Summary
- Shark Mob’s last attempt at a live-service game had a lot of potential, but failed to compete with other battle royales.
- The studio is trying again with Exoborne, a third-person extraction shooter that also shows a lot of promise.
- Its combination of interesting movement options, unique weather mechanics, and solid shooting make it one to watch.
Nearly three years ago, Swedish developer Shark Mob made an interesting debut with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt, a third-person battle royale spin on the beloved and frequently adapted tabletop game. Despite some impactful shooting mechanics, unique twists on the genre’s standard formula, and impressive movement that let you leap around with ease, Bloodhunt failed to suck (like blood, get it?) players in and development halted after just a year.
While Bloodhunt taking a stake to the heart wasn’t too surprising considering how stacked the battle royale genre has become, it was a real shame considering how strong its core mechanics were at times. Like a masquerade, there was a satisfying game hidden beneath the ill-fitting VTM costume, and I’ve remained hopeful that potential might be unleashed in the studio’s next game.
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Despite being in a genre that’s already crowned its kings, Bloodhunt manages to make itself feel unique and worth playing.
That brings us to Exoborne, a third-person extraction shooter that also comes with its own fair share of unique twists on the genre, including an emphasis on movement, Exo-Rigs with special abilities, and destructive weather like tornados and storms that dynamically impact the looting and shooting in live multiplayer environments. After four hours of hands-on time, I’m hopeful that it has a much stronger chance of sticking the landing than Bloodhunt ever did, even if it’s fighting in a crowded war.
Eye Of The Storm
Exoborne takes place in a future that’s depressingly not too far from our own. One in which climate change has reached a grisly conclusion thanks to a corrupt company called Rebirth. Years after the world turns apocalyptic, owing to disastrous weather conditions (called Forces of Nature in-game), Rebirth starts to come back from its apparent demise, leading your custom character, a Reborn, to gear up in their Exo-Rig and start fighting back.
As you can probably guess, this is mostly just set-dressing for what Exoborne is really about – exploring a map, finding valuable loot to sell so that you can upgrade your equipment, and then getting out of dodge before permanently losing it all to another player or, god forbid, an NPC. Exoborne is an extraction shooter through and through that’ll feel familiar to Tarkov and Hunt players, but comes with a surprising number of distinct elements to help it stand out.
At launch, Exoborne will have three maps that vary in difficulty. Mayburn is basically easy difficulty, while Sinkhole is hell on Earth and meant for more experienced players.
Rock You Like A Hurricane
The biggest of these are the Forces of Nature, extreme weather conditions with special properties that randomly trigger to add an emergent flavour to matches. Tornadoes let you parachute and fly around without worrying about gravity, lightning storms cause bursts of electricity to strike the ground, and fog makes it near impossible to see the enemies and loot you’ll be searching for.
Some of these weather effects can even combine, resulting in raging fire tornadoes that tear through each map. Beyond injecting some visual spectacle into an otherwise generic art style, Mother Nature’s wrath also adds another risk versus reward element to extracting, as it costs more to get out in areas that are hit with extreme weather.
Do you wait for the storm to pass and risk getting killed or pay extra to summon an extraction right away, knowing all the while that other players could be lurking to steal your ride? Just like other greats of the genre, the constant battle between betting it all on big loot or playing it safe to ensure your three-person squad’s survival is a moreish one that only lets up when you lose your best gear and have to start over.
The other ace up Exoborne’s sleeve is its focus on movement through its assortment of Exo-Rigs. Each one is equipped with a grappling hook and parachute that lets you get around the map with ease while also being reminiscent of Just Cause. Gliding around and dropping down on enemies from above before zipping away in the nick of time with a quick grapple never got old, and is, from what I played, the strongest part of Exoborne.
I didn’t run into them during my preview, but Exoborne also has vehicles that all three players in a squad can fit into, which should give plenty of options for traversal.
Combine its strong core foundations with open maps that have more to see and do than you might expect, each Exo-Rig having its own set of abilities like being able to hover or ground pound, and a constant sense of progression from missions and challenges, and I walked away from Exoborne with a much stronger and more positive impression than expected.
A Foggy Sense Of Progression
My time with Exoborne quickly convinced me that Shark Mob has once again put together a satisfying shooter, but it did leave me with a few burning questions. One that ran through my mind most concerned the progression system.
While the first half of my session saw my squad and I getting our bearings, building up (and often losing) a stash of items, and learning the hard way how Exoborne follows the extraction shooter mould, the second half had the training wheels ripped away as we were given access to everything, including all of the best weapons and Exo-Rigs, a near-unlimited supply of money, and every resource under the sun.
As great as it was to be handed a golden ticket to the chocolate factory and see what Exoborne looks like once you’ve mastered its loop, it removed a lot of the risk versus reward gameplay that made the early hours so compelling. Having every item unlocked made it hard to see how many of the more in-depth systems, like crafting and trading, would end up working in the final game and gave me a very foggy perception of how the progression will feel for most players.
Getting access to everything did at least let me customise my Reborn with a killer cowboy hat and bandana. Bloodhunt had some excellent cosmetics and that seems to be a theme here.
Perhaps the most important question of all is something that couldn’t be answered in my preview – how will Exoborne fare when it launches later this year for PC and console? There’s a surprisingly unique and mechanically solid extraction shooter underneath the military guise, but it’s a paid online title stepping foot into a crowded market that continues to be dominated by the same faces. I’m a little worried that it won’t get the attention it deserves.
Still, with console gamers severely lacking options when it comes to the extraction genre and the weather, movement, and Exo-Rigs offering more than just some visual flair, I’m hopeful that Shark Mob’s second go will be a more successful one. Whether Exoborne ends up being a force of nature or a light breeze, I know I’ll be quick to jump back into the eye of the storm.
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