Exodus didn’t really do much for me when it was announced at the 2023 Game Awards: Cinematics are a dime a dozen, and the little bit of gameplay in the second part of the reveal trailer looked like something out of a very conventional Mass Effect knockoff. “Kinda neat,” as compatriot Harvey Randall put it, “but nothing to write home about.”
My opinion on the matter started to turn earlier this month when developer Archetype Entertainment, headed up by former BioWare stalwart James Ohlen, released the Mara Yama reveal trailer. It’s also a cinematic, yes, but a genuinely good one, thanks in no small part to the ominous narration of Matthew McConaughey, who plays some as-yet unknown role in the game.
Two weeks later, Archetype and McConaughey appear to be in full infodump mode, dropping four new trailers over the past four days, each a sort of David Attenborough-esque examination of the creatures that inhabit the Exodus universe.
The Awakened Bear:
The Arkavir:
The Awakened Raven:
The Koven:
I think the back-and-forth between Awakened—animals genetically engineered to be stronger, smarter, or otherwise more useful—and the creations of the post-human Celestials is interesting. Maybe I’m reading too much into it but I feel like the juxtaposition is intentional: Is our subjugation of more primitive life forms really any different from the cruelties of the Celestials? Or is it simply that, even across many millennia of evolution, the essential callousness and selfishness of human nature will endure? No matter what we become, is this who we really are?
I don’t know—I really don’t know what’s going on here at all, except that McConaughey’s slow, gravelly narration may have lulled me into a state of meandering contemplation that inevitably ends with me spending 20 minutes looking at my hand. He has that effect on people.
More seriously, I suddenly find myself very curious about whatever it is that Exodus has cooking. The gameplay in that 2023 reveal trailer didn’t impress me much—if I want Mass Effect, I’ll play Mass Effect—but the setting looks genuinely interesting, and McConaughey is really selling it as a guy who has seen some shit.
Whether all of that will come together in a game that lives up to the hype I am now affording it will depend largely on how much time is spent crouching behind cover and figuring out the optimal dialog path to get into your shipmate’s bed, and the pessimist in me definitely has some concerns on that front. For now, though, I like what I see, and I’m eager to keep up with what happens next.
There’s no release target for Exodus at this point, but if you want to get the lay of the land there’s a mountain of guides and lore to dive into at exodusgame.com.