Polygon's hands-on preview of Exodus, the debut title from Archetype Entertainment, offers fresh detail on how the studio is trying to distinguish its Mass Effect-esque action-RPG through a strict adherence to relativistic physics rather than faster-than-light travel. Narrative director Drew Karpyshyn explained that the game's core conceit, dubbed "Exodus missions", sees players travel between star systems knowing they may lose years or even decades to time dilation, forcing major narrative and life choices before departure. This distinctive premise, alongside cover-based combat and party mechanics reminiscent of Mass Effect, aims to set the game apart in a crowded genre populated by veterans of BioWare, Halo 4 and The Last of Us.

The preview also expands on the game's lore: set 40,000 years in the future but beginning when humanity flees a dying Earth for the Centauri Cluster, the story follows early arrivals who altered their own genomes into the "Celestial" and granted animals human-level consciousness as the "Awakened", including an octopus companion. Without faster-than-light communication, information between star systems takes years to travel, deepening the sense of isolation between societies. This rich backstory has already been explored across a tabletop game, a novel duology by Peter F. Hamilton and short stories by Adrian Tchaikovsky, though the preview notes the in-universe present is still largely a mystery. Exodus is due for release on 7 April 2027 on PS5, PC and Xbox Series X.