Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Previews

Two new hands-on previews have surfaced for 38 Studios and Big Huge Games’ Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, both reasonably intrigued with the open-world title.

Capsule Computers:

Combat in this title feels very similar to Fable and other similar Action RPGs, such as The Witcher 2. When I first engaged with this troupe of soldiers, I found myself getting owned quite easily and was forced to scoff health potions as my health waned. This forced me to think about the fight more tactically and engaged in a tactical retreat and engaged, after a fair distance, the fastest unit to approach me. After a long, but satisfying, firey, yet, eviscerated fight, I found myself ready to enter the building before me.

Unfortunately for me and my health, the guards within the compound were not very impressed with me after I had cut their staff outside into pieces, and/or charred their remains. This means that as I entered the building, they would attack me on sight. I could have left the building at any time, but I saw it as a challenge that needed to be conquered, so I instead proceeded into the building, rolling through the guards attacks and getting my backside handed to me the first few attempts. For some reason, I could not get enough of the combat in this game, it was so fluid and it was an incredibly tight experience. It was also incredibly fun.

Atomic has some gripes with the PC version’s controls:

You’ll essentially want to have a gamepad connected to your PC to get the most out of the multi-weapon combat. When using a keyboard & mouse, players can use a primary attack (left mouse button by default) and magic (right mouse button by default), but are forced to use the mouse wheel to scroll to the secondary weapon (be it a bow, magic-infused staff or daggers). Conversely, if you use an Xbox 360 controller, for example, you’ll be able to use primary attack (X) secondary attack (Y) and magic (holding a trigger + A, B, X or Y) in a free-flowing manner. This allows greater control over your primary and secondary attacks, which are incredibly useful during combat. Granted, the keyboard grants direct access to submenus via single hotkeys and spells can be bound to numbers 1-9 functionality that the limited buttons of a controller cannot offer but this still seems like an oversight given the emphasis on fast-paced combat.