In the month since Archetype Entertainment gave us our first look at its sci-fi RPG Exodus, there’s been a drip-feed of teasers showcasing gunfights, the exploration of alien worlds, stealth and a man looking out of his balcony. The main takeaway from these teasers is that, yep, this sure looks like Mass Effect.
Which isn’t surprising—Archetype describes itself as being “led by industry veterans from BioWare, 343, Electronic Arts, Naughty Dog, and other leading AAA studios” (emphasis mine), with a cohort that included former BioWare design director James Ohlen. I’m using the past tense here because Ohlen left his role as the head of Archetype late last year.
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Granted, it doesn’t look especially novel or any different from the shoe-horned stealth that so many action games deploy. But it’s not something Shepard ever did.
This week’s teaser is not particularly thrilling. It’s just a dude looking at a generic sci-fi cityscape on a balcony, accompanied by ambient music that you’ll swear you heard in Mass Effect’s Citadel.
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Mass Effect codex fans might be excited by one of the advances on display, though—you can look at things and get on-screen codex pop-ups instead of needing to view them in a separate menu. This is the future, folks!
I probably sound more cynical than you’d expect from someone who genuinely loves Mass Effect and is keen for more big budget sci-fi RPGs, but nothing we’ve seen so far has set my heart pounding. It all looks OK. A bit stiff, a bit too much like some games I played years and years ago, but certainly not dreadful. But I’m still waiting for the reveal of something that could actually get me excited.
Fingers crossed for the extended showcase this summer, I guess! And hey, if this doesn’t work out, we’ve also got The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, along with the latest official Mass Effect entry. Though regarding the latter, I still think it’s a terrible idea.
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