One of the big draws for the recent EA Spring Showcase event in London last week was Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Up until now, we had only seen a handful of screenshots and a cinematic trailer, so we were incredibly interested to see how this game would actually look in motion.

Going into Creative Director Mark Nelson’s showcase presentation, we had a good deal of background info, but were still not at all sure about what to expect. Reckoning is the first whole title from Big Huge Games since Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends back in 2006; the once acclaimed PC real-time strategy developer was salvaged at the brink of closure by a retired major league baseball star of all people.

That’s right, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling -- an avid gamer, that has long professed his love for RPG gaming -- bought up Big Huge in a Microsoft fire sale and they’re now operating effectively in tandem with his 38 Studios dev house on an all-new franchise dubbed Kingdoms of Amalur with at least two games (that we know of) currently in production.




Reckoning takes the form of a story-driven singleplayer action-RPG, set within a very specific era of Amalur’s history. While the other game is reportedly an MMO; presumably spanning yet more of the extensive timeline.

The project also has some serious proven-talent attached, with the likes of best-selling author R.A. Salvatore having penned a purported ten thousand years of lore for the Amalur Universe as well as Todd McFarlane, the animation legend and creator of the Spawn comic series (among many other accomplishments), who is working with the development team in a consultative capacity.

If that wasn’t enough, the project Lead Designer is one Ken Rolston, who was the lead designer on both The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind and Oblivion. Additionally, the rest of the dev team also includes veterans from many other successful games and studios including Iron Lore (Titan Quest), Rare and even The Sims.

So despite that rather mediocre CG teaser trailer, and that questionable name (seriously Amalur? It sounds like an orcish simpleton trying to say “Amulet”), all of this other prior knowledge meant that our expectations were still very lofty indeed.

I am happy to report though, that those expectations were reasonably satisfied during this extensive gameplay presentation. However, in saying that, the game that we saw here was quite unlike that which we had originally envisaged.

The term open-world RPG tends to conjure up visions of Morrowind and Oblivion (especially with Ken Rolston attached) or of MMO type gameplay akin to World of Warcraft, but Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has less in common with those games than it does with perhaps Fable or even Diablo in a third-person action-RPG kind of way. It’s a very action\combat focused role-playing game, with a big emphasis on storytelling, environments and creature-design.




The presentation’s gameplay demonstration -- carefully pointed out as “pre-alpha” code -- began with the obligatory character customisation interface. The fine tuning of your player’s appearance offers a similar depth to Oblivion or Mass Effect and includes a randomise button for those that just want a quick start. You have the choice of four different races: two types of human as well as a light elf and dark elf. In addition to varying base-attributes and buffs, these races will also supposedly have some differing narrative implications; however, all will share the same character class options.

The story kicks off with you waking up in a pile of dead bodies, days after being pronounced dead from a fate that wasn’t revealed. This isn’t a common occurrence in Amalur, in fact, you’re supposedly the only one to have ever come back from the great beyond and (as you would expect from an RPG) are now destined for much greater things -- your very own reckoning (whatever that is).

As soon as combat begins, its obvious that this isn’t just a click-click, chance-to-hit type of game -- at face value, the combat actually looks more like what you would see from Kratos in God of War than your standard dungeon crawler. With the four main face buttons of the control pad (and presumably any four keys of your choosing on a keyboard), you activate your different attacks.

One button might be your sword, another a shield and another a giant hammer or a ranged weapon. This combat mechanic allows you -- without any equipping delay -- to seamlessly chain these attack and defence actions together in a way that makes battles look seriously fast, fluid and kinetic; with different timings of your button presses providing the variety, rather than having to memorise special combos.

Additionally, there are finishing moves -- referred to as fate-shift kills -- that every so often, will provide a satisfying final dispatch to your foes and vary in style depending on the type of attack that you’re using.

There are no distinctly set classes as such, as the game uses a skill tree based approach to govern a character’s abilities. As you earn XP, you can unlock new skills and it is those choices that will determine what character-class archetype you’ll end up as. Examples shown were a tank-specced warrior, a mage-type caster and a rogue-like assassin, but you’re free to distribute the skills to suit your own style of play and a class name will be automatically assigned that best matches your chosen abilities.

