Exodus: The Ultimate Guide for the True Science Fiction Enthusiast.

For a particular breed of science-fiction enthusiast, the revelation of Exodus stood as the most impactful reveal from a major gaming awards ceremony. Interestingly, those very fans might not have grasped its full implications during the initial showcase.

Exodus, the first project from a freshly formed studio filled with former 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. Prior to this reveal, the studio's leadership detailed some of the authentic scientific theories that underpin for the game's universe: time dilation, human augmentation, and galactic expansion. These are all suitably heady ideas, which are particularly difficult to express in a brief, marketing-driven trailer.

“I would have preferred some of those innovative and fresh ideas were featured in the trailer. What I perceived was ‘stereotypical man in space,’” wrote one commenter. Another replied, “All I got was ‘we have a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Reactions in online forums were equally varied.

The trailer's strategy certainly is logical from a commercial standpoint. When striving to make an impact during a hours-long deluge of game announcements, what has broader appeal: A group debating the finer points of theoretical science? Or giant robots exploding while more war machines shoot plasma from their armor? However, in prioritizing loud action, the developers failed to include the subtler elements that make Exodus one of the more intriguing hard sci-fi games in development. Let's delve deeper.

Evolved or Alien?

Does Exodus contain aliens? No. That's complicated. Recall that scene near the start of the trailer, showing a bipedal figure with metallic skin and cybernetic components integrated into their body. That was definitely an alien, yes? The truth hinges on your stance regarding one of the game's major philosophical questions: If you applied Ship of Theseus philosophy to the human DNA, is what remains still humanity?

“We want the Celestials... for a player that isn't spend considerable amounts of time into learning the backstory, to still understand the core concept that they're evolved humans, see that they’re an antagonist you have to deal with... But also, at the end of the day, make sure it's fun and that they're compelling and that they function effectively to challenge,” explained the studio's head.

Understanding how these alien-seeming beings aren't strictly aliens requires wrestling with immense expanses of both space and temporal progression. Time dilation — the scientific principle that time moves slower for rapidly traveling objects — is an key scientific basis of Exodus’ fictional framework. Here are the essentials: Humanity abandons a desiccated Earth in the 23rd century for a remote corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human travelers arrive centuries before others. Those firstcomers 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 numerous millennia of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see unaltered humans as fundamentally backwards, inferior, not really worthy for the dominant positions of society,” stated the game's story head.

Exodus is set roughly 40,000 years in the future. Reflect on that scale — that's the equivalent of all of recorded human history multiplied ten times over. Now contemplate what humans would look like if they spent ten entire human histories pushing the limits of biotech. You would absolutely not identify the outcome as human. You might certainly believe you're observing an alien. The most fearsome lineage of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can take various forms. Some possess fangs and claws and stand nine feet tall. Others are covered in exoskeletons. According to expanded universe lore, when Mara-Yama travel between stars, their physical forms can break down into little more than a collection of organs attached to a head.

Technology and Lore

Between the pyrotechnics, lasers, and battle bears, you might have noticed snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, uses a metallic machine that emanates a violet glow. A spaceship flies into a portal and is gone at relativistic velocity. This all seems outside human comprehension, the kind of tech linked to a Kardashev Scale-topping civilization. Yet, these are further examples of concepts that appear alien but are firmly grounded in our species' own journey.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus universe is being crafted by what the narrative lead called a duo of “renowned authors.” One bestselling author has already published a doorstopper novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another prolific writer has written a series of short stories. Enlisting such legendary science-fiction minds into the fold years before the game's release has enabled the studio to develop a rich fictional universe as a backdrop 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 meshed... With someone as established, you don't want to limit him. You want to give him creative freedom,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.

One interesting scene shows Jun appearing to shape the ground beneath him, fashioning stone into a makeshift bridge. This material, called livestone, responds to neural commands from Celestials or Uranic humans — descendants of later human arrivals who were given certain technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun shows this ability, speculation arises about his status.

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

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

Tales of Time and Loss

Although Exodus has been in development for a couple of years and isn't releasing, 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 many millennia later than planned, making Celestials totally alien to her experience. An episode of a streaming show tells a poignant 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 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 human stronghold. A technological virus known as “the Rot” has begun corroding everything, including essential life support systems, and Jun must harness his unique powers to {find a solution|stop