Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Previews

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Written by BuckGB on October 6th, 2011

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Characters can switch between melee weapons, ranged weapons, and magic. Every character class has access to all three areas. How you spec your character allows you to create lots of options. There are also thrown weapons in the game and the Mage's bladed discs are one of the coolest weapons in all of RPG gaming. I used them even though I was playing a rogue; they just looked awesome. There is a full crafting system in the game and I was one of the few who tried it out during the demo. People were really focused on getting through the quests but I kind of ran off the beaten path. The only complaint I have was for the shield. If you spec a warrior and choose weapon and shield, the shield is hidden throughout combat and only is used to block when you press the left trigger. This may be changed as the game is still in somewhat early stages of the polishing process, but as a fighter it is cool to run around with your shield bashing things. Hopefully this piece will be changed in the game so that the shield is more visible and a part of the combat.

Next up besides combat is the game world itself. The team of Curt Schilling, R.A. Salvatore, and Todd McFarlane have done an amazing job of building this game world. The idea of the invading Fae and the wells to help mortals come back to life is a very cool story and offers a lot of depth to players. I definitely felt a part of the world from the beginning and the opening story line is very cool. The Well of Souls concept is really great and adds a lot to the story of trying to figure out your past. The world is a mix of ancient mythology thrown into a fantasy setting and it gives a very strong feel to the player. The Fae make a great enemy and while I personally was never too excited about them in fantasy games, the team did a great job of bringing them to life and making them sinister villains to battle against.

As the story begins, your character wakes up in a pile of bodies. It turns out he wasn't just sleeping, though -- he died and was brought back by the Well of Souls. Your goal is to figure out how you died and why you were brought back to life; eventually, you uncover something big and have to save the world. Like so much with this game, the story will be a balancing act: This is both dramatic, epic tale for RPG fans and an action blockbuster for the hack-n'-slash set. In the land of Amalur, everyone has a fate, and the developers will have to escort you toward your own very carefully. They've invested a lot in this: Salvatore has written a 10,000-year history of the game's universe.

Through the game, you will explore five regions in an open world. The developers promise boatloads of combat, with sidequests galore and plenty of things to find if you take the time to walk around. If the screenshots and trailers are any indication, it will be a pleasure to roam the various environments the world has to offer.

In a very similar vein to a game like BioWare's Dragon Age, Reckoning integrates a sense of action into the RPG gameplay through mapping your abilities to each button on the controller. Your selected path determines these abilities: tank-like melee abilities, elemental mage damage, thievery and sneaking rogue talents, etc. As a die-hard fan of magic abilities, I had to of course choose to level my elf with mage-like abilities, substituting other character traits where I saw fit.

The beauty of Reckoning is that you aren't constrained to specific class abilities; you can opt to level where you like. Being partial to magic, I transitioned between the attack that throws a burst of daggers, to a powerful electrical bolt, to spiritual damage and AOE fire effects. The combat is incredibly fun. You'll almost always be swarmed with enemies, but with these powerful attacks, your shield, and dodge rolls, the hefty challenge is definitely a doable one. Particularly playing as a mage with many spells to cast with their respective animations, taking on mass amounts of enemies is a fun challenge that is simultaneously visually acknowledged by the game.

In case you haven't gained a level by the end of the mine, you gain one automatically at the end so that you can learn the basics of character building. Character building is split into several different categories, each of which slowly shapes your character into the style of hero you wish to create. When you gain a level, the first area that you can improve your character is in combat skills. Each level grants you 3 skill points that you can allocate to any given skill amongst three different skill trees.

Rather than limiting you based upon your level, however, the game's skill trees are more dynamic and limit you based upon the amount of total skills you've allocated into each specific skill tree. Thus, you can add skill points into tier 1 skills in any of the three skill trees from the beginning, but to reach tier 2 skills in a tree, you must have a certain amount of skill points allocated into general skills within that specific tree. This makes overall character building more attuned to the actual type of player you're trying to build and rewards you for focusing on a specific category.

In addition to your two attacks you also have two defensive abilities, of which one of them can be used offensively. The first ability is an outright block which has you pulling out a shield to deflect the blow. I know some people felt this broke immersion and I respect that but being as I have always played warrior type characters with sword and shield, it actually did not take me long to totally forget about it. To add to that I have never really been one to use block a lot in games as its more fun to be swinging a big sword and doing serious damage then cowering behind a shield. I was only using block to get me out of trouble if I missed timed my attack.

I did notice that even when you are blocking you still take some damage so you can't just go into a corner and pull out your shield and be immune to damage. Your other defense/offensive ability is rolling (teleporting if you're a mage) towards or away from an opponent. This comes in very handy to close distance on an opponent or get away to avoid being hit.

The ability tree that allows you to "be all that you can be" is great! SO many options for you to put your points into. You're not stuck with one thing, which I appreciate. Even in old EQ, my druid learned many things some said she couldn't do at young ages (or at all), but she proved them wrong. Here, the possibilities are seemingly endless and it's probably the first tree I didn't immediately look at and run away from. It made sense!

Something I do need to mention is that on the PC version, you can also have a controller hooked up and go between the two with a touch! Something to warn you about: the rumble pack on the controller gets vicious and takes over from the keyboard if you're not careful! So if you have it hooked up, put it in a safe place because, between trying to remember not to shoot an NPC, not switch between my weapons and to use other ways to control the camera, the controller taking over when least expected was....least expected and I had to switch quickly. At a couple of points, I could see why the controller might be better, with the key mapping as it is. You can't change all the mapping, but some, so the controller might be a bit easier and more compact (when you're use to it) for doing things.

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