By now, those of you with a decent connection will have probably downloaded and played the demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. It’s a tantalising taste of what’s to come in the demo, and despite a few niggling complaints here and there, it’s an overall solid experience, especially with the brilliant combat system.

In fact, it’s this very gameplay mechanic that 38 Studios developer Ken Rolston, who also happened to serve as a lead designer on the previous two Elder Scroll games, believes will give his RPG title a solid advantage over that other, dragon-shouting, rival title that is currently sitting on the market.

“What makes Reckoning differ from Skyrim? The simple answer is that Reckoning has the best, coolest, fastest-paced, most tactile and silly-exciting fantasy combat of ANY video RPG,” Rolston told Gamefront.

The pace, fluid movement, tactical richness, and physical and visual theatre of fantasy combat has always seemed the weakest feature of video RPGs, and Reckoning offers a fresh new answer in that department.

Rolston also explained that the “more vivid, colourful art style” and “easy-to-pick up, faster-paced gameplay in general” would help cement the uniqueness of his title, but otherwise, he added that the two games have “a lot in common”.

“Both games are Way-Too-Big, and have Way-Too-Much-to-Do, and they both seduce you into playing for hours and hours and hours,” Rolston said.

“They both have whacking big epic storylines, and elaborate faction quest lines, and boatloads of quests, and lots of characters and books, and lots of crafting and alchemy, and lots of ways to customize your character.

“But in many large ways, and in many small ways, Reckoning tries to take a fresh look at the RPG genre, and is trying to be What RPGs Will Look Like and Feel Like in the Future Utopia.”

Having played the demo, I can definitely agree that the combat is something else entirely, compared to the mad SLASH ALL THE THINGS approach that I took in Skyrim. While I feel I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s available in the combat in the demo, the full game has me rather excited for unleashing my full fate-unravelling potential.