I really have come to appreciate Reckoning’s _adaptability_.

I started out as a pure fighter-type, all my points into Might. This gave me fantastic scores in blocking and swordfighting, eventually making me a master of the greatsword. This was all very cool stuff. The armor looked amazing. My ranged skills were sub-par, though, even though I gave up the chakrams for a bow. I really would rather play a stealthy type.

Plus, I got these really wicked unique daggers from a dungeon and I just wanted to play. So, I visited my local Fateweaver and told him to reset my points. It cost a bit over 2,000 gold to arrange, and I imagine that amount will increase each time I have it done.

I put all my points into Finesse, chose a full-on rogue destiny and… realized I was dressed in tatters. All my armor required Might to wear. I went to the forge and salvaged every bit of gear I had, but that didn’t give me enough components to make a full set of decent rogue armor.

This is where I loaded up my latest saved game and tried again…

I needed seven points of Might to wear all my current armor, so I dutifully put seven points in Might, for shield blocking, because that’s fun to do. The rest into daggers, faeblades and ranged prowess on the Finesse screen.

The hybrid might/finesse destinies seem very much designed for players who want to switch between a stand-up fight and a sneakier approach. I like that. If it doesn’t work out, I can switch again.

I just replaced the last bit of my Mass Effect 3 armor, the gloves, with a pair I crafted. Still would like some way of keeping the appearance of that armor with the stats of the stuff I’m now wearing.

Last summer, Electronic Arts held a contest to decide upon the iconic face for the lead character from Mass Effect 3. Though the lead character, Shepard, can be male or female at the player’s choice, Mass Effect and its sequel were marketed with a male Shepard. Fans had been yelling for a more prominent role for the female version, known as FemShep for short.

By playing through the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo, you unlock many items useful for low level adventurers — including FemShep’s famous armored spacesuit. Even though I haven’t actually _played_ any of the Mass Effect games, I wanted FemShep to leave the airlessness of space for the lushness of Amalur for awhile. And so FemShep was born.

I’ve only played for a couple of hours, so this can’t be a full review. The game seems very different from the demo, or perhaps that’s just because I’m not racing against the clock. I’ve already found myself pulled way, way beyond the newbie fields to where the fights become somewhat challenging, leaving loads of unfinished quests behind me. I’ve had to go back and work on those.

Based again on the demo, I turned aside from my usual style of a stealthy, rogue character and sunk most of my skill points — you get three each level — into the “Might” tree. One of my free gifts from the demo were a pair of chakrams, a mage weapon. I sunk a point in to the “Sorcery” tree to get a special chakram move, and now use that instead of a bow against monsters that are reluctant to close, like wolves. I’ve sunk several points into the “Finesse” tree. After another level, I’ll be able to choose the “Duelist” destiny, a hybrid fighter/thief that specializes in melee damage with high crits. I might visit a fateweaver at that time to go completely rogue, but then I wouldn’t be able to wear the cool Shep armor!

Well, I’ve started finding stuff just as good, and soon will start finding better armor. EA was never going to let new players have end-game armor from the start. I’d have liked some way to keep it as appearance armor, though.

In fact, I’d love to have some means of storing things I’m not using at the moment. If there’s a bank or a trunk or a box somewhere to store stuff, I haven’t found it.

The game is fun enough. You can get carried away exploring, and that is A Good Thing. It’s a pretty world, and you quickly accrue a lot of combat moves; your character will adapt to your playstyle, whatever it may be, and it’s easy to fix bad decisions — unlike Skyrim.

The quests so far have been unexciting. I started out letting the NPCs talk their story out, but then started skipping the dialog (I read way faster than they talk) and now just scoop up quests and do them according to the distance of the quest objectives on the map.

In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the combat is the draw. The quests just give reasons to fight.

…and that was when the Death Star landed right on top of us. No? I’ll get to the meaning of the mysterious shadow in the screenshot above in a bit.

Chris, the DM, had been cackling quietly to himself in the corner, muttering “kill them… kiiiilllll themmmmm…. KILL THEM AAAALLLLLL!!!!!” for the past couple of weeks. We were thinking he was about to sing a couple verses of “Alice’s Restaurant” or something. We weren’t coming out of Shadowfell Keep until the place was mapped (that being our mission). No popping out for a rest. No coming back to Winterhaven for a shower. Just us, our 10′ poles, and our iron spikes…

OMG. We didn’t have any IRON SPIKES! Back in the old AD&D v1 days, spiking doors shut was just what you did before resting in a dungeon, given no more thought than we would think about switching off a light. Time for bed, spike the door, set a guard, sleep without worry. So, I bought some.

Bryn maps the room.

