This developer’s last game ended after a year. So what makes Exoborne different?

I can’t imagine the stress of having to release a game in 2025. The market has gone through such a challenging time post-COVID that it feels like every game, outside of a few unimpeachable hits, is born into a battle to survive.

It would have been tough enough to release a game in 2025 when the market was strong, but with studios closing constantly and even some of the biggest franchises underperforming, what chance have you got? This is why, despite having a great time playing Exoborne, I came away with a sense of dread about the market it’s being released into.

Exoborne is an extraction shooter, with the main gimmick being an impressive dynamic weather system. During matches, huge tornados can rip through the map, players can be struck by lightning, or soaked by floods. The game, which is set against the backdrop of catastrophic, capitalism-lead environmental disaster, uses this weather system to make sure every match feels unique.

The environmental effects aren’t just set dressing; they’re also tactical. You can fling yourself into a tornado to fly to a different area of the map, or you can bait other players into a storm in the hopes they’re struck by lightning.

The game’s movement system is fast and frantic, without turning everyone into Spider-man. You have a grapple hook on a 5-second cooldown, meaning it’s perfect for getting across the large maps, but won’t turn the game into players endlessly sailing past each other at top speed. When I asked if the grapple cooldown could be reduced because I was having so much fun with it, the game’s creative director Petter Mannerfelt laughed before giving an emphatic “no.”

He talked about the game’s speed being something closer to that of Apex Legends rather than Titanfall. Mannerfelt uses this analogy to reflect on the studio’s last title, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt. Mannerfelt poses that the issue with that game is that the skill gap became about which player could master the movement mechanics, and the combat was sidelined. That’s something Exoborne is attempting to avoid.

The game’s shooting feels responsive and clearly made by a team filled with shooter veterans. Going from shooting on the ground, to diving into a tornado which shot us off to the other side of the map, to grappling down to the ground to start shooting again feels very intuitive, with characters hyper-mobile, but also tough enough where you aren’t getting one-shotted every game.

Exoborne isn’t supposed to be hardcore. It’s trying to find a gap in the extraction shooter market that can appeal to players who want that type of gameplay but don’t want military-simulation combat, something Mannerfelt has held the genre back.

“The biggest challenge for us is that we didn’t want to make a hardcore extraction shooter,” Mannerfelt said. “There are plenty. They’re for a specific crowd. We wanted to make the game for people who love games in general. We thought we had to make the game easier, but we quickly realized that’s wrong. What makes the game fun is the high risk. Even for non-hardcore players, it’s the risk that makes it fun, having those fights and winning.”

So far, so good. Exoborne is at the very least a good game, with mechanics that can propel it to great moments, but is that enough? The last time I went on a trip with Shark Mob, it was to play its last game, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodhunt. It was another game that was great fun to play in a pre-release, enthusiastic environment, but one that ended development just a year later.

“The biggest challenge for us is that we didn’t want to make a hardcore extraction shooter. There are plenty. They’re for a specific crowd.”

While extraction shooters have been incredibly popular in the past few years, the genre is already going the way of the battle royale. There are still big hitters in the space, but the number of games that actually succeed is dwarfed by those that are released and sink without a trace. If the success or failure of these games was purely determined by how fun they are to play, I’d have great confidence in Exoborne, but they’re not.

Exoborne has to be so good that it shakes people from the one, or maybe two live service games that they’ve already dedicated themselves to. There are only so many hours in the day. If single-player experiences are struggling to win back hours from those who’ve taken to live service games like a full-time job, it’s difficult to see how Exoborne wins them over with a game that is good, but not earth-shaking.

We played the game in a state-of-the-art esports arena. There literally couldn’t have been a better venue to show off what the game could be. We had communicative teammates, we didn’t have to sync up three calendars in order to find a time when we could all play, and we had no real-life responsibilities that could drag us away at any second.

This environment, at the very least playing with two other actual humans, is the key to fun in this genre for me. During one game, where our team was all but wiped while waiting for an extraction, I was able to crawl onto an enemy extraction ship as it was about to leave. The enemy, clearly not paying attention to what I was doing, gave me enough time to revive myself.

As my character sprung back to life, I was startled by a group of developers that had gathered behind my screen. Each shouted, “Melee them!” before bursting into fits of laughter when I was subsequently blown away with a shotgun.

Those kinds of moments present a unique trade-off in a game where you’re losing your own hard-earned equipment. I felt significantly better about the loss incurred because we all had a laugh, we all had this totally emergent moment. I’m not sure that balance can ever hold up playing alone.

As my character sprung back to life, I was startled by a group of developers that had gathered behind my screen. Each shouted, ‘Melee them!’ before bursting into fits of laughter when I was subsequently blown away with a shotgun.

There were parts of the single-player experience that I certainly enjoyed, and I think the movement is a highlight, but with any of these games, I feel a deep pit in my stomach knowing how rare it will be for me to be able to form a group of pals to play with.

Players’ time has never been at more of a premium, and not only that, the sheer number of high-quality games suited for groups of friends has also never been higher. When there was a greater homogeny in the market, an investment in a multiplayer game wasn’t as shaky. Now, if I spend money on Exoborne, I have to rely on not only other friends doing the same, but for them not to be dragged away by the newest shiny thing, or the latest season in their favourite free-to-play offering.

While I understand the reasons for Exoborne being released as a premium product (the price of which Sharkmob wasn’t willing to discuss), it’s still surprising. In 2025, a game like this has to be good enough to convince players who’ve already invested hundreds of pounds and hours into something else to give this a try. If Sharkmob can get Exoborne in front of people, I hope plenty will stick around to try it out because it’s a game that’s a lot of fun and is built on some very impressive tech, but doing that is the real challenge.