Years ago, Warren Spector, director ofDeus Exand luminary of the immersive sim, imagined a game set entirely within one immaculately realized portion of a city. “My ultimate dream is for someone to be foolish enough to give me the money to make what I call the One Block Role-Playing Game, where we simulate one building, one city block perfectly,” Spectorhas said. He’s echoed that idea multiple times over the years, and it’s clearly one that the legendary developer hasn’t been able to let go of.
It’s a compelling idea and one that we haven’t seen fully realized yet, though Clockwork Revolution, recently unveiled atXbox Games Showcase, seems to be aiming to execute that concept, and other games have attempted something similar.Disco Elysiumcomes the closest to the city block dream, with its intense focus on one small area of Revachol. Other games, likePreyhave gone big, taking the idea to a space station.Gone Homewent small, giving the player free reign to explore a house. During the pandemic, lots of filmmakers made COVID movies, like Bodies Bodies Bodies, Men, Old, and The Menu, that were primarily set in single locations. Gaming wasn’t similarly limited by real-world constraints, but the medium has still gotten its fair share of single location games in recent years.
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Though Spector’s fixation on the city block game suggests that its realization would come as the crowning achievement in a storied career,inXileappears to be using the small-scale RPG as a new beginning. The studio behind theWastelandgames has, until now, made CRPGs with an isometric perspective. Clockwork Revolution marks its first venture into first-person, and judging by the trailer that debuted earlier this week, it looks to be borrowing fromBioShock InfiniteandDishonored.
Most important to this argument, it all seems to take place in one modestly sized city, overseen by Lady Ironwood, a ruler who keeps it running like clockwork with authoritarian attention to detail. Your character is introduced as the “one rebellious little gear” who is intent on defying her. As you do, it appears that you’ll be radically altering the future through your decisions, and replaying events to achieve a desired outcome. The trailer was light on gameplay details, but it doesn’t look all that different from Deathloop, which gave players access to various locations on the Isle of Blackreef, and tasked them with stringing together the perfect killing spree to break out of a time loop.
From the little we’ve seen so far, Clockwork Revolution doesn’t seem to be breaking new ground. It has an aesthetic that looks a lot like BioShock Infinite and a gameplay pitch that seems to be working in the same space asDeathloop,12 Minutes, and The Sexy Brutale. But, it also seems to be capturing the spirit of Spector’s city block idea, which is a kind of game I’ve always wanted to play. inXile has made some great RPGs, so I can’t wait to see how they handle the leap to first-person action from Wasteland 3’s isometric turn-based tactics.
There wasspeculationa few years ago that the first-person RPG the studio was staffing up for might beFallout 5. It made sense in a wishcasting kind of way — Xbox owned both inXile and Bethesda, Bethesda was busy onStarfield, and the Fallout series was inspired by the original Wasteland — but Clockwork Revolution seems like a better fit for this team right now. Making a hotly anticipated massive open-world RPG as your debut first-person game always seemed like too big of an ask. Better to start with a single city block.
