We got some hands-on time with Exoborne, the new extraction shooter from Sharkmob, in August 2024, and it looked potentially very promising, particularly for more casual players interested in an experience that isn't built to punish them at every opportunity. In February, curious shooter fans will have an opportunity to try it for themselves in Exoborne's first-ever public playtest.
"We’ve been conducting closed tests both online and in our studio for quite some time," executive producer Brynley Gibson wrote. "But this marks our first large-scale test, and it’s an incredibly exciting milestone for us. By entering this stage of open collaboration with the community, we’re eager to gather invaluable insights and feedback that will drive us to elevate the game to new heights."
That reference to "new heights" is, I expect, a play on words: As we said in our preview, Exborne is big on verticality, and "you can be zipping around with a grappling hook or chargeable power-jump every few seconds, then gliding back down with a re-deployable parachute."
I remain disappointed that Sharkmob's previous game, Vampire: The Masquerade–Bloodhunt, failed to find an audience and ended development in 2023. I really enjoyed its balance of weapons, special abilities, high mobility, and (relatively) long time to kill, which suited me quite nicely as a not-at-all-hardcore battle royale player. But with its fate sealed, I'm happy to see that Sharkmob appears to be bringing a similar approach to Exoborne: I don't find the setting as interesting (Bloodhunt was also a far better Vampire game than I expected) but, if the gameplay matches up, I might get over that fairly quickly.
The Exoborne playtest is scheduled to begin on February 12 and runs until February 17. To get in, pop around to Steam and hit the "request access" button. You can also keep up with what's happening on the Exoborne Discord server.
