Exodus' narrative director on choice in RPGs, the animal-like Awakened, story

What the report says

by Hayes Madsen on 04 September, 2026 Since the reveal of Exodus in 2023, expectations have been built for it as potentially, finally being the long-awaited spiritual successor to Mass Effect. And it's easy to see why. Advertisement. Keep scrolling for moreExodus does bear a striking similarity to Mass Effect in many ways, from psychic space powers to third-person combat. But even further, Archetype Entertainment is made up of more than a few BioWare alumni, including Mass Effect 1 and 2 writer Drew Karpyshyn, former BioWare studio director Chad Robertson, and Mass Effect: Andromeda gameplay designer Chris King.

The pedigree and experience are there, but after going hands-on with Exodus it's clear that Archetype wants it to be much more than a successor to Mass Effect, wants it to be something distinct and unique that can stand on its own. An emphasis on real, believable sci-fi and dramatic civilization-shaping choices is just a part of what the team behind Exodus hopes will help it stand apart.Along with our hands-on preview, we had the chance to sit down with Karpyshyn, now serving as Exodus' narrative director, to talk about the grand ambitions of this new sci-fi epic, the way Archetype is building compelling companions, choice in RPGs, and much more.I’m curious about the Awakened, and the idea of using talking animals and beings descended from Earth, rather than going the typical alien route.

Why did you choose to do that? Obviously, people have certain associations or ideas about animals, so what does that allow you to do from a writing perspective?Karpshyn: With the Awakened, one of the things we’re exploring in Exodus as a general rule is this idea of evolution. Humans evolved into Celestials, and the Celestials became sort of these alien-type things. But that isn’t the only path. The Awakened are another way to explore that. We’re taking something that is very familiar from Earth, and they were elevated, they evolved, and they became intelligent.

Key details

We felt like it was a good way to explore different ways you can push the evolution of a species. In addition, you know, with Exodus, we’re trying to do some different things in the sci-fi realm, and one of them is aliens are really fun. You want them because they’re different, they’re interesting. One of the things that’s always a tough line to walk is if they’re truly alien, they might be so alien that you can’t relate to them. Like humans have only existed for, generously, a million years out of several billion.

We’re like less than a percent – and running into aliens is, scientifically, very unlikely and rare. So we said, how do we approach that? How do we get things that feel different than what you would see on Earth, in our current day, but still respect that sort of scientific truism of how rare aliens really are? And we came up with the Celestials and the Awakened. As you noted, there’s a lot of inherent tendencies to the animals, and the Awakened are not just people in animal bodies. They still have a lot of their normal tendencies.

We want them to feel like an evolution, a logical evolution of what they were originally. But you can play with that. Some of them lean into the stereotype, while some cut against it. We felt it was something that allowed us a lot of latitude and a lot of free space to play around with and explore in a way players are going to enjoy. This is sort of a broad question, but a lot of times with these epic sci-fi stories, they can oftentimes reflect our own world. Sci-fi can be used as a vessel, like with Mass Effect and its themes of breaking cycles of violence.

More from the announcement

I’m curious, if there’s a similar sentiment with the story you want to tell in Exodus? Is there some kind of core theme that’s been inspired by the real world?Karpshyn: We have a lot of themes that run through Exodus, but one for me personally, the thing I’m always keeping in the back of my mind, and the thing that the writing team is really focused on, is the idea of sacrifice. Because time dilation is such a big part of our universe, the travelers, the heroes and explorers of our world, know that leaving to go on an Exodus mission means they are basically sacrificing years and years and years with the ones they love, the ones they care about.

Even though they themselves won’t age very much because of time dilation – they might be gone for 10 years, but it might seem like only a few days to them. The world will change.