It has been revealed Mass effect spiritual successor, Exodus, will make an appearance at the 2025 Game Awards, where first-time developer Archetype Entertainment is pulling back the curtain further on the mysterious project, perhaps even nailing down a release date. Hopes are high for the ambitious sci-fi action RPG, which was revealed by Matthew McConaughey at The Game Awards 2023.
McConaughey's involvement (he's set to play a character named CC Orlev in the game) isn't the only reason audiences are excited about Exodus. Arguably more exciting is the participation of several key BioWare developers: Archetype Entertainment was founded by former BioWare employees Chad Robertson and James Ohlen, both of whom were heavily involved in key works such as Dragon Age and Mass effect. Ohlen and Robertson are joined by lead writer Drew Karpyshyn, who wrote the stories for the first two Mass effect games and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This collection of genre highlights for a new RPG has given audiences cause for excitement; indeed, many hope so Exodus will fill Mass effect-shaped holes in their hearts.
What is Exodus about?
Some 40,000 years in the future, humanity has conquered the stars and colonized millions of planets within the Omega Centauri cluster, thousands of light years away from an environmentally devastated Earth. Man reached Omega Centauri around 18,000 AD. and spent the millennia spreading among the stars, settling on habitable planets awaiting more arkships from Earth. When Exodus' The campaign starts, humanity has diverged and guided its own evolution into a variety of intelligent species, collectively known as Celestials.
20,000 years is a long time: empires rise and fall, cultures flourish and die out, there are golden ages and dark ages, and humanity is forever changed. Due to the staggered speed of arkship arrival, many human groups find themselves unfamiliar with these strange, alien worlds and are often subjugated by stronger, more advanced celestial races.
About 41,500 AD lands a long-delayed arkship on a moon called Lidon, formerly inhabited by a celestial race called the Detenir. After a few hundred years, a Lidon mercenary named Orion Aslan becomes a famous traveler – an interplanetary treasure hunter seeking ancient celestial technology known as Remnants, which is used to advance Lidon society and ward off a techovirus known as Rot. Through his deeds and leadership, Orion is revered and loved, establishing the Aslan dynasty to rule over the now thriving society of Lidon.
Orion fuses human and celestial DNA to create Jun Aslan, Exodus' main character. When Jun is a child, and while his father is away on a traveling mission, his half-brother Gideon Aslan usurps the throne of Orion and declares himself the new ruler of the Aslan dynasty. This forces Jun to flee Lidon, although he still follows in his father's Traveler footsteps. Due to his celestial heritage, he has unique powers, which he tries to use to save Lidon from decay.
Exodus Companion
Much like its spiritual predecessor, Exodus will feature travel companions that the player can bond with. So far, Archetype Entertainment has released information on two companions, with more news to come before release.
Tom Vargas
Described as a “charming villain,” Tom Vargas is a victim of the times. He once explored the galaxy with a legendary traveler named Max, with whom he seemingly had some sort of romantic relationship. During one mission, Tom and Max were pursued by enemy forces, prompting Tom to put Max in an escape pod and try to lead the enemies away. During his flight, he used an advanced interstellar transport device called a Gate of Heaven, which facilitates travel at near-light speed. He traveled back to Lidon, but due to time dilation he arrived decades after Max. The journey felt like mere days from his perspective.
The gates of heaven are very reminiscent of Mass effectpp Mass Effect Relays, used for light speed travel, but Exodus complicating this theoretical technique with the time dilation hiccup.
Elise Charroux
A former gang member from 22nd century Earth, Elise Charroux is a combat and weapons expert who fights in a mechanized exosuit. As a “Sleeper”, she spent millennia in suspended animation, still haunted by her memories of Earth's later years. She is described as brave, loyal and indispensable in a fight.
CC Orlev, Matthew McConaughey's character, is shrouded in mystery, although he appears to play a role similar to that of a narrator.
Heavenly Factions
Evolved far beyond the humans of contemporary Earth, the Celestials possess almost god-like powers relative to the likes of Tom and Elise. There are several distinct celestial races and civilizations, but here are the three that have been the primary focus Exodus' marketing so far:
- Crown Celestials: The Elder of the Heavens, the Imperial Heavens of the Crown Domain, also called the Crown Heaven, are a psychic humanoid race. They control six star systems in the Poseidon Nebula and rule over billions of citizens.
- Elohim: The creators of Heaven's Gates, the Elohim, were a great power in the Centauri cluster for thousands of years before they mysteriously disappeared. Their technology, still remarkable, was instrumental in bringing about peace, trade, and fruitful communication between Centauri civilizations after the cluster's most turbulent years.
- Mara Yama Dominion: Terrifying, Giger-like creatures, these Skymen are inherently antisocial and reject the laws of Elohim that the rest of Centauri civilization follows. They are known to commit atrocities, capturing members of weaker human races, extracting their emotions and memories before finally killing them.
Exodus game
Third person shooter
About like Mass effect before that, Exodus is a real-time third-person shooter. Players will be tasked with dispatching all manner of enemies, including the Mara Yama-created Koven and the Awakened, Earthlings enhanced with supernatural physical and intellectual abilities. Due to Jun's unique powers, he can interact with Celestial technology, giving him access to special abilities: pre-alpha gameplay footage shows Jun freezing enemies in place and using a kinetic blast, for example.
Versatility seems to be an important part of the combat sandbox. ExodusThe latest gameplay trailer depicts June crouching, rolling, sliding and grabbing out of harm's way, which will hopefully give encounters a sense of speed and verticality. Jun is also shown using stealth, suggesting that indirect strategies for combat are also viable.
Choice-based gameplay and time dilation
In another parallel to its BioWare counterparts, Exodus will allow the player to direct the story through important decisions. However, Exodus is unique due to the aforementioned narrative element of time dilation, which forces the player to jump several years in time and see the far-reaching results of decisions they may have made only moments ago. If done well, this can make for a much more compelling choice-based story than something like this Mass effectwhich is smaller in scope.
Will Exodus have romance?
Since Jun is fully customizable and companions play an important role in the story, one would imagine that Exodus have some kind of romance system – and one would be correct. Unfortunately, not much is known about how romance will actually work in the game, although lead writer Karpyshyn has hinted that the player's romantic choices could have a big impact on the story.
