Steam Greenlight Spotlight: Exanima

Today’s Greenlight spotlight is on Exanima, a 3-D isometric rpg developed by Bare Mettle Entertainment. Bare Mettle Entertainment is an indie studio with two games currently in development. On top of working on Exanima, they are also working on Sui Generis, which Exanima is a prequel to. Sui Generis was funded through Kickstarter back in 2012, and is still currently in development with an undetermined release date. Exanima, however, has a projected release date of April 2015, so fans can have something to look forward to from Bare Mettle soon. You can contribute through their website and get copies of both games, as well as beta access. So if you just can’t wait to get your hands on Exanima then there is a way to get into the game early.

Exanima’s main draw for me was it’s momentum-based combat system. In the trailer you will notice that the combat not only seems very fluid, but also looks to have some weight behind it. I am a huge fan of games like Dark Souls where understanding momentum and physics is crucial to defeating some of the more difficult bosses in the game, so I am hoping to see something similar with Exanima. The combat system also claims to support advanced collision and protection of locations, which I’m assuming means that if you focus on unarmored areas on enemies then you will be able to do more damage to them, and that you can also position yourself so that enemies are forced to hit you in heavily armored areas on your character.

There are many planned features for the game, including new combat moves, magic, a skill progression system, NPCs to speak to, and additions of multiplayer and mod support. We can definitely look forward to mod support for a dungeon crawler such as Exanima, which will hopefully add the ability to create additional dungeons to give the game a much higher replay value.

Exanima gives me a strong Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance vibe, which is never a bad thing. Being a huge fan of the dungeon crawling and loot gathering that action rpgs contain, I can say that I’m very interested to see what Exanima has to offer. I really enjoy the visual aesthetic of the game, which has solid texture work and seems to have a nice flow to the level design. Having good level design is so integral to dungeon crawlers because of the repetitive nature of the gameplay. If Exanima is going to be successful, it has to do a good job providing unique and interesting environments to explore and also have a nice enemy variety. No one wants to go around slaying zombies and bandits for an entire game, so we have to hope that Bare Mettle are able to deliver a good number of enemy types with Exanima.

When it comes to the dungeon crawlers, there is often little to no distinction among the games. You run into generic dungeons, slay hordes of enemies, grab loot, and go back to the nearest hub area to sell and upgrade your gear. Exanima aims to change that formula by adding a momentum-based combat system paired with an interesting story set in an original world. If you are interested in having a look at Exanima, you can check it out on Greenlight, where you can leave a vote and some constructive feedback. Also, if you’re itching for some discussion about Exanima or Bare Mettle’s other title Sui Generis, you can visit their official site and take part in the discussions going on in the forums.