"Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning": Demo Impressions
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I’d forgive someone for drawing comparisons to the Fable series, but not as an excuse for passing it up. While it draws things like flashy combat moves, skill trees and townsfolk with exclamation marks above their heads from other action RPG’s, it blends them in a way that offers something distinct. In the interests of getting a full idea for the game, I played through it twice. The first time, playing a wizard/rogue hybrid who sought to helpfully complete side quests and respect the tranquility of typical NPC life, and the second time playing an armored melee brute who saw those same NPC’s as the levelling fast track along with the guards who would foolishly leap to their defense. One would follow the plot, the other would try and break it.
My first character found plenty of work to be done, which consisted mostly of killing individuals of clearly villainous disposition, either appearing in a seemingly random fashion whilst travelling between quest giver and objective, or in a pre-determined location during said quest. However, the quest conclusions weren’t usually a simple affair, either alluding to a deeper story arc or requiring some sort of decision. While those choices sometimes felt of trivial importance, it was nice to see a bit of effort put into them beyond “Go kill five rabbits, then come back”. Despite leaning towards a magic user archetype, a role usually associated with poor melee competency, she handled her weapons in a deft and visually impressive fashion. I didn’t feel like my character was helpless when the mana bar ran dry. She proved herself a force to be reckoned with to any opponent who found themselves within range of her staff or chakrams.
I assumed the second role primarily out of morbid curiosity: What effect would the random killing of NPC’s have on the progression of the game and it’s quests? It’s a role that RPG’s have always wrestled with, given the emphasis the genre places on it’s story and the people who form a core part of it. This is why many games have characters that are unkillable, whether that is in the form of Mass Effect, restricting the players ability to engage in combat within certain areas, or in Skyrim, with characters who channel Goku-esque power, simply refusing to die and getting back up regardless of how many times they are knocked down. Groknak (my ‘evil’ character), after reaching the game’s first village hub, was delighted to discover that every nearly every NPC was fair game. Within a short span of time, the once thriving community he’d quite rudely *ahem* “announced” himself to was reduced to a ghost town. There were only three characters that resisted his attempts, all of them related to quests. Two plot-critical characters survived via the powers of Dragonball:Z‘s protagonist, whilst it was impossible to enter ‘hostile’ mode, which is required to attack non-hostile NPC’s, around a third (hostile mode’s default ‘off’ setting is no doubt to prevent accidental friendly-fire incidents while smashing crates or squeezing single experience points out of chickens). However, the majority of other characters, including those related to quests, only got one chance at life, and when it was brought to a violent and hammer-related end, resulted in a failed quest. The quest weren’t simply failed either, but the notes associated with that quest often indicated that my actions would have far-reaching consequences. It would be impressive to actually see the players unwillingness to cooperate with people bite them in their avatar’s behind during the full game. Things like that, even if it’s just duly noted at some point later in the game, lend much weight to a game’s immersion. It makes even the player who’s sole purpose is to amass power at any cost stop and think about the choices they make.
It’s a significant reason many people play the genre, and when done well will form a niche in the heart of just about every gamer that plays it. A developer can safely assume the reason you picked up the game in the first place is because you wanted experience a story. If you didn’t, there are plenty of other titles out there that place little emphasis on plot in favour of other aspects, catering to just about whatever mood a gamer happens to find themselves in. The suspension of disbelief is important with any work of fiction, but particularly in a game which asks to player to make decisions. The outcome of those decisions has to mean something to the player. If they don’t, then the game may as well be an on-the-rails shooter for all people will care. I’m really really hoping KoA:R delivers on this. If it doesn’t, it will be a fun game to play for a week or two before becoming a dust bunny farm or taken to the local games store for trade in. If it does, it might just be the game that picks up the fans of the Mass Effect series when the trilogy concludes this March. |
