Last year, a group of BioWare veterans unveiled Exodus, a new space RPG made by former developers from Halo, The Last of Us, and, of course, those classic BioWare RPGs. While hopping around the galaxy in BioWare is a pretty speedy affair, though, Exodus takes a substantially more scientifically accurate approach.
In a new FAQ, the developers attempted to explain that approach. One of Exodus’ key ideas is Time Dilation - the principle that the closer you get to Light Speed, the slower time moves for you. In Exodus, that means that “while you may experience only days or weeks passing by on your own journey, years or even decades will pass for everyone and everything else in the galaxy.”
That idea is key to Exodus’ choice-based gameplay and multiple endings - the decisions you make in the present could be felt years, decades, or even centuries down the line, after you return from your spacefaring adventures. And developer Archetype is keen to make sure that you know there’s no way to reduce the effects of Time Dilation.
The devs describe the phenomenon as “an inescapable fact of our universe,” and “an immutable law of physics.” That means that “there is no possible way to prevent, avoid, or alter the effects of time dilation.” No items, abilities, or technologies will protect players from the long-term consequences of their actions, because Time Dilation is stitched into our understanding of the universe, and Exodus is taking a pretty ‘hard sci-fi’ approach to its world, the core facets of the game based on Einsteinian physics.
That hard sci-fi is also based around the understanding that it’s not possible to travel at the speed of light, but to help with that, Exodus relies on a technology known as the ‘Gates of Heaven’. A hyper-advanced technology left behind by a missing race known as the Elohim, these Gates allow Travelers - those who explore the galaxy and will have to deal with the effects of Time Dilation - to accelerate instantly so close to Light Speed that interstellar travel becomes possible.
There are some hints around the narrative of Exodus hidden within the description of the Gates. The Elohim’s absence from the galaxy seems a likely plot point, and there are also mentions of what happens if the Gates are attacked or otherwise destroyed, as well as in-universe rumors of a virus capable of damaging the Gates. If I know anything about galaxy-spanning time-based sci-fi, it’s that if a character can get trapped on the other side of the known universe with no obvious way of getting home before being Deus Ex Machina’d back to civilization, they will.
As yet, there’s no word on when Exodus will release, but as it’s planned for release on PS5 and Xbox Series X, as well as PC, it shouldn’t be more than a few years away.
Mass Effect 5 director gives props to Exodus, the new time-hopping sci-fi game from BioWare RPG veterans.
If its a technology humans understand then there would be hundreds or thousands of other applications of that same technological principles across other disciplines. If its not used elsewhere, they have to explain plausibly why it isn’t. If it is used elsewhere, the authors of the story have to define the science as, well, science and that isn’t their endeavor. They want to tell time dilation stories, and that’s fine.
Example:
Where are the in-game near-FTL bombs?
How is it explained in the story where humans would have a technology to create the massive amount of energy in a single moment to accelerate a whole space ship to relativistic speeds, but we haven’t made bomb out this same technology? Its the first things that humans do with new tech is find the most horrible way to use it against other humans. We didn’t do that? Well to be consistent you’ll have to explain why.
In short, its an unnecessary distraction.
Oh no, storytellers would have to to explain things, how horrible!
All I’m saying is that it’d be nice if we could have frickin’ anything else except Ancient Aliens: Dude Where’s My Gate for the 16868162851th time, it’s getting a bit old.
So if Aliens Did It™ you’re fine with handwaving the details away, but otherwise you demand a plausible explanation for every single detail?
Ok, you win, all scifi games with any sort of non-FTL intestellar travel have to include Protheans and Mass Relays, because otherwise it’s just not believable