Archetype Entertainment, a studio founded by ex-BioWare developers, released a 40-minute gameplay video of Exodus, a third-person sci-fi action shooter. The timing coincides with news of BioWare's closure.
Exodus casts players as Jun Aslan, heir of a Traveller dynasty that guided humanity through space after Earth's ecological collapse. The gameplay footage shows a mission where Jun and his team liberate an orbital platform inhabited by the Kay, a sentient frog species, from hostile humans. The game features oversized sentient animals called the Awakened living alongside humans, including an octopus companion piloting a mech.
The footage draws heavily from Mass Effect's design language. An orbital platform in the demo resembles a mass relay. Combat mirrors Mass Effect's UI structure, including a familiar combat wheel for issuing companion commands and switching weapons. Enemy health bars use identical color coding: red for health, yellow for armor, blue for shields. The game includes a companion UI that displays crew reactions to player decisions.
Dialogue choices influence team disposition. The demo shows both outcomes of a single choice, one resulting in an enemy's death. A major decision later in the mission determines an entire species' fate, with consequences tied to keeping companion Suliman happy. Like Mass Effect, certain aspects remain unchanged regardless of choice.
The developer noted that supporting new projects from ex-BioWare staff offers a better investment of energy than external campaigns to save the franchise.