We set out from Winterhaven for the ruined keep. Not for the first time; every other time, though, we’d end up getting sidetracked into other adventures. The kobold population may take years to recover. The well trod road became an overgrown path. We pushed our way through a wall of brambles that would make Sleeping Beauty homesick to a clearing. The stunted walls of a ruined keep guarded the center. Crude stairs fell into a thick dark. Clawed, humanoid footprints led into the darkness. Very few seemed to lead back out again.

Good thing we have a halfling to show us the way.

Bryn maps the entrance.

Wenner became one with the shadows and crept down the stairs. After the halfling called the all clear, Bryn summoned light on his staff, and the rest of us followed. The light was unnecessary, though, as we came to a room at the bottom of the stairs lit with flickering torches.

The rogue crept a little further in, saw floor to ceiling pillars around the room and corridors leading off to the south, east and west. Just a little farther in to look for more traps — and the floor fell away. Wenner tumbled into the pit. Around him, a swarm of rats chittered and snickered, sharp teeth glinting redly in the uneven torchlight.

Bryn maps the pit.

Wenner, dazed, stood and struck out at the rat swarm. The swarm divided and dodged his blow. Bryn tossed a magic missile into the pit, hitting the rat swarm.

Called by the commotion, a goblin sharpshooter rushed in from the south, followed the magic missile back to its source (“tracer round!”), and fired his crossbow at the wizard. Miss! I tied a rope to a pillar and tossed the other end into the pit. Wenner clambered out. The swarm of rats chittered in frustration.

We had bigger fish goblins to fry, though.

I tie a rope to a pillar and lower it. That uses my standard action, not about to go into heroic efforts to kill rats, so I pass my turn.

Sheeoil sacred flames the rat swarm, misses. Rat swarm divides. Wenner yells MAGIC MISSILE! MAGIC MISSILE! Bryn elbows his way to the pit, EXCUSE ME. Swarm counts as a single entity? Technically yes says the DM. Bryn strikes one with a MAGIC MISSILE!

A goblin sharpshooter comes from the south corridor, takes aim at Bryn…. Bryn’s magic missile was like a tracer round. Sharpshooter hits a crit, he is standing next to me so Armor of Bahamut saves him from a crit. Bryn’s “shield” fires as he gets hit.

Goblin warrior comes up next to the other one. Tosses a javelin at Bryn but his “shield” knocks it off.

Wenner gets hit by the rats, takes a hit and misses, shifts over to the rope and grabs on. I yank him out, run to the goblins and acid breath. Hits the sharpshooter, misses the warrior.

With goblins running away and popping back, we soon were chasing them blindly around the corridors. We let the rats live — mostly because it would be too much work to kill them. They could have… diseases! Or something! And diseases!

We take our lives in our hands just having a halfling in the team!

When everything quiets down, we’ve not explored the entire first level, but we have found some pretty suspicious stairs leading down, and explored a storeroom closed by an exquisitely thick tapestry.

There’s still blank spaces on the map, though. Wenner and Sheeoil head to one of them, and Bryn and I follow.

Loading, please wait…

We come to an empty hall. The floor shows traffic between the west corridor and the room to the north. The door to the room is closed; behind it, we can hear many voices.

Well, they can just stay there while we explore the rest of the level. I spike the door. It makes a TERRIBLE noise. None of this quietly locking the door and settling in for a nap in the middle of a dungeon. Everything within a huge radius hears the noise. The creatures behind the door are incredibly angry about this.

Something tries to open the door — but _can’t_. I stand in front of the door, ready to catch whatever comes through. Wenner stays hidden to one side of the door; Bryn and Sheeoil to the other. After several fruitless rounds, we hear the creature on the other side back up, get a running start and come crashing through the door.

A goblin warrior looks at me dazedly. I grin. Wenner does all sorts of damage to its unprotected flank and I finish it off with a Bolstering Strike. I’m remembering to use my “at will” powers now. There’s a goblin sharpshooter not far behind him, a couple more warriors and sharpshooters around the room, and a hobgoblin torturer guarding a strapped table.

Quick survey of the group uncovered no hobgoblins, so we felt we were pretty safe from being tortured. Teeth gnashing in frustration, the torturer decided to deal with us the old-fashioned way. With red hot pokers, fresh from the furnace.

By keeping a “mark” on the torturer, I kept its attention. Wenner perfected a move where he slides up, plants a knife in the torturer and hops back, staying out of melee range. Sheeoil and Bryn picked off the outliers. The torturer made a mad dash at me, knocking me back and taking my spot (the patented #OccupyTipa movement, you know). I kept my feet and struck back with my shield.

Wenner and Bryn had been banged about by the sharpshooters, but they were still on their feet due to Sheeoil’s sacred flames and everything else was dead.

