He's baaack: Peter Molyneux announces a new god game, and honestly it looks really good

Game designer Peter Molyneux is known for classic series like Black & White and Fable, but in the 2000s, he also became the default example of ambitious game developers who overpromise. This narrative climaxed when Molyneux launched a mobile game about clicking on a cube and promised that whoever got to the center would receive a life-changing prize, which turned out to not be life-changing at all.

After that, No Man's Sky's Sean Murray became the new «game developer who says too much,» and although Molyneux's mobile games studio continued on, it seemed like his legacy as a PC game designer was over.

Nope! Molyneux appeared on stage with Geoff Keighley at Gamescom Opening Night Live today to announce a new PC and console game, and I feel like I've been transported back to the early 2000s, because, folks, I regret to inform you that it looks really good.

The game is called Masters of Albion. It's a god game with all the classic fixings, including a hand cursor you can use to pick up and fling around your little fantasy citizens. You can also inhabit their bodies and fight monsters in third-person action combat, and then pull back out to the overhead view to zap them with your god powers.

The most interesting part of the game is what appears to be a very flexible crafting system. At one point in the trailer, the player equips one of their citizens with a sword made of a loaf of bread.

«You can design anything: the food the people eat, the clothes they wear, the weapons they use, the armor they fight with,» says Molyneux in the trailer. «There is a strategy behind every creation. I can even feed them rats.»

Developing...

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.