Matthew McConaughey's Interstellar role helped him understand the big hook of Exodus

Matthew McConaughey is in departure It was always going to be one of the easiest things to tell about the game. Archetype Entertainment has nothing more to say about its upcoming sci-fi RPG, and the fact that McConaughey is playing the mysterious CC Orlev will still be enough to turn heads. However, his involvement also makes more sense of what the archetype talks about departure actually about.

GameRant recently attended the Future Game Show Showcase briefing hosted by Archetype Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast, where they talked about some of the inspiration behind it. departureand Interstellar The use of time dilation as a core mechanic of the game came about naturally. Apparently, that connection clicked with McConaughey, as did his role Interstellar It gave him an easy way to understand what the archetype was trying to do departure. Given how much the game is built around travelers leaving home and returning years or even decades later, it's hard to imagine a more obvious bridge between actor and game.

Exodus' Time Dilation hook has an obvious interstellar connection

Interstellar Of course, movies are what most people think of when time dilation comes up as a concept. Miller's planet sequence is the easiest example, as Cooper, Brandt, and Doyle are only on the planet for a short time, but Romilly waits for them back on the ship for over 20 years. The wave is an immediate threat, but the scene becomes more difficult after they return and realize how much time has passed. Then, later, Cooper drives the point home even more, seeing years of messages from his children all at once. in InterstellarTime is presented as something that man has lost and can never get back.

Ultimately, that's what makes it departure'The use of time dilation is so fascinating. Games have done a lot with time travel, alternate timelines, and choices that affect the future, but departure Seems to be doing something a little different with the idea. Travelers can leave home on a mission and return years or even decades later, making the act of leaving feel important before anything happens. For a choice-driven RPG, that's a huge hook, and accordingly departure Game Director Chris King, Interstellar One of the clearest reference points for how powerful that idea can be:

Interstellar is perhaps the most visible example of time dilation in popular media, but we put our own spin on it. And putting our spin on the kinds of things we love to do, taking the things we love, the sense of what made them exciting to us growing up and as adults, and bringing it all together and creating something new and new that evokes the same kind of emotions in the entertainment we love.

What makes it more interesting for everyone departureHowever, does that time dilation mean that players aren't the only ones watching what happens to someone else on the screen? The audience felt it in the movie InterstellarThere are characters, but the story is still only about them witnessing it. departurePlayers, on the other hand, have a chance to feel some ownership of that cost, since they're the ones who send June to the cluster and live with whatever time it takes from her while she's gone. This can make the impact even stronger, as the years spent in Leiden will be part of their chosen journey.

Of course, the time extension is also due to Matthew McConaughey's involvement departure The obvious name makes a lot of sense beyond recognition. in InterstellarCooper (McConaughey) is a man who leaves home because he believes it is the only way to survive, and the cost of that decision is measured in years he will never return with his children. departure Obviously it's telling its own story, but that basic emotional idea is closely related to what the archetype is doing with travelers, time dilation, and the people left behind in Lydon. According to Archetype general manager Chad Robertson, that connection was apparent to McConaughey almost immediately:

We've shared that Matthew McConaughey is in the game, but when we first talked to him about the element of time travel, he immediately understood why we were interested in working with him. And so it was a really cool connection that just brought that out, and helped us drive that home in the overall experience.

In other words, for departureMcConaughey is just a famous name to attract attention. Interstellar Already he's been placed at the center of the story where going away into space means losing time with the people he's trying to save, so that makes sense of the idea behind it. departure It just clicked for him so quickly. There is still much about CC Orlev that the archetype has not revealed, but is sitting at the center with the expansion of time. departureMcConaughey feels like a pretty natural fit.

Time dilation sits at the heart of Exodus' choice-driven gameplay

Player selection was always going to be a big part departureEspecially with so many former BioWare developers involved. For a game like this, it's not enough for players to choose dialogue options or decide how the mission ends. Those choices need to feel like they actually affect the world, the characters, and the individual in the way they are. Exodus seems to be using time dilation as a way to do that, because the outcome of the decision won't wait until a few minutes later. They may be waiting years or decades down the line. According to story lead Drew Karpishin:

We want to look at choices at the meta level, where we go into things like time extension. It really helps bring home the effect. It enhances these choices you make. When you go into departure you can see things playing out on a longer time frame. That's what makes escapism so important to our game, and what makes it such a big deal, right? This is why, before you head out, you want to really consider what's going to happen. You want to make sure you're prepared. You want to make sure everything is in place because you're going to be gone for a long time, and sometimes you don't always necessarily know how long you're going to be gone, so it could be years, decades before you come back and things will obviously have changed. So, you try to prepare and set up contingency plans and hope that things are in place when you come back and the choices you make, you can see how they play out over time when you come back on departure.

The truth is, most choice-driven RPGs deal with consequences on a much shorter timeline. A friend approves or disapproves, a quest changes direction, a character lives or dies, or a later conversation acknowledges what happened. departureHowever, working with a much larger window of time, which gives the archetype a chance to make decisions as if they had years to settle in the world before June saw results. It will be interesting to see how far the game actually takes it once it launches, but as far as RPG concepts go, this is one of the most interesting in recent memory.

McConaughey's involvement gives more meaning to what the archetype has long talked about departure Trying to do with time extension. Interstellar helped popularize the idea by making it sentimental, and departure It's trying to take that concept and put a part of it in the player's hands. That work will depend on how well the archetype follows, but with McConaughey involved, the time span at the center of its story, and the options for consequences that won't fully play out until years or decades have passed. departure There's a sci-fi hook worth keeping an eye on.