Due to the splintered door, spiking it shut so we could take a rest was out of the question, and with so much of the map still blank, something was certain to come. We heard whimpering down the west corridor, which proved full of cells, mostly empty, except for one that contained a very frightened hobgoblin.

Bryn maps the cells

We explained that the torturer and his cronies were dead, and happiness came to his twisted face. I used a lay on hands on him and gave him a ration, which he devoured. He hugged each of us, then came around and hugged us again. With his pidgin knowledge of the common tongue, he let us know that he owed us his life and he was ours to command.

Oh good. A pet.

His name is Splug.

Since none of us were eager to get locked into a cell for safety, we elected to just end the night where we were, since we hadn’t used any dailies and we still had a good number of healing surges left between us.

After we got our xp for the night, most of us were just shy of third level. So we went back to the beginning, took that thick drape that once hung in front of a passage, set it on fire and tossed it onto the rat swarm in the pit. 31 xp! DING!

Bryn maps the rat pit

At level 3, characters gain one encounter attack power. Mine will likely be Righteous Smite. Attack CHA vs AC, same benefit as normal melee STR vs AC. If it hits, it does double damage plus my charisma mod (+4), and me and every ally within five squares gets 5+1 temporary hit points. Another benefit to staying pretty close to me!

Also note just how vital playing on a gridded battle map is to fourth edition D&D. In range or out of range — it’s pretty important to know at all times exactly how far creatures are from one another.

This is not always a good thing. It forced Bryn and Wenner to stay pretty close to Sheeoil and I if they want to get all the free heals — and right next to me if they want to take advantage of my feats (both of which aid allies next to me), lay on hands and so on. Bryn would much rather be very, very far from the action, and Wenner wants the freedom to poke about and explore and swoop in for a devastating attack from stealth, none of which is possible if they’re hanging about with me, in melee range of the mobs. Easy targets.

The “Reckoning” is a special mode you can get into where you become extremely deadly and suck the Fate right out of your fallen enemies. Just in case you were wondering what that was. It’s one of the more distinctive bits of a fantasy RPG that Electronic Arts hopes will be compelling glimpse into the world of Amalur for eager fans awaiting its unveiling as a fully-fledged MMO.

“Reckoning”, developed by Big Huge Games, was originally going to be an RPG with entirely different lore. 38 Studios bought BHG and “Reckoning” as a platform for the assets, lore, and setting for the world R.A.Salvatore and Todd McFarlane developed. A world of deep fantasy, innate magic and twisted beauty.

You wake up on a pile of rotting corpses, in “Reckoning”. As your lifeless corpse is being carted to the incinerator, the gnome corpse handlers discuss the finer points of your well-preserved carcass, giving you (the player) an opportunity to customize your character and set your name “for the records”.

But you aren’t actually dead. Well, not any more. The Well of Souls, an experimental machine, has plucked your spirit from the aether and given you a new body. This trick has never actually resulted in a living being — until now. You’re the first. And now everyone wants to kill you, unless you put your faith in some gnomes.

I recall an interview with R.A. Salvatore where he mentioned that there was finally a game that bothered to give an explanation as to why your character could bounce back so easily from death again and again. But single player RPGs don’t generally do that. You die, it’s game over, load your last save. It’s clear from this that Reckoning truly is meant to be a prelude to the larger game yet to come.

The tutorial equips you and instructs you in the arts of the three main archetypes (Fates), Warrior (Might), Rogue (Finesse) and Mage (Sorcery), though these are by no means set in stone, and you can change them at any time by changing your gear or by choosing a new Fate, once you have unlocked the ability. Fates are unlocked by purchasing or upgrading abilities on the talent tree when you level. You can choose to stick with one line, or mix two or even all three fates in any way you like. Each combination has its own unique powers.

I chose the Finesse tree (mostly) for the demo, though a bug in the talent tree UI had me spending points in a tree I didn’t expect. Even though I went with Finesse armor and weapons, nothing prevented me from keeping a fire staff ready and casting a spell or two.

BHG only gives you a couple of hours to play the demo before it kicks you out. In that time I completed a few quests, killed dozens of monsters and explored two dungeons. I also unlocked a lot of items for use in the retail game and in Mass Effect 3. You get a Reckoning-theme weapon in ME3 for running out the clock in the demo… so that’s something to watch for.

I went through the demo wondering where I’d seen this game before. Then it hit me: this game looks so much like Sony Online Entertainment’s Free Realms. The PC models are more realistic (if that word has any meaning in a fantasy title), but the world itself — I’d spent time there.

