Back when I first went to see Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning for the magazine a few months ago, I was more than a little concerned about the generic name. Did I really want to play another open-world fantasy game? After seeing the game, the answer was a definitive yes, and my demo of it at E3 makes me even more certain.
An absurd amount of content: RPGs are arguably the lengthiest of any genre of games, but in this generation of single-player games averaging six-to-eight hours of playtime, even role-playing titles have become shorter affairs. Not so with Reckoning. Big Huge Games is promising five distinct geographical regions that are stuffed full of NPC-packed towns, hundreds of sidequests, and (no joke) 120 dungeons. Best of all, those dungeons aren�t cut-and-paste like in some RPGs � Big Huge Games created some easy-to-use tools that allow them to quickly put together deep, interesting, hand-crafted dungeons.
RPG combat that�s fun, fluid, and complex�really!: Yes, Reckoning is yet another RPG that�s embracing faster, more action-focused gameplay. Unlike games such as Dragon Age II, though, the combat in Reckoning looks and feels more like a straight action title or even a fighting game. I saw the player character � a hybrid warrior/rogue � use a devastating multi-stab attack, a lightning quick slash that dramatically paused time as he flew through an enemy several times, and a magic-infused smash that sent rocks flying up from the ground to crush his opponents. It�s visually impressive and looks utterly engaging. I can�t wait to get my hands on it for an extended period of time.
E3 2011 is the third time I�ve seen Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in action, and I�m just as impressed as I was from the start. Do yourself a favor and don�t let this game slip under your radar. It�s got a good chance to be awesome when it comes out in 2012.
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