Introduction

Operating a small independent fan site covering one gaming company makes it really hard to attend big events like E3, PAX etc. They cost a lot of money to attend and the information reported would be the same as every other major gaming site, so from my perspective it’s really not worth it to attend from a return on investment point of view. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still my dream to one day attend E3 and if I had oodles of money I would attend every event possible, but for now at least, doing stuff like that will have to go on my next year wish list along with that motorcycle I’ve been wanting for the last 10 years! So with saying all that, getting an invitation from EA and Big Huge Games to come and hang out at the studio in Baltimore and play Reckoning for the day was pretty cool. Ok it was more than cool, it was AWESOME!!!

While the invite was awesome, I almost didn’t go. My reason for starting 38 Gamers was to follow the MMO 38 Studios was working on as I am a huge MMORPG fan. Then came the news 38 Studios had acquired Big Huge Games and soon after came the announcement that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a single player RPG, would be the company’s first game. It was exciting news and I definitely hoped the game would be successful but as a gamer it was not something I was personally super excited about playing.

I have played Oblivion and Morrowind and did not find them to be that great compared to playing an MMO. I guess after playing in virtual worlds where I could interact with other people I just never saw the point in playing a RPG alone. In addition the combat and graphics were not that great to me. I guess what I am trying to say is that I simply am not a single player RPG fan.

As a result the thought of spending hours and hours traveling across the country by plane to go play one for a few hours and then turn around and spend hours and hours flying back was not on the top of my list of fun things to do for a couple of days. In comparison, had this been to come down to 38 Studios and have a peak at the MMO, I would have flown for days on end to go and been super excited to do so. Kieron I hope you’re reading this!

So after sharing the news with some of the guys I play online with at the office, they were like you’re crazy, this is an opportunity of a life time and you need to go. So looking at it from a life’s experience kind of thing I decided what the heck I might as well go and as the time got closer and closer to going my excitement level did increase.

The Studio

I traveled all day and got into the hotel at 12:30 am missing the dinner that everyone had been invited to at 8 pm. Everyone then met in the lobby the following morning before going over to the studio. Once there we all had to sign our NDA’s. We were then lead through the office to where breakfast was being served. We passed traditional offices that were located on the outside but the inner areas had flat screen tv’s and 360’s all hooked up along with comfy chairs. The back area had a bar like setup with pool table and a bunch more tv’s and 360’s for everyone to play the game with. 

I got an opportunity to meet and chat with Kevin Johnson who recently started with Big Huge Games as the Social Media Manager. Kevin was well known and helped provide excellent coverage of Reckoning for the fan site 38 Watch as Lilie. I also got the chance to meet Union from 38 Watch and Aredhel from 38 Fans and hang out with them for a bit. Be sure to check out their sites for their impressions of the game as well.

The Game

Once everyone had eaten and gotten coffee, etc. it was time for the fun to begin. First was the announcement that the game was Post Alpha – pre Beta so expect to experience bugs and to save often. Each person was provided a map of the Faelands along with a listing of the main quest line as well as a list of names and terms from the game along with how to properly pronounce them. We were then let lose to find a system and begin playing the game.

I was really hoping to be able to play on PC as everything I have seen so far on the game had been using a 360 game controller, not to mention I prefer to play on PC then console. This option was unfortunately not available at the time. One thing I did learn from the team was that on the PC version you can plug in a controller to your PC and the interface changes back and forth automatically from PC to console based on what input device you’re currently using, which I think is a great idea.

You start off with a quick narrative intro, setting the story of this evil and cruel tyrant who has taken over the land and how this one person rose up to fight against him only to have died……

It’s at this point you are given the opportunity to create your character. You have a choice of four starting races, since I planned on playing a warrior type I chose to go with Almain. You then choose your sex and from there have several preset faces you can choose from. Next you can further tweak your selection to customize the look of your character. Once completed, you’re ready to start playing the game.

You come to life on a pile of corpses, somewhere deep underground. You have no memory of who you are and no clue where you are. You quickly come across a Gnome who is surprised to see you and instructs you to make your way to see Fomorous Hughes. This starting sequence of the game was different than what was shown at the PAX East demo earlier this year. In the end you barely escape with your life from the Well of Souls with Fomorous Hughes drawing off the attacking Tuatha imploring you to stay alive at all cost and to find Agarth (AY-garth) who is a Fateweaver.

