Get in, get the loot, and get out. These are the basics of any extraction shooter, and the upcoming Exoborne is not any completely different. However Exoborne takes this confirmed formulation and cranks up the motion even additional due to tremendous powered Exo-Rigs that improve each your energy and mobility, wild climate results, and everybody’s favourite online game gadget: grappling hooks. I bought to play about 4-5 hours of it at a current preview occasion, and whereas I didn’t precisely stroll away hungry for “another drop,” I do assume Exoborne has the potential to make a large splash within the extraction shooter scene.
Let’s begin off by speaking in regards to the Exo-Rigs themselves, as a result of they’re a giant a part of what provides Exoborne its distinct identification. There are at present three kinds of Exo-Rig: Kodiak, which provides you a protect whereas sprinting to cowl your head and in addition provides you the flexibility to crash down from above for large splash injury; Viper, which rewards you for getting within the motion by providing you with well being regeneration whenever you kill or down an enemy and in addition provides you a highly effective and much reaching melee assault; and Kerstrel, which trades within the offensive energy of the opposite two fits for mobility, providing you with the flexibility to leap greater and briefly hover. These archetypes can additional be modified with modules, with every kind of go well with having a number of distinctive modules that solely they will equip to reinforce their very own distinctive talents.
Personally, I loved the satisfaction of having the ability to swing in like Spider-Man with my grappling hook and crash down with the Kodiak’s floor energy slam and utterly devastate all the things within the surrounding space, however the different fits had been enjoyable to mess around with as properly. That Exoborne solely gives three fits positively feels limiting, and there’s actually room for different kinds of fits with completely different powers, however developer Shark Mob was unable to remark about plans for future Exo-Rigs presently.
So far as the precise capturing goes, Exoborne feels nice. Weapons have a weighty and satisfying kick to them, melee assaults fairly actually pack a hell of a punch and really feel nice to land, and utilizing your grappling hook to launch into a glide as a technique of getting across the map actually beats having to hoof it on a regular basis. Random climate occasions will both assist or hinder your potential to get round, with tornados providing you with a enormous increase to your aerial mobility as you trip the winds in no matter course they take you; whereas rainfall will make your parachute virtually ineffective, forcing you again all the way down to the bottom everytime you attempt to deploy it in a downpour. To actually promote the post-apocalyptic setting, there are even hearth tornadoes that may also be a enormous boon to your potential to get round, however for those who get too shut, you threat getting pulled into the fiery tornado and killed.
Danger vs. Reward
Danger vs. reward is the driving drive behind nearly each facet of Exoborne’s design. While you drop in, a 20-minute clock will begin counting down, and when it reaches zero, it would broadcast your location to all different gamers. You’ll then have 10 minutes to extract, otherwise you’ll be killswitched on the spot. At any level earlier than that, you’re free to move to an extraction level and name for an extraction (When you have the money to name the transport), however the longer you keep the extra loot you stand to earn. Loot might be discovered everywhere, on the bottom, in containers, on the useless our bodies of the AI enemies, however the largest prize shall be different human gamers, as you’ll be capable of take no matter they introduced in and no matter they’ve picked up.
Along with customary loot, the large prizes within the area are artifacts. These are primarily loot containers with a number of items of precious loot inside, however you solely get to say their contents for those who efficiently extract with them. You’ll want extra than simply the artifact as properly – you’ll additionally want to gather artifact keys with a view to open them. Artifact places are marked on the maps for all gamers to see, which means that you simply’re in all probability going to must undergo some human gamers if you wish to stroll away with the prize.
Equally, there are additionally excessive worth loot areas on the map which can be closely defended by a lot stronger AI mobs. So for those who’re trying to get out with the very best loot, you’ve gotta be prepared to place your neck on the road.
This ends in a pretty tense type of environment and actually encourages correct communication along with your squad. One of many good gameplay decisions is that even for those who go down, you’re nonetheless not out of the combat. There are self-revives that you need to use to select your self up so long as you haven’t bled out, and even for those who do bleed out, so long as you continue to have a teammate alive, they will nonetheless resurrect you so long as they’re in a position to attain your physique. It in fact takes a whereas to revive somebody this manner, and if an enemy squad hangs round and waits for you, it’s sure demise, however nonetheless, it’s good to have a final resort that may nonetheless hold you within the recreation.
I got here out of my demo with two main considerations concerning Exoborne. The large one is that this actually looks like a recreation that calls for to be performed with a shut group of buddies. You possibly can play solo, certain, and you may fill your squad with a squad of strangers for those who’d want to go that route, however each of these choices are clearly not splendid. That is a flaw that’s inherent with a squad-based tactical extraction shooter, and exasperated by the truth that it isn’t free-to-play, however it’s nonetheless a bummer for a extra informal fan of the style like myself who doesn’t actually have that in-built squad of individuals which can be tremendous into the style.
The opposite subject is that as of proper now, I don’t know what the late recreation of Exoborne seems to be like. Recreation Director Petter Mannefelt advised me that they weren’t ready to speak about late-game in the meanwhile, however that usually will probably be about PVP and the way you examine your self to different gamers. Hopefully Shark Mob has one thing particular deliberate for that, as a result of whereas PVP was enjoyable at any time when I encountered it, there was an excessive amount of downtime between these skirmishes to make me stay up for going again in purely for the PVP expertise.
We’ll see how Exoborne continues to form up because it launches its playtest from February 12 to the seventeenth on PC.
Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You will discover him on twitter @JurassicRabbit