Exo One Review

 

Missing the Mark-An Exo One Review

Previously I really enjoyed these sort of open ended and abstract experiences, specifically Giant Squid's Abzû and its great sense of aquatic atmosphere. Having not played many of the other examples of the genre, namely Flower and Journey, I decided to check out the newly released Exo One from Exbleative to make a return back into these types of games. 

Misreading the Room

Ultimately, Exo One falls short of capturing the essence of what made these games engaging enough to enjoy. Looking to Abzû, there was an emphasis of smooth and coherent movement-you could kick your flippers through the water rhythmically to gain speed or grab onto animals and use their unique features to ride through the water. Exo One has a similar sense of momentum, as you turn into a ball to roll down slopes then transfer out into a disc to fly forward at maximum speed. 

And this deeply satisfying, however, this is all Exo One ever does for the entire playthrough, and fails to provide any secondary gameplay features other than this to break monotony. Abzû's focus on aquatic life and a very simple and easy to follow story kept cohesion going, and it could occasionally break up its formula to surprise the player with vivid set pieces. This made Abzû feel complete and not feel like it was wasting time, but this is not the situation here. 

By the time you reach the end of Exo One, you will have wished for it to be over an hour ago-and that's with a game that is somewhere around 2.5 hours long. It felt excruciating to keep playing because it never presented me with something interesting. Even when you travel on different planets with the surface covered in water, they don't add anything and it amounts to doing that same dive down pull up maneuver over and over again-no matter what they sought to do to mix things up, it never sticked and actually provided anything meaningfully different. The visuals are dazzling sure, but when it comes down to actually playing Exo One fails horrifically at "being a video game." Again, the momentum based rolling and gliding are fun for a few moments, but it falls off quickly. 

There is also a greater emphasis on story here as compared to other titles in the genre, however this falls flat as well. I won't spoil anything here but just know that the choice of storytelling here is far to vague and incoherent to construct a resounding narrative. To me, I'm completely ok with a loose and abstract narrative as long as the gameplay can supplant it, but with Exo One I was looking for the story to help with the more monotonous gameplay loop and it never did. 

It's a shame really, as the visual polish and scope is outstanding for such an indie studio. Each planet looks visually distinct despite a lack in gameplay distinction, and the weather effects are particularly spectacular. If I'm the studio behind this title, my next step would be to take these wonderful assets and find another formula of which to let them really shine alongside gameplay. Not an easy task for sure, but it would be 

Verdict

Despite its visual appeal, Exo One falls flat at really providing meaningful and engaging enough gameplay to flesh out that atmospheric free roam of the other games in the genre.  As much as I wanted to enjoy this game, I simply cannot recommend this game in this state.

3/10-Visually appealing, but not engaging enough