Developer Archetype Entertainment recently held a Q&A in order to provide an update on upcoming sci-fi action RPG Exodus. In the Q&A, creative director James Ohlen and executive producer Chad Robertson have revealed some new details about the upcoming title.
The relationships players form with their teammates in Exodus will be a big factor in the game, with the studio revealing that setting out on missions will affect relationships with characters you don’t meet for a while. This is because missions in Exodus could take several years, and even decades to complete.
“You go off on your Exodus Journeys and you leave behind your city and some of your friends and maybe even family members, and you make choices about them,” said Ohlen.
An example provided by Ohlen indicated that players could end up not meeting some characters for several decades, and the choices they make will affect characters that are now several years older than when you previously met them.
“Not everyone has to come on an Exodus with you,” he explained. “You might leave some behind and when you come back it could be a decade later, it could be four decades later, and those choices will have impacted your relationships with people that are now a decade older or three or four decades older.”
This narrative decision stems from the fact that the story of Exodus revolves around humanity looking for a new home in the stars, and journeys at that massive scale will definitely take several years. There is also some level of time dilation happening in the game’s story, likely owing to interstellar travel at incredible speeds.
Robertson also revealed that the primary antagonists in the game, referred to as the Mara Yama, will be creepy. This stems from the studio wanting the game’s primary enemies being an evil Celestial civilization, but could also manage to be creepy.
The Mara Yama were revealed in a trailer from October, which showcased just how strange and creepy they can be. The civilization doesn’t quite have a planet it calls home, and is instead more nomadic in nature, travelling across the stars in its own citadels.
The studio goes on to talk about various other smaller aspects of the game, including how time dilation will affect players, details about the player character (known in the game as the Traveler), and even which characters the developers would like to be if they lived in the universe of Exodus.
Originally unveiled back in 2023, Exodus will be a third-person action RPG that will involve a mix of both fast-paced action, as well as quite a bit of exploration. The game’s narrative is being handled by storied sci-fi writer Drew Karbyshyn, who revealed in an interview last year that there will be plenty of long-term choices and consequences for players to experience.
The most recent trailer released for the game back in December gave us a closer look at its third-person shooter combat. The trailer gave us a look at a firefight against a host of different enemies, while also letting us catch a glimpse of some of the various abilities players will have access to in the game.