WotC’s Archetype Entertainment Reveals Stunning New Sci-Fi RPG ‘Exodus’
Of all the announcements made at The Game Awards, the new sci-fi RPG ‘Exodus’ from WotC’s Archetype Entertainment is the one to watch.
It has been more than a decade, since Mass Effect. In that time, we’ve seen sci-fi games come a long way. The legendary trilogy (just going by the name of the bundle you can get on Steam) paved the way for a sci-fi renaissance that saw titles like No Man’s Sky (once it was finally good), Prey (the good one), Prey (the other one), and of course TV’s Todd Howard’s own Starfield.
And then RPGs have come even further since. We are living in the era of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 where narrative-driven stories are making a comeback in a big way, and especially with BG3, the idea of “choices matter”, once the rallying cry of Mass Effect, is back on top.
This is the perfect storm for the announcement of a new Sci-Fi RPG in an original world created by a team of ex-Bioware devs. Archetype Entertainment, the WotC-owned studio that has been working on an up-til-now unnamed RPG, headed by James Ohlen who helped pave the way for Mass Effect and Baldur’s Gate 3 in the first place, announced their new title at The Game Awards. And Exodus is looking extremely cool.
Though it’s very early on, it’s hard not to be excited for what looks to be some quality sci-fi.
Archetype Entertainment Shows Off ‘Exodus’, Reminds Us Why We Love Sci-Fi
“We are proud to announce EXODUS™ — An epic new sci-fi action-adventure role-playing game (RPG) franchise developed by the team at Archetype Entertainment. Check out our official reveal trailer for #EXODUSGAME, produced by Blur Studio. BECOME THE TRAVELER.”
Just look at this trailer. Presented by none other than Matthew McConaughey, the trailer for Exodus shows us a new sci-fi universe. One in which time passes. It calls on the shades of Interstellar, making McConaughey an apt choice for the reveal.
In the trailer we get a glimpse of a couple of explorers discovering some sort of artifact. Aliens show up. All the usual sci-fi stuff so far, but then… when disaster strikes, choices are made. And time passes.
That’s the most exciting thing here. The idea of interstellar travel taking time, of years and centuries potentially passing as you speed away from worlds, or make your choices and influence NPCs, is exciting, to say the least. It’s just enough of a touch of hard sci-fi to make the world feel a little more grounded.
Even if there are aliens called Celestials who are after humanity for nefarious reasons. We don’t know a ton from the reveal trailer.
But don’t worry, Archetype Entertainment has your back. Because there are actually two trailers. Check out the cinematic story trailer.
Exodus Cinematic Trailer
And in this one, we get more of a detailed glimpse at the world of Exodus.
We see a world affected by The Traveler, which in this case isn’t a giant big space orb, but is instead your character. In the trailer, Tom and Max seize an artifact and are separated. Max returns to the world she left behind. And tom continues onward, at light speed, with time slowing to a crawl. We see the remnants of their adventures:
And then the stage is set. We meet our Traveler. And we see what it means for lifetimes to pass by while you journey on, looking for the next adventure. In an interview with Polygon, Archetype’s Chad Roberts and James Ohlen gave more details about the time dilation mechanics and how they’ll impact the story:
“This essentially supersizes all of the choices that you make. Instead of seeing the consequences of a choice you make in conversation or in gameplay, you know, days later, or weeks or months later, years or even decades later, you’ll see the impact. The choice you made with, say, bringing a remnant technology back with you, or how you decided to use that tech. You’re going to have all sorts of twists and turns, and family dynamics that just get really weird. You have some children, and you go off, and it’s been a month for you, but 30 years for them. And they’re like, ‘What the fuck, dad?’ [laughs]”
Learn More About Exodus Here
Time slows to a crawl at light speed and when you’re waiting for a cool new game to come out.