Character Creation

Your character can choose from four races — which correspond roughly to what would be human, barbarian, high elf and wood elf in other RPGs — but aside from a point or two in a different place in your starting talent tree, your race doesn’t make a material difference in the story. My character, a wood elf, came across a human who claimed to be on an errand for powerful, mystical, rarely seen Fae. Considering that the “Fae” would turn out to be wood elf bandits, same race as me, you’d think that human would have taken one look at me, muttered a curse beneath his breath, and simply returned home that very moment.

Combat

Combat is a hybrid between the click to target and you hit what you aim at methods. The game will pick out the likeliest target automatically based on which way you are facing, your weapon and distance to target and that will be your target, even if it means it has to swivel your character to point off screen and attack something you hadn’t seen. Instead of the enemy in front of you.

You can and should dodge enemy attacks, or pull out your shield to block. Holding up a shield while the enemy does a 1-2-3 hit and then unleashing a melee barrage while they recover is the way to win any battle. Kill enough and you can unleash the “reckoning”, which puts you slightly out of phase with the world, sends everything in slow motion, and lets you just become a killing machine, ending with a showy finishing move (that can be enhanced through a quick time event; watch for it).

Players can learn combo attacks and dodge out of the way of almost any attack.

All characters can block with a shield, cast spells or enter stealth. Spending points in the appropriate trees enhances these. Choosing appropriate fates even more.

Reckoning’s version of a stealth archer is pretty far up the Fate list. I like playing stealthy roguely types, the hallmark of the Rogue fate. Sneak up behind someone fast enough and wait for the UI to signal the special Backstab move. Nigh instant death. That works if you can get behind them before they see you, anyway. Mobs typically are positioned so that they are staring right at you as you enter the room, so stealth wasn’t that useful for me. The higher level Fates seem to address the problem, eventually, but you’ll want to be relying on other talents until stealth becomes useful.

Questing

I haven’t seen a Kill Ten X quest in the demo; all the quests further the story in some way (the dark elf Tuatha are invading the land in order to destroy the Well of Souls and just cause general mischief). Or introduce the land and the lore. Escort quests seem to be an early favorite. I also got a “collect ten lost things” quest, so, generally, Reckoning doesn’t break any new ground in questing.

The Pros

The developers of BHG have definitely done a good job with the assets of Amalur, telling the story, introducing the races, the gods, the magic system and the lore. Quest objectives are marked on a map, fast travel is available, difficulty can be adjusted and the graphics are low fidelity enough that it should (should) “run on a toaster”.

The combat closely resembles the hybrid combat found in RPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons Online. The armor and weapons look appropriate and impressive. The “fate” system is an intriguing way of implementing classes, of which there are many.

Though as the player is unique in the world in having no fate and therefore being able to pick and choose their fate, the implication is that everyone else in the world is born with their eventual class pre-determined by their unchangeable fate.

The giving and continuing of quests using in-game cinematics might be a pro or a con, depending on how you feel about them. I’m leaving it in the pro side. It adds to the atmosphere of the game and they can be skipped.

The game can be played, on the PC, with either mouse or keyboard or a game controller. The UI shifts between the two control methods based on which one you most recently used, moment to moment. It’s actually rather neat.

The Cons

I couldn’t play the game at first; I asked for help and was told to bring down my graphics settings. That worked, but there were still graphical glitches elsewhere in the game. Presumably all these will be sorted out by the time the game goes live (and I have read they are already fixed; we’re running old code in the demo).

Rogues seem a little weaker than the other main paths in the demo.

The game is, graphically, flat and decidedly old school. This could be because I had to lower the graphics to get the game to run or a deliberate choice, but it doesn’t stand up well to modern RPGs like Skyrim or Dragon Age II. Again, this is entirely subjective, and you might well prefer this style. The most popular MMORPG in the world uses it. Can’t argue with eleven million players.

While an online connection doesn’t seem to be required, it is necessary to be connected to log achievements and so on.

As in many newer games released both on consoles and the PC, the UI strongly favors a game controller. Looking at inventory, equipping gear, changing weapons and spells and so on all require navigating through menus. Hopefully this will be modded out as Skyrim’s similar design decision allowed.

Buy/No Buy?

If you’re eager for a peek at 38 Studio’s “Copernicus”, which shares a setting with Reckoning, this has to be a day 1 buy for you. If you’re after a fun RPG with a good story, Reckoning will likely fill the bill.

Last year my single player RPGs were Dragon Age II, Dungeon Siege III and Elder Scrolls V (Skyrim). Sequels all. Reckoning starts a new franchise in an expansive world. It’s no Skyrim, but not every game has to be a Skyrim. It’s a clear sight better than DS3 and DA2, if you set aside Reckoning’s relatively shoddy graphics (which, again, may be a bug that has already been fixed).

I’m giving it a cautious recommendation.