Opinion: The Opportunity That ExoCross Missed

ExoCross.jpg
Image: iRacing
ExoCross - the futuristic interplanetary racing title published by iRacing seems to have been forgotten about already. Luca believes the game could have been so much more.

I was pretty intrigued when I heard that iRacing was partnering with a small indie developer, Orontes, to assist with the development of an off-road racing title. After it was released on 23 July 2024, ExoCross received a mixed reception from players. Many praised its driving feel but lamented the lack of content and its soulless and dull gameplay.

This is pretty much how I feel about the game, with very little content and reason to load it up again, I admit I have not really touched it beyond my initial few times playing it. But that does not mean I think ExoCross is bad - in fact, I did enjoy it, and I am not one for off road racing typically.


iRacing has been making strives into the console market as of recent with the likes of World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing and the upcoming NASCAR 25 with Monster Games. There is also a project that they are working on with Circuit Superstars developers Original Fire Games, hinted to essentially be a launchpad for getting more arcade racing fans interested in sim racing.

ExoCross is another step in that direction, but something else about it has left me feeling hollow. Surprisingly though, it has nothing to do with its core gameplay.

Surface Level Worldbuilding​

When you load up ExoCross for the first time, there is a short clip providing exposition. Essentially, the game depicts a post-dystopic world in which motor racing has been long since retired, and society has moved past the need for fossil-fuel powered transportation in an attempt to create better conditions for all on Earth.

When motorsport vanishes, the petrolheads amongst us takes to sim racing to fill that void. But as is the way with many of us in the sim racing community, it is no fun if what is being simulated is not happening in reality. So if there was to be no motorsport taking place on Earth, how about on another planet?


After someone has the bright idea to send unmanned vehicles to the far-away planet Proteus (not to be confused with Neptune's moon), a championship is created where the competitors control the cars remotely from Earth. Technology will of course have advanced so there can be instant input between devices on other planets.

If there was a satellite orbiting the planet Venus, it would take just over two minutes for some data to be communicated one way when it is at its closest to Earth. So you can probably imagine a faraway planet like Proteus taking way longer to communicate inputs, like any sim racer with a sub-par monitor knows all too well when it takes way too long to see the in-game wheel turn in with the one on your sim rig.

With all this in mind, I really love the backstory of ExoCross. But once this clip ends, there is no expansion to it, and then it just becomes a by-the-numbers off-road racer with some great occasional visuals but sub-par and underwhelming environments.


That reminds me of another major game from a completely different genre.

Same Problem As Overwatch​

I am not into shooter games, but I remember when the first Overwatch was released and I saw my friend Matthew playing it, and I did not pay it much attention. Then he got talking to me about the lore and all of the characters, and I was interested in it. Not enough to want to play the game, but I liked the worldbuilding they did.

Then I asked about the plot of the story mode, and he said, "Oh there isn't one". I was perplexed, for all this talk of the backstory and lore, there had to be a storymode, surely? But no. It seems this is a method that is practised for a lot of triple-A titles, with a very surface-level story with a lot of potential to pull them in, and then the gameplay never follows up on it.


The likes of Overwatch and Destiny have fallen into the trap of only having the lore explained through other means like short videos or pages on a website, whilst keeping the contents of the game itself as very minimalistic. Of course, these successful series have had further chances in follow-up games to delve into the worldbuilding, but that is not something most players are satisfied with.

The playerbase does not want to put in the effort only to find out they have to buy the next game to get even the most basic answers.

ExoCross has a lot of potential with this premise, but beyond that, it is just very bland and safe. With the contents of the game not immersed in reality, you have to wonder who the target audience really is. Since the hardcore sim racing crowd that has been made aware of it from iRacing generally tends to not have such an acute interest in playing something futuristic and otherworldly.

ExoCross Storymode: My Idea​

When it comes to games in the racing genre, story modes have been attempted in the past but it is perhaps safe to say that racing game fans do not care for them. Yes, we have had the likes of TOCA Race Driver and some of the old Need for Speed games in the past.

But the reaction to Codemasters and EA's attempt at a story mode in the F1 games - dubbed Braking Point - proves that story modes are not that popular with racing game players. Nevertheless, if ExoCross wants to hook people in with worldbuilding, they could at least try to do something with it.

If I was writing a story in the canon of ExoCross, maybe start it with a former street racer who after serving a sentence for operating an underground racing ring, is contacted by a team who are interested in him driving for them in this revolutionary new racing series.


As the protagonist rises through the ranks and eventually becomes one of the most beloved drivers, they learn of a major conspiracy. Maybe to do with how there was a civilisation on Proteus before the world's governments and corporations displaced them to make way for their playground.

Okay maybe it is not exactly Red Dead Redemption 2, The Last of Us, The Witcher or God of War, but it would be a lot more satisfying than what we got. Of course, Orontes do not have the level of resources of any of the studios that make those games, even with iRacing backing them. Plus as mentioned before, story modes in racing and sports games rarely work.

Ultimately, if ExoCross never tried to set itself up as being something beyond just your contemporary racing game, it would have still felt lacking, but more so in terms of core gameplay features over anything else.

