---
title: 'Exodus Overview: Five Essential Insights Into the Sci-Fi RPG'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=SiYFOApE5iQ'
video_id: 'SiYFOApE5iQ'
date: 2026-09-09
duration_sec: 671
channel: 'IGN'
---

# Exodus Overview: Five Essential Insights Into the Sci-Fi RPG

> Source: [Exodus Overview: Five Essential Insights Into the Sci-Fi RPG](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SiYFOApE5iQ)

## Summary

Exodus, a sci-fi action RPG by Archetype Entertainment, is set to release on April 7, 2027. With a focus on time dilation's emotional impact, players control traveler June Aslan to save a dying world from the Rot. Recent hands-on previews highlight its promising structure, squad-based combat, and ethical choices, with a release strategy avoiding direct competition with major titles.

### Key Points

- **Setting and Release** [00:00] — Exodus reaches players on April 7, 2027, after nearly three years of development by Archetype Entertainment, with backing from Wizards of the Coast.
- **Developer Background** [00:14] — The game is crafted by a team including narrative director Jude Carpetian and alumni from BioWare, allowing fans to expect a familiar action RPG structure.
- **Core Time Dilation Concept** [00:39] — Time dilation is central: for players, days of travel pass decades for loved ones, shaping the protagonist June's personal stakes and emotional weight.
- **The Rot and Celestials** [01:32] — The Rot is a techno-virus tied to the Celestials, advanced descendants of humans, who are 40,000 years more evolved and pose a persistent threat to humanity.
- **Gameplay Impressions** [02:01] — Hands-on video showcases familiar Mass Effect-style squad commands, ability upgrades, and dynamic feel, with microgravity sections and ledge traversal.
- **The Awakened** [02:53] — The game introduces 'The Awakened'—animals granted human intellect—allowing rich dialogues and unique combat allies, like an anthropomorphic wolf and a sniper octopus.
- **Character Roster** [03:34] — Eight companions are revealed—Tom, Elise, Kajan, Salt, Houston, Suleiman, Cece, and Emrys—with eleven total companions overall, including the awakened precocious Houston.
- **Faction and Ship Gear** [04:33] — June must ally with The Tangent Dynasty, a powerful faction, to obtain essential ship parts that allow interstellar travel, adding a strategic narrative layer.
- **Combat and Controls** [05:44] — Combat mimics classic action-RPG radar: time-slowing command menus for squad abilities, with combo and dodging mechanics, plus resource and item crafting.
- **Ethical Choices** [07:13] — Players face moral dilemmas, choosing between Paladin (heroic) and Immortal (ruthless) ideologies, with consequences judged by characters and story dedication.
- **Preview Impressions** [08:57] — This preview highlights high production values and polished, but precise structure and linearity remain unclear—a promising science–fiction entry awaiting full release.
- **Final Thoughts** [10:16] — Exodus feels like a nostalgic, but familiar BioWare-style experience, offering strong dialogue and strategic combat that players are eagerly anticipating.

