I remember seeing the Kickstarter for Exo One back in 2017 and being confused and inspired at the same time. On one hand, an idea about an exploration game where you use a spaceship marble to explore planets sounded extremely fun. On another – very limited and hard to imagine past the concept stage. Four years later Exo One is finally here to disprove my doubts. I mean, sure, it is still quite limited in potential. But what it does is still far more than I could ever expect.
The core gameplay of Exo One is very simple to understand, though it does take a while to get used to it in reality. You control a marble-like spacecraft that behaves not entirely unlike what you’d see in games about marbles and physics if you were to just move around. However, the way you control it isn’t ordinary as apart from simple directional buttons, that you’d use more to steer than to move, you have two “modes” that this craft can switch to. Hold one button and your craft’s gravity is increased 10 times, which makes movement down slopes extremely fast and is the main mean of gaining momentum. Hold another button, and the craft will flatten and will be able to stay in the air, as long as there’s enough energy and momentum. And in mastering these two main modes you’ll be able to go to some insanely high speeds and gain incredible heights.
All while exploring beautiful alien landscapes. I’ve always loved the exploration aspect of the original Mass Effect that was revisited in Andromeda, but not a lot of games go for that. And it’s very hard to nail the mood as well. Boring movement mechanics and you’ve lost player interest. Too barren a landscape and it’s not fun to explore. Too much action and it’s no longer about a certain mood and lonely exploration. Luckily, Exo One nails everything. Every planet is different, with enough variety in unique challenges and ideas. The soundtrack is perfect in setting the mood while the visual design goes for the documentary style presentation. The game doesn’t get too long to become boring, but doesn’t feel too short to keep you unfulfilled.
That said, it is more of a mood game, than a challenge one, it has to be noted. This isn’t Monkey Ball or Marble Madness, and the main difficulty in the game will come from optional achievements you can go for, not anything the game requires you to do. It’s also somewhat uneven in terms of quality and presentation as well. There are occasional moments, where the game behaves very weirdly, though even from the patches already coming out, it seems that most of these inconsistencies and rough moments will be fixed with time. Oh and don’t expect much of a story either, it does exist, but it’s also here more to set the mood than to tell a story in a conventional way.
I loved my time with Exo One, even though I understand that the game might not be for everyone. And it has a playable demo that you can check, if you’re in doubt. Do check it out, as it’s absolutely worth it.