You then find yourself outside the Well of Souls in an area called Allestar Glade and the village of Gorhart. It is here you find Agarth who tells you that you appear to have no fate. If it’s true, you would be the first mortal with no destiny. Agarth suggest that you meet with a fellow Fateweaver, Arden, in Yolvan. 

Up to this point everyone will have had the same experience but now depending on your choices your path and main quest will be different as you choose one of the following branching quests.

The Hunter Hunted.

- Agarth can help you track the Tuatha that have been attacking you since you were resurrected in Allestar. You should meet Agarth at the Three Lamps Inn in Didenhil.

Old Friends, New Foes

- Alyn Shir helped you secure the codex of Destiny from Dellach. The Codex is imprinted with Fae memories. Without help, you cannot know its contents. Alyn suggest that you meet her and her Fae contacts at the House of Ballards.

When I played I did not see the second quest line so I ended up doing the quest “The Hunter Hunted.” I think that’s what I like a lot about this game, from this point forward your game experience will be different from everyone else based on the choices that you make, adding lots of replay value to the game. From the first village of Gorhart there were several side quests you could choose to do. Some people, like me, just raced through the main quest line seeing how far we could get. Some people started exploring crafting, some decided to do the side quests while other found and completed faction quests.

The game at this point really starts to open up and it only took maybe 30 minutes to get to this point from starting up the game up. You can’t go off running anywhere but there are lots of paths to which you can travel as well as more open areas. I think this gives you more of a sense of exploration as there was always something interesting to find along the way, be it a chest, an items to harvest for crafting or a surprise attack by the creatures inhabiting the land. The game rewards you for taking the time to explore every nook and cranny of the world if you choose to.

Combat

When you first start out playing the game after waking up in the Well of Souls you get the opportunity to try out the three different play styles of gameplay before making a decision. The three are caster, rogue and warrior. Now the nice part is because you don’t have a destiny you can mix and match abilities from all three to create unique hybrid characters or choose to stay true to each one and be a pure mage, pure rogue or pure warrior. I was also told if you decided later in the game you want to change your choices you can pay money and reset your abilities, so lots of choices and flexibility in how you want to play the game.

Since I chose to play a warrior my combat experience will be based from that perspective.

Attacks

As I stated earlier I am a PC gamer so having to use a 360 control for the first time ever for the demo took a few minutes to adjust to. I love the fact that for combat you don’t have to memorize button combinations to trigger certain moves and attacks. X is your primary attack weapon and Y is your secondary. This becomes a key aspect to fighting in Reckoning as I was using a two handed sword as my primary weapon and a bow for my secondary. The idea being I could hit at range with the bow and then once the mob got in closer switch to my two handed sword to finish them off.

At first this strategy worked pretty well but the two handed sword takes a bit of time to wind up and actually swing it. If you got hit by one of the creatures you were fighting, while you were attempting to swing the sword, it would stun you and you would then have to restart your attack again. Considering that many of the encounters started to have 4 creatures attacking at the same time I was finding it hard at times to actually do damage and instead was taking a lot. If you got your swing off you would often hit multiple targets within range and as long as you kept your attacks up and did not get interrupted you were fine. It basically boiled down to timing.

One of the developers pointed out that I might want to switch to using a one handed sword or two daggers instead of the bow as the attacks are much faster so it’s easier to get your attacks off and recover if you do get hit. This turned out to be very good advice!

The other interesting part is that based on the timing of your attacks it would cause different types of attacks instead of memorizing button combinations to press. This gives the game an intuitive and fun feel to combat that anyone can pick up easily while giving more experienced action gamers the ability to really hone their combat skills.

Defense

In addition to your two attacks you also have two defensive abilities, of which one of them can be used offensively. The first ability is an outright block which has you pulling out a shield to deflect the blow. I know some people felt this broke immersion and I respect that but being as I have always played warrior type characters with sword and shield, it actually did not take me long to totally forget about it. To add to that I have never really been one to use block a lot in games as its more fun to be swinging a big sword and doing serious damage then cowering behind a shield. I was only using block to get me out of trouble if I missed timed my attack.

