As if sci-fi role-playing Exodus didn’t already look enough like Mass Effect, developer Archetype has revealed a binary morality system for the game that works in almost exactly the same way – except it’s not Paragon and Renegade points we’re earning but Paladin and Immortal.
This oath system was outed in an extended Exodus gameplay video aired at the Future Games Show tonight, which gave us nearly 20 minutes of footage spread across various parts of the adventure, and offered our best look at the game yet.
Our morality alignment is, curiously, chosen at the start of the game; Paladins are described as “virtuous” and Immortals as “ambitious”. Then as in Mass Effect and many of BioWare’s other games – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire especially – we’ll alter our alignment by making decisions as we play.
The gameplay trailer shows a couple of these moments. In one, we’re held at gunpoint on a bridge and told to drop our weapons, and we can either calmly show our ID and talk our way around the obstacle (a Paladin response) or be standoffish and pick a fight (an Immortal response).
A more signposted decision moment – clearly meant to be one of consequence – comes later when deciding whether to flush a giant airlock to vent opponents into space, but by doing so also catch innocents in the process. Here, each of our companions suggests a different choice, so in addition to earning Paladin or Immortal points, there’s companion favour to earn.
“There will be rewards that are only unlocked if you go all one way or another” -Chris King
So you see: it’s a very familiar system, and in a press briefing I attended before the Future Games Show, I learned there’ll be gameplay rewards earned by going all the way in either alignment – as in Mass Effect, KOTOR and Jade Empire. “There will be rewards that are only unlocked if you go all one way or another,” said game director Chris King. “But we also have rewards that are exclusive if you choose a hybrid philosophy there.” So lingering in a grey area isn’t necessarily a bad thing. King also said our Paladin or Immortal standings will allow us to better persuade or intimidate people, respectively, too.
The gameplay trailer offered a good, broad look at action in Exodus, across a number of locations in the game, showing how we’ll use our upgradable quasi-magical gauntlet for instance – bequeathed to us by our missing father – to conjure cover, bridges, and make blades appear to thrust into our opponents. It’s our link to old Celestial technology through this gauntlet that marks main character Jun Aslan out as so special in the game.
A clutch of new Exodus screenshots.
But we also see dialogue between Jun and the companions we’ll meet, and get an idea of the story and the ways in which we’ll shape it. And while there are notable differences to Mass Effect, it’s the overall tone of Exodus that makes the games so similar. Exodus is a game besotted by the romance of space and steeped in the emotion of an adventure there.
It’s as studio general manager Chad Robertson said in the press briefing: “One element that really stands out is emotional impact – that’s a huge part for us. We actually talk about this all the time with our team. We look forward, ourselves, to those games where you have that moment where you have to put the controller down, where the weight of a big decision is sitting in front of you, and that’s the kind of experience we’re trying to deliver with Exodus.”
This is an adventure inspired by grand science-fiction stories that “feel bigger than any one moment that you’re experiencing at any given time”. Robertson added: “Whether it’s Luke’s journey from a farmer to a Jedi in Star Wars; or Paul shaping the future of Arrakis in Dune; or Cooper, in the case of Interstellar, making that impossible decision to leave Murphy behind. All those stories carry a real emotional weight, and that’s something that really inspires us and something we’ve tried to bring to bear in what we’re delivering with Exodus.”
One major way Exodus deviates from Mass Effect is with a time-dilation system, which I’ve written about before. When travelling on an ‘Exodus’ mission, as they’re known, far enough away you’ll need to travel near the speed of light to get there, the passage of time will begin between you and the people back home. The faster you go, the more time will effectively pass for them while staying still, or normal, for you. Think – to use Robertson’s example – of Interstellar.
I find this exciting for a role-playing game because it allows long-term consequences to be shown, but we don’t see much time-dilation in the gameplay trailer. There is a rapid section where Jun runs towards a statue in a town or city, and the area changes around him as the narrator mentions time-dilation and the effect it can have, but it’s hard to glean too much from it.
“You can travel in your spaceship and go around the immediate cluster and time-dilation doesn’t come into play, but there’s times you have to go really, really deep into space…” -Chris King
Regardless, time-dilation has caused some concern among people following Exodus because when stakes are high – when they affect characters we have close relationships with; and they will – we don’t want any old trip to cause them to age and potentially die. But it’s on this point Chris King had important clarification to make.
“We kicked around a ton of different ideas with the time-dilation stuff,” King said in the press briefing. “Do we do it all the time? Do you do it a little bit? Is it a dynamic system? The thing we fell in love with, though, was using it for very, very special occasions. So you can travel in your spaceship and go around the immediate cluster and time-dilation doesn’t come into play, but there’s times you have to go really, really deep into space.” And it’s there that time-dilation will come into play.
“The reason we like that is there’s so much build up and it exaggerates those choices, and then you can see drastic things that happen when you return. So we’re very, very careful about when we use it, but when we do, it has a really, really big impact.”
Narrative director Drew Karpyshyn agreed (incidentally, he was the lead writer of KOTOR and the first two Mass Effect games). “Chris really nailed it,” Karpyshyn said, “that’s how we approach it. It’s something you plan for, prepare for, you know it’s coming. You can see how it’s going to have a huge impact and then you just try to control it and find a way to make it not be this horrible cost you have to pay. But there’s always going to be a sacrifice, that’s a big part of the game.”
Some other things that stood out to me in the trailer were what looked like a limited character creation system, which appears to offer several preset male or female appearances rather than let us finely tune them. We also got a better look at an impressive array of awakened animals in the game – animals that have gained sentience.
Two of these awakened animals are our companions: the large wolf Houston is our companion from the beginning of the game. And then there’s Salt, an octopus, who adventures in a water tank in a mech suit with us. The trailer also shows an awakened elephant, and Archetype teased an awakened bear and raccoon. And before you ask: yes there is romance in Exodus, but it’s unlikely to be with them.
Exodus is due for release on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X in early 2027.
