Summary
Xbox has many irons in the fire right now, running the entire gamut of genres, budget, and scale.Clockwork Revolutionprobably lands somewhere near the top of that pack, being InXile Entertainment’s first AAA title. Announced duringXbox’s 2023 Summer Showcase,Clockwork Revolutionmade a pretty big impact with its debut trailer.
With some impressive retro-futuristic visuals, a tease of some fascinating Sci-Fi story beats, and the promise of some mind-bending gameplay mechanics,Clockwork Revolution’s announcement trailer did a great job of showcasing the game for the first time. But it didn’t take long for the comparisons to start, and now, to properly separate itself from the crowd,Clockwork Revolutionis going to need to fully embrace its biggest strength.
Clockwork Revolution Needs to Fully Embrace Its Core Premise
Clockwork Revolution’s Biggest Strength Explained
Arguably the biggest strength ofClockwork Revolutionis its core premise and how that works in tandem with its gameplay. InClockwork Revolution, players take control of a character who’s just stumbled upon a piece of advanced time-bending technologycalled a Chronometer. With that Chronometer, players are given the ability to travel back in time, where they make various decisions and take certain actions that will impact the future they return to.
Based on its debut trailer, it seems as thoughClockwork Revolution’s time-manipulating premisewill run throughout the game’s DNA, impacting its story and its gameplay in major ways. For instance, the trailer shows a brief montage of how the player’s actions can affect the Steampunk city of Avalon, changing key parts of the scenery and giving the environment a much darker atmosphere. The trailer also teased some time-bending combat mechanics, with the player sending out some kind of grenade that rewinds time and rebuilds a falling piece of scaffolding.
Whiletime travel is nothing new in the world of video games,Clockwork Revolutionis promising it on a scale that players have never really seen before, and is heavily implying a higher level of agency over the mechanic than has ever been attempted. IfClockwork Revolutioncan deliver on this lofty promise, then it should be able to stand out nicely among other first-person action-RPGs, though shaking off its current comparisons might be easier said than done.
Clockwork Revolution Is Already Having a Tough Time Shaking Comparisons
From the momentClockwork Revolutionwas first announced, it wascompared toBioShock Infinite. A game that also dabbles in time travel and dimension-hopping,BioShockInfinite’s premise seems fairly similar toClockwork Revolution’s, though it’s the two games' Steampunk aesthetic that really invites comparisons. Though the public perception ofBioShock Infinitehas somewhat waned in recent years, there are key parts of the game that still stand the test of time, and its art direction is one of those.Clockwork Revolutionis going to need to really excel in other areas if it wants to borrow a similar aesthetic toBioShock Infinite’s.
What’s more is that this could only be the tip of the iceberg forClockwork Revolutionand its comparisons to other games. Themore that’s revealed aboutClockwork Revolution, the more players are likely to compare its story, art, or mechanics to other time travel games, and the only way to shake off those comparisons is by simply offering an experience that those others could not