I did notice that even when you are blocking you still take some damage so you can’t just go into a corner and pull out your shield and be immune to damage.
Your other defense/offensive ability is rolling (teleporting if you’re a mage) towards or away from an opponent. This comes in very handy to close distance on an opponent or get away to avoid being hit.

Strategy

When you’re fighting multiple opponents it was usually with three weaker ones, like wolves along with say a troll who was more dangerous and harder to kill. It was most effective to focus on one of the wolves, kill it and then move to another until all three where dead before taking on the hardest opponent.

Camera Angle

One thing I did notice was that the camera angle was not always in the best position to really see everything around you so the positioning of your character definitely had an impact on how well you did when fighting at times. Since the game was still in pre-beta I am hoping they can maybe tweak this to be a bit better.

Fate Shift Kill

The last aspect of combat and the best in my opinion is the fate shift kill. As you play the game and kill opponents your fate shift bar slowly fills. Once full you can then trigger a fate shift which is usually best saved for difficult opponents like mini-bosses. To activate with the 360 controller you hold both the right and left triggers which puts you in to Reckoning mode where everything slows down. If you’re facing multiple opponents at once you can get one close to death and they will go into a stunned state where you can then move to the next opponent until you’re down to the last one, which is usually the mini-boss. One he is almost dead you will be prompted to start clicking the B button to trigger the fate shift kill which kills the boss as well as the others who were stunned in spectacular fashion! It’s the over the top nature of fate shift kills that make them immensely rewarding and fun when you pull them off.

Combat Overall

Combat is fun, challenging and visual in Reckoning. In some ways it reminds me of Heavenly Sword which I absolutely loved. From watching all the demo videos that have been released so far the combat looked to be easy but I can assure you it’s very challenging. If you think you just need to sit back and click X repeatedly to win you’re in for a big surprise. As you’re fighting multiple opponents you will need good timing, strategy and gear and a win is definitely not guaranteed. The nice part is if you find you can’t complete a dungeon you can go and do some side quests to level up a bit more and get some better gear and you can go back and try again. The mobs in the dungeons do not increase in level as you level up.

Interviews

I got a chance to sit down with some of the guys from the Studio to ask them some questions which was great, except for the fact I had no idea I was going to get the opportunity, so I had no voice or video equipment to help me out. I also did not have anything formally written down to ask so it was more just off the cuff questions that I had at the time with pretty much the standard answers you hear in every interview. I must admit it must get boring at times to answer the same types of questions over and over again for these guys.

One thing that did come through though was that these guys are more than just coworkers they are family and this is more than just a job. The amount of work and effort they have put in to build everything from the ground up from the game engine, the tools and all the art assets only to have to scrap all the art assets and start over again when 38 Studios came on board has been a huge task. This is the first RPG game for the studio and the first multiplatform game and they have done a fantastic job from what I have seen. Maybe because this is their first RPG it’s why they are going the extra mile and doing something special.

I was also curious to find out if things at the studio had changed from when they were under THQ. Curt Schilling seems to have a different style to managing and appreciating people at 38 Studios compared to others in the industry so I wanted to know if they noticed a difference. For the most part they said things are pretty much the same, THQ was very supportive of Big Huge Games and so have 38 Studios and EA. The biggest change is that 38 Studios has helped them to focus better and to say no at times which has helped them get the game to the point it is today.

Wrap Up

As the day started to wind down it was very apparent to me that this truly was a once in a life time trip and I am so very glad I had the opportunity to go. I honestly think Reckoning maybe the very first single player RPG I actually love to play. I could see how great it was for the developers to watch us play the game and discover things and the pride that they had in the game they have made.

The icing on the cake for me was the ride back to the airport with some of the other people who had come to the studio. It was great to hear what they thought of the game and their experiences. Spending time with Union from 38 Watch and Aredhel
from 38 Fans on the way back was great. They are great people and it was really an honor to get to spend some time with them. I also got a chance to meet Taylor Agnew who is the wiki Manager for Curse and she was also very nice and it was cool to hear her thoughts of the day and the game. It really was upbeat and positive atmosphere on the way to the airport. At the end of the day we are gamers and we all knew we had experienced something special in Reckoning.