MMO News, Reviews & Opinions
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Demo (Xbox 360)
At Pax East last year, I had the privilege of sitting in at a roundtable discussion that included 38 Studio's founder – Curt Schilling. What he said 
in that room impressed me so much that I actually wrote him a letter thanking him for his views that bucked the status quo. He was all about the experience, not cutting corners, making content and storyline the priorities of a game. I told him in that letter that I could not wait to play anything his studio developed.
Today, I finally got my chance with the release of the playable demo of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – the precursor to MMO based upon the same setting Schilling is supposed to be working on in the near future. Weighing in at well over a gig and a good bit of game play, this demo promised to be meaty and a tell tale trial that would determine whether or not you would buy the game. Having played it, my first thought is... play it for yourself to see if it fits your style of play.
I will preface this preview with the fact that I had just come off of a long torrid December of Skyrim. Many of you had similar experiences around that time so I don't feel that I need to go into detail as to the level of game play I expected or the level of detail I had come to believe should be the new standard. Skyrim despite its bug set a very high bar and for that the timing of Amalur's release could be a bit tragic even if it never set out to be anything like Bethesda's game.
Graphics:
From the start (well, somewhat excluding the cut scenes), you will get a sense of familiarity when you see the graphics. The characters and objects styles all seem to have leaped out of World of Warcraft though with a slight alteration towards realistic. The dark areas are shadowy, the magical areas are sparkly and everything else sorta resembles the kind of background fodder you would find in Stormwind. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily so but outside of the level of graphical detail that your character seems to get and the near bombastic effects of using magic (be it with a staff or ability), everything else seems to be unremarkable.
Controls and Game Play:
What can I say? Curt seems to really have put an emphasis on this. Your character moves with speed and agility of an Olympic athlete. The controls are crisp, movements sharp and all of that makes for a very enjoyable time in combat. In any of the Arkham game, you know how Batman moves around so fluidly in battle? Well, slap a suit of armor on Bats and give him a sword. If you are hit a lot, I can assure you that it is entirely your fault.
Yet, there in lies one of the first real issues I had with the game. Combat itself soon takes the form of something from Mortal Kombat. I was kinda stunned when I juggled my first foe in the air for a myriad of hits. In mere seconds I went from old school warrior to whirling dervish of blades. The object of my wrath hit the air with nearly full health and before he landed, it had all been whittled away ala Ginsu. While this makes for some exciting chains and opportunities for creative combat, it killed any illusion that I was going to be treated to throwback fight of sword and shields. Instead, it quickly became Marvel Alliance day at the Renfest. If this is your thing, man, are you going to be a happy corpse camper. If not, well, then this may be a big drawback.
Sound:
Few games really seem to hit the right note with their choice in soundtracks and background music. Kingdoms of Amalur bucks that trend right from the start. As soon as you start the demo, a feeling of dire times envelopes over you as the music and the voice overs come pouring out of the speakers. Much like the intro to the Fellowship of the Rings movie, you somehow are drawn into the setting and the moment.
Storyline:
This to me was where Kingdoms of Amalur really shines. The voice over intro starts off with the overall storyline which doesn't exactly paint a picture of happy times in Amalur. From there, the game shifts to your storyline... the one where you are dead and on a gurney. This moment provides a pleasant change from the whole chosen one schtick. It creates an immediate mystery and then they add to that with an immediate sense of danger. Though, as combat progresses, I lost that fear of danger save for the expertly applied with trick of fearing for NPCs' lives.
With the way the story starts unfolding, I can imagine that by the time it is all said and done – you will be engulfed in something epic and quite memorable.
The Devil In The Details:
This is no Skyrim and I really don't think it set out to be. Rather, it is an action adventure game wrapped in a RPG storyline. It will gain the interest of combat mavens and the storyline will captivate the minds of the lore junkies. For those segments of the population – preorder the game and revel in the bonuses.
To the hardcore RPG player who loved the realism and grittiness of Skyrim – you may want to think long and hard on this one. It contains elements that may get under your skin – from the body juggling to the cliches like breaking boxes to find... you guessed it, gold coins. Not to nitpick, but is it that every denizen in that city considers crates a form of vault? Oh and another old school nitpick from my 8 bit gaming days – when you walk up to a weapon rack full of armor and weapons and you search said rack - it should really contain what you see on the rack. This happened about 3 times in the demo where I step up to literal armory displaying gleaming weaponry that is MY size (as opposed to my old rusted one hander) and suddenly I become a semi-blind man who can only see a shield. What about the gleaming cuirass? Is that a halberd I see? Guess not. Seriously though, in 2012 on the modern system with top of the line developers and we will go back to the old issue of “what you see is not what you get”? That isn't the standard now so please consider this going forward.
Other things of note:
- I really did like the compare button present when you are looting items - it is very helpful and a great idea.
- No jump button? I can understand perhaps because of the combat mechanics but still...
So with all of this being said, will I be buying the game? Probably not. I will most likely save my money and hope that Skyrim gets some DLC soon. What I will do, however, is watch and wait to see how the Amalur MMO starts taking shape. The story has my attention and perhaps the gameplay will evolve into more traditional ground fighting (though I could really enjoy the combos). I have faith that Curt Schilling will learn from this first foray into gaming and apply them to his biggest project should he undertake it.
But again, play the demo and figure out if it fits your style.
