There is certainly something to be admired in Peter Molyneux’s commitment to infinitely overpromising right through to what is meant to be his final game, Masters of Albion. I’m not saying I admire it, but someone might. And while I truly have no horse in the race regarding the quality, or potential lack thereof, in Masters of Albion, its latest gameplay trailer certainly does at least suggest it’ll be a true as it can be Molyneux game.
If you’re already clued into the impending release of 22cans’ latest, you’ll know that it’s a little bit of all of Molyneux’s releases, mainly leaning towards his god games like Black & White and the unsubtly titled Godus. There’s also quite clearly a dash of Fable, all of which is neatly shown off in the aforementioned new gameplay trailer. Namely, it shows off the manner of ways you have to attend to your little slice of the world.
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For example, a very Bri’ish man might appear from a mine, requesting a sword from you, a floating omnipotent hand, which you can then go build yourself bit by bit, from hilt to tip. Get that made, get it delivered, and off he goes to try and take down some nasties. Then, you might kidnap a random man and put him in some armour you designed before literally becoming him and entering the mine yourself, switching between the birds-eye view to a third-person, actiony one.
And then that gets interrupted by some evil zombie things, you become a hand again, you switch back and forth between god mode, essentially playing a tower defense game, and that third-person combat. It’s all very “wow, isn’t this so cool, you can be anyone, but also God!” Which, sure, it definitely is the kind of game a nine year old would come up with and not realise that in actuality it just comes across as a bit pointless. The spirit is there, at least, and that childlike quality is maybe even a bit charming.
Anyway, none of us have to wait particularly long to be pleasantly surprised / condescending and annoying about it being bad, as it’s due out April 22nd this year. You can, if you like, check it out on Steam.
