We’re rapidly approaching three years since the world got its first look at Exodus. A lot has happened in the world since 2023 – many games have come and gone in the span between. It would be fair to question if Exodus has kept pace with the movements of the market.
Happily, all this time has gone to good use. Developer Archetype Entertainment, backed by legendary tabletop game publisher Wizards of the Coast, are now on the downhill run on this science fiction sprawler and it’s finally time to wrap our mitts around a gamepad and get stuck in. Archetype is rightly avoiding Grand Theft of Your Time in November and touching down on April 7, 2027 instead, so now’s the perfect time for a progress check-in.
Here are Five Things You Need to Know about Exodus.
1. YOU’VE GOT TO STOP THE ROT
Exodus’ story focuses on the practical and sometimes heartbreaking effects of time dilation, where days of interstellar space travel for the player mean decades passing for loved ones back home.
Players take on the role of “Traveler” Jun Aslan, this game’s Commander Shephard, but with heartthrob hair and a charming disposition. He is the stalwart son of famed veteran Traveler, Orion Aslan, but through happenings as yet unclear, Jun starts the game as a humble salvager on a dying world overrun by a technovirus known as The Rot. To save your planet, which every good hero should aim to do, you must reclaim your father’s legacy and stop The Rot.
Still with me? Good. The Rot, as we understand it, is a byproduct of The Celestials: descendants of the first humans. They’ve evolved far beyond humanity’s capabilities – around 40,000 years more advanced, and are a persistent threat to humanity’s continued existence in Exodus.
To further complicate things, Jun is also a genetic crosspoint of sorts; he can, for reasons still unclear, interact with Celestial technology, imbuing him with special active abilities – sort of a techo-blend of Psy attacks and quasi-magical spells (but I’m sure the game has detailed lore that will explain the context better than I can). In practice, just like Mass Effect, you’ll be upgrading these abilities throughout the journey, triggering all sorts of cool effects, environmental modifiers, attacks, defensive techniques and so on.
2. THE UNIVERSE IS FULL OF “AWAKENED” BEINGS
The team allowed us to play through one mostly complete mission on PC, abridged in a couple places to keep the pace moving (and presumably to cut minor story moments). We meet our swarthy hero Jun Aslan aboard his sleek vessel (reminiscent of the N7, in fact), joined by a multi-racial, multi-species crew.
Let’s talk about The Awakened. The universe is teeming with animals, as it turns out. The Awakened are animals have been granted human intellect through some means, and this is a very good thing for players, because in addition to all sorts of interesting alien races, you can now expect some brilliant dealings with all kinds of talking critters, and oh boy, they all have plenty to say about how cruddy and exploitative humans generally are. They’re not wrong!
The team have revealed eight of Jun’s companions so far – and teased that there are still some to be revealed. The current roster includes: Tom Vargas, Elise Charroux, Phaedra Nath, Salt, Houston, Suliman, C.C. Orlev and Emrys, but alledgedly there are 11 crew to find. One standout is an Awakened anthropomorphic wolf named Houston, who, curiously, is your adopted brother.
The recent Gamescom trailer also introduced us to Salt – a blunt, bounty-hunting Awakened Octopus in a mech suit. She is a sniper who can use her ink as a smokescreen to provide cover in combat.
As an aside, it seems like Octopi are having their moment, perhaps propelled into popularity through the 2020 film “My Octopus Teacher”. Then came The Boys’ romantic (albeit warped) relationship between an octopus and The Deep. I digress, but in Exodus, you can look forward to meeting lots of Awakened species, tentacled or otherwise.
3. THIS IS HOW EXODUS PLAYS
Back to the mission, and Jun’s goal is to set down inside the hangar bay of a large orbital space station that houses a race of Awakened Frogs known as the Kay from the planet Lidon. The Kay have been exploited and driven into exile – but all is not lost! One Kay, catchily named 42C, has developed a soft spot for human music – thumping heavy electronica – and is eager to help guide you.
Your offside for the mission is the equally swishy-haired, but slightly stiff Suliman: a dark-eyed representative of a powerful faction that Jun must align with. Why? Because their support will enable you to get your hands on some critical parts that will allow your ship to travel between star systems. There’s no free lunch, even in the cold of space.
