At any point, you can veer off the main roads that connect the dots of cities and towns throughout the world and submerge yourself into an ominous swamp, wander in the canyons of a red-rock desert, or prowl the massive Plains of Erathell. The vast majority of the areas to explore in the game are off the main quest path, and present their own dangers, stories, and rewards for the intrepid players who strike out on their own.
As for nooks and crannies, the entire world of Reckoning is hand-made. Every rock and bush and blade of grass was hand placed by a world builder, so we had the opportunity to custom build a huge number of places for the player to explore off the beaten paths.
A: With roughly half a million spoken words in Reckoning, VO was an ENORMOUS undertaking.
We started by taking the 900-odd NPCs in the game, and working with the Designers to determine which were so unique or crucial to the story line that we needed to find actors with very signature voices to perform them. Once we had the list of "Unique Voice Types", we created a character bible, and sent it out for auditions. About a week later, we were drowning in great reads for all our NPCs, and the Creative Director, Audio Director, Lead Narrative Designer and I sat down and selected our top picks for each.
A: This is a great question Bossner! Just off the top of my head I can think of a couple things that set us apart. First, I would say that Amalur blends the gritty realism you'll see in popular "dark fantasy" franchises with a stylized flavor that results in a unique combination. A great example of this is the visual aspect of Amalur, where the vibrant blends into the grotesque (the brownie is a perfect example of this). Similarly, the people and their stories are uniquely fantastical-real: townsfolk suffering from the vagaries of war while hiding their own secrets, a husband and wife bickering while crafting the armament of the Alfar army, a newlywed lost in an ancient mausoleum, etc. In order to realize a world worth saving, Amalur was made so vast that it would be hard to give a comprehensive overview in this post.
Suffice to say that we strive for both a breadth and depth of content. As a Narrative Designer, I've found inspiration in as many classical works as I have video games (some of which I know you love as much as I do). The diverse group of developers from all kinds of different backgrounds here at Big Huge also promises a variety of viewpoints.
A: Yes! Neutral wildlife adds a living, breathing quality to our environments. Some are magical, some are more traditional, but each has been crafted to work within the environment they live in. Creatures do attack each other; it’s very cool to come onto a scene and see them locked in battle. It adds a sense that these creatures are engaged in their own storylines and you’re just crossing paths with them. – By Tim "HundredMonkeys" Coman, Studio/Project Art Director
A: Reckoning’s structure is extremely open. The main quest and each of the six factions contains a mostly-linear narrative you can follow, but you can veer off and pursue hundreds of different sidequests at any time. Even if you choose to ignore all the quests completely, the world is ripe for exploration, with all manner of rewards to find (both hand crafted and systemic) for the explorer. - By Ian "Tiberius" Frazier, Lead Designer
A: Yup, there are hundreds of readable books/scrolls in the game. Some are serious, some are funny, some are specifically for quests and some are just meant to give flavor and depth to the world. They range from a cheerful book of gnomish nursery rhymes to a blood-stained suicide note. We’ve also got something called Lorestones that…well, we’ll talk about them more later. - By Ian "Tiberius" Frazier, Lead Designer
Q: What can you share about Reckoning's mission setup? Will it be open-world with fast travel options or some slightly more on-rails? Any details would be great. - By Macstorm
A: Reckoning is an open world game with fast travel. You can fast travel to any location you’ve previously visited, whenever you’re outdoors (you can’t fast travel from inside a dungeon). We try to provide roads and paths and quest markers to help guide you through the world, but if you want to ignore them and wander off into the woods to hunt antelope, there’s nothing stopping you! Want to ignore the main quest and just do side quests for hours? Go ahead. Want to ignore quests altogether and just explore the world for crafting components so you can craft your own gear (and perhaps sell it for a tidy profit)? Feel free! - By Ian "Tiberius" Frazier, Lead Designer
A: The quests of Reckoning run a long gambit in terms of complexity and engagement. As with a number of open-world games, the Main Quest is an important chunk of the world – but it is not the totality of the player's journey through Amalur. In addition to the main quest, the player has access to a number of factions that offer deep and rewarding questlines for the player to dive into. In addition to these, the Faelands have their own microcosms that the player can explore for narrative content: whether it's exploring the political machinery of Adessa or solving the ancient riddles of the Red Marches, there are tons of quests for the player to explore – each with their own stories and characters. – By Thomas "Bentaporst" Murphy, Narrative Designer
Will there be big areas to explore without those paths we saw in the mini-map in the demos? I'm concerned about that, because though we've got an open world, if you only see paths to go, and you can't go wherever you want, it seems the world is not so open… – By alexdeguays
A: The world of Reckoning is made of gigantic areas to run freely through and explore. It's the very heart of our exploration gameplay. We do have some areas that are designed to be tighter to focus the player on a specific place or stage an ambush, or just to simply create a beautiful trail along a river's edge, but you'll always find yourself stepping out of these into open vistas, vast sprawling forests, and more.
From the very first step out of the Well of Souls, the opening dungeon, you're set loose on the world to run through massive plains, deserts, forests, coastlines, and more without anything holding you back. It's incredibly important to us that you have this free exploration experience as a player in a massive open world, so we hope you get out there and explore the far reaches of the Faelands. Come back and tell us what you find! – By Colin "Hugohan" Campbell, Lead World Designer.