Image via Wizards of the Coast/Archetype Entertainment.
Exodus, the new space-faring RPG announced at The Game Awards 2023, won’t be trying to mimic the scale of Starfield, instead looking to be a more character-driven experience, according to Archetype Entertainment studio head James Ohlen.
“I don’t think we’re trying to compete against Starfield,” he said in a recent interview with GamesRadar+, specifying that Exodus is “a different kind of game” from Bethesda’s recent opus. Instead, Ohlen said that fans should expect something more akin to what the various members of the Archetype have worked on previously.
For context, Ohlen himself is a 22-year veteran of Mass Effect developer BioWare. Also coming off lengthy stints at BioWare are the likes of studio general manager Chad Robertson, lead writer Drew Karpyshyn, and lead gameplay designer Daniel Nordlander. Other senior staff members count Dishonored developer Arkane Studios, The Outer Worlds studio Obsidian Entertainment, and Gearbox Software among their recent credits.
As for what that means for Exodus, Ohlen makes it sounds as though it may have an open world but that the creative focus lies elsewhere: “We still want to create this horizon where you feel you can go where you want to, but at the same time, we want to have a story that’s cohesive, with characters that you can love or hate, and with arcs that are compelling.” That is key to the team’s goal of creating “the best possible science fiction universe.”
Exodus is set 40,000 years in the future and promises to feature the effects of time dilation as a key element of its narrative, as well as conflict between humanity and other alien races in the Centauri Cluster. Matthew McConaughey is set to star in a story that has some broad similarities to his 2014 film Interstellar. The game does not yet have a release window or platforms confirmed.