Exoborne wants to be tomorrow”s extraction shooter. Today, however, it first has to fight for a place in the genre. We visited the developers on site.
In an unspecified but definitely not too distant future, humanity is on the brink of annihilation due to a global climate catastrophe. At the last second, the company “Rebirth” comes on the scene, promising to avert the collapse by building gigantic “Stratos” weather control stations.
Should we trust mega corporations when they promise us a quick and easy solution to all our complex problems? After an almost completely wiped out humanity, the answer is clear: No!
Because the Stratos Towers are, of course, weapons of mass destruction and only do more harm to the climate. The few survivors are now fighting a seemingly hopeless battle – not only against Rebirth, but also against nature, which has been unleashed more than ever.
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The east coast is on fire
That sounds like a very interesting scenario for a classic single-player shooter But this assumption could hardly be further from the truth, as Sharkmob co-founder Martin Hultberg reveals in our conversation:
“Exoborne is not a classic campaign game, it is designed entirely for PvP. Nevertheless, we place a great deal of emphasis on a sophisticated and well-presented storyline that players can gradually explore.”
This happens not only before and after missions, but also in the middle of them. In the world of Exoborne, various factions await you, some friendly, some hostile. You are also allowed to interact with some of them directly, not just shoot them, which advances the plot and sometimes unlocks new missions – but we weren”t able to try that ourselves.
Exoborne takes place in the fictional “Colton County” on the American East Coast, where we take on the role of a “Reborn”. These are former Rebirth fighters who have escaped the control of the company but still have access to its advanced “Exo-Rig” battle suits.
You can play as a hero or heroine, and you can customize your Reborn in an extensive character creator or use the random character generator.
What we played
This preview is based on a visit by Sharkmob to Malmö, where we spent several hours playing the already very advanced PC version of Exoborne against several developers without restriction. No other journalists were present at this event. The event was organized and paid for by Sharkmob and the publisher Tencent.
Trio mit zwölf Fäusten
At its heart, Exoborne is a typical extraction shooter, a genre that has become very popular in recent years with games like Escape From Tarkov and Hunt Showdown.
You are part of an elite team of three who jump out of a transport plane onto the map with momentum, search for the best possible loot, destroy opponents and take on the forces of nature that have gone wild, before heading back to base in the safe pick-up plane.
You can turn the loot you have picked up into cash at the base and new equipment. Or you can use blueprints and individual parts to create weapons or items yourself. The better the equipment, the higher your chance of surviving the mission unscathed. And the riskier the mission, the greater the probability of finding really good loot.
However, you must first return the collected goods to base. Because the more dangerous the mission, the greater the risk of dying in the middle of it. Which can happen really quickly if you”re not constantly on your guard.
And that means that you have not only lost all your resurrection items and helpful teammates, but also all the equipment you had with you. And that really hurts with high-level weapons and pimped-up exo-rigs.
The Titanfall Guy
Exo-Rigs official name may be “Tactical Open World Extraction Shooter,” but internally the game is only called “Exo-Rig Power Fantasy,” as Martin Hultberg and Executive Producer Brynley Gibson revealed to us with a grin.
These super suits not only give their owners superhuman powers, but also powers that have a strong influence on the game: the “Kestrel” is light and mobile, but offers little armor. Unlike the heavily armored “Kodiak”, which is comparatively slow as a result. And the heavily armed “Viper” is the perfect suit for the offensive.
All Exo-Rigs have certain similarities. For example, each has two different sprint levels, a built-in paraglider and grappling hook. They also all prevent fall damage, even when falling hundreds of meters from the starting plane. Furthermore, they not only look very different, but also offer individual perks and enable very different play styles.
Sharkwhat?
“When we decided to open our own development studio, we wanted to avoid a generic name like Something Games or Something Entertainment,” Martin Hultberg tells us.
“We thought about what would be cool, beer was flowing. And suddenly it was clear to us: sharks are cool! But we couldn”t just call ourselves Sharks, we wanted something cool that sounded like a skate brand. At some point we came up with the term Mobs via NPCs, and then… hmmm… Sharkmob?
We liked it immediately, so we went with that. In retrospect, we had some doubts, though, because some people associate mob with mobile, and we definitely have nothing to do with mobile development. But by then it was too late, so we just stuck with it.«
Sharkmob is based in Malmö, Sweden, in a former bank building – the Exoborne allusion meeting took place in the former vault. The company now has more than 300 employees and has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese media giant Tencent since March 2019.
Exoborne is the second game from Sharkmob after the Free2Play title Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt, which was released in 2022. Unlike that one, Exoborne will not be Free2Play, but a full-price game that is supposed to have a long life through battle passes and regular content additions.
