APOCALY PSE NOW
How Sharkmob plans to shake up the extraction shooter with the help of Mother Nature
BY JON BAILES
Game Exoborne Developer Sharkmob Publisher Level Infinite Format PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release TBA
Typical firearms such as shotguns and sniper rifles will form the core of your loadouts, but with Rebirth’s tech around, more futuristic options should be acquirable
Rebirth is a company that promises the world. A calming voiceover talks across a slick CGI ad, offering “climate surveillance solutions” for a natural environment on the brink, “Stratos towers” that control the elements, and with those “a greener, better tomorrow”. If such tech existed, it would feel like a genuine pitch, mimicking the spiel of any real-life silicon guru/entrepreneur who claims they can science their way out of global crisis, while making a big pile of digital cash. As a piece of science fiction, however, it’s more honest – a clear precursor to disaster, the show of pride before the inevitable fall.
The Rebirth ad establishes the backstory of Exoborne, a multiplayer shooter from Malmö-based Sharkmob that emerges from a worst-case scenario of trusting faceless corps bearing miracle technology. It also prefaces another presentation, this time by two of the company’s five co-founders – Petter Mannerfelt, Exoborne’s creative director, and Martin Hultberg, who carries the titles of chief marketing and communications officer and IP director. Their efforts to lay out the ins and outs of the game to us are similarly polished, but mercifully come with a lot more enthusiasm and warmth – plus time for questions.
The pair have been collaborating for years, and it shows, as does their zeal for multiplayer gaming. They both worked on World In Conflict for Massive Entertainment, then The Division after the studio shifted into Ubisoft’s hands. Leaving to set up Sharkmob in 2017, they moved into battle royale territory with Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodhunt. Despite their love of competitive play, though, they very much operate in co-op mode for our presentation, reading from a single hymn sheet, supporting each other’s answers. They’re also well-drilled on when to stay quiet, with numerous features still under wraps or unfinalised in the game’s current pre-alpha state.
THE GAME EMERGES FROM A WORST-CASE SCENARIO OF TRUSTING FACELESS CORPS
One detail yet to be finalised is the maximum number of players, but the quantity will vary with the size of the map.
Rigs will be highly customisable not only functionally but cosmetically, along with the character strapped into the technology
PLAN OF FACTION
Alongside other humans, you’ll encounter various NPCs, both friend and foe. Bandits are ‘baseline’ PvE opponents, mostly a drain on resources if you fight them, with the added risk of alerting players to your position, although they can pose a threat themselves. “I was once hunting players and flew straight into a bandit camp, and they all shot me,” Mannerfelt laughs. Tougher opposition, meanwhile, comes in the form of remaining Rebirth forces, especially around the Stratos towers. As for friends, these include a “military faction [that] wants to rebuild society,” Hultberg explains, and “the sovereign gang, [which believes] the Collapse is one of the best things that’s happened to humanity, because now we can be free.” Each will offer a bespoke mission tree, and distinct rewards.
What is official is that Exoborne sees the duo branch into a brand of multiplayer service game they haven’t focused on before – the extraction shooter. Its patterns will resemble those of genre favourites such as Escape From Tarkov or Hunt: Showdown, with missions set in open-world maps, where you risk losing your loadout if killed, and loot is only secured if you get to the chopper. Sharkmob is counting on an armful of distinguishing features, however, starting with the meaning of that ‘Exo’ in the title.