Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning (Feb. 7)

February is loaded with new releases, over 17 in total. One of the most anticipated is EA’s new single role-playing game (RPG) Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and this one will rock.  I’m predicting that this will be one of the biggest multiplatform releases until Spring when E3 releases will shake everything up. So what is Kingdoms of Amalur?

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning began life at “38 Studios” as a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game code-named “Copernicus” but was later reimagined as a single-player fantasy open world RPG for PC, Xbox360 and PS3. With Ken Rolston as the creative visionary (The Elder Scrolls III & IV), Robert Anthony (R.A) Salvatore as executive creator (who’s novels including, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Paths of Darkness, The Hunter’s Blades Trilogy, and The Cleric Quintet have sold over 14 million copies) and Todd McFarlane (creative force behind Spawn, Spiderman and Grammy Award winning music video for Korn’s ‘Freak on a leash’) as head of art and animation we can expect wonders.

Kingdoms of Amalur features “5 regions, 4 playable races, and 3 class trees with 22 abilities per tree.” The 4 playable races are the Almain (noble Humans) the Ljosalfar (Light Elves), the Dokkalfar (Dark Elves), and the Varani (nomadic Humans). The 3 class (or ability) trees are Might, Finesse, and Sorcery; they correspond to the fighter, rogue, and mage classes respectively.

As indicated in a GameSpot review, the player starts off as a “blank slate,” waking up in a pile of corpses. Happily, dead old you is brought back to life in the mysterious Well of Souls after which you set about trying to find some answers: How did you die? Why did you get brought back? Who are you anyway? That’s the key mystery of the game but you only get to answer half of those questions right away.  First you shape your character. You choose between the four different races Almain, Ljosalfar, Dokkalfar and Varani. Each race offering many different perks like mulitiple aptitudes for standard RPG activities such as Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Dispelling, Lockpicking or Sage craft. You get the picture.

From there on you are on a quest, business as usual for an RPG game. Completing quests gets you experience and points, you use your experience and points to level up, simple… The game utilizes a unique “destiny” system, where the player can invest in a skill-tree system to unlock various “destinies”. Where would any RPG be without skill trees? Leveling up involves a skill menu. Improving your aptitude for different activities such as Alchemy or lock picking for example, is key to getting up the ladder.