Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Unveiled!
As previously mentioned, 38fans was honored to be invited to the Big Huge Games studios in Baltimore, MD on Feb 10th, 2011. While there, we chatted with Curt Schilling, R.A Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, Ken Rolston, the rest of the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning development team and were treated to a demonstration of Reckoning in action! Today, after nearly a month of waiting, we can finally share details about what we saw with our readers. Enjoy the review!
The Game
First lets get the basics out of the way. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (pronounced Ahh-Mah-Lur) is a single player action RPG beautifully depicted in a third party over-the-shoulder view. It is slated to be published in 2012 by Electronic Arts on the Xbox 360 and PC platforms. Interestingly enough, the world of Amalur was originally expected to be released as Project Copernicus, a MMO that 38 Studios has been working on since late 2006 when it was founded by Curt Schilling in Maynard, MA. While the single player RPG has always been in the cards, it was originally expected to be released after Copernicus. Happily for us, the fates aligned to bring 38 Studios and Big Huge Games together, allowing them to bring Reckoning to life before Copernicus. In short, 38 Studios brought the history, life and flavor of the Amalur IP to the table and Big Huge Games provided an amazing game engine, development tools and team. Together, they gave birth to Reckoning in a shockingly short period of time starting in mid 2009. It's important to note that while Reckoning and Copernicus will both be set within the 10,000 year history created by R.A Salvator, Reckoning takes place 2000 years before Copernicus. Its also important to note that while the games are sure to have some artistic similarities given Todd McFarlane's influences, they will not look exactly the same as different engines are being used to create the two games. We also received confirmation that expansions of Reckoning are expected and an achievement system will be included in at least the Xbox 360 version of the game.
The game will feature at least 3 different modes of difficulty which is sure to make players of all skill levels happy. While the game seems best played via a controller, PC players will have the opportunity to use the keyboard and mouse and switch back and forth between them at will. As a long time PC gamer and keyboard/mouse proponent, I found it curious that just watching the demonstrations of the game made my hands itch for a controller, something I've never had an urge to use in a game like Reckoning. A robust save system is also planned for the game which will allow players to save the game at any time except during combat. Other options such as fixed or rotating compasses and skippable cinematics will allow each player to experience the game how they prefer. Reckoning will include 5 different regions of Amalur which are each massive areas filled with towns, cities, dungeons, ruins and beautiful landscapes. Players will be able to watch their characters grow in power as they obtain new equipment that visually updates their characters model with new forms and colors. 
Many of the more successful features of RPG games have made it into Reckoning as well. Enemies corpses sparkle if loot or coins are available for recovery and players can quickly see the difference between two pieces of gear for a slot right in their inventory. Exclamation points over NPCs heads indicate an available quest and the compass itself shows the player points of interest or quest givers at a distance making it easier to travel than otherwise would be expected. A fast travel system is planned so you can quickly return to places you have already visited but a fog of war system keeps the player from knowing whats ahead from the get go which keeps the mystery of the world unraveling at a slower pace thus extending the life of the game. Monsters are leashed so players cannot draw them out of their areas to be destroyed by city guards but run home quickly once they have reached the boundaries of their domain to prevent exploitation and kiting. Reckoning also includes a system that auto levels monsters based on a players level to make the game more of a challenge for players who prefer to stay in one place for longer than expected. This system is limited though in that it only auto levels within a certain level range. For example Kobolds in a starting area may have a range of levels 6-10 and as you go through the first time they are mostly level 6 and 7. As you come through the second time they are level 8 to 9 but when you come back as a level 30 character later in the game they are only level 10 as that content is not meant for consumption by your character at that level anymore.
The Characters
As Reckoning begins, we are treated to a cinematic of two gnomes wheeling a corpse down a torch lit hallway. How the gnomes obtained the corpse or why it is there, is not known at first but soon becomes apparent as the story unfolds. What the conversation between the two gnomes does provide though, is a more seamless method of allowing the player to customize their character than many games have. In regards to character customization, Reckoning will allow the player to choose one of 4 different races. The first two races are the human Almain and Varani which are followed by the elven races of the Ljosalfar and Dokkalfar
. Each race has its own racial bonuses and flavor. For example, the Almain are a warlike and religious nation with racial bonuses of persuasion, alchemy and blacksmithing. The Dokkalfar in contrast are a dark elven race with their own racial bonuses and flavor. As a player continues their customization, they are given an opportunity to change their looks via a standard facial customization interface that allows for hair, eyes, mouth, ears, cheek bones, tatoos and earrings to be changed among other things. Body types are not allowed to be changed as it apparently would make it too difficult to properly animate the action and world collision of the character with infinitely different body sizes. Finally the player is allowed to select a patron god which also provides its own set of bonuses and the cinematic continues to unfold.
