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The announcement describes that Clutch will see players competing across a living PvPvE action-driving world, and it\u2019s noted Clutch\u2019s \u201copen-world sandbox unleashes blockbuster action and unscripted chaos in every high-speed getaway.\u201d At one point, a car is depicted firing a grappling gadget at a pole and swinging around it at speed.<\/p>\n
In the first look at Clutch, Brown discussed that the project is benefiting from the longest development of any game he\u2019s worked on. Running on a custom version of Unreal Engine 5, Clutch will not only boast cars where \u201cevery exterior curve, every fleck of paint, [and] every interior stitch\u201d is recreated perfectly, but cars that actually come with signs of wear, and signs that the cars have actually been driven.<\/p>\n
Clutch will also arrive with a deep level of vehicle customisation options, both interior and exterior. The initial showcase unveils a wide range of options, from steering wheels to exhaust tips, and seats to neons. However, not only does it appear we can expect a large range of custom parts and options, but there will also be human details available to help the cars feel even more real. The examples shown are things like coffee cups and drinks in the cupholders, receipts on the dashboard, or hoodies strewn over the passenger seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll talk through what we were going with there,\u201d Brown tells IGN. \u201cI\u2019m not going to ding any other games in particular, because this actually applies to quite a few games, but I guess traditionally the presentation has a bit museum-like. Where the car, no matter its age, will be presented in a way that is completely pristine. Which then creates a problem that it\u2019s so perfect that it doesn\u2019t alway sit in the scene in a way that makes sense. Like, you\u2019d be driving it around a place that looks like a real city or real countryside, with this museum-quality 60-year-old car driving around.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always pops out of the scene in a way that doesn\u2019t feel real. You could never actually see that car, on a road, looking like that; it would never exist that way. The way it\u2019d actually exist would be there\u2019d be dust, there\u2019d be little bits of build-up, there\u2019d be carbon around the exhaust. There\u2019d be little bits of wear here and there. If you looked inside it there\u2019d be wear on the steering wheel where someone\u2019s driven this and gripped it, and the leather would be sagging on the seats. Maybe there\u2019d be sun damage on the leather if it\u2019s a soft top. Once you start to layer in all those bits of detail, a thing just looks that much more real and loved.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown founded Maverick in December 2022, a little over a year after Forza Horizon 5 was released.<\/p>\n \u201cI had been on Forza for a very long time and had achieved, I think, quite a lot with that franchise and really had an appetite to go and do something new; to try and push and do something new in the genre,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem with a franchise that is as successful and, frankly, excellent as Forza is it\u2019s very difficult to go and try and push that thing into a whole new direction because the business would like it to stay in the direction it\u2019s going, because it\u2019s good for business. I felt like there was an opportunity to do something different and do something a bit fresher in the genre.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, Brown departed Playground and set up Maverick Games, where he was joined by a number of other Forza Horizon veterans, including producer Tom Butcher, technical director Matt Craven, technical art director Gareth Harwood, audio director Fraser Stachan, and art director Ben Penrose. It was revealed in January 2023 that the team was working on a \u201cpremium open-world game for consoles and PC.\u201d Brown explains the team has since grown to about 140 people, but they currently remain independent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are technically an indie dev so we will be entering ourselves for all the indie game awards,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are about two miles away from the Playground Games office, so still very close contact with all those guys and still have a lot of friends over there \u2013 we see each other every day. And then we didn\u2019t do what a lot of studios do where they kinda go into stealth mode for a few years; we tried to \u2013 as much as you can do as a burgeoning, embryonic studio \u2013 be quite loud. We\u2019ve always been quite open about what we\u2019ve been up to.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s only so much you can say, because you talk about what you\u2019re doing in terms of development, but you can\u2019t talk about the specifics of the game, because you\u2019ll expose yourself a little too early, but from the start we were trying to just do things a little differently in the way that put out ourselves as a studio and as a company, but also the way that we operate internally, and try and just really encourage it to be a very open and creative and innovative space. And I think that\u2019s gonna show in the software; I think once you see what we\u2019ve got I think that\u2019ll back up the theory there.\u201d<\/p>\n Clutch is looking to make a big splash within the racing genre.<\/p>\n \u201cJust to give a sense of the ambition of where we\u2019re going with this \u2013 I\u2019m obviously very well-invested in car culture and automotive entertainment, and really aware that historically there\u2019s always been these huge tentpole franchises that have propped up and pushed car culture forward,\u201d says Brown. \u201cThere was that spell where Need for Speed \u2013 from Need for Speed Underground, Underground 2, and Most Wanted \u2013 was the number one best-selling game in the world, like, three years running. There was that period where Top Gear was the most-watched TV show and, in film, even though it\u2019s not the biggest film franchise in the world, the Fast & Furious series is one of them. It\u2019s made more money than Harry Potter; it\u2019s made more money than Batman. And that is the level of ambition for Clutch, to set the tone for car culture across the next decade, and be that tentpole IP that drives culture forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n
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