inXile entertainment has shared fresh details on Clockwork Revolution and confirmed the steampunk first-person action RPG will be playable next year.
The studio put the spotlight on Avalon, a city that runs on industry and ambition and is split between ash-choked streets in the Tangle and the polished promenades above. Players begin by customizing Morgan Vanette, a protagonist whose identity and relationships can shift as decisions during play change who Morgan becomes.
Very early in the game players meet Prentice, a flying automaton tied to how the player acquires the Chronometer — the device that makes time travel possible. Prentice is not just a plot token: she becomes a guide through the branching realities created by the player and has her own abilities and a separate skill tree.
The Chronometer unlocks direct time-manipulation powers. One ability shown in the trailer, Displace, lets players instantly reposition certain objects — opening paths, solving problems, or turning the environment into a weapon. The trailer cut to Displace launching an explosive barrel into a group of enemies to demonstrate that last option.
The same footage introduced the Rotten Row Hooligans — Ulysses, Nazim, Erasmus, Hazel and Anne — during a heist that goes wrong, giving a glimpse of the game's criminal underworld. It also made clear that the Industrial Secret Service will be on the player’s heels once Morgan begins to unpick what Lady Ironwood has done.
The central drama the studio laid out is the tension between two uses of time. Lady Ironwood rules Avalon with ruthless precision and has been reshaping the past to keep her future unchanged. The player, by contrast, uses the Chronometer to reach into the past and create branching realities; when players reach into the past, the people closest to them feel those effects first. That puts Morgan — and Prentice — at the center of a conflict between preserving a ruling order and actively altering history to build something different.
Avalon’s social architecture is plain in the material inXile released: the polished upper levels are kept that way by leaving the dirty work below the table. Crime bosses in the city request unusual trade items; one scene hints they might even ask for a foul-mouthed automaton. The Burning House, a venue that offers a different kind of service, was named as the sort of place where performers like Commodity command the room — small details that sketch a lived-in world beyond the time-magic mechanics.
For players the practical takeaways are straightforward. You create Morgan at the start, you meet Prentice early, and your choices will shape Morgan’s arc as much as the branching realities you carve into Avalon’s past. Mechanically, expect a mix of first-person action and environmental puzzle play driven by Chronometer abilities such as Displace and whatever new powers inXile reveals next.
What inXile confirmed today is the clearest milestone: Clockwork Revolution will be playable next year. The studio has not given an exact release date, leaving the single most consequential gap for fans and buyers to watch: when next year will actually be. Until inXile sets a calendar date, the clearest moment to mark is that the game has moved from concept to a confirmed release window, and further specifics should arrive in future studio updates.
