KoA: Reckoning - Preview, Answers from the Team

Victorious, I emerged in the city the castle looked over. A bustling market, merchants of every description and agitated persons with exclamation points hovering above their heads vied for my attention. Finally let loose in the open world, I dutifully ignored the main quest marker and embarked on a series of small adventures, first in the city itself and then in the rolling green hills outside it. My first adventure was to crouch unseen to steal some much needed health potions from an alchemist, be caught red handed, enter into combat with the city guards who I just fought alongside with and was summarily thrown into jail. Hero of the people, that’s me.
I could have waited out my sentence in return for an XP hit, Elder Scrolls style, but because I’m not a total wimp I picked the lock of my jail cell, sneaked through the guard’s quarters, stole back my equipment and hightailed it out of there, Elder Scrolls style. Reckoning really does owe a lot to that series, but that’s unsurprising, as the lead designer of Morrowind and Oblivion, Ken Rolston, is the executive designer on Reckoning. It plays much slicker than those, however, and not just because combat is straight out of God of War – the general minute-to-minute wandering feels more like Dragon Age.

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Will we get to see or can you show us soon more of the "open world" nature of the game? Such as examples of just how far off course you can stray, into the wilderness and beyond and if there are any nooks and crannies with deliciously prized loot and scary powerful monsters? – By MemoryKill

A: This is my favorite thing to talk about.

As you've probably heard us say, the Reckoning team is made up of huge open world RPG fans, myself included, so making the world of this game was a dream. It was a deeply personal goal of the folks here to make the world lush, exciting to explore, and sprawling enough to feel real and immersive.

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.

Actually, and I know Ian Frazier and Jess Campbell have both spoken about this, one of the best sets of armor in our game is hidden in specific locations throughout the open world. You should see if you can find the whole set, but be prepared to really dig deep into the world to do so. – By Colin "Hugohan" Campbell, Lead World Designer

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