If you’ve got a few minutes spare, go try out Exo One. Announced last year, the game is set for release this week on Steam, and as it stands, there’s a playable demo still up for grabs.
From Exbleative and Future Friends, the actual premise is shrouded in mystery. Sure, you’re hooning through some truly stunning alien landscapes, but there’s a story here. Following the ‘Jupiter accident’, an alien signal is deciphered, revealing the blueprints for the craft of the title, Exo One.
But this is based on the Exo One: Prologue, which is only a dip in the interplanetary pool. Still, you’ll get an excellent insight into what to expect in the next couple of games. I believe it can be played with the mouse and keyboard, but I played on a controller.
Looking like something from Roger Dean’s catalogue fused with a NIN album cover, feels of Flight of the Navigator and some gameplay mechanics similar to Glyph, you’ll begin as a sphere, gradually gaining enough momentum to launch into the air. From here, you’ll morph from a Malteaser into a Minstrel (Revels reference from the title), picking up enough speed to remain in the air. For a while, at least.
The way Exo One is constructed, you’ll note that it generates and disperses heat to propel itself forward. Staying in the air isn’t infinite, so you use a combination of rolling, double jumps and charges to keep the momentum going. Coincidentally, there comes the point where you can pull off ‘momentum’ while holding both trigger buttons simultaneously.
It was pretty tricky, occasionally irritating when all you want to do is get off the ground, and you could surmise that feeling that way over a 10-minute demo is premature. But that in no way deterred me from craving more. The flash edits of those, presumably involved in the Jupiter accident, occurring here and there and traversing some of the most mindblowing scenery I’ve seen of late, make Exo One a game I’m excited about.
It’s incredible how something can be so exhilarating through its speed can feel so tranquil, as if on tour through time and space. I’ll hang up my bag of cliches with my coat, but do check this out.
