Former BioWare devs' new RPG Exodus will potentially age your loved ones while you're away: "Decisions a player makes will compound over a significant period"

"As a massive lifelong sci-fi fan, I’ve been holding onto one more story in my head that I’ve wanted to tell for decades at this point," says Archetype Entertainment's co-founder, creative director and studio head, James Ohlen. "Another pretty elaborate universe to be properly fleshed out, that we finally are getting to bring to players." Formerly senior creative director at BioWare, his stacked portfolio includes not only Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, Baldur's Gate, and many others as well. A new story to tell has us listening.

We point out that the game's visuals are fairly grounded in reality despite its spacey, sci-fi setting. But that's the plan. "So far, we’ve already put countless hours of research into this universe that is truly larger than life, yet still feels plausible over several thousand years in our very real universe. Holding onto that sense of grounded reality was of major importance to us, on top of utilizing as many real-world mechanics and theories as possible, like Time Dilation."

Tempus sure does Fugit

Time Dilation, for the uninitiated, is the idea that time slows down the closer you get to the speed of light, meaning that should you travel far enough at a high enough velocity, time outside your craft would move faster than it does inside it. It's already been proven to happen here on Earth thanks to atomic clocks and commercial airliners, so the potential for a video game to run with the idea is pretty great, and hasn't been tackled by many mainstream games at all (unless you believe Rosalina is Peach and Luigi's child in Super Mario Galaxy, which requires, shall we say, 'significant filling in' between lines). So what can Ohlen tell us about Time Dilation in Exodus and its impact on the decisions you make?

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"While we can't say too much just yet about exactly how decisions are affected by Time Dilation, we can safely say that it will be felt essentially throughout your journey and in some significant ways. Decisions a player makes will compound over a significant period throughout our story, and we cannot wait to see the different directions players go as a result of Time Dilation's effect."

The scope of the game's universe is deliberately massive, and you'll be shooting plenty of aliens in the face with futuristic weapons as you explore. But with the Time Dilation effect in action, it sounds suspiciously like time will be ticking for those you love back at home while you're living life at a slower rate thanks to zipping off across the universe for each mission. Ohlen explains: "Our goal for Exodus is to create a deep, story-driven adventure that takes place across the entire galaxy. Exploration and discovery is a major aspect of that. However, your mission is to save everyone you love rather than solely exploring every inch of the universe. Exodus isn’t about broad open space exploration; it’s about these specific missions you take as you battle against time, so there is an urgency to return home in every adventure."

We should imagine the prospect of your loved ones getting a few years older every time you complete a mission would indeed be an incentive to get back home quickly, though quite how that'll pan out remains to be seen. One thing we know for certain is that the game will be played out in third-person. "Third person is our team's personal favorite perspective, both for how it impacts actual gameplay along with a much wider field of view as players take in their surrounding environments."

There will, like so many other space exploration titles, be the very appealing prospect of taking in alien worlds and creatures. But Ohlen and the team have rather cleverly used evolution to populate their universe. He explains: "Alien creatures in Exodus are quite different than other sci-fi worlds', as almost everything you encounter stems originally from Earth and has evolved in countless ways over 40,000 years. The same way we were able to turn wolves into chihuahuas, aliens in Exodus have had tens of thousands of years to selectively evolve and breed based on their relevant surroundings, resulting in a wide variety of new yet grounded designs."

With former BioWare devs working on the game, the untapped potential of the Time Dilation mechanism and a varied and beautiful universe of familiar, yet evolved life to explore, this could be one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2025… assuming it is finished in time to hit shelves this year. We certainly hope so.

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