The era of the extraction shooter is now firmly upon us, and one of those jostling for position is Exoborne. While it still seems to be a while away from releasing yet, it’s decided that now is the time to turn some heads with a first look at gameplay. It’s new trailer showcases its in-game natural disasters, its exo suits, and its blend of first and third-person gameplay which at least sets it apart somewhat from the slew of milsim Escape From Tarkov rivals that we’ve seen so far.
Exoborne is the next game to come out of Sharkmob, the developer responsible for the underappreciated multiplayer game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodhunt. While I personally quite enjoyed the vampiric twist on the battle royale formula, Bloodhunt was shut down after just a year – but the studio has emphatically told PCGamesN in the past that “a different level of commitment” has gone into Exoborne. Now, we get to see the fruits of its labor for the first time.
There’s only about 90 seconds of footage, but there’s enough to paint a picture of what your time in Exoborne will look and feel like. The first thing you’ll notice are the exosuits, which give this particular Call of Duty Advanced Warfare enjoyer a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Each suit, or Exo-Rig as they’re officially called, provides you with different abilities, and the trailer showcases some of those here, such as invisibility, an energy shield, and a big ground-pounding stagger attack. Traversal mechanics such as jetpack boosters, ziplines, and parachutes are also present.
Should your exo-feet get sore, there will also be vehicles for you to drive – and for your teammates to lean out the back of so they can light up enemies with gunfire.
You’ll also notice that Exoborne switches between a third-person perspective for traversal and a first-person view for aiming down the sights of your weapon. It’s unclear if that’s an optional toggle or if all ADS gunplay will be fixed to first-person, but it certainly throws up an interesting dynamic.
The game’s post-apocalyptic world is also in full view – as too are the natural disasters and weather events that plague it. Not only do we see quite a lot of thunderstorms, but huge tornadoes can be seen lifting players and vehicles up off the ground, Battlefield 2042-style.
While there’s currently no Exorborne release date or window to get excited about, you can now start signing up for playtests if you want to give it a spin and help push it towards its eventual launch. You can do so on its website here.
While I’m still not totally blown away by Exoborne (if you’ll pardon the weather-related pun), it’s at least differentiating itself a bit from the current king of extraction shooters, Escape From Tarkov, and some of its new milsim rivals such as Arena Breakout Infinite and Delta Force Hawk Ops. With Arc Raiders, Marathon, and many more extraction games on the way too, you can see just how crowded this genre is getting. There most likely isn’t a universe where all of these games manage to coexist with healthy player counts, so it’ll be interesting to see in a couple of years which of them come out on top.
For similar thrills, check out our recommendations for the best FPS games and best survival games that you can play right now.
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