Exodus: The Ultimate Guide for the Hardcore Futurism Fanatic.
For a particular breed of science-fiction devotee, the announcement of Exodus stood as the most impactful news from a recent gaming awards ceremony. Curiously, those very fans may not have grasped its full importance during the initial showcase.
Exodus, the debut title from a freshly formed studio populated with veteran talent from a famous RPG developer, was first announced a couple of years prior. At the latest event, the development team provided an projected release window of 2027, accompanied by a fast-paced trailer. Before this showcase, the studio's leadership discussed some of the authentic scientific theories that form the foundation for the game's universe: time dilation, biological engineering, and interstellar colonization. These are all suitably heady ideas, which are particularly challenging to convey in a brief, cinematic trailer.
“I would have preferred some of those innovative and new ideas were featured in the trailer. My takeaway was ‘standard man in space,’” wrote one commenter. Another quipped, “My impression was ‘we have a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Reactions in fan hubs were correspondingly divided.
The trailer's approach undoubtedly is logical from a commercial angle. When striving to capture attention during a marathon barrage of game announcements, what sells better: A group discussing the complexities of relativity? Or giant robots blowing up while additional war machines emit lasers from their visors? However, in opting for visual bombast, the developers failed to include the subtler elements that make Exodus one of the more promising scientifically rigorous games coming soon. Let's delve deeper.
The Question of Humanity
Does Exodus contain aliens? Perhaps. That's complicated. Look at that image near the start of the trailer, depicting a bipedal figure with ashen skin and metal components integrated into their body. That was certainly an alien, yes? In the end hinges on your stance regarding one of the game's major existential inquiries: If you applied Ship of Theseus philosophy to the human biology, is what remains still humanity?
“We want the Celestials... for a player that isn't invest large amounts of time into absorbing the IP, to still understand the core concept that they're advanced humans, understand that they’re an foe you have to confront... But also, importantly, make sure it's enjoyable and that they're cool and that they are satisfying to fight against,” explained the studio's lead executive.
Comprehending how these alien-seeming beings aren't technically aliens requires understanding enormous expanses of both the cosmos and temporal progression. Time dilation — the scientific principle that time moves differently for high-velocity objects — is an fundamental hard line of Exodus’ science-fiction trappings. Here are the fundamentals: Humanity abandons a dying Earth in the 23rd century for a remote corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human colonists arrive ages before others. Those pioneers radically altered their DNA and assumed the “Celestial” name.
“There’s multiple tiers of evolution. The people who reached the Centauri cluster first... had many thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see baseline humans as fundamentally primitive, inferior, not really worthy for the dominant positions of society,” stated the game's lead writer.
Exodus is set approximately 40,000 years in the future. Consider that scale — that's the equivalent of all of recorded human history repeated ten times over. Now contemplate what humans would look like if they spent ten entire human histories pushing the boundaries of biological science. You would absolutely not identify the end product as human. You might very well believe you're looking at an alien. The most fearsome strain of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can take diverse forms. Some possess talons and blades and stand nine feet tall. Others are encased in exoskeletons. According to expanded universe lore, when Mara-Yama travel between stars, their physical forms can break down into little more than a fleshy blob attached to a head.
A Universe of Ideas
Amidst the pyrotechnics, lasers, and combat creatures, you might have caught snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, operates a chrome machine that produces a etherial glow. A spaceship accelerates into a portal and vanishes at incredible speed. This all seems outside human achievement, the kind of tech attributed to a Type 3 civilization. Yet, these are further examples of elements that look alien but are firmly grounded in humanity's own evolution.
Beyond the core development team, the Exodus universe is being expanded by what the narrative lead called a duo of “literary legends.” One acclaimed author has already published a lengthy novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another prolific writer has penned a series of short stories. Incorporating such established science-fiction minds into the project years before the game's release has permitted the studio to develop a rich fictional universe as a framework for the game.
“It was really a collaborative effort. We had set some parameters, and working with him, he would have ideas... and we would work to see how they all fit together... With someone of that caliber, you don't want to handcuff him. You want to give him room to explore,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.
One notable scene shows Jun appearing to mold the ground beneath him, forming stone into a instant bridge. This material, called livestone, is controlled by brainwaves from Celestials or a specific human subclass — descendants of later human arrivals who were given certain technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun exhibits this ability, one might wonder about his status.
“Jun's not technically a Uranic human... Jun is sort of a hacked version, for want of a better term,” clarified the writer, stating that the ability to interact with Celestial technology is a “important element of the game.”
The immense scale of the Exodus setting — both in physical space and historical time — means there is abundant room for various stories to be told, pulling from the same universe without creating interference.
Tales of Time and Loss
Although Exodus has been on the radar for a couple of years and is still distant, several stories have already begun to be told within its universe. The first major novel delves into the connection between a Uranic human and a woman whose ship arrived many millennia later than planned, making Celestials totally alien to her experience. An episode of a television series depicts a tragic story about a father searching for his daughter across star systems, with time dilation causing profound effects on their family; by the time he finds her, she has experienced many years.
The game itself is centered on “Jun’s story,” set on the planet Lidon — a world primarily abandoned by Celestials that has become a bastion. A corrupting influence known as “the Rot” has begun destroying everything, including essential life support systems, and Jun must master his unique powers to {find a solution|stop