Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Preview
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Kingdoms of Amalur is a game primarily about exploring and making choices. Gameplay is heavily focused on sending the Fateless One out into the world to explore new areas, and once you've visited an area, you can fast travel back to it. As you travel across the world, you'll come across different major cities with their own governments, residents, and features. NPCs operate according to daily schedules, traveling to fixed points throughout the world at different times of in-game day. As the Fateless One, you can do whatever you like, from playing the hero to running around pickpocketing everyone until you're thrown in jail.
Combat in Kingdoms of Amalur tries to blend the seamless interface of action games with the solid foundation of stat-based advancement typical to RPGs. Each character can carry two different weapons (or a weapon and a shield) tethered to a different button. Players can execute flashy fighting moves by simply tapping buttons. How effective your moves are determine whether or not you can do things like inflict hit-stun on enemies, which means the game becomes genuinely easier when you fight level-appropriate enemies. Every player can also unlock spell-like abilities to play with from a distance, too. Combat in Kingdoms of Amalur is beautiful and kinetic, regardless of how you've designed your character through the game's point-buy advancement system.
