Compared to Wasteland 3 in 2020, the Xbox-affiliated studio has taken a big step forward. It’s been over half a year since we’ve heard anything about inXile’s next game, the steampunk RPG Clockwork Revolution.
After the Xbox Game Showcase in June and the new trailer shown there, Brian Fargo, founder and CEO of inXile, said that the game would feature truly evil choices and multi-character dialogue. In a recent interview, Fargo described Clockwork Revolution as ten times more ambitious than the studio’s previous games, as they attempt to translate the level of interactivity typically seen in isometric titles into a first-person action RPG. Fargo emphasized the importance of offering players genuinely alternative choices, even if it means creating more content than can be seen in a single playthrough.
“For me, role-playing means I can play a role and actually affect the world around me. If all paths lead to the same outcome, the immersion breaks, and you start to feel like you’re just playing a game rather than living in one. But when the world constantly reacts to and reflects your choices, both big and small, that’s when immersion really sets in. We probably build roughly 30% more content than any player could see in a single playthrough. We want players to be able to approach the game as a different archetype, whether they want to be good, evil, or something in between.
What’s important to us is this: If you don’t allow the player to be bad and really go down those rabbit holes to see the consequences play out, then they never had free will to be good in the first place. They’re not choosing to be good; they’re just being forced down a path. We believe it’s crucial for players to make that choice themselves. We also have a very dark sense of humor, which makes it all even more fun,” Fargo said.
Clockwork Revolution was first unveiled at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase. The game does not yet have a release date. Unless Microsoft and inXile are planning a late 2026 release, we will likely have to wait until 2027 to play it on Xbox Series and PC. However, given Microsoft‘s multiplatform strategy, it is only a matter of time before it comes to the PlayStation 5.
Source: WCCFTech, GamesRadar
