Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Previews and Interview

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on May 26th, 2011

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From the way you unlock fast travel options or stop to gather herbs, the familiarity of creative designer Ken Rolston's Morrowind and Oblivion becomes that much more obvious, however the game itself plays like an Elder Scrolls title designed to prioritize action over sim. In the Xbox 360 demo I played, the combat mechanics were very simple one button presses: primary weapon on X and secondary on Y. Blocking at the right time is a successful parry that opens up other attack opportunities, and landing enough combos will open a Fate Shift kill boost, which multiplies your XP after mashing a particular button.

To be critical, there were some things I didn't like with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and a few still unanswered questions. The world itself seems divided into small zones, so instead of adventuring in the wild, it's more like traveling between levels a la Dragon Age II. A technical limitation, I'm sure, but loading screens are always one of the first things to knock on the immersion level. While it looks good graphically, it doesn't have the same attention to detail seen in a game like Skyrim, though to be fair Reckoning isn't slated to come out until Q1 2012, so that can certainly change. And I know it seems blasphemous, but I'm also still wondering if R.A. Salvatore's story can really draw me into this all-new fantasy world, as whether the game sports a narrative as robust as The Witcher 2 or as lame duck as Dragon Age 2 remains to be seen.

After accepting the quest, the demoer ran towards Culn, a charred remain of a once-thriving village. As the warrior approached a fallen guide complete with arrows jutting from his course a slew of nasty-looking soldiers appeared and we were treated with Reckoning's combat, which lives somewhere between Fable's rudimentary (one button per weapon) system and a fighting game.

One button dodges (boring, but needed). Another triggers your main melee weapons like daggers, another executes your secondary attack - often using a long-range weapon like our hero's dual-wielded chakrams (bladed discs) - and a third blasts out magic. Each weapon has a different multi-hit combo that chains smoothly into other attacks, and there are additional special moves as well. For instance, if you hold the button down for a while without taking damage, you'll typically get a different and better move than if you hammer the button. There are special moves you can execute by fighting well and building up a meter (just like Street Fighter). In addition, each weapon can have elemental effects tied to it, like the ice effects added to our demoer's daggers. Which, for the record, he actually made himself by breaking unwanted weapons into their pieces and reassembling them.

For a fantasy game of this size and scale, a 30-minute demo only offered a tiny slice of what's to come. From the last demo, all we know about the story of our character is that he is back from the dead. However there are bigger problems brewing in this fantastical world. Big Huge Studios didn't go into great detail about the story this time around, but we picked up some tidbits here and there. We started off halfway through the game, outside the looming gates of the lovely Dokkalfar (dark elf) capital of Rathir, where we were introduced to the crime system. The first portion of the demo was controlled, but we were able take control in the latter half. Our character was a mage rogue, highly skilled in the art of pickpocketing. We watched as he boldly walked up to an unsuspecting non-player character that had her back turned and promptly relieved her of her ring, as well as her gold. She immediately reacted to this, although it took her a few moments to turn around, so we tried to get away before we were caught. If you do get caught, you have a few options to consider. To demonstrate this, we approached the next victim that would succumb to our sticky fingers. But this time, it was in a crowded area where we couldn't exactly see the number of people in our line of sight. A guard immediately came charging at us, and we had a choice to make. We could either pay a fine to have our crime cleared, go to jail and perhaps try to sneak out (there is an experience cost to this), or try to fight our way out and potentially ruin any peaceful experience we might have otherwise had in this city. Chances are you'll likely die fighting against the guards of the capital, but it's something to keep in mind if you don't mind wiping out a small village never to return. We paid the fine to get on with the demo. There's no morality system, but your actions will affect how some people treat you, especially those in the city that you've committed your crime in, but you'll otherwise have access to all the quests in the game so you won't be missing out on any content.

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