Exodus: An Exploration for the Hardcore Futurism Fanatic.

For a distinct breed of science-fiction devotee, the announcement of Exodus stood as the most significant reveal from a major gaming awards ceremony. Curiously, those very fans might not have grasped its full implications during the initial showcase.

Exodus, the inaugural game from a new studio staffed with veteran talent from a renowned RPG developer, was originally teased 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. Prior to this showcase, the studio's leadership elaborated on some of the real scientific concepts that serve as the basis for the game's universe: relativistic time effects, genetic alteration, and galactic expansion. These are all inherently heady ideas, which are particularly tough to communicate in a brief, cinematic trailer.

“I wish some of those intriguing and novel ideas were highlighted in the trailer. What I perceived was ‘generic man in space,’” wrote one viewer. Another quipped, “My impression was ‘this is like a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Reactions in fan hubs were similarly varied.

The trailer's focus undoubtedly makes sense from a commercial perspective. When striving to capture attention during a lengthy deluge of game announcements, what sells better: Scientists discussing the intricacies of theoretical science? Or giant robots blowing up while additional giant robots shoot lasers from their visors? However, in choosing loud action, the developers omitted to include the quieter details that make Exodus one of the more intriguing hard sci-fi games coming soon. Let's delve deeper.

The Question of Humanity

Does Exodus include aliens? Perhaps. The answer is nuanced. Recall that scene near the opening of the trailer, featuring a bipedal figure with gray-blue skin and cybernetic components merged into their form. That was certainly an alien, right? In the end hinges on your interpretation regarding one of the game's major thematic dilemmas: If you applied gradual replacement logic to the human DNA, is what results still a human being?

“We want the Celestials... for a player who isn't invest significant amounts of time into studying the IP, to still grasp the basic premise that they're evolved humans, recognize that they’re an opposing force you have to confront... But also, at the end of the day, make sure it's engaging and that they're impressive and that they are satisfying to challenge,” explained the studio's general manager.

Understanding how these otherworldly beings aren't technically aliens requires wrestling with enormous expanses of both the galaxy and temporal progression. Time dilation — the relativistic effect that time moves slower for faster-moving objects — is an fundamental hard line of Exodus’ narrative setting. Here are the fundamentals: Humanity evacuates a depleted Earth in the 23rd century for a far-off corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human voyagers arrive ages before others. Those pioneers extensively engineered their genetic sequences and assumed the “Celestial” title.

“There’s multiple tiers of evolution. The people who got to the Centauri cluster first... had many thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see baseline humans as essentially primitive, beneath them, not really fit for the dominant positions of society,” stated the game's lead writer.

Exodus is set roughly 40,000 years in the future. Ponder that timeframe — that's effectively all of recorded human history multiplied ten times over. Now imagine what humans would look like if they spent ten entire human histories advancing the boundaries of biological science. You would not possibly recognize the outcome as human. You might very well believe you're observing an alien. The most fearsome lineage of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can adopt diverse forms. Some possess talons and blades and stand nine feet tall. Others are encased in chitinous shells. According to supplementary lore, when Mara-Yama travel between stars, their physical forms can break down into little more than a collection of organs attached to a head.

A Universe of Ideas

Amidst the pyrotechnics, beam attacks, and combat creatures, you might have glimpsed snippets of seemingly magical technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, uses a shiny machine that emanates a purple glow. A spaceship accelerates into a portal and vanishes at relativistic velocity. This all seems beyond human achievement, the kind of tech attributed to a highly advanced civilization. Yet, these are further examples of wonders that seem alien but are firmly grounded in our species' own ascension.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus lore is being authored by what the narrative lead called a duo of “sci-fi giants.” One celebrated author has already published a massive novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another prolific writer has contributed a series of short stories. Incorporating such legendary science-fiction talent into the fold years before the game's release has permitted the studio to develop a dense fictional universe as a foundation for the game.

“It was really a partnership. 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 so talented, you don't want to handcuff him. You want to give him creative freedom,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.

One notable scene shows Jun seemingly manipulate the ground beneath him, creating stone into a makeshift bridge. This material, called livestone, responds to neural commands from Celestials or a specific human subclass — descendants of later human arrivals who were given limited technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun demonstrates this ability, one might wonder about his origins.

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

The immense scale of the Exodus setting — both in physical space and historical time — means there is plenty of room for various stories to be told, using the same core lore 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 told within its universe. The first major novel delves into the connection between a Uranic human and a woman whose ship arrived tens of thousands later than planned, making Celestials completely alien to her experience. An episode of a streaming show recounts a poignant 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 decades.

The game itself is centered on “Jun’s story,” set on the planet Lidon — a world mostly left by Celestials that has become a bastion. A consuming plague known as “the Rot” has begun destroying everything, including vital life support systems, and Jun must use his unusual powers to {find a solution|stop