| Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
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| Developer(s) | 38 Studios, Big Huge Games | ||
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts | ||
| Composer(s) | Grant Kirkhope | ||
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows | ||
| Release date(s) | |||
| Genre(s) | Role-playing game | ||
| Mode(s) | Single-player | ||
| Rating(s) |
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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an upcoming single-player role-playing video game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.[2] 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.[3] It is being developed by 38 Studios and Big Huge Games. The game will be released on February 7, 2012 in North America and February 10, 2012 in Europe. The first public demonstration was at the Penny Arcade Expo East 2011 held in Boston, Massachusetts, United States on March 11, 2011.
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Kingdoms of Amalur will feature "5 distinct regions, 4 playable races, and 3 class trees with 22 abilities per tree."[3] The 4 playable races are the Almain, the Dokkalfar, the Ljosalfar, and the Varani.[4] The 3 class (or ability) trees are Might, Finesse, and Sorcery; they correspond to the fighter, rogue, and mage classes respectively.[5] The player starts off as a "blank slate," waking up in a pile of corpses after returning from the dead. The game will utilize 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."[3] 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling said that the style of the game would be a marriage between God of War and Oblivion.[6]
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.[3] Currently, there are still plans to expand the Amalur universe into an MMO after the release of Reckoning.[7]