When I booted up Exile’s End for the first time, it had the feeling of the classic metriodvania genre that made me excited to get my hands on the retro epic. While its premise is a standard sci-fi adventure, every lover of the genre knows that a simplistic story a game can stand above the rest with memorable sound and gameplay. Sadly for Exile’s End, it doesn’t quite hit on all cylinders to make your journey truly fantastic.
The first thing that catches your eye when playing Exile’s End will surely be its cinematic style. In a graphics sense it fits the genre, but still seems far behind what the higher end games of the spectrum have already established. Its environments feel overall bland with repeating textures and backgrounds that serve not to add more to the game, but rather just as a cover of the setting for you to move past quickly. Perhaps the most frustrating part of the graphics is that it not only doesn’t add anything to the game, but it deters continuation through the games story due to walls that need to be compromised, but the pixelated art is so undefined it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between the cracked walls and the solid ones, leaving players confused and frustrated.
The story of Exile’s End might be the true exile of the game, as it seems to be completely missing and easily forgettable. While it is sometimes presented in the SNES art style (depicted above) of previous era games, the text on the screen and the character animations do little to add to the story itself. You play as Jameson, a dishonorably discharged former solider that has a dark past, but you never quite find out why, or if that fact is even important. All we know is that he, along with other members of the rescue party for a rich businessman on the planet, becomes shipwrecked, and the only way to find his shipmates and answers is to move forward. Instead of Jameson’s story being a welcomed addition to deepen the plot, he just serves as a pale storyboard for questions that the player might have. Even with the few cut-scenes and comments, he makes it almost seem as if the creators of the game were thinking of making Jameson a silent protagonist, but changed their minds halfway through to pad the empty story.
A double edged sword for Exile’s End is its solid but limited sound design. At times you feel the intensity and mystery of a man alone on a foreign planet, but the repetitive areas limit the music to the same tone over and over again, so it quickly grows flat and distant. This is perhaps the biggest misstep of this game, as it has the groundwork for an amazing soundtrack, and in certain moments it truly creates a perfect atmosphere for the gameplay and aesthetic, but it just doesn’t go far enough. The music merely scratches the surface on what could be a great score, and the sound design of the enemies and weapons feel so dreadfully standard.
Gameplay for Exile’s End is simplistic but a bit unforgiving at times. You get a handle on the controls in the first few moments – especially once you receive your first firearm and power-up to cancel out falling damage – you essentially have everything you will need. The shooting is only left to right with a few weapons being multi-directional but the game utilizes D-Pad style controls for nearly its entire adventure leaving the versatility of the joysticks not needed but there if the player wants them. Platforming is rather standard to the genre on this one with most obstacles coming from attempts to dwindle your heath but not really stop you. The lack of healing items can be especially frustrating in the beginning of the game but once you have the ability to take out most of the games enemies it becomes much more manageable. Exile’s End is riddled with back tracking but it fails to truly feel very rewarding and more just as a buffer to the games length or poor design.
While Exile’s End does have its fair share of problems its replay value is actually surprisingly high for those looking for the right things. Its gameplay is simplistic and its story lacks excitement but overall the game keeps it rather short. The brief length of about 6-8 hours depending on how lost you get, leaves lovers of the 16 bit era, and those craving more from a genre that seems to be few and far between these days, a comforting remembrance in Exile’s End. While it certainly will not be your favorite retro blast from the past, it may just serve a need or want you have been missing since your younger days. For those looking to avoid the story a second time, the game’s survival mode will give a momentary sense of entertainment as players race against the clock to kill as many enemies as possible to top the online leaderboard akin to the arcade styles of the past.
Have you played Exile’s End? Are you looking for a game to give you a decent throwback feel? Do you think metriodvania games are the best genre or a bit overrated? Let us know in the comments below, on the RGM Forums, or over on our Twitter.
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