What is Exodus, The Upcoming RPG That’s Very Similar to Mass Effect?

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The highly anticipated sci-fi RPG, Exodus – often described as a spiritual successor to Mass Effect – will be showcased at the 2025 Game Awards. Developers Archetype Entertainment are expected to share more details about the game, and may even announce a release date. The project first gained attention with a reveal featuring Matthew McConaughey at the 2023 Game Awards, and fans have been eagerly awaiting updates ever since.

Matthew McConaughey’s role in the game, where he’ll play a character named C.C. Orlev, isn’t the only thing generating buzz around Exodus. Many fans are even more excited by the team behind it: Archetype Entertainment was created by former BioWare developers Chad Robertson and James Ohlen, both of whom worked on iconic games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Joining them is Drew Karpyshyn, the lead writer for the first two Mass Effect games and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This talented group of RPG veterans has people hoping Exodus will be a worthy successor to Mass Effect and fill the void left by that series.

Archetype Entertainment also has former 343 Industries and Larian developers among its number.

What Is Exodus About?

Okay, so picture this: it’s about 40,000 years from now, and humanity’s spread out across the stars. Earth? Well, let’s just say it’s not doing so great. We managed to reach the Omega Centauri cluster – seriously, thousands of light-years away! – around 18,000 AD, and we’ve been building a life here ever since, hoping for more ships to arrive from the old planet. But over those millennia, something amazing happened. We… changed. Evolved. Now, by the time the Exodus campaign kicks off, we’re not just humans anymore. We’ve become all sorts of different intelligent species, and we call ourselves Celestials now. It’s a whole new era out here.

Wow, 20,000 years is a really long time to think about! So much happens – civilizations come and go, cultures bloom and fade, and humanity is constantly evolving. It’s a tough situation because these arkships aren’t arriving all at once. That means a lot of us are showing up on these alien worlds totally unprepared, and unfortunately, we often end up being conquered by more powerful, advanced alien races – the Celestials. It’s a bit scary, honestly!

In the year 41,500 AD, an arkship finally reaches Lidon, a moon once home to an advanced race called the Detenir. Centuries later, a Lidon native named Orion Aslan rises to prominence as a Traveler—a treasure hunter who searches the planets for ancient Celestial technology called Remnants. These Remnants are crucial for Lidon’s progress and protecting its people from a dangerous technological plague known as the Rot. Orion’s accomplishments and strong leadership earn him the respect and adoration of the people, leading to the establishment of the Aslan Dynasty, which ushers in an era of prosperity for Lidon.

In the story Exodus, Jun Aslan is created through a unique combination of human and Celestial DNA. While Jun is growing up and his father is away on a mission, his half-brother, Gideon, takes over the throne, becoming the new leader of the Aslan Dynasty. This forces Jun to escape Lidon, but he continues to follow his father’s path as a Traveler. Jun’s Celestial heritage gives him special abilities, and he hopes to use them to protect Lidon from a dangerous threat called the Rot.

Exodus’ Companion Characters

Similar to previous games in the series, Exodus will let you build relationships with companions who travel alongside you. Archetype Entertainment has currently revealed details about two of these companions, and plans to share more information before the game launches.

Tom Vargas

Tom Vargas is often called a charming adventurer, but he’s been dramatically affected by the passage of time. He used to travel the galaxy with a famous explorer named Max, and they were apparently in a romantic relationship. During a dangerous mission, they were chased by enemies. To save Max, Tom sent them off in an escape pod while he tried to draw the enemy away. He used a high-speed travel device called a Gate of Heaven, hoping to quickly return to Lidon. However, due to the effects of time travel, when he arrived, decades had passed for everyone else. To him, though, it had only felt like a few days.

The Gates of Heaven are strongly reminiscent of the Mass Effect Relays, which enable faster-than-light travel. However, Exodus adds a complication – a time dilation effect – to this kind of technology.

Elise Charroux

Okay, so I’m playing this game and there’s this character, Elise Charroux, who’s seriously awesome. She’s from way in the future, like the 23rd century, and used to run with a gang. Now she’s a total weapon and combat expert, and she fights wearing this crazy powerful exosuit. The really wild part? She was put into this super-long sleep, like thousands of years, and still remembers what Earth was like before everything went down. Everyone says she’s brave, super loyal, and you need her on your team in any fight.

C.C. Orlev, the character played by Matthew McConaughey, is an enigmatic figure who seems to guide the story, much like a narrator.

Celestial Factions

The Celestials are vastly more advanced than humans on present-day Earth, possessing powers that seem almost divine. While many different Celestial groups exist, the marketing for Exodus has mainly highlighted three specific races and civilizations.

  • Crown Celestials: The oldest of the Celestials, the Imperial Celestials of the Crown Domain, also called Crown Celestials, are a psychic humanoid race. They control six star systems in the Poseidon Nebula, ruling over billions of citizens.
  • Elohim: The creators of the Gates of Heaven, the Elohim were a major power in the Centauri cluster for thousands of years before mysteriously disappearing. Their technology, still remarkable, played a crucial role in establishing peace, commerce, and fruitful communication among Centauri civilizations after the cluster’s most turbulent years.
  • The Mara Yama Dominion: Horrifying, Giger-like creatures, these Celestials are inherently antisocial, rejecting the Laws of the Elohim that the rest of Centauri civilization abides by. They are known to commit atrocities, capturing members of weaker human races, extracting their emotions and memories before ultimately killing them.

Exodus’ Gameplay

Third-Person Shooting

Similar to games like Mass Effect, Exodus is a fast-paced, third-person shooter. Players will fight a variety of enemies, including the Koven and Awakened – creatures created by Mara Yama, and Earth animals with greatly enhanced strength and intelligence. The main character, Jun, has the special ability to connect with advanced Celestial technology, unlocking powerful skills. Early gameplay shows him freezing opponents and unleashing kinetic blasts, for example.

It looks like players will have a lot of options in combat. The latest trailer for Exodus shows the main character, Jun, dodging attacks with moves like crouching, rolling, sliding, and using a grapple hook, which should make fights fast-paced and allow for movement in all directions. The trailer also hints that stealth will be a useful tactic, meaning players won’t always have to fight head-on.

Choice-Based Gameplay & Time Dilation

Like other games from BioWare, Exodus will let players shape the story with important choices. But Exodus does something different with its time dilation feature, which quickly jumps the player forward in time to show the long-term consequences of their actions. If executed well, this could create a more impactful and engaging choice-driven story than games like Mass Effect, which focus on a more limited timeframe.

Will Exodus Have Romance?

Because you can fully customize your character in Exodus and build relationships with companions, it’s natural to wonder if there’s a romance system – and there is! While details are still limited, the lead writer has suggested that who you choose to romance will significantly affect the story’s outcome.

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2025-11-29 14:05