What you will not find in the customization system are classes baked into the game. Reckoning instead uses an ability tree system which allows players to build what it calls destinies, a predisposed way of interacting with the world. While it does have the traditional archetypes of Warrior, Rogue and Mage, formed from building exclusively within the Might, Finesse, and Sorcery trees you can be successful mixing and matching between the trees as much as you would like. So for all you Jack of all trades players, Reckoning is just as much a game for you as the min maxer crowd and may even allow bonuses that the pure destinies do not provide. We've also learned that respecing between the trees will be available as the team is not interested in penalizing players for experimenting. The mechanics behind that respecing system are not known at this time but undoubtedly there will be some restrictions on how often or where it can be accomplished.
When the player finally gains control of their character, they find themselves in a mass burial ground more reminiscent of a recycling center with piles of corpses all about. After extracting themselves from the gruesome scene and shaking off the shock of finding themselves in such a place, the player meets their first NPC. This NPC gnome sets the scene for the player and provides guidance which is actually a carefully crafted basic tutorial of how to play the game. He teaches the player how to loot corpses, do basic fighting, open chests and open doors. During the tutorial the player unknowingly is witness to a pivotal part of the world of Amalur called the Well of Souls which is introduced in a short cut scene that draws attention to the plot point. Immediately after this plot point focus, we are beset upon by a group of Faer Gorta, skeletal warriors bent on cleansing the area of your stain where we learn additional combat skills.
The Story
As we explore Amalur, we find that the world has entered the Age of Arcana where magic is on the rise and that the Well of Souls that we saw in the tutorial area is the reason Amalur is engulfed in a great war. Apparently, huge armies are clashing all around Amalur to determine the fate of the Well of Souls based on whether their nations support or condemn the idea of immortality which the Well can grant to the races if its research is allowed to succeed. What is not known by the world is that the Well of Souls has already produced its first success as evidenced by your character returning to life. Even more shocking, a side effect of the Well of Souls is that you are the first person to ever live unbound by destiny which allows your character to change Amalur in ways never meant to be. This is an incredibly powerful ability and one that would quickly cause even more strife amongst the nations if it were ever known. And so you set out into the world to change its fate, learn how you died, why you came back and in so doing learn your new purpose in life.
The World
As you exit the starting tutorial area, you find yourself in the Forest of Dalentarth, a lush and peaceful area that simply looks....alive. From the first class attention to environmental detail to the superb music and immersive ambient sounds, the Big Huge Games team has created a world that must be seen to be believed. During the demonstration Todd McFarlane talked a little about some of the ways he influences the game 
by paying attention to the tiniest details and not being afraid to challenge long standing ways that games are designed. To explain in more detail, Todd talked about how he worked with his artists on making the haze of far off objects look real and mess up the forest paths that looked a little too well manicured. The result is a hand crafted forest that looks like a forest in your backyard mixed with just the right amount of fantasy flair to drawn you in and make you want to see more.
Time passes in 1 second Earth to 30 second Amalur time ratio in Reckoning. This is most apparent as the game moves through its day night cycle which changes the way areas you have already visited looks which serves to further immerse the player in the game and extend its life. As night comes on, lights in towns come to life and NPC schedules may change. For example, instead of finding an NPC working in the forge, you may now find them drinking in the tavern. Speaking of taverns, the attention to detail by the development team is very apparent when you come upon your first tavern in Didenhil a town in the forest of Dalentarth. Each race and has its own towns and architectural feel but you'll never be uncertain which building is a tavern and which is a shop since all taverns have an unmistakable basic structure to them.
As the player moves deeper into the forest they come upon the ruins of an ancient race you later learn are named the Durek. These ruins give the player a sense of the history of Amalur and show that the game and world has more depth than most worlds we've played in before. Even more exciting is the idea that we someday could see those very same ruins as a city in another game set earlier in the time line R.A. Salvatore created for Amalur. That line of thinking by the development team further solidifies the idea that everything placed in the world has a reason and purpose. R.A. was adamant with his team that things not be put in Amalur just because they looked cool. The result of this is a world that not only looks cool but is tied together in ways that make sense and can be explained as the story unfolds. An example of this methodology comes later in the demonstration as the team explains how zombies and vampires came to be. Apparently they were the result of earlier failed experiments while the Well of Souls was being perfected. That kind of attention to narrative detail is something many games can only dream of having and is something that will set Reckoning above its counterparts. 
Finally we are treated to a dungeon named Urul-Tusk cutesy of another ancient race named the Erathi. As we enter this dungeon we are treated to an amazing entrance door which is later one upped by even a cooler door deeper in the dungeon. While it might sound silly to fawn over a simple door, Amalur's entrances are something to be seen in action before you will understand. Once inside, the attention to detail we saw in the Forest of Dalentarth is in evidence yet again. Dust motes float in the air through shafts of light from glowing runes on the wall and a creepier sound track makes you first feel the emptiness and age of the area and then quickly teaches you the danger of the area as you are attacked by Kobolds.
