Exo One Review: To Infinity and Beyond

I, like so many others, love myself some good sci-fi, so I was pretty easily drawn to Exbleative’s Exo One from the moment I saw it. Making your way across intense sci-fi settings so big they didn’t even fit on screen seemed like a very cool and psychedelic concept. However, what I didn’t expect was there to be an interesting, and what feels like, haunting layer of narrative to a game that at first glance just seems to be a chill adventure game. In what I would best describe as a sweeping dream spanning several sci-fi settings, Exo One took physics focused gameplay, vast beautiful landscapes, and a subtle yet soaring soundtrack to invoke a sense of awe; sending me on a journey across space and time. 

Gameplay 

Exo one is a game where you simply go from one place to another, traveling to beacons of light. At its core it’s absurdly simple and on paper it even sounds like it could be boring. But what keeps this process of going from point A to B interesting is the method of how you get there. Throughout the game, you’ll control a shape shifting orb that can jump, take the form of a disc, and increase its mass by ten times the normal amount. Increasing your mass allows you to plummet downward which will help you pick up or maintain speed as you make your way across the game’s stages. For example, if you’re grounded and traveling across a hilly plain, get to the top of a hill, jump, and increase your mass to propel yourself down the hill and ramp off the other at an incredible speed. 

This sense of speed that Exo One delivers is pretty exhilarating, only equaled by the sense of scale in it’s stages. Between sloped geometry, air streams, and launch gates that would slingshot me, I was flying, free falling, and soaring at what felt like breakneck speeds through these otherworldly environments, all of which had varying gravities and topography. One of my favorite features of the game was the capability of breaking multiple sound barriers. If you can get yourself enough height to drop and gain the necessary speed to do so, whether it be through air pockets or physics manipulation, it can be intense enough to make you feel like you’re actually experiencing the g-force that would come with such speeds. 

This approach to gameplay creates a simple and satisfying experience that’s easy to get the hang of, but difficult to truly master; especially if you’re going for the time-based trophies or achievements. Whether i was hurtling faster than the speed of sound or gently gliding just above a sun soaked sea of clouds, I found an intense satisfaction and a sense of peace while riding the currents of Exo One’s surreal worlds.  

Presentation

**Exo One features flashing lights for players who experience photosensitive epilepsy**

Between its far stretching environments and the enigmatic vibes of it’s soundtrack, Exo One was a pleasure to experience. On top of being enjoyable, the game is plain stunning. From desert worlds, deep space, sun soaked multi colored atmospheres, and other locations that look like a Roger Dean vinyl cover brought to a game, every session had me floored by different imagery and environments. Personally, I found that imagery and level of graphical fidelity paired with Exo One’s use of audio to be a recipe for trance-like immersion. Rhys Lindsay’s tracks are dreamy and atmospheric, characterizing the alien vistas you’ll see on the cosmic journey but they come and go. However, moments lacking music can be just as immersive and can carry more ominous, isolating, or dramatic tones. 

The ambient soundscapes of the game world combined with the sounds of your shape shifting object are just as effective at creating the ambience the soundtrack provides. The sounds of wind and dust particles whipping past as you jet through a hurricane, or the sounds of howling winds traveling across frozen plains as rocks and snow crumble underneath the rolling orb. At one point I found myself flying above mountain tops just peeking through a blanket of clouds, I chose to dip below the clouds just to see what was hidden below. I was met with an unsettling static as my screen flashed imagery of black and red liquids blending together. Thunder crashed as the static and imagery continued and all i could see was a dreary black and gray haze between the walls of the mountains that just seconds ago, seemed like part of a scene would have described as heaven-like. The way Exo One can invoke different feelings with drastically different art so quickly within one level is impressive to me and makes for quite the entertaining ride.

Story

The narrative to Exo One feels intentionally cryptic and ambiguous, as if asking to be deciphered rather than experienced. While some beats are pretty straightforward, I found most of it to be a bit of a head scratcher. Most of the characters are unnamed, simply being referred to as “engineer”, “reporter”, or something of the sort. Though that seemed to be a constant and the finer details of the story seemed to escape me, it was apparent to me that this story wasn’t a happy one. The orb you control actually is Exo One, an alien craft whose origins are unknown. It seemed to me through lines of dialogue, which are delivered as haunting, distant transmissions and deep, echoing inhuman voices, that Exo One tells a story that takes place in two different points in time; or perhaps two different galaxies. Focused around a seemingly doomed crew of Jupiter-bound cosmonauts and what I believe is the sole survivor of that crew traveling deep beyond our solar system, the two stories seem to be connected and deal with one another. 

Though I could be reading it entirely wrong, my interpretation of this interstellar narrative is that you're playing as an engineer or astronaut who was part of that fateful Jupiter mission. They know much more about the odd, science-defying events that took place during it. What I found more chilling though is the fate I believe the protagonist knew they were setting off towards. While I don’t want to delve too deeply into certain aspects of it, this is unquestionably a story that's up for individual interpretation and most certainly will be discussed amongst those who see the journey through to it’s equally ambiguous ending.

Breakdown

Game: Exo One

Developer: Exbleative 

Availability:  XSX, XBO, PC, Game Pass

Reviewed on Xbox Series X

Pros: 

+ Beautiful, sweeping, sci-fi landscapes

+ Intuitive traversal controls

+ Fantastic, ambient soundtrack

+ Easily approachable

Cons:

- Vague and ambiguous narrative can be a turn off for some

Final Thoughts

Exo One is an absolutely stunning journey across seemingly endless sci-fi settings. With an extremely simple to understand, yet hard to master gameplay approach, Exbleative’s debut proved capable of creating a trance-like experience; pulling feelings out of me in strange, unexpected ways. Steeped in abstract imagery and bolstered by a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack, I believe anyone who is a fan of the sci-fi genre or aesthetic, or is just looking for a bite-sized experience over a weekend would be doing themselves a service by taking the journey this game sends you on. I know with the ambiguity of it’s narrative alone, I’m incentivized to set off again just to uncover the mysteries that this story holds so close.

Reviewed by Justin Hyde