Personalizing the exo-rigs is the central gameplay element of Exoborne. Similar to the classic game Syndicate, you have to create a collection of different exo-rigs for all possible applications as you progress through the game. For example, if the weather report predicts thunderstorms during the mission, you might want to grab a suit that can withstand lightning strikes.
The homicidal mother
Typically for Extraction Shooter, Exoborne is fully geared towards team play with human comrades. There is a tutorial that you complete alone, and it is also possible to tackle the missions as a lone fighter. But in the long run, it”s simply not fun, because the game is designed at its core to start with three players. Not least because then you always have someone with you who can revive you if you”ve been shot down and have no more energy boosters in your backpack.
By the way, getting shot down happens faster than you think, because the currently three maps included in the game (»Maynard«, »Agnesville« and »Sinkhole«) are not only populated by other players, but also by very unerring AI enemies of various factions.
But they”re not even the biggest problem you”ll have to deal with, because that”s Mother Nature herself! The environmental catastrophe caused by humanity and intensified by Rebirth ensures that the battlefields change dynamically during the game. It pays to always keep an ear open for the weather reports from your headquarters. You definitely don”t want to be caught out by a fire tornado!
No rest on the battlefield
Exoborne”s dynamic weather system creates an impressive unpredictability of the environment, with periodic natural disasters playing a very important role. Tornadoes, for example, not only leave a trail of destruction in their wake, but also carry you a long way through the area on a paraglider. Not always under control, mind you!
Rain pelts down on the playing field and not only extinguishes any flames that may be present, but also severely limits the use of the paraglider. In addition, you can no longer hear your opponents” conversations due to the hammering of the raindrops, which makes it harder for you to sneak up on them. Spontaneously arising fog is so dense that you could wrap it up and sell it as cotton candy.
And then there are also lightning strikes that could hit you or the ground next to you at any time, wild storms, or the already mentioned fire or even poison cloud tornadoes. You quickly wish for the peace and tranquility of the Call of Duty battlefields…
The great crate collecting spree
Each of the huge maps not only looks very different, but also offers different amounts and quality levels of loot. Once again, the “more risk = more reward” principle applies, because the more lucrative chests are usually not found in the middle of a field of flowers, but rather in the heart of a storm or surrounded by a battalion of enemies or guard robots.
On the other hand, you will have a tough time with some of the crates, because some of them can only be opened at a certain player level. Participants who do not have this level will not see any content when another, more worthy player opens the things.
You can increase this level directly during a mission by activating certain boxes (“Clearance Fragments”) that can be found everywhere. Do this often enough and you”ll automatically level up.
Even if you”re not willing to take constant risks, you”ll be showered with loot: every enemy you kill can and should be searched, every crate standing around contains something. Even if it”s just a pack of cigarettes that you can turn in at headquarters for money.
No time for loafing!
Assuming, of course, that you make it back at all. Because in Exoborne, there is no “Mission accomplished. Well done!” after picking up a fat wad of cash. Instead, you have to fight your way to a radio station, request a troop transport there and wait out the time until it arrives. And since the plane orients itself by a beam that glistens brightly in the area, all enemies in the vicinity naturally also know where you are.
And even when the dropship has landed safely, it”s still too early to pop the champagne corks. You only have a few seconds to hop on board before the plane closes the side doors again and takes off. If you were busy at that point, you can only wave goodbye and order a new air taxi – and that costs a lot extra, especially in stormy weather.
What is left of the money at the end of the mission is then invested in new equipment, of which there are tons: more exo-rigs, a number of large and small weapons, associated ammunition, backpacks that offer additional space for loot, repair kits, resuscitation kits or armor.
There are also helpful items that, for example, allow you to see enemies through walls for a short time. Or a module that automatically envelops you in a camouflaging cloud of smoke when you are about to die.
Battlefield 9000
Before you go on a spending spree, you should check whether the desired extra even fits your current equipment, because not everything is compatible with everything. For example, there are several types of shields, and a nylon system cannot be repaired with a steel shield kit.
The equipment is divided into several grades, which are separated by color: the higher the grade, the more and more detailed customization options are available. It all seems a bit overwhelming at the beginning, but a lot of high-level equipment had already been unlocked for the later part of our game session. Usually, the game introduces you to the item system slowly, rather than bombarding you with all the upgrade options from the get-go.
From a technical point of view, Exoborne delivers exactly what you would expect from a modern shooter that uses the Unreal Engine 5: the game looks really damn good.
A well-placed firebomb engulfs the entire environment in a blazing inferno, an exploding mech disappears in a bombast of sparks, debris and energy blasts. And when a gigantic fire tornado sweeps through the scene… well, that”s pretty impressive.
