Archetype's Exodus: The Ultimate Guide for the Dedicated Futurism Fanatic.

For a distinct breed of science-fiction enthusiast, the announcement of Exodus stood as the most impactful reveal from a recent gaming awards ceremony. Interestingly, those very fans could have missed grasped its full importance during the initial showcase.

Exodus, the inaugural game from a new studio filled with former talent from a renowned RPG developer, was initially announced a couple of years prior. At the latest event, the development team provided an early release window of 2027, accompanied by a spectacle-filled trailer. Prior to this reveal, the studio's leadership elaborated on some of the authentic scientific theories that underpin for the game's universe: time dilation, genetic alteration, and interstellar colonization. These are all appropriately heady ideas, which are particularly difficult to convey in a brief, showy trailer.

“I would have preferred some of those fascinating and novel ideas were highlighted in the trailer. My takeaway was ‘stereotypical man in space,’” wrote one commenter. Another quipped, “My impression was ‘this is like a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Reactions in online forums were equally varied.

The trailer's approach certainly is logical from a commercial perspective. When trying to make an impact during a marathon onslaught of game announcements, what sells better: A team debating the finer points of theoretical science? Or giant robots combusting while more mechs fire lasers from their armor? However, in choosing loud action, the developers failed to include the more nuanced elements that make Exodus one of the more exciting hard sci-fi games in development. Let's delve deeper.

Evolved or Alien?

Does Exodus contain aliens? Yes. That's complicated. Look at that shot near the start of the trailer, featuring a being with ashen skin and cybernetic components merged into their body. That was definitely an alien, yes? Ultimately hinges on your interpretation regarding one of the game's major thematic dilemmas: If you applied incremental change logic to the human genome, is what remains still human?

“We want the Celestials... for a player not intending to dedicate significant amounts of time into studying the lore, to still grasp the fundamental idea that they're advanced humans, see that they’re an foe you have to confront... But also, ultimately, make sure it's fun and that they're impressive and that they function effectively to fight against,” explained the studio's head.

Understanding how these non-human beings aren't technically aliens requires wrestling with vast expanses of both the galaxy and history. Time dilation — the relativistic effect that time moves slower for high-velocity objects — is an key hard line of Exodus’ fictional framework. Here are the fundamentals: Humanity evacuates a dying Earth in the 23rd century for a distant corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human colonists arrive millennia before others. Those early arrivals extensively engineered their DNA and adopted the “Celestial” title.

“There’s different levels of evolution. The people who got to the Centauri cluster first... had tens of thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see standard humans as fundamentally unevolved, inferior, not really worthy for the upper echelons of society,” stated the game's lead writer.

Exodus is set roughly 40,000 years in the future. Consider that timeframe — that's essentially all of our documented past multiplied ten times over. Now contemplate what humans would look like if they spent ten entire human histories advancing the frontiers of genetic manipulation. You would not possibly perceive the result as human. You might certainly believe you're seeing an alien. The most vicious strain of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can take diverse forms. Some possess fangs and appendages and stand enormously tall. Others are covered in chitinous shells. According to supplementary 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

Among the pyrotechnics, lasers, and combat creatures, you might have caught snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, interacts with a shiny machine that emanates a violet glow. A spaceship jets into a portal and disappears at relativistic velocity. This all seems beyond human comprehension, the kind of tech ascribed to a Type 3 civilization. Yet, these are further examples of wonders that appear alien but are firmly grounded in humanity's own journey.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus universe is being authored by what the narrative lead called a duo of “literary legends.” One acclaimed author has already published a massive novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another esteemed writer has penned a series of short stories. Bringing such established science-fiction writers into the project years before the game's release has enabled the studio to develop a layered fictional universe as a foundation for the game.

“It was really a collaborative effort. We had set some basics, and working with him, he would have ideas... and we would work to see how they all meshed... With someone as established, you don't want to handcuff him. You want to give him creative freedom,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.

One key scene shows Jun seemingly shape the ground beneath him, forming stone into a instant bridge. This material, called livestone, responds to brainwaves from Celestials or a specific human subclass — descendants of later human arrivals who were allowed limited technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun exhibits this ability, questions are raised about his origins.

“Jun's not technically a Uranic human... Jun is sort of a hacked version, for want of a better term,” clarified the writer, adding that the ability to interact with Celestial technology is a “key part of the game.”

The vast scale of the Exodus setting — both in physical space and historical time — means there is ample room for various stories to exist, pulling from the same universe without causing interference.

A Broad Narrative Canvas

Although Exodus has been on the radar for a couple of years and isn't releasing, 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 an aeon later than planned, making Celestials totally alien to her experience. An episode of a television series tells a poignant story about a father pursuing his daughter across star systems, with time dilation imparting life-altering effects on their family; by the time he finds her, she has aged 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 refuge. A corrupting influence known as “the Rot” has begun destroying everything, including vital life support systems, and Jun must master his unusual powers to {find a solution|stop