Atti Abderrahim
Table of Contents
Last month, we traveled to Sweden to visit Sharkmob Studio, known for its work on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt, a battle royale game released in 2022 that brought a fresh, vertical perspective to the genre. Now, the studio is venturing into the extraction shooter genre with Exoborne, published by the Chinese tech giant Tencent through its Level Infinite brand. Once again, Sharkmob aims to turn the genre on its head, and after spending two hours playing Exoborne, here are our first impressions.
In Exoborne, humanity attempted to solve the climate crisis through the Rebirth project, which involved the construction of massive towers capable of controlling the weather and temperature on demand. While this solution seemed promising on paper, things quickly spiraled out of control. The towers now operate autonomously, unleashing weather events like tornadoes at their whim, leaving Colton County a fictional region in the United States devastated. As a player, you take on the role of a “Reborn,” a resilient survivor equipped with an exoskeleton, on a quest for rare gear needed to survive. Exoborne is an extraction shooter (think Escape From Tarkov or Call of Duty’s DMZ mode), meaning that in order to keep the equipment you find during a match, you must stay alive and extract at one of the designated points on large, open maps.
A More Accessible Approach
Although Exoborne belongs to the same genre as Tarkov one of the most challenging games in its category Sharkmob’s new title takes a more accessible approach. Unlike traditional extraction shooters where failure means losing all your gear, Exoborne offers shorter matches (20-30 minutes), and the time-to-kill (TTK) is more akin to Call of Duty: Warzone. Players have a shield that can be recharged using items found in the inventory, and matches typically involve squads of three players. As long as one squad member remains alive, they can revive their teammates indefinitely, making the loss of equipment much less punishing than in other games of the same genre. However, this also means that encounters between squads can be drawn out, as players must rely on both their shooting skills and strategic use of the environment.
Movement plays a crucial role in Exoborne, with players using their exoskeletons to cling to nearly any surface with a grappling hook, perform charged jumps, and execute tactical sprints. A glider is also available and can be deployed at will, provided you’re at a sufficient height. This combination of grappling and gliding gave us strong Just Cause vibes, and it’s refreshing to see an extraction shooter that openly embraces fun, vertical gameplay even though Exoborne and Just Cause are otherwise very different in tone. The map we played on took full advantage of the game’s verticality, featuring tall buildings and cables strung across plains, perfect for launching your grappling hook. It’s also worth mentioning that Exoborne includes multiple exoskeleton classes, each with unique abilities. We experienced three classes during our session: one that can reveal nearby enemies, a tank capable of executing a ground-pound attack, and a stealth-focused class that excels at backstabbing. This class-based system encourages cooperative play and team synergy.
Mastering Movement and Combat
Exoborne’s focus on agile movement significantly impacts combat. In this demanding extraction shooter world, your ability to reposition and use your abilities strategically is more crucial than landing long-range headshots. We appreciated this emphasis on skillful movement and tactics. However, these abilities aren’t unlimited. In the build we played, each ability had a set number of uses, requiring players to think carefully before deploying them. Even basic tools like the grappling hook, charged jump, and tactical sprint had limited uses. Sharkmob is considering making these three key movements default actions, even after a player is downed, to ensure that all players can move freely without needing to find high-quality loot. Additionally, the studio assures that players will have easy access to top-tier gear through the Marketplace, which will feature both a traditional store and a player-run marketplace, similar to Escape From Tarkov. This system is designed to ease the burden on players and prevent them from feeling completely defeated when they lose equipment on the field.
At this stage, we don’t know much about Exoborne’s economic model, except that it will be a “premium game with regular updates.” This implies that it won’t be free-to-play; instead, players will likely need to pay upfront, with additional skins or cosmetics available for purchase, but without any pay-to-win elements.
Technical Impressions and Gameplay
When aiming in Exoborne, the camera automatically switches from third-person to first-person, making the transition feel natural, especially when using a controller. This choice makes sense: the third-person view is ideal for appreciating your character’s aerial acrobatics, while the first-person view offers precision at medium to long range, which is vital in an extraction shooter. The shooting mechanics felt solid overall, with no noticeable gameplay inaccuracies, aside from a few minor collision issues with the glider and grappling hook, which Sharkmob is already addressing. The build we played was labeled as “pre-beta,” and despite that, Exoborne is already in a promising state, which bodes well for the final release. The environments are beautiful and detailed, and although the framerate isn’t perfect yet, we’re confident Sharkmob will iron out any technical issues before launch. The studio has also emphasized its commitment to keeping a playable, up-to-date version of the game available at all times, allowing them to fine-tune the gameplay and balance as needed. Currently, Exoborne doesn’t have a release date and is planned for release on PC and consoles, though further details are yet to be announced.
Weathering the Storms Ahead
We’ve talked a lot about Exoborne’s gameplay, but we haven’t yet touched on one of its standout features: the dynamic weather events. As mentioned earlier, in the world of Exoborne, the Rebirth towers have thrown the climate into chaos, and the resulting weather events can directly affect the gameplay, adding an unpredictable element that can change the course of a match. For example, during our play session, we encountered a storm that gradually intensified, creating stronger winds that allowed us to glide long distances with the glider, significantly altering our movement strategy. This feature adds a refreshing twist to the genre, providing a surprise element that can shift the dynamics of exploration or combat at any moment. Although we didn’t witness any tornadoes in our session, the first trailer for Exoborne suggests that these weather events could even hurl parts of the environment at your enemies. We’re eager to see how far Sharkmob will take this concept.
Final Thoughts
While Exoborne’s release is still on the horizon, our time with Sharkmob’s extraction shooter was thoroughly enjoyable. The agility and power provided by the exoskeletons make for a less demanding experience than other games in the genre, which we found to be a welcome change. Moreover, Sharkmob has ambitious ideas, such as the dynamic weather events, that could significantly impact gameplay. We’re curious to see how these elements will be fully realized in the final product and are excited to see where Sharkmob will take Exoborne from here.
