Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Preview

Ten Ton Hammer has whipped up their own two-page preview of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning based on what was learned about 38 Studios’ open-world RPG during this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

Open world, according to Rolston, is a much more unsettled phrase. In his view (and to paraphrase him), open world means the world has a central conflict that you never really want to resolve (because you’re having too good a time), and never really have to due to the wealth of other interesting and worthy content the game provides. Additionally, Rolston hopes to clean up the (clunky) presentation of today’s RPGs and, short of making an action game, borrow elements from the action genre to (increase the pace) of the combat gameplay. Unfortunately, and with Rolston’s apologies, the team isn’t quite ready to show combat gameplay yet.

By far the most animated member of the panel (pun intended) was Todd McFarlane, whose tabletop parries and thrusts drove home another one of Reckoning’s core concepts: (combat theater.) Feeling that combat looked far too unnatural in most games – the A -> B -> A of stance, swing your weapon, resume your previous stance found in most swords and sorcery games – McFarlane showed us the less formulaic actions that people step through, illustrating how this plays out in game. He also explored the concepts of mass, scale, and bone structure, explaining that characters, items, and animations in Reckoning would essentially act their weight and add a layer of realism to the game that’s seldom or never been seen before.