InXile Entertainment CEO Brian Fargo, the legendary developer behind the original Fallout and Wasteland series, stated during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted on December 4, 2025 that Clockwork Revolution is the most complex game I have ever worked on. The time-hopping steampunk RPG features character creation that really matters, deep reactivity systems, and the ability to travel to the past and rewrite history through player choices, causing visual changes across entire cities that persist when returning to the present. Design Director Chad Moore explained that inXile is making it way more complicated for ourselves by taking visual reactivity to an entirely new level, with things like statues, banners, and entire architectural structures changing or disappearing based on actions taken in the past. The game was first revealed in 2023 and returned during Xbox Games Showcase 2025 with extensive looks at character creation, buildcrafting, and gameplay, but still has no release date beyond coming to Xbox Series X and S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass.
Why It’s So Complex
Clockwork Revolution’s complexity stems from three interconnected systems that must work together seamlessly: deep character creation with meaningful consequences, extensive reactivity to player choices, and time travel mechanics that allow rewriting history with persistent visual changes. Most RPGs implement one or two of these at a surface level, but inXile is attempting all three at a depth rarely seen in the genre. Character creation goes beyond selecting stats and appearance to determining relationships, backgrounds, and story elements that fundamentally alter how NPCs react to you and what quests become available.
The reactivity extends beyond dialogue trees and quest branching into environmental storytelling where your actions literally reshape the game world. Travel to the past, prevent an assassination, and return to the present to find an entire district transformed because that historical figure survived to enact reforms. Stop a factory from being built and the industrial pollution choking a neighborhood never happens, creating cleaner air and healthier residents decades later. These aren’t scripted setpieces but systemic changes affecting economies, social structures, and physical environments across the steampunk Victorian metropolis of Avalon.
Visual Reactivity at Scale
Design Director Chad Moore emphasized that visual reactivity operates at both macro and micro scales. The embedded trailers show broad changes like statues erected in someone’s honor or banners hanging from landmarks appearing and disappearing based on player actions. These large-scale transformations are impressive, but Moore suggests more granular instances of reactivity exist that haven’t been shown yet. This could mean things like NPC clothing reflecting economic prosperity changes, shop inventories varying based on historical trade route alterations, or architectural styles shifting due to cultural influences you enable or prevent.
The technical challenge of tracking thousands of potential timeline permutations and rendering appropriate visual states is staggering. Most time travel games limit you to a few fixed historical moments with predetermined outcomes. Clockwork Revolution appears to offer genuine freedom to alter events in unpredictable ways, requiring the game engine to dynamically generate world states based on player history across multiple timelines. The save file complexity alone must be nightmarish, tracking not just current player state but the entire causal chain of alterations made to past events and their cascading consequences.
Brian Fargo’s Pedigree
When Brian Fargo calls something the most complex game he’s worked on, that carries substantial weight. Fargo founded Interplay Productions in 1983 and served as executive producer on the original Fallout in 1997, establishing the post-apocalyptic RPG formula that Bethesda later expanded into a blockbuster franchise. He also oversaw Wasteland in 1988 and its sequels Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 3 after founding inXile Entertainment in 2002. These games are renowned for complex systems, deep choice-and-consequence mechanics, and reactivity that makes player decisions feel meaningful.
For Fargo to claim Clockwork Revolution exceeds the complexity of those legendary titles suggests inXile is attempting something genuinely unprecedented in scope and ambition. The 40+ years of RPG development experience informing that judgment means Clockwork Revolution isn’t just marketing hyperbole but a project pushing beyond what even veteran developers considered possible. Whether they can actually deliver on that ambition remains the open question, but Fargo has earned enough credibility that his assessment deserves serious consideration.
What We’ve Seen So Far
The Xbox Games Showcase 2025 trailer provided extensive looks at character creation systems with multiple body types, facial customization, and background choices that affect starting relationships and story hooks. Buildcrafting appears deep, with numerous skill trees, weapon types, and gadgets fitting the steampunk aesthetic including pneumatic hammers, electrified blades, and clockwork firearms. Combat blends first-person shooting with melee options and environmental interactions, allowing creative approaches to encounters.