Crafting
Crafting has been described as being a large part of the game. While details were skimpy, we were shown Sage crafting which allows you to add gems to weapons and presumably armor. These gems power the weapons and armor up and give them additional abilities such as fire or ice damage when they hit or are struck. Other crafts such as alchemy and blacksmithing will be in the game as well but no details other than knowing that herbs must be gathered from the world for alchemy are known at this time.
Combat
Combat in Reckoning is very seamless and fluid already even in this early stage of the game. Sword thrusts smoothly rotate into slashes with none of the jerkiness or skipped frames you see in many games. This is partially due to the motion capture system that Big Huge Games is using for some animation but more precisely due to the outstanding artists working frame by frame on bringing the characters in Reckoning to life. 
As your characters skills in combat increase, they learn how to do more intricate moves and attack chains. The good news is, the attack chains are not some difficult and convoluted combination of buttons but rather a careful timing of one attack button that links attacks together. For example, a Warrior might use their arcane ability to draw an opponent to them with one button, do a shield parry to block a quick attack with another button, and then enter an attack chain which slashes an opponent twice before kicking them into the air with a third button follow by a hasty diving away to avoid another enemies attack with a fourth button. The entire encounter could have been completely different using the same buttons if the shield parry hadn't been used. A Mage on the other hand might use their arcane Talisman to absorb damage from a ranged opponent, cast a fireball at another opponent and then teleport to a third opponent before bringing the pain with their combat staff. 
To that point, mages in Reckoning are not the glass cannons you might be used to and Warriors are not relegated to only using steel and armor. This is quite a refreshing departure from the norm and provides the player with many options while fighting in Amalur. One option that Mark Nelson, Creative Director at Big Huge Games wasn't too sure of at first was the Chakrum weapon. Essentially its two discs very reminiscent of the weapon in Tron that look extremely cool and seem very fun to use. Due to their speed, you can toss the Chakrum's around at a group of enemies and keep them at bay as you slice them to pieces. This is particularly effective for a character more in tune with the Sorcery destiny as they can then stand back and intersperse spells with the Chakrum's without fear of spell interruption which is possible in Reckoning. Which brings up the point about weapons in Reckoning. Each character can equip and instantly use two different weapons in combat. The developers found that this ability to swap between weapons in combat even within attack chains made for a very fast paced fun combat system that was worth the suspension of disbelief that a character could weapon switch that fast.
Combat is not just about weapons and magic, its about the environment as well. Traps are scattered throughout the environment and luring your enemies into a physical or magical trap can quickly turn the tide of an overwhelming battle in your favor. The environment is also destructible and useful. Step behind that stone statue to avoid an arrow and then bash the wooden crate your opponent is hiding behind to remove the same advantage from their side. However, care should be taken to always pay attention to groups of opponents as they often gain extra abilities and tactics when they are together rather than solo. The best example of this was a battle with a Banshaen and her Murghan minions that we were shown. As we approached the sleeping Banshaen, she woke and quickly vomited 4 Murghan minions. If we had attacked the Murghan as they came out of their eggs we may have reduced their numbers but the Banshaen would just have spawned more. However when we attacked the Banshaen, the Murghan all hatched and suddenly it was 1vs5! Even worse the Banshaen gained the ability to channel lightning through her minions at us because we left them alive. This depth of tactics can be seen in many different ways. The Boggarts and Kobolds we saw in other fights each had their own group tactics that had to be learned. Whats more, the tactics we learned for the Boggarts didn't work on the Kobolds or vice versa as the AI behind them was different. For example, the Boggarts weren't particularly smart so luring them onto traps was easy. The Kobolds were not so easily duped as they avoided the traps and had to be dispatched the old fashioned way.
The best part of combat however is without a doubt the Fate Shift kills. At times when you really brutalize an enemy you'll be given an opportunity to perform a finishing move called a Fate Shift kill. These moves are typically done in slow motion and are extremely gory yet very very cool looking. While we could not get confirmation of this fact, we suspect they feed a larger power up mechanic to the game that the developers were not ready to discuss yet. Either way, we do know there is a different animation and fate shift kill for each type of monster which gives players a lot to look forward to given the number of monsters in the game. To be clear, Fate Shift kills are not something you can trigger every fight but its almost impossible to fail them unless you happen to be too far away from a mob as the Fate Shift kill sequence begins. This again stresses that the devs aren't interested in making us learn some crazy combination of buttons to be successful at the game. They want us to enjoy the ride instead of having to strain through the ride.
Conclusion
If the quality we saw with this pre-alpha demonstration is any indication of what the final product will look like, 38 Studios and Big Huge Games appear to have a hit of epic proportions on their hands that will whet our appetites for more of Amalur for many years to come. Make sure to stop by 38fans.com often for more news on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and drop into our forums to discuss what you think about this review and the game here!
