So last night, instead of leveling up in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I downloaded and installed (via Origin) the demo for the upcoming RPG from 38 Studios and Big Huge Games: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Those of you who frequent the site know that I’ve been quite excited about this game for some time now, especially because its lead designer is none other than Ian “Tiberius” Frazier, the man who headed up the Ultima V: Lazarus project team.

And I am pleased to report that the game did not disappoint. To be fair, I didn’t have a chance to explore all of its various mechanics, but the little taste I did get was enough to leave me wanting much, much more; I am definitely stoked for February 7th now!

First, a word on the structure of the demo. The demo basically takes you through the game’s introductory quest: you are resurrected and must escape a dungeon called the Well of Souls (there’s an Ultima reference there). Following that escape, the player needs to speak to a Fateweaver located near the exit to the Well, and from there must journey to a nearby town. Along the way, as has become commonplace in modern games, some of the game’s controls are explained, and you of course get to explore the combat, inventory, and loot systems, as well as the conversation system. All of these are worth commenting on in turn, and I will do so presently.

Upon reaching the town, you’ve essentially completed the quest path of the demo, and are then notified that you have 45 minutes to explore the world and run through any side quests you might have picked up along the way. This timer seemed to be a bit on the slow side, as I would swear that I spent way more than 45 minutes poking about and doing quests…but perhaps that was just the pace of the game. I was grateful for the fact that the timer pauses when the game is paused; my daughters each woke up at least twice last night, demanding the presence of a parent each time. And since my wife had stepped out for a goodly chunk of the evening…

Character Creation

Because your character starts the game dead, the first thing you actually see is a pair of gnomes carrying your covered body on a cart.

They talk about events in the world, and about you, and at a certain point in the conversation you’re taken to the character creation screen.

As has become common in many games these days, you have a fair bit of of control over what your character looks like. Not as much as you are given in, say, Mass Effect, but comparable to the level of control you are given in The Old Republic. Big Huge Games wants you to be able to create a character that reflects you, but they quite obviously don’t want you spending three hours doing so.

Once you’re done creating your character, you’re taking back to the cutscene and the gnomes, who continue their discussion and pull the cover off of your character’s body. You’re prompted to give your character a name after a bit more dialogue, and then witness your character being dumped rather unceremoniously into a pit.

And then, your character awakens…in a pile of rotting bodies. S/he climbs down, looks around…and the game begins.

Combat

Combat in Reckoning is actually very enjoyable and compelling. It’s also very fast-paced, visually stunning…and doesn’t just let you use one combat style against every enemy you encounter, because the enemies themselves don’t all attack in the same way. Reckoning forces you to think up the occasional new strategy here and there; what works against a group of Tuatha soldiers won’t necessarily work against a pack of wolves. The game helps this by zooming the camera out somewhat, letting you view the area from a slightly more tactical viewpoint.

You’re first introduced to sword combat in the game, after finding a rusty longsword on a long-dead body. The game lets you test out your new old blade on a few rats before throwing some Tuatha soldiers at you, and also helpfully informs you that crates, urns, and barrels can be smashed open with weapons as well. This information prompted a five-minute gleeful re-tracing of my steps, during which time I smashed the living tar out of everything I could.

Seriously…I haven’t had that much fun since Ultima 9.

When you meet the Tuatha, you are also introduced to Encel, a gnome (one of the gnomes, in fact, who helped dispose of your body). He’s scared and running for his life, but he’s also elated that a particular experiment — your resurrection — worked. He offers to take you to the gnomish scientist in charge of the experiment, and will accompany you through much of the rest of the Well of Souls.

Shortly after meeting Encel, you’ll acquire some armour and a shield. The game instructs you in how to use both, although for now I’m only going to discuss the shield.

The shield in Reckoning is basically a steadfast wall against enemy attacks, but it’s also a bit more than that. Not only does it block incoming strikes…if you time its use just right, you can also use it to inflict damage on enemies. This was particularly the case, I found, when dealing with packs of wolves.

