The GaaS (Game as a Service) sector is a ruthless universe, and Sharkmob has already learned this the hard way. In May 2023, and after just over a year, the studio called it quits with its battle royale Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt, due to a lack of players. No longer under pressure to deliver new content, the developers turned to their new Exoborne franchise. An extraction-shooter that delivers an over-the-top feel, but which questions more than it satisfies for the moment.
Exoborne or Just Cause 4?
Exoborne takes place in the near future where Earth is nothing more than a pile of ruins and an open-air battlefield after the Showdown. An apocalypse that could have been prevented before it happened. At least, that's what the Rebirth Corporation promised humans, but it was all a pack of lies. The worst happened, and the survivors, called Reborns, rallied behind Chief Tar to continue the fight and seek revenge. Why talk about a story in an extraction shooter? Well, because Sharkmob wants to wrap its service game in a narrative with cutscenes, found footage, and other text descriptions. But with one goal: to ensure that all these normally secondary elements in a multiplayer are accessible only after each game so as not to bother anyone. Will this really be developed? Good question. For now, we've seen a few nice CGI cutscenes at most, but nothing that makes us wait for the title to expand on that.
If Sharkmob manages to create a universe, that's a given, but in any case, players will come primarily for the fight. Exorborne is therefore an extraction-shooter, like Hunt Showdown or Escape From Tarkov, which is very similar to Just Cause 4 for better or for worse. Although the studio has refuted this inspiration, it is nevertheless obvious. Like Avalanche's game, we are faced with a TPS that focuses on the character's mobility using gadgets as well as extreme weather conditions with a dynamic weather system that must transform the landscape of each game.
Like Rico Rodriguez, we, Reborn, benefit from a paraglider to move more quickly in the open world of Colton County, an area on the East Coast of the United States. But this accessory that never leaves us can only be used if the weather conditions allow it. And while we can activate air currents in Just Cause 4, here, we have to wait for Mother Nature to do her job. If the weather starts to turn bad, we can take a short jump, then trigger our sail to be propelled into the air. When the weather really plays tricks, and there's a tornado, for example, we can also use this phenomenon to our advantage to go even further. And if that's not enough, there's a grappling hook to maintain the flow of the crossing. At least on paper.
Weather conditions that aren't everything for the moment
At first glance, travel is fun, and to be honest, it is fun in its entirety. Flying to escape something, someone, or simply to move forward based on the weather conditions is exhilarating in a way. Especially for the true freedom it provides. But the problem is that we are necessarily dependent on it, and when the weather is good, the crossing is more laborious because the grappling hook then becomes our first ally in order to reach high areas. Except that our tool is too limited due to a cooldown that can vary slightly depending on our "class," the length, and the grappling system that can make us do involuntary stunts in the heat of the moment. It can quickly become a sketch, break the movement dynamics, and incidentally, be fatal since we are clearly not safe from colliding with an element of the scenery, and therefore becoming an easy target. And if that's a problem, it's because these gadgets are one of the pillars of the gameplay, like the dynamic climate.
In addition to being useful for moving around the world with greater ease, weather phenomena are supposed to change the course of the game for us, our teammates, and our opponents. Indeed, while a tornado isn't necessarily a sign of instant death, all it takes is for a fire to start, due to a player action or purely by chance, to face a more dangerous fire typhoon. A thunderstorm, with rain, could also be painful. Unfortunately, after a few hours of play, it's hard to see the added value.
In my opinion, there's already a staging problem in the triggering of these weather conditions. Whereas it can be a real event in Battlefield, for example, here, neither I nor my unknown teammates felt like we were in danger. While that's supposed to be the case, the truth is that we were more worried about the fate of the Twister actors when rewatching the film than when playing Exoborne. At one point, we even stood on the edge of a cliff, quietly observing the tornadoes - there can be several at the same time - without any pressure. We haven't yet perceived the tactical side sold or even the epic dimension of this pillar of the Exoborne formula. We're not saying it doesn't exist, only that our games proved cruelly disappointing at this level. But we'll see in the longer term, with the final version, and after exploring the different corners of the world, since certain sectors will visibly be more dangerous at all levels. High-risk, high-reward sections too, we're promised.
An Anthem vibe in Exoborne's gameplay... but not as good
As a PvE PvP extraction-shooter, the crux of Exoborne's war is to loot and slip away from the game alive, with loot of different qualities (grey, green, blue, purple, gold) collected, or risk losing everything. Really, everything. In this respect, the game doesn't reinvent anything compared to its competitors either. We are dropped into the wilderness, having previously selected one of the parachute drop spots in the world of Colton County, and we gallop through the open to visit as many points of interest as possible before a timer reveals our position and we miss the extraction boat. The beginnings of Exoborne are a little stiff and unclear because of the imprecision of the points of interest, at least in this non-final version which risks evolving in this area. We don't really know what to do or how sometimes, and at first, we just go in blindly, trying to spot where there might be trouble and resources to collect.
To frame this a bit, there are challenges (e.g., survive 20 minutes), events that can last several days, operations (e.g., eliminate a hostile Reborn), and main missions that move the story forward. Nothing new under the sun here either, and that's one of the other problems with Exoborne right now. In addition to feeling a bit lost, we already have the sensation of having already covered everything in less than ten hours. And obviously, this is the case given that not all the content was present and that we are talking about a service game. There is no problem there. But if we already have doubts with this playtest, what will happen later? If we are so hesitant about this extraction-shooter for the moment, it is also because we did not completely find our account in the confrontations and the gameplay of the Exo-Rigs. One of the arguments, and pillars of the Sharkmob game, which are "the key to our survival".
