Novinky
Inside Tides of Annihilation's withering and fantastical version of London
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Aron Garst
Big Ben and the British Museum left a strong impression on Chen, but his first priority wasn't checking out English landmarks. Instead, it was gaming.
"We held a small closed-door playtest with local British players," Chen said, adding that they've only had other playtests in China and Los Angeles. "It was filled with several London-based influencers."
Chen is the Co-CEO & COO of Eclipse Glow Games. They are the studio behind Tides of Annihilation, a fantasy action-adventure game inspired by Arthurian legend. The Chinese studio found that because they were influenced so heavily by the story of King Arthur, London was an incredibly natural fit for Tides of Annihilation.
The setting supports the sword
"The primary reason we chose London is that the setting fits the concept of the game, the worldview, and the gameplay," Chen said through a translator. "The start of our inspiration is actually quite simple. We really center things around the combat of the game."
Tides of Annihilation sees London shattered by hordes of otherworldly enemies. The player, controlling a character named Gwendolyn, must work with spectral knights to restore a world decimated by the unknown. It's a single-player adventure, although the game's combat system is built with a handful of characters in mind. You’ll be fighting with multiple knights around you throughout the adventure.
"We are not a multiplayer game, we are focusing on creating a single-player team combat system," Chen said. "That's the consideration. [We’re] trying to figure out how to create a system like that for a single player."
The new Chengdu-based studio is filled with veterans of the game industry who've worked on titles like Yakuza, For Honor, Assassin's Creed, Persona, and Prince of Persia. Several of these games were lauded for their combat systems, including the strategic blow-by-blow combat of For Honor.
"With this kind of system, players will be able to experience smooth, easy-to-play, easy-to-follow, high-speed battles," Chen said. “In the future, they'll be able to create their own fighting styles as if they were a knight in combat themselves."
Chen shared some combat ideas that the team hadn't confirmed were final yet as well. He spoke about having classes for individual knights, but followed up by saying the team wasn't sure if that would fit within the core combat system.
Welcome to the Big Smoke
Eclipse Glow Games is a studio that puts gameplay and player engagement first, meaning that they found their way to London after establishing how the game would play and feel. The city known as “the Big Smoke” has been the focus of plenty of games before, including Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed, The Order: 1886, and others. We've seen ancient, alternate history, modern, and plenty of other versions of the famous city. We'll be seeing it from a different angle altogether this time, along with the developer’s take on King Arthur.
"We want to look at the story from the Chinese developer's perspective and bring a new angle to the story of King Arthur," Chen said. "There will be twists, but that's because it's from our angle."
Big Ben, the London Eye, and other landmarks can be seen in Tides of Annihilation announcement trailer, although they are nothing more than ruins after some sort of calamity. We can expect more of that, according to Eclipse Glow Games. Other elements of the game have hints of a Chinese influence, including the enemy design.
"From an art and design perspective, there will be some ink-wash style, which is like the oriental or East-Asian style, in the adventure," Chen said. "The overall feeling and atmosphere we are trying to picture is a sense of withering. That's what we're looking to incorporate into the overall feeling of the game."
The clips we saw in that debut trailer and following gameplay showcase are indeed of a modern London. It looks nothing like what you might expect, as the developer’s vision for a fantasy world—a London that's been invaded by a mysterious entity—takes priority over one-to-one accuracy or historically realistic depiction.
Tides of Annihilation’s vision of London is something much more than a city; it's a battleground. You'll fight through city streets that have been completely torn apart by strange trees and rock formations. Buildings and landmarks will crumble and shift as these foreign entities force their way through. It's not just the player in the combat; the world is fighting for itself, too.
Tides of Annihilation made waves with its reveal earlier this year. Stay tuned for more information on when you'll be able to explore this fantastical version of London on Epic Games Store.