Call Of The Wild: Edge 393 explores how the creators of Payday are bringing the heist genre into the future with Den Of Wolves

gamesradar.com:

With few exceptions, the open-world game has largely been the preserve of Western studios – those with deep enough pockets to fund the development of large-scale sandboxes, rich in scope and detail alike. But with publisher NetEase evidently prepared to splash the cash, Hangzhou-based Everstone is plotting to put China at the very heart of the genre with the forthcoming Where Winds Meet. 

In E392’s cover feature, we talk to the studio about this luxurious production, in which you play as a lithe and acrobatic swordsman whose skillset draws from wuxia: the physics-defying martial arts fiction seen in films such as Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou’s House Of Flying Daggers. 

As Where Winds Meet’s lead designer Chris Lyu notes, “Traditionally, kung fu has predominantly been employed only for battles in games”. But while there’s certainly no shortage of opponents to test your combat skills against, the mystical abilities you’re blessed with allow you to bend the rules of the physical world to your will in other ways. Take Chi Grip, which lets you pull objects toward you by simply flexing your digits: you can use this to expose a scammer in a tavern drinking game, for example. Head outdoors and you might call upon the power of Sword Flight, launching yourself through the clouds as a way to cross large tracts of Qinghe’s five-kilometre-square plains in a matter of moments.

Everstone outlines further fascinating ideas, such as the ability to adopt distinctive roles when playing online. You might choose to refine your healing skills – the game’s fully fledged disease mechanic means that online players might sometimes require medical attention – or pursue a career as a scholar, bodyguard, or ferryman,