Anyway, the opening sequence lets us appreciate the gorgeous facial animations delivering engaging and nicely performed dialogue sequences from decorated Narrative Director and writer Drew Karpyshyn and his team of ex-Bioware, Naughty Dog and 343 alumni. Again, there’s an instant fee ling of Biowaresque familiarity, thanks to a sharp script, infusing the characters and scenarios with plenty of personality.
In practice, it’s clear the team has studied what makes the genre leaders successful. Mass Effect’s team directing mechanics are implemented almost identically, for one. That’s a good thing, insofar as I was able to jump into a mission that takes place a couple hours into the start of the game and not feel completely overwhelmed.
We start in a micro-gravity environment, making our way into the guts of the ship. Jun can sprint, jump, grapple, dive behind cover, roll and dodge attacks, and scale up ledges. Jun’s an agile fella and you’ll rarely feel constrained.
In true action-RPG form, you’ll be spending a good portion of time dealing out commands to your squad in slowed-down time. The radial menu pops up and pumps the brakes on the game speed, allowing you precious seconds to target enemies and queue up your squad’s preferred attacks and manoeuvres. You can, of course, just duke it out guns akimbo, but the game urges you to play around with a raft of abilities: aerial bombardments, stealthy teleportation attacks and such. These squad attacks can be timed up for combo damage too, which is a nice touch.
We pushed forward through hallways and tunnels, activating mechanical ledges, grappling up platforms and activating switches. You’ll be collecting resources, crafting ammo, unlocking new items, weapons and skills as you do. It’s what you’d expect in a game of this nature, and so far, Exodus is delivering the goods.
4. YOU’LL BE MAKING HARD DECISIONS
Eventually we meet up with a couple of Awakened Frogs, who compel you to help them – and put you at odds with Suliman at times. The story doesn’t shy away from dark themes and puts you in positions that force you to make hard decisions. Do you sell out an entire species for immediate gain, or risk it all and keep your chin held high?
Later, I came upon an injured enemy and I was posed with further ethical dilemmas. Yes, you’ll be choosing from morally grey responses to many situations and your teammates will judge you based on how just firm your backbone is. In Mass Effect, you were leaning towards Paragon or Renegade. In the Exodus-verse, your choices put you in either “Paladin” or “Immortal” baskets. I’m a softie (Paladin), because I like to help the injured, rather than doom them – but you do you.
It is nice to see a return to branching dialogue trees and vastly different outcomes. I won’t spoil the mission’s various encounters, but I had a great time trading barbs with an uptight robot and the game certainly rewards you for being ruthless.
The mission culminates in a final ethical quandary – and the whole situation devolves into a down and dirty fight with a gigantic Awakened Grizzly Bear. Yes, you’ll fight space bears. Be still my heart. It’s a great demonstration of the importance of mastering your abilities and coordinating your squad – but I did feel bad killing the bear. I guess you’re supposed to.
I played through this mission twice and explored the different outcomes – but both resulted in a messy end for one particular character, so the game definitely steers you towards certain outcomes. Regardless, you’ll have a great time along the way. Hopefully there’s room for some diplomacy now and then for the pacifists out there.
5. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
Our time with Exodus was brief but tantalizing. Questions remain around the time dilation concept, for all the sales pitching around that feature. I’m also unclear on the overall structure of the game – which I feel is integral to selling the epic setup. Just how linear is the story? Are there more space bears? These are the big questions.
Undeniably, the game shows a lot of promise. Terrific production values throughout, a great score punctuated by weapon fire that chimes and beats in time with the music. Little touches like that stood out to me more than the almost-textbook gameplay implementation. I suspect there is a hell of a lot more under wraps though and I look forward to rolling back those covers.
“Space opera” is a term that gets bandied around, sometimes at a stretch, but Exodus arguably deserves the moniker. In my mind, operas demand a certain emotional depth or resonance with the audience; the story is about the characters in the universe, rather than the science and technology propelling them forward. Exodus has plenty of the latter of course, but the interplay matters just as much.
What we’ve seen and played so far is shamelessly like Bioware’s take on action-RPGs and far flung universe-building. I cannot wait to keep playing this. Playing through, I didn’t realise just how much I missed this style of intelligent RPG-forward storytelling in an atmosphere of hardened science fiction gunplay and strategy.
With a bona fide new Mass Effect installment coming in the next couple years (talk about a broad window), there’s plenty of time for Exodus to pull in a swathe of fans looking to lose themselves in the infinite void.
IGN was a guest of BiliBili for this preview event.