Editor-in-Chief Chris "Pwyff" Tom went down to San Francisco to get some hands-on experience with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's high-level content.

I spoke to Andrew Frederiksen, Associate Producer for Big Huge Games, after the event, and he stressed just how much choice the team wanted to give players without crushing them under the weight of their decisions. In other words, Big Huge Games doesn't want players to be puttering around the internet, looking up FAQs for optimal character builds; instead, they want them to experiment and to feel able to experiment without feeling like they're making some irreversible commitment. On hearing that, the elitist within me wanted to go on about gaming consequences and the like, but after looking at how many new characters I had created in Skyrim (and I still haven't come close to beating the game), I can see how this decision was made.

I started my high-level experience at the "Siege of Mel Senshir," a momentous battle that acts as a gateway to Amalur's more advanced content. The real focal point of this event was to demonstrate that Big Huge Games and 38 Studios weren't lying when they said that Reckoning is a big game. Some games load a lot of their best content on the front, but Reckoning saves their best for late-game, with some fantastic creatures held in reserve and some amazing abilities to be found in the upper tiers of the class trees. For example, even though I started at level 20 and I was about 3/5ths (by my made up estimations) through the game's story content, I had not advanced far enough to unlock the highest class abilities or the best fate cards (Tier IV of Finesse / Magic, the Warlock, required 25 points in both Finesse and Magic, while Tier V required 38 points in both).

In terms of experiencing the overall late game content of Reckoning, I'll admit that this time around was a little more fragmented than my previous experiences in Baltimore. Our pre-made characters were brought "up to speed" in gear and levels via some less than honest processes, so I found myself spending a good portion of my experiences trying to catch up to the organic progression curve of the game. The experience did, however, serve to highlight just how smart Reckoning's scaling is. In my first play, I cranked the game up to hard and had a fun - and challenging - experience, but because this time my character started out with generic sub-par gear, I found myself getting mauled on hard mode. It was only after I managed to gather some build and level appropriate gear that I was able to have a romp on hard mode once more.

Ultimately, with two lengthy hands-on sessions of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning under my belt, I can safely say that Reckoning is easily my most anticipated offline RPG for 2012, in addition to raising my hopes for 38 Studios' Amalur-set "Copernicus" MMORPG. Being able to play through some of Reckoning's high-level content in juxtaposition with my low-level experiences has convinced me that Reckoning will retain a solid degree of depth through its dozens - perhaps hundreds - of promised gameplay hours. In other words, it seems that Big Huge Games is going to deliver on their promises. At this point, I think it's just a matter of getting Reckoning out there and hoping that players see just how much fun it is.

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom, Editor-in-Chief.