GamesCom might not always have the information weight of E3, especially given Los Angeles’ event is often the launching pad for new IP reveals or updated media, but more often than not, what we see at E3 in hands-off demos, is handed over at GamesCom in hands-on form. This was the case with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, from 38 Studios and Big Huge Games where, after a new brief demo showing off new areas, attacks and enemies (as well as a little bit of story), we were granted around three-minutes and 47 seconds of play-time (ahead of new extensive hands-on sessions in the very near future) to get to grips with the game’s heavily touted real-time combat.

Now, I haven’t had the privilege of our interview with any of the team members yet (our interview is likely happening as you read this -- stay tuned... ), so please excuse the console control references, but playing around with a level 20 warrior (so, pretty powerful) it was reasonably easy to make quick work of the grunt enemies that popped up as we progressed. Controls are massively intuitive though, and for anyone who’s played the likes of God of War, Darksiders, Dante’s Inferno et al will quickly find their feet.


Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning GC 2011 Trailer - Click here for HD

Attacks are relative to your equipped weapons, which can be mapped to X and Y, respectively, and correctly timed inputs in combo form mean you can string together devastating blows that often finish in launchers, allowing for even more impact. Pulling in the Right Trigger brings up four mapped abilities, such as buffs or straight-up magic, that can be activated in conjunction with your melee strikes. So clever players could easily put together lengthy combos full of magic, melee strikes and peripheral abilities, and, interestingly, these are incredibly easy to perform on console, even with the limited input space on a controller and I can’t stress enough how intuitive it all was.

Adding to the accessibility and depth of the system, is a handy B-button evade move, which you can obviously spam in order to cross the world quicker (and let’s face it, this is always one of the more fun ways to get around in games like), but also use in tactical play, as many a character can also lay mechanical or magical traps -- during combat -- for extra effect. This means, luring enemies into your set path of destruction is as easy as using yourself as bait, followed by a tap of the B-button for a timely evade to then deal with any other enemies working against you to uneven the odds.

In fact, it’s the latter component that stuck out most. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning takes no leaf out of the book of tag-team enemy encounters where you’re only ever grappled by a single baddie, among many around you, once. Instead, like more modern combat-focused games (the Batman: Arkham series, for example), your foes will attack in grouped numbers, and in full-force. It’s not known what the scaling system will be like area-to-area just yet (or level-to-level), but it at least felt like you’re always going to be reaching into game’s magic bag of combat tricks to get the most out of everything they’ve created here. And even in the very short time I had with the game, the variations in enemy encounters -- and enemy types -- was more than enough to sell me on wanting to get the absolute most out of it.



On the story-telling aspect -- that I touched upon at the start of this feature -- I was pleasantly surprised the game didn’t follow a hapless, voiceless vassal direction, and seemed to encompass a fair amount of personality and characterisation, specifically for your created character.

In fact, the narrative portion we were privy to even touched upon the reasons for your unnatural rebirth in such a way I felt immediately compelled to learn more. Initially the biggest concern was that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning might just be a single-player experience that borrowed heavily from both God of War and World of Warcraft, but this simple analogy has thankfully been left in the dust at the minor revelations experienced at this year’s GamesCom.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a great deal more explored that both Dan and myself have already covered in our previous extensive write-ups from the game. I can tell you that with each iterative showing it just looks more and more engaging, unbelievably in-depth, gorgeous to look at and above all else, fun to play. There’s still a lot more we do want to know though, like, how deep does characterisation take you in the game-world and do you form any meaningful relationships with peripheral characters, or do they simply act as traffic lights; pushing you forward, slowing you down or stopping you in your tracks on your journey.

It’s also important we look more in-depth at how the skills and abilities system works, specifically at the dramatic change to the RPG formula these guys have introduced where class is no longer a definitive decision for players from the game’s outset. And just how this will adversely affect your place in the game-world, and if, at all, your decisions will be reflected in the way NPCs react to you, or what quests and quest outcomes will be available to you.



One thing is definitely for sure though -- from what we've seen so far -- the teams at both 38 Studios and Big Huge Games have crafted an engaging experience here. If only for their collective experiences in RPG and character design, we just really want to know more; a lot more.

Come February 2012, action-RPG junkies may very well have just found a new calling.