Exodus: An Exploration for the Hardcore Science Fiction Enthusiast.

For a specific breed of science-fiction devotee, the announcement of Exodus stood as the biggest news from a major gaming awards ceremony. Curiously, those very fans could have missed grasped its full significance during the initial showcase.

Exodus, the inaugural game from a freshly formed studio filled with former talent from a renowned RPG developer, was originally teased 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. Ahead of this showcase, the studio's leadership discussed some of the authentic scientific ideas that serve as the basis for the game's universe: relativistic time effects, human augmentation, and galactic expansion. These are all suitably dense ideas, which are inherently difficult to communicate in a brief, cinematic trailer.

“It's a shame some of those intriguing and fresh ideas were featured in the trailer. My takeaway was ‘generic 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 online forums were similarly varied.

The trailer's focus undoubtedly makes sense from a marketing angle. When attempting to make an impact during a lengthy onslaught of game announcements, what is more marketable: Scientists debating the finer points of relativity? Or enormous robots combusting while more mechs fire lasers from their faces? However, in prioritizing loud action, the developers failed to include the quieter concepts that make Exodus one of the more exciting hard sci-fi games on the horizon. Let's delve deeper.

The Celestial Conundrum

Does Exodus contain aliens? Yes. That's complicated. Look at that shot near the start of the trailer, featuring a bipedal figure with metallic skin and technological components merged into their body. That was definitely an alien, yes? In the end hinges on your perspective regarding one of the game's core philosophical questions: If you applied Ship of Theseus reasoning to the human DNA, is what is left still a human being?

“We want the Celestials... for a player that isn't invest significant amounts of time into absorbing the lore, to still comprehend the fundamental idea that they're advanced humans, recognize that they’re an opposing force you have to deal with... But also, ultimately, make sure it's enjoyable and that they're impressive and that they play well to encounter,” explained the studio's lead executive.

Grasping how these otherworldly beings aren't strictly aliens requires grappling with enormous expanses of both the galaxy and temporal progression. Time dilation — the Einsteinian theory that time moves differently for rapidly traveling objects — is an operative hard line of Exodus’ fictional framework. Here are the basics: Humanity abandons a desiccated Earth in the 23rd century for a distant corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human voyagers arrive centuries before others. Those pioneers heavily modified their biology and assumed the “Celestial” title.

“There’s various stages of evolution. The people who arrived at the Centauri cluster first... had many thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see unaltered humans as essentially backwards, inferior, not really suitable for the dominant positions of society,” stated the game's lead writer.

Exodus is set about 40,000 years in the future. Reflect on that scale — that's effectively all of human civilization multiplied ten times over. Now think about what humans would evolve into if they spent ten entire human histories mastering the boundaries of biotech. You would absolutely not perceive the outcome as human. You might certainly believe you're observing an alien. The scariest branch of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can take multiple forms. Some possess talons and blades and stand nine feet tall. Others are covered in exoskeletons. According to supplementary lore, when Mara-Yama travel between stars, their physical forms can break down into little more than a mass of tissue attached to a head.

Technology and Lore

Between the pyrotechnics, energy weapons, and battle bears, you might have caught snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, operates a chrome machine that radiates a violet glow. A spaceship flies into a portal and is gone at relativistic velocity. This all seems beyond human comprehension, the kind of tech attributed to a highly advanced civilization. Yet, these are further examples of elements that appear alien but are firmly grounded in mankind's own evolution.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus universe is being authored by what the narrative lead called a duo of “literary legends.” One acclaimed author has already published a doorstopper novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another esteemed writer has penned a series of short stories. Enlisting such respected science-fiction writers into the world years before the game's release has enabled the studio to develop a rich fictional universe as a framework for the game.

“It was really a joint venture. We had set some basics, and working with him, he would have ideas... and we would work to see how they all fit together... With someone of that caliber, you don't want to constrain him. You want to give him room to explore,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.

One notable scene shows Jun appearing to manipulate the ground beneath him, fashioning stone into a instant bridge. This material, called livestone, is controlled by brainwaves from Celestials or augmented enforcers — descendants of later human arrivals who were granted limited technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun shows this ability, speculation arises about his nature.

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

The sheer scale of the Exodus setting — both in physical space and temporal scope — means there is plenty of room for various stories to exist, drawing from the same established rules without causing contradiction.

A Broad Narrative Canvas

Although Exodus has been in development for a couple of years and won't arrive, several stories have already begun to be told within its universe. The first major novel delves into the connection between a Uranic human and a woman whose ship arrived tens of thousands later than planned, making Celestials completely alien to her experience. An episode of a streaming show depicts a poignant story about a father chasing his daughter across star systems, with time dilation imparting devastating effects on their family; by the time he finds her, she has lived a lifetime.

The game itself is centered on “Jun’s story,” set on the planet Lidon — a world mostly left by Celestials that has become a refuge. A consuming plague known as “the Rot” has begun corroding everything, including essential life support systems, and Jun must use his Celestial-like powers to {find a solution|stop