Kingdoms of Amalur is Going to Give Oblivion’s World a Run for Its Money

8 Oct, 2011

Bethesda’s massive open-world RPG Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is due out in just a little over a month. Time flies when you’re having so much fun waiting, right? Looking to set a milestone in grand scale epic fantasy games, Skyrim is ready to do some serious damage to time management, and possibly relationships, when it ships mid-November.

In another corner of the fantasy universe, Big Huge Games and 38 Studios’ Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is looking to make a name for itself. Already making big splashes in the industry, the young developing studio wants to let it be known that they shouldn’t be taken lightly. In a recent interview with Games Radar, Associate Producer Craig Krstolic explained that even the massive world of Amalur is comparable to the previous Elder Scrolls‘ scope.

“I’ve looked at [the game map], and if I look at something like Oblivion, it’s very comparable in size,” said Krstolic as he demonstrated the in-game navigation. “They’re slightly different scales, though. In Oblivion you have the central city and the area around that. We have a fairly vast area that’s spread out a little bit more with a lot smaller cities and towns within it.”

Size doesn’t mean everything, but it’s a starting point for a comparison between the two massive RPGs. Big Huge Games has made reference to the comparison in the past, but this is the first time it’s been mentioned in print.

In more conventional measurements, the world of Oblivion spans close to 16 square miles. Sounds a little small in the real world, but in the world of games, that’s pretty big. Krstolic explained that the world of Amalur is more spread out, with small towns and cities dotting the landscape. One of the drawbacks to Oblivion‘s massive world was the intense concentration of cities, leaving large open areas of empty fields and forests. With the scattering of cities and townships across the world of Amalur, perhaps we wouldn’t feel as much of a lone traveler as we did in Oblivion.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is set for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 7th 2012.

Want to know more about this game? Head over to the official website for more information.

Via Games Radar.