## Transcript

We're rapidly approaching three years since the world got its first look at Exodus. A lot has happened in the world since 2023, many games have come and gone in the span between. It would be fair to question if Exodus had kept pace with the movements of the market.
Happily, all this time has gone to good use. Developer Archetype Entertainment backed by legendary tabletop game publisher Wizards of the Coast are now on a downhill run on this science fiction stroller.
And it's finally time to wrap our midst around a gamepad and get stuck in. Archetype is rightly avoiding Grand Theft of Your Time in November and touching down April 7th, 2027 instead. So now is the perfect time for a progress check-in.
Here are five things you need to know about Exodus. Exodus' story focuses on the practical and sometimes heartbreaking effects of time dilation,
where days of interstellar space travel for the player means decades passing for loved ones back home. Players take on the role of traveler, June Aslan, this game's Commander Shepard, with heart-broad hair and a charming disposition.
Nothing warrants this level of cruelty. He's the stalwart son of famed veteran traveler Orion Aslan, but through happenings as yet unclear, June sparks the game as a humble salvager in a dying world overrun by a techno-virus known as the Rot.
To save your planet, whichever good hero she deigned to do, You must reclaim your father's legacy and stop the Rot. It's your last chance to bail, June. Do it. Still with me? Good.
The Rot, as we understand it, is a byproduct of the Celestials, descendants of the first humans. They've evolved far beyond humanity's capabilities, around 40,000 years more advanced, and were a persistent threat to humanity's continued existence in Exodus.
To further complicate things, June is also a genetic cross-point of sorts. He can, for reasons still unclear, interact with celestial technology, reviewing it with special active abilities. Sort of a techno blend of Psy-Attacks and Quasi-Magical-Self,
I'm sure the game has more detail, but I'll explain the context way better than I can. In practice, Star Fox Mass Effect will be upgrading these abilities throughout the journey, triggering all sorts of cool effects, environmental modifiers, attacks, defensive techniques, and so on.
Hey, there's a car! Give me a second! The team allowed us to play through one mostly complete mission on PC,
and bridged in a couple places to keep the pace moving, and presumably cut minor story elements. We meet our four-of-a-hero June Aslan aboard his fleet vessel, reminiscent of the N7 inside joined by a multiracial multispecies crew Huh They a good land Let talk about The Awakened
The universe is teeming with animals, as it turns out. The Awakened are animals that have been granted human intellect through some means, and this is a very good thing for players, because in addition to all sorts of interesting alien races, you can now expect some brilliant dealing with all kinds of talking critters.
And oh boy, they have plenty to say about how cruddy and exploitative humans generally are. They're not wrong! The irony is not lost on me. The two have revealed eight of June's companions so far, and tease this, still some to be revealed.
The current roster includes Tom Vargas, Elise Farrow, Kajan Nass, Salt, Houston, Suleiman, Cece Orlev, and Emrys. But allegedly there are eleven who to find.
One standout is an awakened anthropomorphic wolf named Houston who, curiously, is your adopted brother. The recent Gamescom trailer also introduced us to Salt, a blunt, bounty-hunting, awakened octopus in a mech suit.
She's a sniper who can use her ink as a smoke screen to provide cover in combat. Oh? Yeah. Figured we could talk, since you're part of the team, huh? As an aside, it seems like Octopi are having their moment, perhaps propelled into popularity through the 2020 film My Octopus Teacher.
Then came the boy's romantic, albeit warped, relationship between the Nosferatu and the Deep. I digress, but in Exodus, you can look forward to meeting lots of awakened species, tentacles or other ones.
Oh, that answers that. Back from the mission, and June Gullis was set down inside the hangar bay of a large orbital space station that houses a race of awakened frogs known as the K from the planet Libon.
The K has been exploited and driven into exile, but all is not lost. One K, casually named 42C, has developed a soft spot for human music, dumping heavy electronica, and is eager to help guide you.
Information? Sure, I know lots of things. Maybe even the most things. Your offside to the mission is the equally squishy-haired but slightly stiff Ployme, a dark-eyed representative of a powerful faction that June must align with.
Why? Because this support will enable you to get your hands on some critical parts that allow your ship to travel between star systems. There's no free lunch, even in the coldest days. You're still going to the bargain. The Tangent Dynasty will provide the materials your ship requires.
Anyway, the opening sequence allows us to appreciate the gorgeous facial animations that will bring engaging and nicely performed dialogue sequences from decorated narrative director and writer Jude Carpetian and his team of ex-Bioware, Noddy Dog, and 343 alumni.
Again there an instant feeling of Bioware familiarity thanks to a short script and fusing characters and scenarios with plenty of personality I not your enemy I done being a soldier I swear In practice it clear the team has studied what makes the genre leader successful
