Peter Molyneux is back with new god sim Masters Of Albion, which looks like a stripped-down Black & White
No cubes or acorns so far, just breadswords
Peter Molyneux is once again back from the beyond, and he's making a new god sim. The game in question is Masters Of Albion, which now has a page on Steam. In development at Molyneux's 2012-founded studio 22cans, it looks like a mix of Populous and Black & White with knocked-together, toylike visuals, and a loose tower-defence format whereby monsters attack your villages at night. Here's the first trailer.
"The story of Albion is one of power and consequence, a rich and deep narrative set in a world full of quests and moral choices," explains the announcement blurb. "Navigate your way through intrigue and plot - kings come and go, lords shake you by the hand then stab you in the back, and the people work like dogs and are treated no better.
"Gifted godlike, ancient powers, you face an enemy the likes of which have not been seen in hundreds of years," it continues. "Magic is returning to the hills and halls of Albion, threatening to tear down the very foundations of society. Unravel the mystery of the mages, defeat the enemy that lurks in the night and conquer a sorcery that could kill us all."
Here's what all that involves in practice: by day, you'll build and manage villages using an old school Bullfrog hand cursor with a definite air of mischief. By dint of dragging, dropping and zooming you'll oversee everything from the design of weapons (breadswords, not so effective) to the stacking of house segments (watch you don't drop them - this game has Real Physics) and the pegging out of roads and fortifications.
You'll also need to "fulfil orders from the vying factions - food for the people, clothes for the Lords, weapons and armour for the King". Town progression seems to revolve around the Arcanum, where you can trade favours for new blocks, product parts and magical powers.
After the sun goes down, it's time to play Splat The Undead. You can hire and control heroes to smack up the night creatures in person, or rain hell upon them from turrets, but it looks far more fun to fry them with spells from your hand cursor. Possessing heroes is also how you'll explore the game's open world, it seems, founding new villages and doing quests for treasures.
All told, this seems rather promising. It sounds mean-spirited, but I never thought I'd ever describe a new Molyneux game as promising in this, the year 2024. I particularly like the Wes Anderson-ish viewing perspective. To address the various elephants in the room, Masters Of Albion is conspicuously devoid of shady monetisation mechanics, and most of the features look perfectly achievable. No acorns of overhype so far.
Little update - Graham's just pointed out to me that this appears to reuse a few systems from Legacy, Molyneux's previous blockchain game, which racked up tens of millions of pounds in cryptocurrency sales before launch in 2023. Masters Of Albion doesn't seem to have any web3 in it.
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