The extraction shooter boom has been more of a poot than an explosion as of late. Creative Assembly’s Hyenas laughed its last in late 2023, while Ubisoft’s The Division Heartlands had a stake driven through it last year. Upcoming efforts Marathon and ARC Raiders have avoided the chop so far, but the lack of games making it to market, alongside the failures of those like Rainbow Six Extraction, proves this isn’t an easy genre to nail. This hasn’t deterred Vampire the Masquerade Bloodhunt developer Sharkmob, which is baring its fangs with the post-apocalyptic Exoborne. Having delved into the latest playtest, the studio’s vision could not be clearer, and it could just whip up a storm.
At GDC last year I asked Exoborne executive producer Brynley Gibson and Sharkmob co-founder Martin Hultberg what they were doing to help ensure the upcoming PC game stands out from its genre-mates; it mostly follows the standard extraction shooter loop of ‘get in, loot, shoot, and get out,’ after all. The answer, Gibson told me, lies in the two “stars” of the show: bloody great storms and exo-rigs.
I often find myself complaining about the British weather. It’s depressingly grey at the best of times, barring the two weeks of scorching bliss that magically arrives around mid-summer. However, after playing Exoborne I feel less inclined to complain about the odd shower. The game’s most extreme weather conditions kick up towering tornadoes that rip through the maps, and even deadly firestorms that will air fry you instantly. They’re not as cinematic as Battlefield 2042’s colossal cyclones, but that doesn’t matter when a multitude of them are all coming to whisk you away to Oz – no sparkly red shoes or heel-clicking required.
Of course, there’s more to these dynamic weather switch-ups than their obvious visual flair. During stormy conditions you can make liberal use of the strong winds to pop your glider open, lifting you high into the air so you can swiftly reposition. If you get too close to a tornado it will spin you around and spit you out, making them the perfect escape tool. In some areas of the maps you’ll encounter toxic clouds that deal damage over time, and even electrical fields that EMP your abilities.
Suffice it to say that adapting to the environment and picking your moments is the key to mastering Exoborne. If your aim isn’t as crispy as it could be but your movement is out of this world, then you can take advantage of a storm and use the glider, as well as the handy grapple, to gain an advantageous position and win out against aim purists. In the games where I queued solo, making like Obi-Wan and taking the high ground also helped me laser down whole trios (the maximum party size). It helps that visibility is incredibly poor when you’re being hammered by the elements, making it difficult for targets to trace where they’re being beamed from.
Flying bullets aren’t the only things you’ll have to keep abreast of while you’re out in the field. Each of the exoskeletal exo-rigs you can purchase comes replete with two unique perks – one active, one passive – that can accentuate your playstyle. While I didn’t find these particularly impactful in isolation, their powerful mods can in handy. These range from improved shield restoration speeds to the ability to call down lightning strikes in an area. If you’re willing to pay the price for power, you can dish out some serious damage.
As creative director Peter Mannerfelt told Lauren, PCGamesN’s resident Bloodhunt enthusiast, at the TGA’s in 2023, “verticality is something that [Sharkmob] loves,” and it’s on full display here. Exoborne’s environs are lush and rich in detail, with towering structures and large, scalable cables weaving their way through the Maynard map in particular. One of the big learnings for the studio from the vampy battle royale game comes down to gameplay pacing, which it has toned down for Exoborne to give less skilled players a fighting chance. It’s certainly more up-tempo than slow, methodical burns like Tarkov, but it remains more restrained than frenetic FPS poster children like Apex Legends.
This element of ‘approachability’ is another key area of differentiation according to Gibson, but that’s not to say skill expression has been thrown to the winds. The default third-person perspective offers a much more cohesive picture of your surroundings, though aiming down sights quickly shifts you to first-person – Aimlabs remains a solid time investment. Likewise, there are plenty of ways to snag more gear, and stash space is plentiful, but you’ll still lose everything you take into a raid if you die, retaining the risk-reward element that makes the genre tick.
While Exoborne’s certainly one of the most approachable extraction shooters I’ve tried, there are a couple of consistency issues that may trip new players up. First off, human AI is incredibly hit-and-miss. There are times when a bullet will fly past an NPC’s head and they won’t even react, while at other points I had to double-check I wasn’t getting snapped to and rinsed by Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek. I haven’t experienced a properly realistic extraction shooter AI since SP Tarkov’s incredible SAIN mod, and I fear I won’t anytime soon. That being said, they still prove a solid enough distraction to sneak a kill or three on an enemy squad.
The other issue stems from the clarity department, which I encountered during one of the assignments (the main story missions that get you started). While tutorialization itself is solid, some of the mission flavor texts aren’t the easiest to follow. On one occasion I was tasked to bring food back to a character, which led me on a wild goose chase around Maynard to track them down to no avail. What the quest actually wants you to do is to snap up food items like cornflakes and beans and exfil with them. It makes sense in hindsight, but it’s an easy one to misconstrue.
Between the mechanics, pacing, and verticality packaged into a more approachable genre entry point, Sharkmob is hoping to capture the holy grail of the live service experience: emergent player stories, in the same way Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 did last year. I may have only managed ten hours of game time during the playtest, but I already have a small compilation of memorable moments stashed in the dome. For example, at one point a gunfight over an exfil heli broke out between multiple teams, but it was all in vain as a firestorm rudely third-partied us, making it impossible to hop aboard. There were bullets, utility, and bodies flying everywhere as we danced around the burning beast; the whole affair was absolute fire.
Question marks still hang over Exoborne’s price point, though I hope it will be competitive enough to entice players who have been spoiled by the freemium market while acting as a natural deterrent for would-be cheaters. While I didn’t encounter any ne’er-do-wells during the playtest, we all know a robust anti-cheat will be crucial to the game’s longevity. Bloodhunt’s tools improved dramatically over time, so I’m confident Exoborne will carry that torch going forward.
The Exoborne release date may not be in full view just yet, but Sharkmob is putting forward a strong argument as to why it should take up a slot in your gaming rotation. The jury’s still out on whether it will be lightning in a bottle or a storm in a teacup, but I already can’t wait to dive back in with my pals. The battle royale meta has given way to the extraction shooter, yet Exoborne is shaping up to be more than just an iteration of a well-trodden formula.