You see, wolves in Reckoning have a rather vicious attack, which basically involves charging past your character taking a swipe or a bite as they go. It’s very hard to charge into a fight with wolves with swinging sword or flashing dagger; you’re liable to get mauled, and badly. But, if you have a shield, fighting wolves is actually a bit easier. You can block their charges by just holding the shield up, of course…but if you wait a couple more seconds before raising the shield, your character brings the shield up rather more sharply, and the wolf takes some serious damage as a result of his interdicted attack.

Shortly after acquiring the shield, you also pick up a longbow, which of course gives the game the opportunity to teach you about ranged combat.

I didn’t find ranged combat all that appealing, actually, although at the time I was still trying to master the game controls (more on those later), and that might have had a lot to do with it.

The next combat system the game introduces you to is daggers…and stealth.

Stealth in the game isn’t something you can use only when equipping rogue-type weapons, although the backstab attacks do look particularly cool when made with a pair of short blades. The idea behind the stealh system in the game is pretty straightforward: you creep forward, at a much-reduced movement rate, and try to get within striking distance of an enemy. A little visual indicator — an eye-like icon above each enemy’s head — lets you know how aware of your presence your target is. Obviously, creeping up from outside the line of your enemy’s sight yields better results.

And by better results, I of course mean this:

As noted, you can use stealth regardless of the weapon you have equipped, although stealth kills of the sort depicted above evidently require daggers of one sort or another.

The combat tutorial is rounded out with the introduction of spells and magic staves. The spells are fairly straightforward; one spell can be “equipped” at a time, and is accessed as a “secondary trigger” ability, a right-click instead of a left-click. The magic staff that you are introduced to has a flame enchantment, and is useful for exactly one thing in the demo: breaking through spiderwebs.

That’s actually a rather neat concept, making certain obstacles resistant to all but certain attack types.

At this point, the demo has basically taught you all it needs to about combat; you’re left to figure out actual battle tactics for yourself. During the ranged weapon tutorial, the game introduces you to the fact that by performing a control combination (even something simple like holding down the left mouse button) you may be able to access more powerful attack types. It leaves you to discover these other attack types, though (although if you poke around in the Options menu, you’ll find a list of the ones you currently have enabled).

The last battle in the Well of Souls, which you come to after meeting the gnome Hugues and learning a bit more about your resurrection, is against a pair of Tuatha soldiers and a rock troll, and more than anything else it requires you to keep moving, especially from side to side. Combat outside the Well of Souls won’t pit you against anything quite so fearsome; you’ll mostly go up against wolves and bandits.

Although I’m sure that will not remain the case for long in the full version of the game.

Controls

The game’s controls took a bit of getting used to, although once I had them figured out they proved to be quite powerfully useful. I made the mistake of expecting a fairly typical imeplemtation of the WASD movement control scheme, but it turned out that only the W and S behaved as I was expecting. Had I been playing Dragon Age, Mass Effect, or even SWTOR, A and D would have rotated the camera left or right about my player, and would have changed her bearing…but I would still have had to hold down W to keep her moving forward.

Not so in Reckoning, at least not with the default keymapping. A and D do nothing about the camera angle, which is controlled instead only by the mouse or the arrow keys. Instead, A and D actually cause your character to turn and move in the indicated direction. This isn’t particularly useful in normal movement, when you’re just exploring the gorgeous scenery. It is, however, fantastically useful in combat, as it enables you to very quickly dodge or roll out of the way of certain attack types…such as might be used by, I don’t know, a rock troll.

The game maintains a very fast pace — or at least the sensation of a fast pace — in no small part due to the way the background blurs whenever the camera is pivoted with the mouse or arrow keys.

You can control the actual rotational speed of the camera, but not the blur effect. That said, there’s really no reason to; as a photographer, I can certainly appreciate that motion blur is a pretty common facet of what we see on a daily basis, even if we don’t always consciously perceive it. And it must be said that the motion blur adds a certain visceral element to combat!