If we immediately think of Just Cause 4 for the environment, the gadgets and the desire to give a purpose to the weather conditions - aside from being a visual element - when we take control of our character, it's Anthem that comes to mind. No Javelins here, but Exo-Rigs, exo-skeletons that give our Reborns all their increased mobility and that function a bit like classes. There's the "Coyote" which has no particular properties; the "Kodiak" which acts roughly like a tank with the ability to reduce melee damage by sprinting and perform a powerful 360° ground attack; the "Kestrel", a lightweight suit that can release a burst of compressed air that inflicts damage and stuns enemies, or even grant a kind of hovering after crouching while gliding; and finally the "Viper" which is between the Kestrel and the Kodiak, which allows you to dash towards an enemy by striking with your blade and activate health regeneration after knocking down or eliminating an NPC.
What we like about Exoborne's combat is that it goes against the grain of more demanding or "realistic" propositions like Escape from Tarkov and Hunt Showdown. The feeling is very arcade and in line with the flow of movement. It moves quite well without being transcendent, for example because of a soft slide, and a lack of real differentiations between the Exo-Rigs, except for the Kodiak. You know when you're equipped with the latter. But compared to Anthem, which admittedly had a higher budget, the comparison hurts (very) badly. We haven't replayed BioWare's game, but watching a few gameplay clips is enough to remind us how exhilarating the game was in this area, and to reinforce the idea that Exoborne is partly missing its mark.
In addition to the ultimately slim differences between the Exo-Rigs, the sensations are far too basic to arouse my enthusiasm, unlike Anthem. The baby of the Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio may be full of flaws, and have been a monumental flop, its gameplay remains one of its greatest successes. The gameplay literally shone with its unwavering dynamism, something that isn't found in Sharkmob's extraction-shooter. Here, it's still unfortunately too flat, especially since the gunplay doesn't stand out either. It's very basic, even sometimes haphazard, with too much recoil for an experience that's supposed to be arcade-like, and a strange choice to force you to aim in first-person view even though it's a TPS. And then there's also this lack of consistency when you decide to activate the skills of our exo-skeletons described above. Whether it's the ground attack or the forward blade swing, the sensations are disappointing. Could more advanced equipment make us reconsider our judgment? Maybe in part, although it shouldn't be night and day either.
As we progress and wander around looting, we'll unlock new weapons, accessories for them, and even Exo weapons, some of which are worth their weight in peanuts. Are you jealous of lightning that hits an enemy? With the right weaponry, it will be possible to send your own lightning bolts to corners of the map. Exo modules are also other tools that will improve certain aspects once installed. But the problem is that we can obviously lose everything, and therefore, it will perhaps create an imbalance or even frustration to return to square one after several defeats in a row
Beyond the Exo-Rigs and their gameplay, which are still far from convincing us at the time of writing, there are other shortcomings in the battles. First, on several occasions, it was not easy to tell the difference between an AI Reborn and one controlled by a real player. It is only when an enemy is on the ground, and trying to escape, that we can be certain that it is indeed a human controlling them. Then, the TTK and the AI of the opponents often leave more than to be desired for the moment. We don't know if the intelligence of the AI rivals really evolves depending on the area, but what is certain is that the studio still has progress to make.
And Sharkmob also has to make progress elsewhere if Exoborne is to have any hope of success. We're thinking in particular of the confusing menus or the loot management, which is currently laborious. We won't list everything, but the slowness of looting in-game is too great, exposing us too easily to a landing of real players. While the sound design is quite good, on the technical and graphic levels, there is still room for improvement. Exoborne has a bit of a "beautiful from afar" syndrome. At first glance, the map is vast, with many elements, and weather conditions can have their effect. But if you zoom in, it's less impressive.
The textures aren't great, there can be some pretty violent clipping, and above all, the optimization leaves something to be desired. And not just on our configuration, which was nevertheless up to scratch for this playtest. Finally, there's also a major concern: the economic model and the follow-up. As mentioned in the introduction, and even if the servers aren't closed, Vampire The Masquerade Bloodhunt was abandoned very quickly... because it was free-to-play. Exoborne, on the other hand, will be released based on a premium model, which could ultimately be very risky for the studio. We saw this recently with Concord, and its opposite example, Helldivers 2, which didn't achieve the same success at equivalent prices. Given the shortcomings of Sharkmob's new game, it may therefore be difficult to establish a community and even a sufficient number of first buyers to launch the machine.
We await Exoborne... with doubts and many questions
Our few hours spent with Exoborne have therefore blown hot, but also cold. While we appreciate the arcade approach of this extraction-shooter, the concept of exo-skeletons or even the weather conditions, the execution of all these elements, and others, does not succeed in convincing us of the game's potential at the time of publishing our impressions. Nevertheless, we will be careful not to make any definitive judgment on a title that seems to want to evolve with the community's feedback. And in this case, the studio seems really attentive and very eager for both positive and negative comments. In summary, there is probably potential, but for the moment it is quite hidden, and it remains to be seen whether or not it will be expressed at release. Given the competitive multiplayer market where there are a lot of people who want to try and a few who are chosen, there is a risk that the sauce will not take, but we will see in a few months...
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