Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Launches Tomorrow
After much anticipation, an increasing volume of gaming press (and mainline press) coverage, and one apparently buggy demo, the first RPG title from independent game company 38 Studios — Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning — is about to launch. If you’ve been able to pre-install the game from Origin or Steam, it will unlock for you to play tomorrow. If, on the other hand, you ordered one of the Collector’s Editions, you are probably (like me) hoping that there will be a somewhat oversized package waiting for you at home this evening!
Reckoning
As I noted last night on various social networks, I’m even suspending (for the most part) my playthrough of Star Wars: The Old Republic to as to focus most of my gaming energies on Reckoning.
I’m stoked for this game, Dragons and Dragonettes, for reasons I’ve outlined already. It has a lot of star power behind it, to be sure, but I’m honestly less looking forward to the game on account of Ken Rolston’s involvement than I am on account of Ian Frazier’s involvement. Morrowind and Oblivion were what they were, but they failed to connect with me (or I with them). Ultima V: Lazarus, on the other hand, was just something else…to say nothing of the fact that it was probably the keenest use of the Dungeon Siege engine in history, and I include the original game in that statement.
And, indeed, I think of Reckoning as being “Tibby’s game”. I know it isn’t; a large team of people wrote, built, tested, and produced it. But Reckoning has the fingerprints of an Ultima fan on it, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise given who its lead designer is. It has many other elements as well, not the least of which is its combat system — which, frankly, I greatly enjoy, possibly more so than in any other game to date — and is in many ways dissimilar to that series of RPGs which keeps us all coming back to this site.
But it doesn’t feel entirely alien, not in its little details. And on that basis, I (greatly) look forward to installing it tonight and playing it tomorrow.
I’ve been checking Steam regularly for the last 24 hours just to watch the “This game will unlock in…” thing count down. I’m WAY too excited about this game’s release. XD The demo made it seem worth the hype though. Maybe still not the greatest game ever, but I can see myself putting a LOT of hours into this game.
I like the way you couched the reasons for your optimistic expectations for this game, WtF. I don’t know Ian’s background, motivations or avenue of ascension, but he should be given a fair shake. From what little I understand, it’s an amazing story that an Ultima fan and modder found such success and additional empowerment to create even more ambitious games through his work in our community with Lazarus.
I’m STILL sad that I don’t have a PS3, Xbox 360 or feel like dual-booting or testing DirectX in my VM. Dammit. At least the only DRM I worry about is if I have to shift my NES cartridge slightly to the left once it’s in the system but doesn’t start immediately. Those were the days.
Sanctimonia: Ian is good people, pretty much all around. His view of game design seems something of a hybrid between a love for how things “used to be” (especially with respect to Ultima) and an appreciation for some of the newer things that have come along. Hence, we have Reckoning, with its mix of explosive, kinetic combat, open-world exploration, crafting and other such mechanics, and a particularly innovative classless class system.
Now, granted, with Reckoning as much as with Lazarus, Tibby doesn’t get sole credit. In both cases, he’s taken a leadership role within an incredible team of people, who have together produced a very cool thing. But there is an influence from him, for sure, that I think gives Reckoning just a little but of extra promise.