What is Exodus, The Upcoming RPG That’s Very Similar to Mass Effect?

McConaughey’s involvement (he is slated to play a character called C.C. 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 staff members Chad Robertson and James Ohlen, who were both heavily involved in seminal works like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Ohlen and Robertson are joined by Lead Writer Drew Karpyshyn, who penned the stories of the first two Mass Effect games and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This assembly of genre luminaries for a new RPG has given audiences cause for excitement; indeed, many are hoping that Exodus will fill the Mass Effect-shaped hole in their hearts.

What Is Exodus About?

Roughly 40,000 years in the future, humanity has conquered the stars, colonizing millions of planets within the Omega Centauri cluster, thousands of light-years away from an environmentally devastated Earth. Humankind reached Omega Centauri around 18,000 AD, and spent the millennia spreading amongst the stars, settling on habitable planets while awaiting more arkships from Earth. By the time Exodus‘ campaign starts, humanity has diverged, guiding their own evolution into a variety of different intelligent species, collectively called Celestials.

20,000 years is a long time: empires rise and fall, cultures thrive and die out, there are golden ages and dark ones, and humanity is forever changed. Due to the staggered rate of arkships’ arrival, many human groups find themselves unfamiliar with these strange, alien worlds, and are often subjugated by stronger, more advanced Celestial races.

Around 41,500 AD, a long-delayed arkship lands on a moon called Lidon, which was previously inhabited by a Celestial race called the Detenir. After a few hundred years, a Lidon mercenary named Orion Aslan becomes a renowned Traveler—an interplanetary treasure hunter seeking ancient Celestial tech called Remnants, which are used to advance Lidon society and stave off a techo-virus known as the Rot. Through his deeds and leadership, Orion becomes revered and beloved, establishing the Aslan Dynasty to rule over Lidon’s now-flourishing society.

Orion fuses human and Celestial DNA to create Jun Aslan, Exodus‘ protagonist. When Jun is a child, and while his father is away on a Traveler mission, his half-brother Gideon Aslan usurps Orion’s throne, declaring himself the new ruler of the Aslan Dynasty. This forces Jun to flee Lidon, though he still follows in his father’s Traveler footsteps. Because of his Celestial heritage, he has one-of-a-kind powers, which he seeks to use to save Lidon from the Rot.

Exodus’ Companion Characters

Much like its spiritual predecessors, Exodus will feature traveling companions for the player to bond with. So far, Archetype Entertainment has released information about two companions, with more news to come ahead of release.

Tom Vargas

Described as a “charming rogue,” Tom Vargas is a victim of time. He once explored the galaxy with a legendary Traveler named Max, with whom he ostensibly 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 attempt to lead the enemies away. During his flight, he used an advanced interstellar transport device called a Gate of Heaven, which facilitates near-lightspeed travel. He traveled back to Lidon, but because of time dilation, he arrived decades after Max. The trip felt like mere days from his perspective.

Elise Charroux

A former gang member from 23rd-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’s described as brave, loyal, and indispensable in a fight.

Celestial Factions

Evolved far beyond the humans of contemporary Earth, the Celestials possess almost godlike 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 of Exodus‘ marketing so far:

• Crown Celestials: The oldest of the Celestials, the Imperial Celestials of the Crown Domain, also called Crown Celestials, are a psychic humanoid race. They control six star systems in the Poseidon Nebula, ruling over billions of citizens.
• Elohim: The creators of the Gates of Heaven, the Elohim were a major power in the Centauri cluster for thousands of years before mysteriously disappearing. Their technology, still remarkable, played a crucial role in establishing peace, commerce, and fruitful communication among Centauri civilizations after the cluster’s most turbulent years.
• The Mara Yama Dominion: Horrifying, Giger-like creatures, these Celestials are inherently antisocial, rejecting the Laws of the Elohim that the rest of Centauri civilization abides by. They are known to commit atrocities, capturing members of weaker human races, extracting their emotions and memories before ultimately killing them.

Exodus’ Gameplay

Third-Person Shooting

Much like Mass Effect before it, Exodus is a real-time third-person shooter. Players will be tasked with dispatching all manner of foe, including the Mara Yama-created Koven and Awakened, Earth animals enhanced with preternatural physical and intellectual abilities. Because of Jun’s unique powers, he can interface with Celestial technology, granting him access to special abilities: pre-alpha gameplay footage shows Jun freezing enemies in place and using a kinetic blast, for instance.

Versatility appears to be an important part of the combat sandbox. Exodus‘ most recent gameplay trailer depicts Jun crouching, rolling, sliding, and grapple-hooking out of the way of danger, which will hopefully lend encounters a sense of speed and verticality. Jun is also shown using stealth, suggesting that indirect approaches to combat are viable as well.

Choice-Based Gameplay & Time Dilation

In another parallel to its BioWare counterparts, Exodus will allow the player to steer the story through key decisions. However, Exodus is unique due to the aforementioned narrative element of time dilation, which forces the player to jump years ahead in time, seeing the extensive results of decisions they may have made just moments ago. If done well, this could make for a far more compelling choice-based narrative than something like Mass Effect, which is smaller in scope.

Will Exodus Have Romance?

With Jun being completely customizable and companion characters playing an important role in the story, one would imagine that Exodus features some sort of romance system—and one would be correct. Unfortunately, not much is known about how romance will actually function in-game, though Lead Writer Karpyshyn has hinted that the player’s romantic choices can have a major impact on the story.