For example, if you chose skills along a magic-caster route, you could go from being called an Apprentice Mage, to Wizard, then Sorcerer etc, or pick a skill from a melee tree and go sideways to be called a Battlemage.




Further depth is added by the weapons you can carry as the game features a Diablo-esque loot system that generates thousands of variations of the different weapons and armour that can be found in the field.There will of course be special unique items and there’s also a gem-socket option for some equipment that adds extra buffs and can have a visual effect -- such as adding flames to your sword.

The approach to combat will involve different strategies depending on your derived class. If you’re specced as a tank barbarian, you can rush head-first into the thick of it and hack away, whereas with a rogue-spec you would want to take a more calculated approach -- using the game’s (visually cued) stealth mechanic and backstabbing your enemies. All classes shown however, were afforded the same kind of visceral and kinetically satisfying combat, even mage classes get to show off their moves when it comes time to finish an opponent, with showers of arterial blood spray for all.

When the name Todd McFarlane was dropped upon Reckoning’s announcement, we’d assumed that would mean the game would wear his signature art-style seen in the Spawn comics, however that does not seem to be the case and the developers have told us that his influence has been more to do with his expertise in animation and his innate sensibilities when it comes to designing the many unique characters and creatures.

Watching Reckoning play, it’s evident that they are animating to a higher standard than most RPGs often get away with; a point that (in our accompanying interview) Ken Rolston admits as lacking in the genre and one that a player of Oblivion, Mass Effect or any given MMO can likely attest to. The characters and their movements -- in what we’ve seen of Reckoning so far -- all walk, crawl and slither with accentuated and purposeful motions. The motion of each weapon and attack that the player uses and even the idle animations also have that same vibe.

A smart-camera component works to actively try and keep your character’s immediate opponents in frame and in the controlled demonstration seemed to work genuinely well. Without getting hands-on ourselves though, it’s tough to discern how much the actual player might have been wrestling with that.

The actual visual style doesn’t need much describing as you can get the basic idea looking at any of the available screenshots. It’s vibrant and colourfully exaggerated and a complete day/night cycle in the world offers strikingly different visual experiences after the sun goes down. A persistent HUD overlay features your standard health and mana bars, as well as an XP bar, a mini-map and a four-way indicator for your hot-keyed abilities.




We’re told that there won’t be a traditional orchestral soundtrack like many RPGs feature, but that Audio Director Grant Kirkhope of Rare fame has been working on many “light motifs”; musical fragments that play during the different situations you encounter during combat and exploration.

Myriad creatures on display all looked meticulously designed and some have been programmed to properly function in packs during combat -- particularly the mini-bosses and their minions. One example mini-boss creature was a serpent-like Banshaen Princess, who belched eggs that spawned underlings. All the underlings were equipped with some kind of lightning rod, so that when the leader charged an electrical attack, it would channel through and multiply from each of them and focus at you.

The world itself looked expansive and there appeared to be many opportunities to stray from the beaten path to discover off-quest goodies. Critics of The Elder Scrolls’ auto-enemy-levelling system will also be happy to know that isn’t the case in Reckoning. Big Huge promised that if you were finding an area too hard, you could venture somewhere easier to bulk up your skills first, then head back and slaughter everything with your new-found strength. Similarly if you want a challenge, you could venture into harder areas before being properly prepared for them and have a crack at punching above your weight.

While it wasn’t explicitly confirmed, the fact that you can pick dozens of ingredients from around the world (which in the case of vegetation, will eventually re-grow) indicates that there will be some manner of alchemy system. There’s also so much more that we’re still likely to hear about, such as fast travel systems, whether or not there’s a resting mechanic and of course, more specifics on the skill and weapon options.

When we spoke to him, Ken Rolston was very passionately opposed to not including a co-operative multiplayer component, indicating that perhaps the game would be too focused on creating an immersive narrative and exploration options to risk trivialising those with an extra player character.

All told, the first showing of 38 Studios’ Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning left a very good taste in our mouths and although it wasn’t quite what we had expected, it looks to be doing some interesting things with the genre. As an action-heavy RPG, packing both an engrossing narrative and compelling environment in could be a winning combination if all aspects are well proportioned. Silly name or not, we’’ll be sure to keep our eye on this one as it continues to take shape.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is in the works for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and is rumoured for an early 2012 launch.

For more information, stop by our game page or check out our interview with Lead Designer Ken Rolston.