Announced at The Game Awards, Exodus, from developer Archetype Entertainment, caught the eye of many RPG fans desperate for anything that remotely resembles the original Mass Effect trilogy. That's no accident; Archetype boasts some of BioWare's most storied talent, people responsible for games like Baldur's Gate I & II, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins. Oh, and Matthew McConaughey is in it.
The ever-reliable Shinobi602 compiled an excellent primer on the lore of Exodus over on Twitter, summarising the timeline and bringing us up to seed. Archetype has produced a fantastic series of videos, setting the scene and the tone (extremely bleak) of the story to come.
Forty thousand years ago, humanity was forced to abandon a dying Earth for a new home amongst the stars. They found one in the Centauri system in massive, interstellar arks, where the pecking order vastly differs. On the verge of extinction, humanity struggles for survival in a cold and hostile galaxy.
James Ohlen heads the studio, which was founded four years ago in 2019, and Exodus will be the studio's debut. Ohlen was previously BioWare's senior creative director, where he worked for 22 years. He left in 2018 and opened Archetype with Wizards of the Coast's assistance to develop a new IP.
Chad Robertson serves as general manager and was formerly the studio director of BioWare Austin. Drew Karpeshyn, lead writer on Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, is also on board, and he said of the energy at the studio: "With Archetype, my passion has been rekindled. The feel in the studio reminds me of my early days at BioWare; I can feel the magic in the air."