Exodus Plays Exactly How a New Mass Effect Should | IGN Hands-on Preview

When the team at Archetype Entertainment showed us the latest trailer for Exodus before the premiere at Opening Night Live, it seemed like they had understood the assignment – emotional, character-driven stories that felt natural for a space-opera RPG in the vein of Mass Effect. It was the reveal of the party member Salt, an Awakened octopus who pilots a mech to fight and protect her home. Her contentious attitude toward the player-protagonist Jun Aslan contrasts with the deep care she has for her species, and through a brief trailer, showed how it's channeling the sentiments of Interstellar; outside of Matthew McConaughey being in this, too.

But that's one piece of what a game like this needs – albeit, an incredibly important one. I played a little over an hour of Exodus and saw for myself how the gameplay piece of that puzzle comes into place. Punchy third-person shooting with two party members whose tech- and biotic-coded abilities you command through a wheel as time slows, it's like I was playing a legally distinct BioWare game. Archetype isn't shy about the parallels here nor should they be, because from my brief time with Exodus, it seems to be filling that massive void effectively.

I played an entire mission that had me and two party members infiltrating a construct in space called Khonsu, which orbits humanity's new home planet Lidon. Khonsu is also where a species of Awakened frogs, called the Kay, have established their home and maintain Lidon's defense. (For context, Awakened are hyper-intelligent animals found across Exodus' universe.) They'd been enslaved by a hostile human faction run by Gideon Aslan, Jun's half-sibling, the ruler of Lidon, and one of Exodus' main villains. It was our job to free the Kay; and maybe not entirely out of the goodness of our hearts, but in hopes of them becoming key allies, at least.

After a few cutscenes to build the mission's tension, I'm immediately thrust into combat and within seconds of touching this new game I'd never played, muscle memory kicked in as if I'd been here before. Elise, who controls a hulking mech, focuses on brute force and has attacks that can break armor, while Suliman is an agile agent who can incisively inflict heavy damage. I largely relied on calling in their abilities whenever they were ready while blasting away with my standard arsenal of rifles and shotguns, but there's a synergistic system that also paves the way for a primer-detantor type of dynamic if you can line things up.

There's a little bit of stealth if you want to get the jump on a few unsuspecting foes, and Suliman's Shadow Step can take out a standard target in one go when used undetected. But Exodus thrives on chunky combat – having Elise fire off a barrage of Knockdown Missiles or using my own ground-pound ability that shoots a line AoE and sends targets into the air, that's the good stuff. Jun has a mix of tools like an EMP grenade, homing explosive, or shield-piercing weapons that are crucial against barriers and a suite of special moves called Glyphs through his sci-fi powered Gauntlet. Even as Jun alone, you can create combos such as freezing an enemy with Petrify and following it up with an Erupt to break them. The cover system is a little iffy, especially for a game that relies pretty heavily on it, but what matters more to me is that Exodus offers the tools you'd want out of an action-RPG paired with solid, impactful gunplay.

As I made my way through Khonsu, a few standard encounters against weaker human enemies were broken up with battles against alien-esque mechanized freaks and more intimidating foes in robosuits in specific combat arenas where cover spots are clearly waist high. Some felt more like bullet sponges, although I didn't mind in the moment as it let me test the extent of the party's powers. The mission concluded with a boss fight against an Awakened bear named Captain Irina Bruin (clever), armor-clad and beastly charging at me and casting huge AoE electrical shocks. However, I was of two minds – boss fights are nice ways to stretch the limits of your combat prowess, but can feel like fitting a square peg in a round hole if the encounter isn't really designed for its gameplay systems. This fight was more about constantly dodging with a little verticality sprinkled in thanks to the battery charged pillars in the arena, and flowed like a war of attrition more than anything. Granted, this was a fairly early-game mission and I did enjoy the challenge, but my hope is that other boss fights play more into the strengths Exodus clearly exhibits.

Exodus is going to have hub areas and cities to explore, of course. But on missions like this, there are things to find off the beaten path and optional objectives along the way. Some of Jun's abilities work as exploration tools, such as Petrify being used to freeze obstructions or Erupt for clearing obstacles in the way, and you also have Shape to raise floors and a grappling hook to reach specifically marked points to reach optional areas. What's more is that you can come across unique interactions with characters you wouldn't have seen otherwise, which may lead to decisions that can come back around, sway your alignment with party members, or give a little backstory for the mission. This is in addition to finding the more tangible rewards like additional gear, crafting materials, or knowledge points to upgrade Jun's capabilities.

This is an RPG, after all, and Exodus' progression system looks to be pretty robust from what I was able to gather from looking at the menus. I had a prearranged build centered around the Soldier branch, but there were so many more directions you can spec into (Knight, Prodigy, Oracle, Operative, and Specialist, which lean into perks and buffs for different playstyles). I could see several other Gauntlet Glyphs locked at this point in the story as well, so I'm looking forward to seeing if there's an element of build crafting here because so far, combat feels like it has the sauce.

سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/exodus-plays-exactly-how-a-new-mass-effect-should-ign-hands-on-preview