Completing Exo One is like completing a chore, except it's one of those chores that doesn't feel cathartic to have finished, and you don't feel like you've vindicated anything by seeing it to completion. It's like shoveling in a deep snow because you have to go to work or get groceries. The snow is heavy, your back hurts, your driveway is massive because you live in nowheresville somewhere in the midwest and your neighbor is three miles away between two cow pastures, but you gotta get out and get those dang groceries. The snow is coming down hard, and it will have filled your driveway by the time you get back, but welp you gotta go.

Exo One starts off with a nice premise, some cool lore shows its glimpses as you navigate a sphere across a planet using your momentum to carry you. As you play the game though, the illusion fades and the traversal mechanic of gliding and rubber-banding feels downright horrible and unrewarding. Levels are massively sized, intent on having you mastered this technique just after starting, without really giving a proper tutorial or any way to gauge success on understanding. You go from world to world and the backdrops/environments are admittably fairly astonishing, however the gameplay grinded my gears enough that I was constantly looking for each one to be the last. There were numerous times where I was completely lost on direction because the objective markers (which are loosely marked with a extended blue light) were obscured, or the momentum required to slingshot to the next part of the map wasn't taking hold. A few hours after starting and slamming my head against the desk, I was able to complete Exo One, a game that honestly didn't feel like it wanted to be completed. It also definitely overstays its welcome, as numerous other reviewers have mentioned.

I can't recommend anyone to buy this game, let alone download it off of Game Pass as I had.