Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Preview
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One thing that 38 Studios head Curt Shilling (yes, the baseball player - the studio was named after his number) is adamant about when talking about KoA:R is that he's out to fix problems that he sees with gaming. Being an avid gamer just like you and I, he feels very lucky to be in a position where he can actually do something about the things that bother him in the video game industry as a whole. One of those problems is the lack of focus placed on story in many games. By looking at games such as Bioshock and Mass Effect, we can see that every year video game stories are getting better and better. However, for every Red Dead Redemption or Enslaved, there's a dozen games who seem to only put a story in as an afterthought. This certainly doesn't seem like it will be the case here, as Salvatore has written a 10,000 year history for the universe at hand, from which the specific story of the game was picked. This history will not only serve KoA:R, but future games set in the same world.
However, as we all know, this might not be enough. A game can have the best story around, but if the gameplay isn't there, the game still won't be fun to play. Luckily for us all, Shilling seems to have a unique vision for how he wants KoA:R to play. Games like Oblivion are known for breathtaking landscapes and epic tales, but don't always have the most fast-paced or action-oriented combat. Conversely, action games such as the God of War series that do feature heart-pumping combat normally don't have huge worlds to explore on scale with modern RPGs. Shilling wants to blend these two elements together, creating a game that is both truly epic in scale and in combat. This might turn some people off of the game, as I'm sure that some gamers don't want their epic RPG to have lightning fast combat, and I'm sure some action game fans would like to stick to a more linear experience. I think, however, that the important thing is that this gameplay style is something that the creators have immense and genuine passion about. Passion can't guarantee a good game, but it's certainly a good place to start.
