Highlights
- Clockwork Revolution is an upcoming first-party game for Xbox with a steampunk aesthetic and time-bending gameplay.
- Players take control of a protagonist who discovers a device that allows them to travel into the past and alter the future.
- The success of Clockwork Revolution will depend on how well it handles the complexities of time travel mechanics and balances its gameplay with its story and art style.
Xbox has a lot of promising first-party titles in development right now. While huge titles like Avowed, Indiana Jones, and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 are all at the forefront of Xbox's current marketing campaign, there's a whole slew of other exciting first-party games that fans should definitely be keeping an eye on. Clockwork Revolution is certainly one of those.
Announced during Xbox's June 2023 Showcase, Clockwork Revolution drew immediate attention for looking remarkably like a cousin to BioShock Infinite, with its steampunk aesthetic and pseudo-utopian setting fitting right in with Irrational's FPS series. But Clockwork Revolution is far from being a carbon copy of BioShock's greatest hits. Touted as a first-person RPG, Clockwork Revolution won't be an average shooter, with its unique time-bending premise giving the game an intriguing hook off the bat.
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Clockwork Revolution's General Story Explained
The concept of time runs through the very core of Clockwork Revolution, being a driving force in not only its story but its gameplay too. Clockwork Revolution sees players take control of a currently unnamed protagonist who has just discovered a mysterious device that lets them travel into the past. The protagonist quickly learns that their homeland of Avalon, a striking steampunk utopia, has been curated carefully by its higher-ups through the use of time manipulation, with the ruling bodies having altered past events to produce the Avalon that stands today.
Seemingly in an act of rebellion, Clockwork Revolution's protagonist decides to do a bit of history-altering themselves, likely in an attempt to rid Avalon of its current political and economic structure. Using their newly found time machine, players will be able to travel to the past, altering the future in both minor and major ways depending on who they talk to and the actions they carry out in the past.
It's currently a little unclear just how much agency the player will be given over Clockwork Revolution's time-bending mechanics. With each adventure in time apparently causing major changes in the future, it's unlikely that Clockwork Revolution will just let players jump through time at will with the press of a single button. Instead, it seems more likely that Clockwork Revolution will only allow players to travel through time at specific intervals, either from a specific location on the map or during specific moments in the game's story. However, players will be using time manipulation in Clockwork Revolution's moment-to-moment gameplay, with the trailer showing a grenade that reverses time to rebuild a destroyed environment.
Clockwork Revolution Needs to Keep All of Its Cogs in Working Order
Time travel stories are notoriously difficult to get right, and that's even truer for video games that revolve around the concept. While a movie or TV show based around time travel can tell one linear story, a game like Clockwork Revolution plans on giving the player unprecedented freedom in how they approach this time-bending mechanic, thus causing a whole litany of other potential issues depending on how the player acts in certain scenarios.
If Clockwork Revolution manages to keep on top of all of its time travel puzzle pieces, then it could end up being one of the most innovative games of all time. But if it drops even just one of its spinning plates, then it could easily end up feeling like just another shooter. Still, story aside, it might make a mark through a striking art style and potentially some great combat mechanics.
Clockwork Revolution is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
