Clockwork Revolution Details: When the Past Rewrites the Future

During Xbox Games Showcase 2025, inXile studio, known for their elaborate RPGs, presented a new trailer for Clockwork Revolution. The highly anticipated role-playing shooter takes players to the dark yet visually impressive city of Avalon. The game's main feature will be a unique time manipulation mechanic that allows changing the past and observing future transformations, set in a steampunk universe. In this article, we discuss what the new trailer revealed and how inXile plans to implement their ambitious ideas.

The trailer opens with a poster of the metropolis Avalon, where the game's action unfolds. A New Utopia reads the city's motto. The footage immediately sets the era's atmosphere: 1895, the industrial revolution has ended, the steampunk era has arrived, but in these parts it hasn't led to a change in socio-political formation. That the new game will exploit revolution themes is evident not only from the word Revolution in the title, but also from the main character's discontented voice.

"Avalon's gleaming streets truly shine... because they sweep their filth down to us!" — declares the hero from the trailer's first seconds.

Next, the developers transport us to the city streets. By all appearances, when creating environments and levels, the authors drew inspiration from old New York and London streets rather than historically accurate photographs of the past — the city of Avalon doesn't look as old as you'd expect from the late 19th century.

Everywhere we see solid wide streets with beautiful facades and advertisements, draped with steam pipes, suspended monorails, and other mechanisms characteristic of the steampunk genre. The game's authors actively employ steampunk imagery in clothing, urban infrastructure, and interior design.

The streets already have protesters with banners and newspapers, while well-prepared police patrol them. Incidentally, they'll be our opponents. But not all of Avalon is prosperous. Besides expensive quarters, there are poor districts where police don't venture — full of taverns, brothels, and other entertainment establishments.

A couple of shots at the trailer's beginning aren't a demonstration of the combat system, but a reminder to those who forgot that Clockwork Revolution is a first-person shooter. There's even a reload animation system — not as advanced as Call of Duty's, but fitting the spirit of the times. Besides headshots, you can blow up explosive barrels that also deal damage. The trailer's beginning focuses excessively on bullets and shells. What's that about?

Returning to social tension: the plot actively focuses attention on class inequality. There's a powerless majority doing dirty work, and a privileged minority represented by the gentleman in the purple jacket, who doesn't particularly work but commands others.

The attentive viewer surely noticed numerous steam robots — from cleaners to servants, complex autonomous mechanisms with computational devices, as well as people with augmentations using steampunk achievements for self-improvement. In Avalon's world, where steam mechanics and engineering flourish, it's logical to assume citizens can install various enhancements. This manifests in reinforced armor, built-in weapons, or special abilities necessary for professional activities. Meanwhile, the privileged class doesn't use such technologies.

After Lord Griswick bursts into the police station and complains to the captain about a robbery, the character editor demonstration begins.

The customization process isn't shown completely — it's combined with how Lord Griswick described the criminal who broke into his house. The editor is integrated into gameplay as an intricate mechanism resembling a clock.

On its first level — character backgrounds — besides the background itself, there are three characteristics: Streetwise, Technical, and Booksmarts, plus possible personality traits. Character attributes fit the STEAM abbreviation, but its interpretation likely changes depending on previously made choices. Conditionally, where S means Strength in one case, in another it would be Social.

Ultimately, the criminal's description changes depending on skill point distribution, and dialogues reflect these changes.

The appearance editor is quite extensive — you can create a character of any gender, age, ethnicity, skin color, bald or hairy, bearded or clean-shaven, with scars and wrinkles or without them. Appearance (equipment) is also customizable — there's a unique wardrobe with clothing of various styles and cuts.

The player controls a character named Morgan Vanette. In dialogue scenes, developers unambiguously make clear that dialogue choices have serious consequences: antagonism toward one NPC can lead to another character's death. Definitely, the game will be brutal not only in combat but in consequences for the player, emphasizing the importance of each decision.

The trailer features specific humor, for example a swearing automaton doll named Duke Pomphrey, who may play a special role in the plot. It actively swears and makes faces at any action, clearly destined to become a meme source after Clockwork Revolution's release.

From 2:45, the authors gradually immerse us in the context of local confrontation. With phrases like "Here there are sharp knives, empty pockets, and blood on the pavement" and "Either your gang has your back, or prepare your back for the knife", the authors emphasize the harsh living conditions of society's lower strata, where poverty, violence, and constant struggle for survival reign. And those in power don't maintain order, but merely hold onto that very power. Not for nothing are we shown police on duty and responding to calls, and how they throw citizens behind bars.

Among the main weapon characteristics are damage, rate of fire, accuracy, range, ammo, and subtlety. By replacing standard components with advanced ones (though it's unclear whether we'll create these components ourselves or find them in the open world), you can substantially improve shooting quality.

Available weapon upgrade components include gun parts, metal cylinder, and galvanized cylinder, but whether they'll survive to release unchanged is a big question. Each part's improvement quantity has levels from 0 to 5 (for more complex weapons — from 0 to 3). Hell, there's even a laser sight!

Game director Chad Moore formulated Clockwork Revolution's key design philosophy: "When you find new weapons, it's an important moment because you'll have them until the end of the game". This decision differs drastically from common practice in other action-RPGs, where players often discard and replace guns for minor statistical advantages.

The combat system shown at the end of the third minute doesn't seem to offer anything special. Basic shooting, ability to ignite enemies with blue flame, grenade use, and turret placement. Combat looks more tactical than thrilling: frontal attacks won't work, you need to act smartly and eliminate opponents using all available arsenal.

However, enemies' main weapon is time itself. The time machine is shown at 04:00 and looks impressive. With it, those in power maintain power when ordinary methods fail. We're shown this through newspaper clippings — where in one timeline the people seized power, in Clockwork Revolution's timeline the coup was brutally suppressed.

Avalon is under total control of Lady Ironwood, who possesses the ability to manipulate time to maintain social hierarchy beneficial to her and the upper class. The game's plot revolves around how Morgan, discovering his own time travel ability, begins using Lady Ironwood's tactics against her to cancel her chosen course of history and return everything to its proper path.

Over time and with character progression, players will be able to slow and even reverse time to dodge bullets and restore any cover destroyed by enemies. If the player gets stuck with armored enemies with a pistol and takes a headshot, he can always replay that moment and take more serious weapons. And if ammunition runs out, it can be returned using the same time reversal, but only in the context of needed elements — enemies can't be revived. This adds tactical elements to battles, allowing manipulation of environment and opponent actions.

Clockwork Revolution's main and most complex feature is the butterfly effect. Through actions in the past, the player can prevent certain building construction or, conversely, contribute to its appearance. In the present, this area might look completely different: instead of slums, a luxurious park appears, or a prosperous district becomes an abandoned industrial zone.

Player actions can also open or close future paths, create new passages or block existing ones, changing landscape and exploration possibilities. By intervening in a past event that led to a fire, in the present the burned building might be restored or something completely different might be in its place. Developers mentioned that entire "world regions can be transformed". This is actually hard to believe — too complex a task.

Clockwork Revolution promises to become a truly revolutionary game that will not only offer an engaging plot and dynamic gameplay, but also make you think about the consequences of every choice. We eagerly await new details from inXile Entertainment!