Xbox officially revealed Clockwork Revolution during the company’s showcase on June 11th. Developed by the studio behind The Bard’s Tale and Wasteland 3, InXile Entertainment, the upcoming first-person RPG takes players to the Steampunk metropolis of Avalon. An epic time travel adventure, Clockwork Revolution will see players shaping Avalon and its inhabitants by manipulating key events in the city’s history as they seek to undermine the dictatorial rule of Lady Ironwood.
Immediately noticeable in its reception is how Clockwork Revolution is drawing comparisons to a major, defining AAA title, not unlike Round8 Studio’s Lies of P. Specifically, Lies of P invites many comparisons to a game that defines the PS4 era, Bloodborne, while Clockwork Revolution does the same with BioShock, which has groundbreaking review scores. However, this can be both a blessing and a curse.
Lies of P and Clockwork Revolution’s Influences
Although similarities between Lies of P and Bloodborne are reportedly not intentional, it's hard to look at the two titles and not see it, with those influences coming across in both the visual design and combat. Granted, Lies of P’s city of Krat is more explicitly inspired by late 19th century France than Bloodborne’s Yharnam is to any particular time or place. Its apparent mix of mainly human and mechanical enemies also lacks the viscerally unsettling qualities of many FromSoftwhere foes. Still, these are just minor details in the grand scheme of things, and do nothing to deter comparisons.
Meanwhile, Clockwork Revolution really feels like a BioShock game. InXile’s new game is a first-person shooter set in a fictional, technologically advanced city with a retro-futuristic aesthetic. Said city is ruled by a charismatic and visionary megalomaniac, with Lady Ironwood seemingly cast from the same mold as villains like Andrew Ryan and Zachary Comstock. Both that ruler’s power and the city’s prosperity come from access to an advanced, borderline supernatural technology. In Clockwork Revolution’s case, that technology is time travel.
The game that Clockwork Revolution resembles most is BioShock: Infinite. Part of this is simply the time periods. BioShock: Infinite takes place in 1912, with its floating city of Colombia being constructed in 1893. This is reflected in the city’s visual aesthetic, with its buildings based on those from the real-world 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Also, while perhaps not steampunk in the purest sense, its technology is aesthetically similar. Clockwork Revolution’s city of Avalon is decidedly English instead of American but has similar technology at a similar time, and the game depicts them in a similar art style.
Even the cities’ names evoke similar ideas. Colombia is both an older name for America and the name of a female personification of the United States. She commonly appeared in propaganda and political cartoons from that period and symbolized Manifest Destiny. Meanwhile, Avalon gets its name from a mythical island where Excalibur was forged and where King Arthur’s body was taken after he fell in battle. In BioShock’s case, the name is part of Infinite’s satire of American Exceptionalism, and Clockwork Revolution appears to be doing something similar.
How Clockwork Revolution and Lies of P Might Still Stand Out
Resembling highly influential games like BioShock and Bloodborne are hardly an indictment of Clockwork Revolution and Lies of P. However, it invites comparisons between the two games, which can be a blessing or a curse. On the one hand, fans of BioShock and Bloodborne will likely be drawn to Round8’s and inXile’s new games. On the other hand, they risk being labeled as “knockoffs,” especially if players don’t feel like the new games live up to the legacy of their predecessors.
Of course, it’s not as if either game is an exact one-to-one of their main inspirations. For example, apart from Sekiro, FromSoftware’s Soulslike games are mainly about the place rather than its people. Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne protagonists are blank slates onto which players can project any personality or motivations they want. Meanwhile, Lies of P’s Pinocchio has a very clear goal in searching for his creator Geppetto.
If the trailer is anything to go by, it also seems like Lies of P focuses more on the individual characters. FromSoftware games have plenty of great characters, but players usually only see a few short chapters in what the games imply to be much longer stories. Major characters come and go as players travel the world. However, the Lies of P at least appears to feature a more conventional main cast. It also gives Pinocchio a companion character in the form of the Talking Cricket.
Meanwhile, Clockwork Revolution may deviate from BioShock: Infinite in some significant ways. Namely, as inXile’s CEO Brian Fargo clarified on Twitter, Clockwork Revolution is an RPG rather than an immersive sim like BioShock. This includes having a custom, player-designed protagonist instead of the predefined characters of BioShock games. It also boasts branching dialogue trees and a more elaborate leveling system.
Even Clockwork Revolution’s tone may be a bit different. While the BioShock games are satirical, they are satire in the same way as something like Warhammer 40K. They exaggerate real-world concepts to the point of absurdity, but the developers didn’t intend for them to be funny. However, Fargo made a point of noting how dark comedy plays an essential role in Clockwork Revolution. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a comedy game, and its inclusion on a list of features seems at least a little tongue-in-cheek. Still, a potential difference that shouldn’t be disregarded.
The point is that Lies of P and especially Clockwork Revolution aren’t just copies of Bloodborne and BioShock: Infinite. Both have a clear vision beyond simply emulating past games and deserve to be judged on their own merits rather than seen as alternatives or rivals to the older titles.
Clockwork Revolution is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S. Lies of P releases for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on September 19th.