A new trailer for Exodus from a team of ex-BioWare developers at Texas-based Archetype Entertainment has been revealed at this year’s Game Awards.
In the trailer, we get a look at the sci-fi action-RPG’s protagonist, Jun, a young man who’s tasked with finding a way to stop the mysterious Rot from destroying his planet. To do that, he has to venture across the galaxy and recruit all kinds of colourful characters, including an octopus in a mech suit known as Salt.
What makes this all the more intriguing, though, is the concept of time dilation, perhaps most famously featured in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. This means that Jun’s journey to one location could result in years passing back home, which, of course, feeds into the classic BioWare-style choice-based narrative.
The trailer also teases more of C.C. Orlev, a mysterious mentor figure for Jun played by Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey. You might remember that the Interstellar star took to the stage at the 2023 Game Awards, but at the time, we didn’t know who he was playing.
All in all, it looks excellent, and my excitement only increased after attending a pre-Game Awards briefing with Archetype. Right off the bat, it sounds like the developer is taking a smart approach to Exodus.
“One of the things we’re particularly excited about as fans of science fiction ourselves is that we honour hard science fiction, but we try to make it in a fun and accessible way as a game, of course. But specifically, that science manifests in such a way that time itself acts as another factor that’s huge in the game — almost as another antagonist that Jun must deal with,” said Chad Robertson, co-founder and general manager of Archetype. “Ultimately, time itself plays a central role in the story, and it sets the stage for a great story overall [with] some complex choices that Jun is going to have to make.”
What immediately intrigues me about Exodus, though, is the involvement of Drew Karpyshyn as narrative director. For the unfamiliar, this is the Edmonton-born writer of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, as well as Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, three of gaming’s greatest sci-fi games, among other BioWare games. Having him play a key role on Exodus alongside fellow BioWare alums like Robertson, King and Archetype co-founder and boss James Ohlen (lead designer on KOTOR and Baldur’s Gate) is remarkably exciting.
During our preview, Karpyshyn said Exodus calls back to Mass Effect in some key ways.
“For me, the biggest thing having worked on Mass Effect that reminds me with Archetype is just the depth of the universe we’ve created. We’ve just put so much thought and care and time into building this incredibly vibrant, deep, sprawling universe that you get to explore, between the Awakened and the Changelings and the Celestials, and the cast of characters and how these things change and evolve as you make choices throughout the game,” he said.
“That’s what I love about RPGs in general — the chance for players to explore something they’ve never seen before, something completely new. We really have given you just so much to explore. You’ll constantly be digging and finding new things, and there’s something for everybody in there.”
Adding to that sentiment, Exodus game director Chris King says the team’s goal is to make players feel like “co-authors of the experience.” That includes not just the ability to customize Jun (who can be male or female) and make those tough choices as them, but also deal with the impact of how that affects the world and your ability to influence other characters.
He says this also feeds into a “play your way” gameplay philosophy. Part of this comes down to the core third-person shooting, which involves a high-tech gun called the Recycler that the team refers to as the “Swiss army knife” of firearms. Essentially, it can transform into different shooting modes, which can then be enhanced through what King describes as an “intricate weapon modification system” to evolve each firing type.
On top of that, King says levels have been designed to support both run-and-gun and stealth options. Jun also has a special device called the Livestone, which can manipulate the environment to create more gameplay opportunities, like cover spots or, as seen in the trailer, makeshift bridges to cross gaps. This, when used in conjunction with a grappling hook, should greatly open up both traversal and exploration.
At the same time, Archetype is cognizant of how some games can feel bloated in just how much content they throw at you.
“Philosophically, one of the debates we had early was lots of open-world RPG games, they sort of bombard you with so much content, but it comes at the expense of quality, and it can feel like you’re doing a bunch of fetch quests and you’re doing things just for the sake of playing,” says King.
“And so we’ve tried to strike the balance where every piece of content we put in the game is hand-curated. It’s got an interesting story. It’s pushing the main story forward. It’s pushing interesting characters or companion characters forward, you’re doing things to help them […] Everything we’ve put in there has a purpose, and we’re not trying to just do things for the sake of padding the numbers.”
Again, it goes back to focusing on depth over breadth. A key example of this, King says, is all of the ways that time dilation can impact not only the larger narrative, but each individual companion as well. “The tease I would give with all these characters is how you initially meet them and how they are at the end could be drastically different,” he said.
And of course, for one more fun BioWare comparison, Archetype notes that yes, you will be able to romance most of your companions, with one exception. “Sorry to disappoint everyone — you cannot romance Salt! She’s not into humans, but you can romance a lot of your characters,” says Karpyshyn.
That said, Robertson teased a “pretty amazing” sense of humour from Salt. And on a broader note, Karpyshyn says some romance options can be “pretty thirsty” and lead to “sticky situations” where you’ll have to choose between them. Given how BioWare games are renowned for such memorable companions as Garrus, Wrex and Tali from Mass Effect and Bastila, Jolee and HK-47 from Knights of the Old Republic, I can’t wait to see what Archetype is cooking up with the cast in Exodus.
For Karpyshyn, that’s the ultimate goal of Exodus. “It’s about connection to these companions, connection to the world. Players are just going to want to spend more time in this world, more time with their companions,” he said. “They’re going to really want to just throw themselves in and lose themselves in this experience. That’s really what I want people to get out of this.”
As someone who spent countless hours across half of 2023 putting together a 20,000-word retrospective on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (and much more time replaying the Mass Effect trilogy over the years), everything I’ve seen and heard about Exodus is really speaking to me so far. I hope the team sticks the landing because man, there’s really nothing like that classic BioWare RPG experience.
Exodus will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC in early 2027.
Image credit: Archetype Entertainment
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