Warren Spector has been talking about his studio’s next game, Argos: Riders On The Storm. In the broadest possible terms, at least. In a brief interview with IGN, Spector says that Argos is multiplayer and “the next step in immersive sims.”
“I’m a relentless advocate for immersive sims,” Spector tells IGN. “I’ve been thinking for years now: ‘What is the next step in immersive sims?’ I think I’ve figured that out.” Multiplayer is apparently the answer. “It’s about time I tried multiplayer,” Spector says.
Otherwise, Spector only talks about D&D as an influence, his desire that players be able to tell their own stories through the game, as well as some bold claims about their ambition. “I am a firm believer that every game has to have one thing that no one’s ever seen or done in a game before. I promise you that the game we’re working on now will do that,” Spector says.
“If people want ‘unique and innovative’, even I look at what we’re doing and think we’re crazy,” he adds. “The team is accomplishing more than I asked.”
The Otherside Entertainment website is similarly vague about the project, adding only that it’s set in an “alien yet strangely familiar world.”
Spector’s work on projects including Deus Ex, System Shock and Ultima Underworld mean that I’ll pay attention no matter how vague the above proclamations are, but I’m not sure his recent track record has earned him the benefit of the doubt. Otherside’s previous game was the abysmal, unfinished Underworld Ascendant, and although the IGN article is careful to clarify that Spector wasn’t director of the project, he was more involved with Otherside’s System Shock 3. It ran into publisher trouble and its development team was laid off, and the rights to make a sequel are now controlled by Tencent without Otherside’s involvement. While there may be some bad luck involved in that, the project didn’t look particularly convincing before it fell apart.
Hopefully things work out better this time. We last spoke to Spector back in 2020 for Deus Ex’s 20th anniversary.