Exodus: A Deep Dive for the Dedicated Futurism Fanatic.

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

Exodus, the inaugural game from a recently established studio filled with former talent from a famous RPG developer, was first announced a couple of years prior. At the latest event, the development team provided an early release window of 2027, accompanied by a spectacle-filled trailer. Prior to this showcase, the studio's leadership elaborated on some of the authentic scientific concepts that underpin for the game's universe: relativistic time effects, genetic alteration, and interstellar colonization. These are all inherently dense ideas, which are notoriously tough to communicate in a brief, showy trailer.

“I would have preferred some of those fascinating and novel ideas were featured in the trailer. All I saw was ‘stereotypical man in space,’” wrote one viewer. Another responded, “The vibe I got was ‘this is like a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Reactions in community spaces were similarly varied.

The trailer's focus clearly makes sense from a marketing standpoint. When attempting to make an impact during a hours-long barrage of game announcements, what has broader appeal: A team debating the complexities of relativity? Or giant robots blowing up while more war machines shoot plasma from their visors? However, in prioritizing visual bombast, the developers failed to include the quieter concepts that make Exodus one of the more exciting concept-driven games on the horizon. Let's break it down.

The Question of Humanity

Does Exodus include aliens? Yes. It depends. Consider that scene near the start of the trailer, showing a humanoid with gray-blue skin and technological components merged into their form. That was definitely an alien, yes? Ultimately hinges on your interpretation regarding one of the game's major philosophical questions: If you applied Ship of Theseus philosophy to the human biology, is what results still a human being?

“We want the Celestials... for a player not intending to dedicate considerable amounts of time into absorbing the lore, to still understand the fundamental idea that they're transhuman descendants, recognize that they’re an opposing force you have to face... But also, importantly, make sure it's enjoyable and that they're compelling and that they play well to encounter,” explained the studio's head.

Comprehending how these otherworldly beings aren't strictly aliens requires grappling with enormous expanses of both the cosmos and temporal progression. Time dilation — the Einsteinian theory that time moves at a reduced rate for rapidly traveling objects — is an fundamental core tenet of Exodus’ fictional framework. Here are the fundamentals: Humanity abandons a depleted Earth in the 23rd century for a remote corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human travelers arrive ages before others. Those pioneers heavily modified their DNA and adopted the “Celestial” title.

“There’s different levels of evolution. The people who got to the Centauri cluster first... had tens of thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see unaltered humans as essentially unevolved, inferior, not really fit for the higher tiers of society,” stated the game's lead writer.

Exodus is set about 40,000 years in the future. Ponder that timeframe — that's the equivalent of all of recorded human history repeated ten times over. Now think about what humans would look like if they spent ten entire human histories advancing the boundaries of biological science. You would absolutely not perceive the result as human. You might very well believe you're looking at an alien. The scariest strain of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can adopt multiple forms. Some possess fangs and blades and stand towering tall. Others are covered in armored plating. According to companion lore, when Mara-Yama travel between stars, their physical forms can atrophy into little more than a mass of tissue attached to a head.

Building a Sci-Fi Canon

Amidst the detonations, beam attacks, and war beasts, you might have caught snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, operates a metallic machine that produces a purple glow. A spaceship jets into a portal and vanishes at relativistic velocity. This all seems past human comprehension, the kind of tech ascribed to a highly advanced civilization. Yet, these are further examples of wonders that look alien but are ultimately derived in humanity's own ascension.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus universe is being authored by what the narrative lead called a duo of “renowned authors.” One bestselling author has already published a lengthy novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another esteemed writer has penned a series of short stories. Bringing such established science-fiction writers into the world years before the game's release has permitted the studio to develop a dense fictional universe as a framework for the game.

“It was really a joint venture. We had set some parameters, and working with him, he would have ideas... and we would work to see how they all integrated... With someone so talented, you don't want to limit him. You want to give him latitude,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.

One notable scene shows Jun seemingly mold the ground beneath him, forming stone into a instant bridge. This material, called livestone, reacts to brainwaves from Celestials or a specific human subclass — descendants of later human arrivals who were given limited technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun shows this ability, questions are raised about his nature.

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

The vast scale of the Exodus setting — both in the galaxy and the timeline — means there is ample room for various stories to be told, drawing from the same universe without causing overlap.

A Broad Narrative Canvas

Although Exodus has been in development for a couple of years and is still distant, several stories have already told within its universe. The first major novel examines the connection between a Uranic human and a woman whose ship arrived many millennia later than planned, making Celestials completely alien to her experience. An episode of a streaming show tells a poignant story about a father chasing his daughter across star systems, with time dilation causing profound effects on their family; by the time he finds her, she has aged many years.

The game itself is centered on “Jun’s story,” set on the planet Lidon — a world primarily abandoned by Celestials that has become a bastion. A corrupting influence known as “the Rot” has begun corroding everything, including critical life support systems, and Jun must master his unusual powers to {find a solution|stop