Extraction shooters can always be a hit or miss because, naturally, they’re meant to test players with high-risk, high-reward situations. But that never really felt like the case when I played Exoborne. After every extraction, I wasn’t itching too much to go in for another raid, but what kept me interested was the world in which Exoborne takes place.
Sharkmob AB’s extraction shooter plays how one would expect it to. Players are dropped off in remote areas of a reasonably large map and are tasked with completing various objects that they can ultimately ignore if they want to. Each objective is color-coded by its danger level, so players know what they’re getting into ahead of time. But Exoborne actively encourages players to visit high-risk areas because they’ll often be rewarded with high-end loot. Even though there’s a lot to pick from, you’re just checking items off a list when deciding where to go.
But many areas aren’t as straightforward as going in and killing X things to get X items. Certain areas require players to find Data, allowing them to open their chests. This sounds like a reasonably easy task on paper, but it quickly becomes annoying. Especially when you realize that the clock is running down and you won’t have enough time to find all of them. Before you know it, you’ve just killed valuable time and risk not having enough data to loot the chest you were trying to open. This causes a lot of the grind to feel daunting and tiresome.
The combat can oftentimes feel clunky. When it comes to gunplay, Exoborne tends to lean more towards realism in the sense that every gun is challenging to fire. So, unlike other games like Call of Duty, you can’t continuously fire a weapon and maintain accuracy. But that’s not where the issue lies. The character movement feels stiff a lot of the time, and this causes some awkward camera angles when running around or performing ultimate attacks. It does make sense, given how heavy the gear is supposed to be, but it makes the combat feel awkward often.
Combat aside, getting from A to B is a lot of fun, and there are many different ways to go about it. In Exoborne, the world is slowly collapsing, and because of that, all sorts of inclement weather is going on, such as storms and tornadoes, to name a few. But this causes some fun ways to travel across the map. At any given moment, players can use their parachutes to travel around the map; this becomes even easier if you decide to use it near a tornado because it’ll quickly launch you up in the air and allow you to get somewhere.
On top of that, there’s also a grappling hook that you can use. Even though this isn’t a unique feature, it’s always fun to live out my Batman fantasies when I can. This is especially true when you consider how you can use it. If timed right, players can launch themselves toward a building, activate their parachute, and catch some serious airtime.
Before players put boots on the ground, they’ll need to ensure that they’re adequately equipped for the area. This means having the essentials such as a weapon, healing supplies, and, of course, the exo-rigs. These are essentially power armor, allowing players to perform unique physical feats. They have three different options from which they can pick.
The World of Exoborne – A Story of Survival and Oppression
Each rig is meant to fit different playstyles. For example, the Kodiak is intended for those looking to be a tank, with most of its abilities centered around taking as much damage as possible. The Kestrel is suited for those who like to play from afar and have abilities like flying and pushing enemies away from you. Last but not least, there’s Viper. This class is all about inflicting as much damage as quickly as possible.
The world of Exoborne is quite fascinating and perhaps one of the game’s stronger points. As previously stated, the world was slowly ending, causing all sorts of natural disasters. To combat this, a corporation rose with intentions to help, but in a typical corporate fashion, it oppressed those it sought to protect. Now, the everyday folks are rising up in hopes of ridding themselves of another impending doom.
The game really leans into this, too. There are a lot of enemies out there that reflect the main antagonist, and they do a great job at visual storytelling and letting you know how bad things got. Even though the opening cinematic does a great job of showing how much time has passed, the nice cherry on top is how nature overtakes many structures. Even though many of the buildings are run down and destroyed, they all look gorgeous in their own way because of how much life and green is between the destruction and chaos.
Even though Exoborne didn’t exactly click for me, there were plenty of things to enjoy. The traversal system is a lot of fun, and the world where it takes place is fascinating and filled with fun lore. The same can’t be said about the combat and repetition of gear grinding, though. A lot of the time, it felt as if I was checking off a list or doing a series of chores. Exoborne doesn’t have a release date but will be playable on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
