Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning to be Released in February 2012 - FreeSoft

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an upcoming single-player action RPG for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Ken Rolston, the lead designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, acts as the game's executive designer. Additionally, noted fantasy author R.A. Salvatore created the game universe and lore, with Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, working on the artwork. It is being developed by 38 Studios and Big Huge Games.

The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning single-player action RPG will be released on the 7th of February 2012 in North America and on the 10th of February 2012 in Europe. The first public demonstration was at the Penny Arcade Expo East 2011 held in Boston, Massachusetts, United States in March 2011.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning single-player action RPG will feature "5 distinct regions, 4 playable races, and 3 class trees with 22 abilities per tree." The 4 playable races are the Almain (noble Humans) the Ljosalfar (Dark Elves), the Dokkalfar (Light 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. The player starts off as a "blank slate," waking up in a pile of corpses after returning from the dead.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning single-player action RPG will use a unique "destiny" system, whereby the player can invest in a skill-tree system to unlock various "destinies," which acts as the class system for the game. Combat works based on the timing of button presses, similar to the style of an action RPG, with occasional quicktime events like those in the God of War series. Lead combat designer Joe Quadara, however, emphasized that "twitch skill is only going to get you so far. Strategy and proper RPG playing is going to get you farther." 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling said that the style of the game would be a marriage between God of War and Oblivion.

A playable demo was released on the 17th of January 2012 for Windows (Steam and Origin only), Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. 38 Studios, owned by former Red Sox Pitcher, Curt Schilling, originally began developing the Amalur universe for use in an MMO, codenamed 'Copernicus'. After acquiring Big Huge Games in 2009, the studio decided to transform the project into a single-player RPG, as Ken Rolston and his team had already been working on an RPG while Big Huge Games was part of THQ. Currently, there are still plans to expand the Amalur universe into an MMO after the release of Reckoning.

Tags:Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, single-player, action, RPG

Author: John Milton | Published: January 27, 2012 12:00 AM