The Victorian-inspired city of Avalon serves as the main setting, featuring elaborate clockwork architecture, steam-powered vehicles, airships, and distinct districts representing different social classes and industrial functions. The dark humor mentioned by Fargo shines through in character designs and dialogue snippets showing inXile’s willingness to satirize Victorian-era social norms, class structures, and industrial capitalism through a steampunk lens. Gritty visual design contrasts with the often whimsical portrayal of steampunk in other media, suggesting mature themes and moral ambiguity rather than lighthearted adventure.
Why No Release Date
Clockwork Revolution was revealed in June 2023 during the Xbox Games Showcase, returned with substantial new footage in June 2025, but still has no release date beyond vague coming soon messaging. For a first-party Xbox game from an established studio with Microsoft funding, the lack of even a release window suggests development is encountering challenges or Microsoft is being unusually cautious about committing to timelines. Given the complexity Fargo describes, delays seem almost inevitable as inXile ensures all the interconnected systems work properly.
The time travel reactivity alone could create exponential QA headaches where every permutation needs testing to ensure nothing breaks when players alter historical events in unexpected combinations. Most RPGs struggle to prevent quest-breaking bugs in linear narratives; adding time travel multiplies potential failure points astronomically. InXile likely needs substantial additional development time to polish the core systems, test edge cases, and ensure the ambitious vision actually functions at launch rather than shipping a broken mess that requires years of patches like Cyberpunk 2077.
FAQs
What is Clockwork Revolution?
Clockwork Revolution is a time-traveling steampunk RPG from inXile Entertainment where players can visit the past, alter historical events, and see those changes reflected in the present through visual environmental reactivity across the Victorian-inspired city of Avalon.
Who is making Clockwork Revolution?
InXile Entertainment is developing Clockwork Revolution, led by CEO Brian Fargo who created the original Fallout and Wasteland series. This is inXile’s first new game fully developed under Microsoft ownership since the 2018 acquisition.
When does Clockwork Revolution release?
No release date has been announced. The game was revealed in June 2023 and shown extensively at Xbox Games Showcase 2025, but only has vague coming soon messaging suggesting substantial development time remains.
Why did Brian Fargo call it the most complex game ever?
Fargo cited deep character creation that matters, extensive reactivity systems, and time travel mechanics that allow rewriting history with persistent visual changes across entire cities as reasons for unprecedented complexity compared to his 40+ years making RPGs.
What platforms is Clockwork Revolution on?
Clockwork Revolution is confirmed for Xbox Series X and S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass. No PlayStation, Nintendo, or Xbox One versions have been announced, suggesting it’s targeting current-generation hardware exclusively.
Can you actually change history in Clockwork Revolution?
Yes, according to developer statements. Players can travel to the past, alter events, and see visual changes in the present including statues appearing/disappearing, banners changing, and architectural transformations based on historical alterations.
Is Clockwork Revolution first-person or third-person?
The gameplay footage shows first-person perspective for combat and exploration, similar to Fallout and the recent Outer Worlds games from Obsidian Entertainment.
Conclusion
Clockwork Revolution represents exactly the kind of ambitious swing that either becomes a genre-defining masterpiece or a cautionary tale about overreach. Brian Fargo calling it the most complex game of his 40-year career is either inspiring confidence or setting up disappointment depending on whether inXile can execute on the vision. The time travel reactivity with persistent environmental changes sounds incredible on paper, but the technical and narrative challenges of implementing that at scale are staggering. Most RPGs can’t handle basic quest branching without breaking, so expecting Clockwork Revolution to track cascading timeline alterations across an entire city seems optimistic at best. Yet Fargo has earned credibility through decades of genre-defining work, and Microsoft’s resources give inXile the runway to iterate until they get it right rather than shipping prematurely. Whether Clockwork Revolution lives up to Fargo’s claims won’t be known until it finally launches, but the ambition alone makes it one of the most interesting RPGs in development even if the lack of release date suggests it’s still years away.