Exodus: The Ultimate Guide for the Dedicated Futurism Fanatic.

For a specific breed of science-fiction enthusiast, the announcement of Exodus stood as the biggest news from a recent gaming awards ceremony. It's worth noting, those very fans might not have grasped its full importance during the initial showcase.

Exodus, the first project from a recently established studio filled with ex- talent from a renowned RPG developer, was first unveiled a couple of years prior. At the latest event, the development team provided an projected release window of 2027, accompanied by a spectacle-filled trailer. Before this showcase, the studio's leadership discussed some of the grounded scientific concepts that serve as the basis for the game's universe: time dilation, genetic alteration, and interstellar colonization. These are all appropriately complex ideas, which are notoriously challenging to convey in a brief, cinematic trailer.

“It's a shame some of those fascinating and new ideas were highlighted in the trailer. What I perceived was ‘standard man in space,’” wrote one viewer. Another quipped, “The vibe I got was ‘this is like a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Feedback in online forums were similarly varied.

The trailer's focus undoubtedly is logical from a marketing perspective. When attempting to capture attention during a hours-long onslaught of game announcements, what sells better: A team debating the finer points of relativity? Or giant robots exploding while additional war machines emit energy beams from their visors? However, in opting for visual bombast, the developers neglected to include the subtler elements that make Exodus one of the more exciting concept-driven games coming soon. Let's explore further.

Evolved or Alien?

Does Exodus contain aliens? Yes. It depends. Look at that image near the beginning of the trailer, featuring a humanoid with metallic skin and cybernetic components integrated into their form. That was surely an alien, right? The truth hinges on your perspective regarding one of the game's core existential inquiries: If you applied gradual replacement logic to the human genome, is what is left still human?

“We want the Celestials... for a player not intending to dedicate considerable amounts of time into studying the backstory, to still comprehend the core concept that they're evolved humans, recognize that they’re an foe you have to deal with... But also, at the end of the day, make sure it's engaging and that they're cool and that they function effectively to fight against,” explained the studio's head.

Grasping how these non-human beings aren't strictly aliens requires grappling with immense expanses of both the galaxy and temporal progression. Time dilation — the Einsteinian theory that time moves differently for faster-moving objects — is an fundamental scientific basis of Exodus’ narrative setting. Here are the basics: Humanity abandons a depleted Earth in the 23rd century for a far-off corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human travelers arrive ages before others. Those firstcomers heavily modified their genetic sequences and adopted the “Celestial” name.

“There’s different levels of evolution. The people who got to the Centauri cluster first... had many thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see standard humans as fundamentally backwards, beneath them, not really fit for the higher tiers of society,” stated the game's narrative director.

Exodus is set approximately 40,000 years in the future. Consider that immensity — that's the equivalent of all of human civilization multiplied ten times over. Now think about what humans would look like if they spent ten entire human histories mastering the frontiers of biological science. You would never identify the result as human. You might certainly believe you're looking at an alien. The most vicious lineage of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can assume various forms. Some possess fangs and blades and stand towering tall. Others are encased in armored plating. According to supplementary lore, when Mara-Yama travel between stars, their physical forms can degenerate into little more than a collection of organs attached to a head.

A Universe of Ideas

Among the pyrotechnics, lasers, and battle bears, you might have caught snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, uses a shiny machine that emanates a purple glow. A spaceship jets into a portal and is gone at incredible speed. This all seems past human achievement, the kind of tech linked to a highly advanced civilization. Yet, these are further examples of wonders that look alien but are firmly grounded in our species' own ascension.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus universe is being crafted by what the narrative lead called a duo of “sci-fi giants.” One celebrated 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. Enlisting such established science-fiction minds into the world years before the game's release has enabled the studio to develop a dense fictional universe as a framework for the game.

“It was really a partnership. We had set some foundations, 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 handcuff him. You want to give him room to explore,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.

One interesting scene shows Jun appearing to shape the ground beneath him, forming stone into a temporary bridge. This material, called livestone, is controlled by mental impulses from Celestials or augmented enforcers — descendants of later human arrivals who were granted limited technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun shows this ability, questions are raised about his origins.

“Jun's not specifically a Uranic human... Jun is sort of a hacked version, for want of a better term,” clarified the writer, stating that the ability to interact with Celestial technology is a “important element of the game.”

The immense scale of the Exodus setting — both in distance and historical time — means there is abundant room for diverse stories to be told, pulling from the same universe without causing contradiction.

Tales of Time and Loss

Although Exodus has been on the radar for a couple of years and isn't releasing, several stories have already been 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 television series recounts a heartbreaking story about a father searching for his daughter across star systems, with time dilation imparting devastating effects on their family; by the time he finds her, she has experienced many years.

The game itself is centered on “Jun’s story,” set on the planet Lidon — a world mostly abdicated 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 harness his unusual powers to {find a solution|stop