Mass Effect's team directing mechanics are implemented almost identically for one. That's a good thing, insofar as I was able to jump into a mission that takes place a couple hours into the start of the game and not feel completely overwhelmed. We start in a microgravity environment, making our way into the guts of the ship.
June can sprint, jump, grapple, dive behind cover, roll and dodge attacks, and scale up ledges. June's an agile fella, and you'll rarely feel constrained. In true action RPG form, you'll be spending a good portion of your time
dealing out commands to your squads in slowed down time. The radio menu pops up and pumps the brakes on the game's speed, allowing you precious seconds to target enemies and queue up your squad's preferred attacks and maneuvers.
You can of course just duke it out with Guns and Kimbo, but the game urges you to play around with a raft of abilities, aerial bombardments, stealthy teleportation attacks and such.
These squad attacks can be timed up for combo damage too, which is a nice touch. We push forward through hallways and tunnels, activating mechanical ledges, grappling up platforms, and activating switches.
You'll be collecting resources, crafting ammo, unlocking new items, weapons, and skills as you do. It's what you'd expect in a game of this nature, and so far, Exoddus is delivering good.
Eventually, we meet up with a couple of awakening frogs who compel you to help them, and that puts you at odds with Suleiman in time. I hate to interrupt, but we are on a mission. The story doesn't shy away from dark scenes and puts you in positions that force you to
make hard decisions. Do you sell out an entire species for immediate gain, or risk it all and keep your chin held high? I am a creature, and I am a human. We are pleased to have helped.
Later I came upon an injured enemy, and I was posed with further ethical dilemmas. Yes, you will be choosing from morally gray responses to many situations, and your teammates will judge you based on just how firm your backbone is. Your commanding officers don't give a sh** about you.
You're just cannon fodder. In Mass Effect, you are leaning towards Paragon, a renegade. In The Exorcist, your choices will put you in either Paladin or Immortal baskets. I'm a softie, Paladin, because I like to help the injured instead of the doomed ones,
But, either you. I'm not going to stand here and watch someone die. Here. It is nice to see a return to branching dialogue trees and facile different outcomes I won spoil the mission various encounters but I had a great time trading barbs with an uptight robot and the game still rewards you for being ruthless I sorry what are you some kind of security construct
What the heck have you got? How dare you? I'm off the mind of the metal frog! The mission culminates in a final epic laundry, and the whole situation devolves into a down and dirty fight with a gigantic, awakening Rizal Dare.
Yes, we'll be fighting space bears. Be still my heart. It's a great demonstration of the importance of mastering your abilities and coordinating your squad, but I did feel bad killing the bear, I guess it's a question.
I've played through this mission twice and explored the different outcomes, but both resulted in a messy end for one particular character. The game definitely steers you towards certain outcomes, regardless, you'll have a great
time along the way. Hopefully there's some room for diplomacy now and then for the pacifists out there. Our time with Exodus is brief, but tantalizing. Questions remain around the time dilation
concept for all the sales pitching around that feature, and I'm also unfair on the overall structure of the game, which I feel is integral to selling the epic setup. Just how linear is the story? Are there more space there? These are the big questions. Undeniably, the
game shows a lot of promise. Terrific production values throughout, a great score punctuated by weapon fire that chimes and beats in time with music. Little touches like that, to suit out to me more, and the almost textbook gameplay instrumentation.
I suspect there's a hell of a lot more under wraps, and I look forward to rolling back those covers. Space opera is a term that gets bandied around, sometimes with a stretch, but Eggsy's arguably deserves that moniker.
In my mind, operas demand a certain emotional depth or resonance with the audience. The story is about the characters in the universe, rather than the science and the technology, to thonging forward. Exodus has plenty of the latter, of course, but the interplay matters
just as much. I've never seen anything like it. What we've seen played so far is shamelessly like BioWare's take on action RPGs and far-flung universe building. I cannot wait to keep playing this. Playing through, I didn't realize just
how much I missed this style of intelligent RPG-forward storytelling in an atmosphere of hardened science fiction gunplay and strategy. You can protect the console without controlling the cake. With a bona fide new Mass Effect installment coming in the next couple of years,
talk about a broader window, there's plenty of time for Agents of the Sixth World and a wave of fans looking to lose themselves in the internet world. For this and more far-flung science fiction, stick to IGN.
Agents of the Sixth World now! you