooldown. Most recently I hit up a gnomish capital, robbed everyone of note I could find, and used their stolen bank keys to burgle the local bank.
In combat, I’ve got a permanent poison application buff for my daggers and bow, and a permanent crit damage buff. I like to sneak up on enemies and assassinate them quietly, dealing absolutely absurd damage and often leaving a poisoned corpse that will likely explode and poison every enemy nearby. The smoke bomb I mentioned earlier? In a combat setting it stuns and poisons enemies while cloaking me. So often when I’m spotted I’ll let the enemy get close, drop this and get behind the stunned, dying enemies to start assassinating again.
When that’s not an option is typically when the bow and mines come out. I’ve got a pretty chill set up for most battles where I scatter a bunch of bleed inducing mines in front of me, then fire a scatter of arrows that inflict poison and can stack bleed. And because of another silly skill of mine I’ve a chance per hit to add a nice chunk of damage against bleeding foes.
But yeah, did I mention the game is fucking big? I think I’ve been at it for 50-60 hours and I’m still nowhere near the front lines.
The most 7/10 game I’ve ever played. But it was still fun
I played the original in 360, and enjoyed it quite a bit more than I thought I would. It feels kinda like an MMO at times, but it’s still really fun.
I bought the remaster a couple months ago on steam because it was on sale for cheap.
It was supposed to be a part of one, until the studio went into bankruptcy and ended up being partially owned by New Jersey.
The story behind KoA is absolutely nuts. They wanted to make an MMO sequel, with R.A Salvatore still on the writing, but due to bloat and mismanagement, ended up massively in debt and plans for a sequel got scrapped.
I 100% the PS3 one plus DLC. I then 100% the remake plus the new DLC on PS4. I love the game. It’s just fun. It has flaws, but I like the flaws.
I’ll probably do it a 3rd time eventually on Steam Deck.
I tried the original, but it I just got bored with repetitive “bring me 5 McGuffins” quests after a few hours. it’s a shame though, I quite enjoyed combats as a battlemage.
Never really got into it but really loved the concept.
Also RIP the MMO that should’ve been.
This game has tons of issues but I freaking love it. Played it again recently and finished the whole thing. It’s great. Don’t feel obligated to do EVERY quest, just faction questlines and the main quest. It’s a lot of fun.
However then new DLC they added with remastered is fucking terrible. It fucks up so much lore, is incredibly lazy, and just looks like it was made on a true shoestring budget. Not worth playing at all.
Oh yeah, loved the game. I think I got a platinum for it. Haven’t played the remake yet though, but it’s in my backlog.
As others have said the game is not perfect, it was initially supposed to be an MMORPG but then they changed it to a single player game, also there was some drama with the studio that was making it, got bankrupt making it. Maybe if they had more time / money they could’ve improved it even more.
Also, it was written by the fantasy author R. A. Salvatore.
Story was interesting but combat was a joke, way to easy to become overpowered. Never finished it.
Beware a game breaking bug when playing.
Theres a part when you enter a new section of the map to explore. You can find 3 crystal towers defended by groups of cultists. Do not destroy the towers. They do not respawn when the main story quest comes and wants you to do it then.
The towers were one if the first things I found when entering the new area, and naturally I killed the enemies and destroyed the tower. I would have lost maybe 20 hours of gameplay if I reloaded from a point before the towers. Instead I uninstalled the game and never played again.
If you’ve ever watched the YouTube channel OutsideXbox and their sister channel OutsideXtra, one of the hosts is a massive fan of the game and it picked up a bit of traction from there I believe. If you go to the steam reviews for it, at least one time it used to have a bunch of reviews saying “Ellen was right”, “Ellen brought me here”, etc.
Ellen is the best. She is adorable.
Jane is number one though
I only played the original one. I had a fair amount of fun with it for what it was. It can feel a bit empty and wide, but the gameplay was quite fun, even if the combat is kinda painfully easy most of the time. You can build basically however you want and become pretty OP.
Is the remake worth looking at for those who played the original? I was kinda ignoring it because I’d played through it once already. Wasn’t super sold on a second go-through.
I played it on 360 and again on the Steam release.
It’s a better Skyrim, and shares a lot of Skyrim’s flaws. Good combat, fun builds, and way too much to do. It was supposed to be an MMO but got cut down to a single player game, so there’s boatloads of content stretched over a massive map.
I still go back and play it every now and then. It’s fun.
I have the remaster, but haven’t touched it yet.
