Exodus' inspirations include Horizon Zero Dawn, Dune, Alien, Interstellar, Star Wars and Star Trek

Exodus has never looked like a game ashamed of where it came from. Archetype Entertainment's upcoming sci-fi RPG is being made by a team with deep roots in some of the genre's biggest games, and from the moment it was revealed, it's been pretty easy to draw comparisons between it and other great sci-fi stories. Mass effectin particular, is a franchise Exodus has never shied away from imitation, especially given that some of the team's developers also worked on BioWare's acclaimed sci-fi RPG trilogy in its heyday. However, its influences extend beyond just one IP and medium, reaching into various films and written media as well.

During a recent Future Games Show showcase briefing attended by GameRant, Archetype Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast spoke more openly about some of the inspirations behind Exodusand the list is about as long as you'd expect from a game this ambitious. Some of these influences can be seen in its combat, others in its approach to time dilation, and others in the sense of venturing into a universe far larger and more alien than humanity fully understands. But the most interesting thing about Exodus could be the way Archetype seems to draw from so many familiar places while trying to make those influences serve their own world.

Exodus draws from some of Sci-Fi's biggest names

Some of ExodusInspirations are already quite easy to see from the outside when you look inside. Mass effect is the most obvious comparison given Archetype's BioWare history and Exodus' own focus on companions, choices, and space exploration, but that's not the only big sci-fi shadow the game stands in. With a game like this, players will naturally look at its gameplay, world, and lore and begin to connect those pieces to some of the most recognizable sci-fi franchises in history. According to game director Chris King, that's at least partly due to Exodus is made by a team of people who all brought their own favorite pieces of science fiction:

I think one of the great things about this is that when people come into the project, come into the team, we all bring our own things that have inspired us, the things we love, the things we grew up with. You'll see that there are a lot of very obvious things that we've taken little bits of. A lot of people here are big fans of Dune. Of course, Star Wars has an influence on all of us. The Alien movies, you know. Interstellar is probably the most visible example of time dilation in popular media, but we put our own spin on it. And that's kind of what we like to do is put our spin on these kinds of things, take the things that we loved, take the spirit of what made them exciting to us growing up and as adults too, and bring it all together and create something fresh and new that evokes the same kind of emotions that we like in the entertainment that we love.

It makes sense for a game that Exodusbecause its world deals with ideas that sci-fi has already spent decades exploring. There are familiar building blocks there, but familiar building blocks are not the problem. What matters is how Archetype uses them, and based on what King said, the goal isn't to hide where the team's inspirations came from but to take the pieces that made those stories so memorable and give them a reason to exist within. Exodusown world.

And that's actually a fair way to look at science fiction in general, as the genre has never really been known for having completely original ideas. Many of its biggest franchises share the same ingredients, but the difference usually comes down to what a story chooses to do with those ingredients. King seems to see Exodus likewise, as a game that may look familiar at first glance, but one that Archetype builds around its own ideas:

Chad's favorite sci-fi series is Star Wars, my favorite series is Star Trek. And the reason I bring that up is, if you look at them, they both have spaceships, they both have aliens, but there are a lot of things that are different. And that's pretty much how I feel about Exodus as well. You can probably take a first glance and say, “Oh, I see similarities with companions and whales, all those things.” But I think the kind of story we're trying to tell and some of the things we're experimenting with is quite different from things we've done before.

Science fiction has always worked this way to some degree, which makes the long-running rivalry between some of its biggest franchises a little funny in retrospect. Star Wars and Star Trek have spent decades being compared to each other for obvious reasons, and yet both are part of a much larger sci-fi lineage. Star Wars drew from ideas that Star Trek had already helped popularize, but Star Trek wasn't entirely original either. Franchise creator Gene Roddenberry actually quoted Forbidden Planet as one of the inspirations behind Star Trekand that the 1956 film has long been recognized as one of the most important cornerstones of the genre.

In part, that's what makes Archetypes willing to admit Exodus' inspiration so refreshing. There's nothing wrong with a sci-fi story having roots, especially in a genre where so many of the biggest worlds are built on ideas that came from somewhere else first. The question is whether these roots become imitations or whether they become the basis for something with its own identity. Based on how King talks about ExodusArchetype seems much more interested in the latter, using familiar sci-fi ideas as a starting point rather than pretending the game was developed without any influences at all.

Exodus also has an unexpected connection to Horizon Zero Dawn

However, inspiration does not always come from the same genre that a game belongs to. Sometimes it comes from a single mechanic or system that developers admire enough to reinterpret in a new context. For Exodusone of the more surprising influences is Horizon Zero Dawnwhich apparently helped shape one of its combat systems, according to Archetype's general manager Chad Robertson:

I think there's a lot of inspirations we've had in the game, both from general media and film to, obviously, video games. I'll just mention one, and it's not necessarily a unique inspiration, but there are elements of combat – one of the things I like most about the game – you'll see where Chris and the team leaned on some things and took some inspiration from a game like Horizon Zero Dawn. There's this mode in the game called Precognition where you can use it as a tool to kind of scan the battlefield to basically make decisions both strategically and tactically about how you want to approach a fight. And I won't tease too much more of it, but there are some parts of that game that I think inspired the team.

Robertson did not say exactly which part of Horizon Zero Dawn helped inspire Precognition, but the connection is pretty easy to make. Horizons combat often begins with players scanning machines, studying weak points, tagging enemies, and ultimately deciding how they want to approach a fight before it even begins. If Precognition works in a similar way, it can give Exodus a way to make combat feel more tactical without slowing it down completely. Jun would still be in the middle of an action RPG, but players would have a better chance to read the battlefield before committing.

And really, that might be the best way to understand Exodus' inspiration as a whole. Archetype clearly draws from some of the biggest franchises in sci-fi and gaming, but those influences only matter if they help Exodus become more yourself. Dune, Foreign, Interstellar, Star Wars, Star Trek, Mass effectand Horizon Zero Dawn all point to different parts of what Archetype is building, from the scale of its universe to how its combat might work. The real question now is whether Exodus can bring all of those roots together in a way that feels worthy of the games and stories that helped inspire it.