By the end of the Well of Souls, I mostly had the walking/running controls figured out. Character movement comes in two speeds (three if you include stealth): walking, and running. Running is enabled by holding down a mapped key (Left Control by default). Swimming is also present in the game, and has the same slow/fast capabilities as walking; a slow breaststroke becomes a hurried front crawl when Left Control is pressed.

The basic rule of thumb, as far as control in Reckoning is concerned, seems to be that each hand has to know what the other is doing; mouse and keyboard, left hand and right…all need to work together. It can take a while to really figure out and master the game’s controls, and it can take a bit of time to get used to the way everything happens so very fast in the game. Once you’ve got it, though, you can do quite a lot with it.

Destinies

The Destinies system in Reckoning is probably going to be talked about a lot once the game releases, and deservedly so, for at least two reasons. The first, of course, is the way in which it completely breaks open the concept of character classes, allowing you to dynamically shift and re-focus your charcter’s abilities toward warrior, rogue, and magical skillsets essentially at whim. The second, though, is the way this very different approach to character skills is woven inextricably into the fabric of the game’s narrative.

The first thing you need to know about Amalur, Dragons and Dragonettes, is that it is a fully deterministic world. Everything — every living being — in Amalur is simply living out a destiny, marching steadfastly toward a pre-determined and unchangeable fate. Every being, that is, except you, the player. You are the sole non-deterministic element in a deterministic world, the sole being with free will in an otherwise will-less universe.

And what is more, you have the power to unweave the fates of others.

Reckoning Mode

Reckoning Mode is a special combat mode that is periodically enabled in the game. The game’s GUI includes three stat bars for your character: health (red), mana (blue)…and fate (purple). Fate is accumulated mostly during combat, especially by performing special moves. When the “fate bar” is full, pressing and holding X will enable Reckoning Mode, which operates kind of like bullet time.

Within Reckoning Mode, your enemies are vastly slowed down, making it easy to dispatch them. That isn’t all, though. Once you’ve defeated all your foes, you can complete the unraveling of their fates and draw out their essences into yourself.

I’m not quite sure what this does for your character, apart from giving you massive experience bonuses, but I have a feeling it will be a pivotal part of the game. The fact that it’s also a damn handy thing to have in your back pocket for when there are just a few too many enemies to dispatch conventionally is icing on the cake.

Graphics

Reckoning isn’t quite Skyrim or Battlefield 3, but it doesn’t have to be, and still looks gorgeous in its own right.

The comparisons to Fable are rather apt; the game world is full of colour and bloom. Flowers and exotic grasses burst forth from every surface, trees are vibrant and lush. Some plants — especially plants which can be harvested for magical reagents — have a mystical glow about them. Caves are lined with phosphorescent plants of various types. And I just about lost my mind when I saw fish swimming in a reflecting pool just outside the Well of Souls:

Also: the structure design in the game is fantastic.

Reckoning is a mostly open-world game: the outdoors is essentially supposed to be one massive, continuous continent, although dungeons and buildings are contained on their own maps; entering either will bring up a loading screen. I seem to recall that the final game boasts at least five major climatic zones, and I’m sure there will be regional variations within those zones.

The long and short of it is, this will be a fun game to explore, filled with peril and beauty. The one drawback is that navigating over mountains seems, at least as far as the demo was willing to show, to be a no-go, so true Oblivion-style exploration isn’t, strictly speaking, going to be possible. Then again, I found at least one area in the demo that was “magically” sealed off and inaccessible to me (probably because it was just a demo), so it’s possible that other exploration modes may open up in the full game, or as the game progresses. We shall see. The verdict is also out as to whether butterfly harvesting is possible.

Conversations

Conversations in Reckoning follow the cinematic format that has become the norm thanks to…well, pretty much every BioWare game produced over the last five years. The dialogue wheel makes an appearance in Reckoning.

However, selecting certain dialogue options will bring up a separate conversation menu which features a tabular, keyword-driven interface instead.

As was the case in Dragon Age: Origins, your character in Reckoning doesn’t have voiced dialogue, although all the NPCs do. This works, however, especially with the keyword-driven dialogues (which seem to be the more common dialogue mode). And let’s face it: it’s nice to see such an obvious throwback to Ultima-style conversation.

