PAX East 2011: Kingdoms of Amalur Plays Like God of Warcraft
Next, 38 brought out a mage wielding a frost staff, showing how each weapon will perform very differently. This one shot out a "whoosh" of frost, which the mage combined with an ice rain attack and an electricity blast that immobilized foes. Instead of rolling like the warrior, the mage can teleport, giving players new strategies as a teleport can move through an enemy while a roll can't. The mage's second weapon was a set of two incredibly sweet chakram (circular, bladed throwing weapons). Seeing him use magic in tandem with the chakram, which left red trails as they sliced through enemies, was really cool. For the mage's final trick, he stood above a group of enemies and cast a meteor spell, annihilating all of them. Mages do pretty well for themselves in Amalur.
Despite 38 showing us both melee-focused and magic-focused characters, players will not choose a class at the beginning of the game. Amalur has a "Destiny" system which allows players to be whatever they want, and never "screw" themselves. As players put points into the skill trees of might, finesse, and sorcery, they'll unlock Destiny cards, which are basically Amalur's classes. They're designed to boost the weaknesses of hybrid characters and emphasize their strengths. They'll also work just fine if you want to be a fire mage or a heavily armored knight. It appears similar to the "job" system found in the Final Fantasy series.
Another exciting aspect was how enemy creatures cooperate with each other. While fighting a tough snake-type boss, fish-men that hatched from her eggs held up their tridents as the snake-type charged a lightning attack on their weapons. Further, Amalur features a day/night system with NPCs that go about their daily tasks, a weapon upgrade system called Sagecrafting, destructive finishing moves that 38 let us see but kept mum about, and what 38 hopes will be the best doors out of any game ever. That last part is not a joke.
I get the impression that 38 Studios is trying to take the best parts of the best games, from all over the spectrum, and combine them into one title with a focus on an easy-to-use interface. Schilling nervously joked that he had a lot invested in Amalur, and that's a big risk, but it seems to be paying off. Amalur is without a doubt a game that RPG fans should keep both eyes on.
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Next, 38 brought out a mage wielding a frost staff, showing how each weapon will perform very differently. This one shot out a "whoosh" of frost, which the mage combined with an ice rain attack and an electricity blast that immobilized foes. Instead of rolling like the warrior, the mage can teleport, giving players new strategies as a teleport can move through an enemy while a roll can't. The mage's second weapon was a set of two incredibly sweet chakram (circular, bladed throwing weapons). Seeing him use magic in tandem with the chakram, which left red trails as they sliced through enemies, was really cool. For the mage's final trick, he stood above a group of enemies and cast a meteor spell, annihilating all of them. Mages do pretty well for themselves in Amalur.
Despite 38 showing us both melee-focused and magic-focused characters, players will not choose a class at the beginning of the game. Amalur has a "Destiny" system which allows players to be whatever they want, and never "screw" themselves. As players put points into the skill trees of might, finesse, and sorcery, they'll unlock Destiny cards, which are basically Amalur's classes. They're designed to boost the weaknesses of hybrid characters and emphasize their strengths. They'll also work just fine if you want to be a fire mage or a heavily armored knight. It appears similar to the "job" system found in the Final Fantasy series.
Another exciting aspect was how enemy creatures cooperate with each other. While fighting a tough snake-type boss, fish-men that hatched from her eggs held up their tridents as the snake-type charged a lightning attack on their weapons. Further, Amalur features a day/night system with NPCs that go about their daily tasks, a weapon upgrade system called Sagecrafting, destructive finishing moves that 38 let us see but kept mum about, and what 38 hopes will be the best doors out of any game ever. That last part is not a joke.
I get the impression that 38 Studios is trying to take the best parts of the best games, from all over the spectrum, and combine them into one title with a focus on an easy-to-use interface. Schilling nervously joked that he had a lot invested in Amalur, and that's a big risk, but it seems to be paying off. Amalur is without a doubt a game that RPG fans should keep both eyes on.
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