inXile entertainment has pushed clockwork revolution deeper into focus with Morgan Vanette, Avalon, and the Chronometer at the center of a time-bending first-person action RPG that reacts to player choice. The studio said the game will be released next year, and the latest details sharpen how that system will reach beyond combat into the city’s politics and neighborhoods.
Avalon’s polished surface
“This is Avalon.” The studio’s own description of the steampunk city makes the split plain: the top stays polished by keeping its dirty hands underneath the table, while the ash-choked streets of the Tangle and the lavish promenades above each carry a cost. “It takes a special kind of person to survive here, and that person is you.”
That setup gives Morgan Vanette a much larger role than a standard preset hero. Morgan is the player character, customized at the start of the game and shaped by the player’s decisions, which means the city is not just a backdrop but a system that records how the player chooses to move through it. Crime bosses may ask for a foul-mouthed automaton in exchange for services, and the Burning House offers another kind of trade, with Commodity commanding the room there.
Prentice and the Chronometer
Very early in the game, the player meets Prentice, a flying automaton who acts as part observer and part companion. Prentice joins the adventure across the timescape, and that relationship is tied to how the player ends up with the Chronometer, the device that makes time travel possible.
The trailer shows why that matters in play. The Chronometer can unlock new abilities that let the player manipulate time directly, including Displace, which instantly repositions certain objects. In the footage, that move opens paths, solves problems, and turns the environment into a weapon, including one sequence where an explosive barrel is launched into a group of enemies.
Rotten Row in motion
The Rotten Row Hooligans arrive during a heist gone wrong, with Ulysses, Nazim, Erasmus, Hazel, and Anne introduced as part of a crew that is not following the player around as companions. They have their own lives, their own stories, and plenty to lose when time changes, which gives the game’s branching structure a wider reach than a simple player-only power fantasy.
Lady Ironwood sits on the other side of that equation. She rules Avalon with ruthless precision, has been using time travel to keep her grip on power, and has been reshaping the past to make sure her future stays the way she wants it. Once those changes are exposed, her Industrial Secret Service agents will be on the player’s heels, turning the rest of the run into a chase through a city that is already divided by class and now split by time.
For players, the practical takeaway is straightforward: every choice in Avalon can alter the crew, the city, and the route forward, not just the next fight. With release set for next year, the question is whether inXile can make that much branching history feel responsive without burying the player under it.
