Before the futuristic, war-torn world of Exoborne, there was Bloodhunt, a Vampire: The Masquerade-inspired battle royale game that, for me, remains an all-time favorite. As Sharkmob’s first entry to the online multiplayer fray, Bloodhunt struggled to gain momentum – largely a result of issues with cheating and balancing. With content development for the game officially dying the final death, Exoborne marks a new era for Sharkmob, and the team has used their Bloodhunt learnings to make the upcoming extraction shooter even better.
As a very, very passionate Vampire: The Masquerade fan, I’ve already lamented the untimely passing of Sharkmob’s VTM battle royale, Bloodhunt, in far too many words. However, when I was invited to the pre-Game Awards press briefing for Sharkmob’s new extraction FPS game, Exoborne, I saw flickers of the game that I knew and, ultimately, loved.
During an exclusive interview with PCGN ahead of TGAs, I asked creative director Petter Mannerfelt about what the team has learned from Bloodhunt and, in turn, implemented in Exoborne. “Ohh, that’s a good question,” he says, prompting a little blush from this writer.
“One of the things I really loved with Bloodhunt was running on rooftops and verticality,” he tells me. “I love running on rooftops – and that verticality is something that [Sharkmob] loves.
“But one thing we learned is that the speed of [Bloodhunt] is just a little bit too fast. We had to bring it down, and in this game the pacing is very, very different.”
“In the gameplay footage, you see a lot of combat, but that’s not actually typical of how the game is played,” he continues. “The game is a tactical open-world shooter, which means there are long periods of time where there’s very, very low intensity, then boom! There’s a lot of things going on at the same time.
“What we wanted to do is bring down the tempo to lessen the difference between good players, and not-as-good players. In my terms, I say that the skill ceiling is high in Bloodhunt, which basically means that the good players are a little bit too good. So we wanted to bring it down, but still have room for good players to shine, and master verticality, Exo-Rigs, and shooting, and so on.”
As someone who really struggled at the start of Bloodhunt, I eventually found myself at the top of the leaderboards relatively frequently. Very rarely, however, did I ever manage to secure the coveted victory because it always felt like there was someone better (I also played Muse, which didn’t stand up too well against the Nosferatu Prowler and Stalker).
Exoborne sounds like the best of both worlds – it maintains the verticality of Bloodhunt that I, too, really loved, but will hopefully be a little easier for more casual FPS players like me. You can wishlist Exoborne here if you’re as excited as I am.
If you’re hyped for Exoborne and want to get some practice in ahead of launch, we have a rundown of all the best multiplayer games so that you can really nail that teamwork. Alternatively, check out our list of all of the upcoming PC games for 2024 and beyond – including Bloodlines 2.
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