Do you think a story mode would have improved ExoCross? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion on our forums!
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RedLMR56
Biggest sim racing esports fan in the world.

Comments

Premium
Lack of jumps/boring tracks killed it for me, And the potential was there to incorporate different levels of gravity and terrain in line with its off world setting. The entire setting was wide open and full of huge potential, and it was wasted by a complete lack of vision.

As for Stories, again, Not for me, I enjoyed the Wreckfest format without the need for a storyline, and I just played through ATV VS MX legends and the Story elements were insulting and time wasting.

But, That's just my 2 cents.
 
glad I never paid the full price for this but got it early in a sale and could then upgrade for free when it was iRacinged. I feel exactly like Luca, enjoyed it for a couple of days but there is nothing to draw me back. I still hope they do something more with this, there was an update today, so who knows?
 
Premium
Lack of jumps/boring tracks killed it for me, And the potential was there to incorporate different levels of gravity and terrain in line with its off world setting.
I can't believe I forgot about that. That was one of my original gripes with the game, for an other worldly setting, they didn't think to incorporate different gravity and terrain types.
 
I'm never going to touch this because of the price tag. If they bothered to put the game on a decent sale to reflect it's current gameplay content, then I'd be a happy customer, but they put it on sale for $7.99 exactly once in its multiple years of existence, so of course I missed it, and hasn't had a discount since.
 
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its just a fake world racer that gets super boring after only 5 minutes. People want real cars and real tracks these days.
 
Maybe it is good idea. But might be difficult to break away from world of simracing which, despite having a very clear and nice idea of replicating reality, lacks any imaginable senses known to human including imagination.
 
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Premium
I was hoping for more f zero (for those of us old enough to remember that classic SNES banger) than what we got.
 
We need to draw a line here: there is a difference between a racing game having a story, and a racing game being able to create storylines. The former rarely ever works, the latter is something that can drive forward the offline side of racing games, and what you need are potent elements of gameplay that are well designed, developed and integrated. Case in point, Grand Prix games series and their still benchmarking AI. A prime example is Ted Meat's channel with his fictional driving character developing a rivalry with David Coulthard throughout several seasons, due to a tendence of them always coming together on track. The rest of the game also worked in giving it a realistic backdrop.

Imagine if a game could give you a realistic career mode with a moving world reacting to your deeds and creating rivalries, like the brilliant Nemesis mode of Middle Earth games which were able to spawn spontaneous storylines that were sometimes more interesting than the main plot. And this could apply to both hardcore sims and completely casual games not grounded in reality like Exocross, where the mentioned need of world building and lore developing comes to the fore, as mentioned in the article.

One of the best sims of all time no matter the genre, the legendary Falcon 4.0, had its devs expressing that simulations should not only aim to recreate believable models based on real life physics, but thrust them into believable worlds that have a life of its own (and are also based on reality) where more things than your own actions are happening, and all become interconnected to create more believable and inmersive scenarios.

Racing games in general have failed to get its message for too many years by now, and its fans and their baseless tribalism (spoiler alert: most of them talking about physics have no idea of what they are saying, and you don't need to look past this website) are making it even worse.
 
The biggest problem that all sci-fi racers have is two fold.

1) People have moved away from this genre into more realistic racing games, and for those of us, mostly old, that still have a passion for fast sci-fi racers the second problem is....

2) WipEout exists.

As does it's spiritual successors of BallisticNG, and to a lesser extent Pacer (actually written by part of the original WipEout team)

I've tried a lot of sci-fi racers in my time, but none of them have ever held my attention for long, yet I can always go back to the original WipEout series (emulated), and Omega Collection on my PS4 and absolutely have a blast with them.

Oh and for all of you that do sim racing in VR, that is nothing compared to the totally immersive, violent and gut wrenching experience of Omega Collection on the original PSVR. (BallisticNG doesn't do to bad on that front either)
 
Racing games do NOT need a story mode ! They need immersion, Nascar Thunder 2004 is still unbeating in this. Look how much hype this opening is and makes you feel like you are part of something BIG ! Plus this has replayability, while a story-mode in a racing game is a one-and-done deal with how scripted they are.
 
i was lucky about never having known about this game... oh my sh.t

This is a nonsense of a game , and related with iracing? what a combo! .

It was destined to an early failure . Who was the master mind that gave this "project" the green light? :roflmao:

But we need original ideas btw....i prefer this initiatives than rennsport? lol
 
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Premium
I'd consider it was a great idea for a game, That stalled before it ever attained "good"

I had some hope for it when iRacing took over development, But it looks like they don't have the capability to work outside the box they exist in and they didn't advance the game at all.
 
Premium
Racing games do NOT need a story mode ! They need immersion, Nascar Thunder 2004 is still unbeating in this. Look how much hype this opening is and makes you feel like you are part of something BIG ! Plus this has replayability, while a story-mode in a racing game is a one-and-done deal with how scripted they are.
Well since you can't really get immersion in a game like ExoCross, what to do?
 

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Luca Munro
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