We just got another look at Exodus, the sci-fi RPG made by former BioWare developers. 20 minutes of new gameplay footage were shown off at the Future Games Show, giving us a look at everything from combat to conversations.

However, there is one feature worth honing in on, as it will sound quite familiar to Mass Effect veterans. In a preview ahead of today's showcase, the devs went into more detail on the Traveller Oath system. This is part of the character creation, and has players choose what kind of alignment their character follows. Sort of like the Renegade and Paragon system in Mass Effect, except you choose it from the very start.

Exodus Splits Morality Into Two Different "Oaths" You Can Follow: Paladin And Immortal

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During the preview, the devs gave us quite a few details on how Trraveller Oaths will work. There are two paths, Paladin and Immortal, and they dictate how your version of the player character, Jun Aslan, conducts themself - whether the ends justify the means, and what the ends even look like to them. Since your mission is to find technology that could save your planet, part of the Traveller Oath is also how you would use that technology.

"The Oaths are a general philosophy of how you want to approach your leadership, your power, how you deal with power, how you feel about celestial technology, and what humans should eventually evolve into," says Drew Karpyshyn, lead writer on Exodus. "It has a huge effect on the story and on your companions."

Much like Mass Effect before it, you influence your Paladin and Immortal scores through decisions made in the story, or through how you talk to people - whether you intimidate or persuade them. However, it does also bleed into the combat, as the skills you pick up on the skill tree will reward you with Paladin and Immortal points. In that regard, it reminds me a little of KOTOR, and how you had Light Side, Dark Side, and universal abilities.

Since you choose your Oath in the character creator, I asked if this locks you into any particular path early on. The devs tell me that this isn't the case.

"So, moment to moment, we want you to be able to react to the situation," Karpyshyn continues. "Sometimes that means some players are going to say, hey, I want to just react specifically to this moment in this way, but other characters are going to say, I want to embrace a philosophy, I want to embrace an archetype, and down that path."

Game director Chris King doubles down on this, saying that they didn't want to railroad players down any particular paths too early on. "One of the things we've tried to do with these systems is let you dabble in it a little bit, so that you're not punished, and you can get a feel for it," he says. "In the case of the morality system specifically, though, you'll make a choice in the character creator right at the start, but you can hop around. You're not committed to it, you don't get punished if you want to go a different direction."

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With that said, you will get rewards for going in one direction and sticking with it, which is pretty much how Mass Effect worked, too. There will be some rewards for taking each decision as they come, at least, which we didn't really get with Mass Effect. I am sure many of us are haunted by memories of not being able to get the optimal outcome in a situation because we didn't commit to either side.

Exodus is set to launch in 2027.

Exodus Like Follow Followed Sci-Fi Action Adventure RPG Systems Released 2027 Developer(s) Archetype Entertainment Publisher(s) Wizards of the Coast Number of Players Single-player Steam Deck Compatibility Unknown 12 Images Close
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Genre(s) Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure, RPG Powered by Expand Collapse