The Exodus Project: The Ultimate Guide for the Hardcore Futurism Fanatic.

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

Exodus, the first project from a new studio filled with ex- talent from a renowned RPG developer, was initially announced a couple of years prior. At the latest event, the development team provided an projected release window of 2027, accompanied by a fast-paced trailer. Prior to this showcase, the studio's leadership discussed some of the authentic scientific concepts that serve as the basis for the game's universe: time dilation, genetic alteration, and galactic expansion. These are all inherently dense ideas, which are inherently difficult to convey in a brief, cinematic trailer.

“It's a shame some of those fascinating and novel ideas were highlighted 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 correspondingly divided.

The trailer's focus undoubtedly is understandable from a business standpoint. When trying to capture attention during a lengthy barrage of game announcements, what has broader appeal: A team debating the intricacies of relativity? Or giant robots blowing up while more war machines fire plasma from their armor? However, in opting for spectacle, the developers failed to include the more nuanced elements that make Exodus one of the more promising concept-driven games coming soon. Let's break it down.

Evolved or Alien?

Does Exodus contain aliens? Perhaps. The answer is nuanced. Consider that scene near the opening of the trailer, depicting a humanoid with ashen skin and technological components merged into their flesh. That was surely an alien, yes? Ultimately hinges on your stance regarding one of the game's central existential inquiries: If you applied Ship of Theseus philosophy to the human genome, is what is left still humanity?

“We want the Celestials... for a player not intending to invest significant amounts of time into learning the lore, to still understand the basic premise that they're advanced humans, recognize that they’re an antagonist you have to confront... But also, ultimately, make sure it's fun and that they're impressive and that they function effectively to fight against,” explained the studio's head.

Understanding how these alien-seeming beings aren't by definition aliens requires wrestling with immense expanses of both the cosmos and time. Time dilation — the scientific principle that time moves differently for rapidly traveling objects — is an operative core tenet of Exodus’ science-fiction trappings. Here are the essentials: Humanity evacuates a depleted Earth in the 23rd century for a remote corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human colonists arrive centuries before others. Those pioneers heavily modified their DNA and adopted the “Celestial” title.

“There’s multiple tiers of evolution. The people who reached the Centauri cluster first... had tens of thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see standard humans as sort of primitive, lesser, not really worthy for the dominant positions of society,” stated the game's narrative director.

Exodus is set approximately 40,000 years in the future. Consider that scale — that's essentially all of our documented past multiplied ten times over. Now imagine what humans would look like if they spent ten entire human histories advancing the limits of biological science. You would never perceive the end product 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 talons and blades and stand towering tall. Others are protected in armored plating. 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

Amidst the detonations, lasers, and war beasts, you might have noticed snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, interacts with a shiny machine that emanates a violet glow. A spaceship flies into a portal and is gone at near-light speed. This all seems outside human achievement, the kind of tech attributed to a highly advanced civilization. Yet, these are further examples of wonders that appear alien but are ultimately derived in mankind's own ascension.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus canon is being crafted by what the narrative lead called a duo of “sci-fi giants.” One bestselling author has already published a lengthy novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another award-winning writer has contributed a series of short stories. Enlisting such respected science-fiction writers into the project years before the game's release has allowed the studio to develop a dense 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 of that caliber, you don't want to limit him. You want to give him latitude,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.

One interesting scene shows Jun seemingly mold the ground beneath him, fashioning stone into a makeshift bridge. This material, called livestone, is controlled by mental impulses from Celestials or Uranic humans — descendants of later human arrivals who were allowed limited technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun shows this ability, one might wonder about his nature.

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

The vast scale of the Exodus setting — both in distance and temporal scope — means there is plenty of room for diverse stories to be told, using the same universe without risking contradiction.

Stories Within the Void

Although Exodus has been publicly known for a couple of years and isn't releasing, several stories have already 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 utterly alien to her experience. An episode of a streaming show recounts a poignant story about a father chasing his daughter across star systems, with time dilation imparting life-altering effects on their family; by the time he finds her, she has experienced a lifetime.

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 eating away at everything, including critical life support systems, and Jun must master his Celestial-like powers to {find a solution|stop