There were also points at which I tripped over these things…Fae lorestones. They come in sets (e.g. Stones of Autumn), and when you’ve found all the stones in a set you evidently get some manner of bonus. Clicking on a Lorestone, however, will also trigger an audio track, a piece of dialogue explaining some part of the game’s backstory. Some of these can run for a few minutes, providing a kind of pseudo-narration as you continue exploring.

Lockpicking

This is something that old-school RPG fans will love, I think. Lockpicking in the game actually requires you to get down and dirty with the lock, and was probably my favourite mini-game in Reckoning.

The basic idea here is that you position the pick at a particular angle in the lock, and then slide the latch from left to right. If the pick is at the right angle, the tumblers will be upset and the lock will pop open. If the pick isn’t at the right angle, the lock mechanism will grind against it and eventually break it. Fortunately, you can hear the grinding as it starts to happen, which gives you just enough time to back off your attempt and adjust the angle.

That said, I did break four or five picks during the course of the demo. Still: immensely fun.

Loot

Reckoning’s loot system is Diablo-esque, although I didn’t find myself glutted with junk items to the same degree as was/is often the case in games like Torchlight or The Old Republic. Not unlike Dungeon Siege 3, Reckoning backs off a bit when it comes to throwing loot aimlessly in your general direction, and at least initially the loot you do pick up is useful as often as not. Or — at least in the case of various weapon types — it can become useful, depending on which destinies you pick for your character.

General Notes

Combat in this game is seriously fun, and immensely kinetic. You cover — or can cover — quite a lot of terrain while fighting. The camera is mostly your friend during a fight as well, zooming in or out to give you both close-up and tactical glimpses of the battlefield pretty much as you need them.

The pace of the game is often very fast, almost breakneck. And yet, as I remarked on Twitter, this kind of works in Reckoning’s favour, because it conveys a certain sense of being swept along by events. Not in the sense of a too-linear narrative, but in the sense of…well…yeah, the world feels deterministic. Of course, my character is supposed to be the sole non-deterministic being in the world, so perhaps I really should have stopped to pick more flowers and explore more crevices. But truth be told, I was so taken in by the beauty of the world that I just wanted to keep running ahead to see the next gorgeous thing.

Guards patrol the streets of towns (and presumably cities). They aren’t very talkative, but it would seem they are all equipped with appropriate knee armour. At least they don’t bitch about the consequences of not wearing any! Also, it might have just been my imagination, but I think at least one guard also responded to seeing my character’s drawn weapon by unsheathing his own. A nice touch, if so.

I couldn’t play the game at terribly loud volume (sleeping children), so I couldn’t get the most complete sense of the lore and story. What voice acting I did hear was really very good, and what I was able to glean from reading captions teased with many details about things far older, deeper, and darker than just a decade-long war with a violent offshoot of a particular sect of the immortal Fae race. Which, granted, is pretty old and dark in and of itself. I’ll be playing the full version of the game with headphones, or in my basement.

Still, even the incomplete experience of the game’s dialogue and NPC interactions re-assured me that misgivings about Reckoning’s narrative quality and character depth are completely unfounded. The story is engaging, NPCs varied and dynamic, and…well, there’s just a lot of “there” there. This will be — is — a deep, engaging game. And the Fae lore…well, Sergorn talked my ear off about the Fae lore in the game earlier today, so I’ll let him expound upon it. Let’s just say it’s…something new.

I didn’t have a lot of time to mess around with crafting, although I did pick up repair kits, bits of string, and various reagents as I moved through the world, and found things like alchemy benches where potion-making could take place given the proper recipe. It seems like there are several such systems present in Reckoning, which harder-core-than-I RPG fans will no doubt want to check out.

Books and scrolls in the game also have a delightfully Ultima-like look and feel to them, in how they are implemented.

Oh, and did I mention that I had far too much fun walking around killing the duck/chicken-things walking around the village in the demo? I didn’t? Oh…well…I totally did that.