Exogate Initiative

About

Exogate Initiative is a single player management game. It was developed by Xeno Bits and was released on January 28, 2025. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

"Exogate Initiative" is a management/base-building game where you lead humanity's exploration of the universe through instant portal travel. Plan and build a research facility, excavate anywhere on the map, and recruit a diverse team of specialists to explore and study the unknown. Meet the emotional and physical needs of your team while adding new rooms and equipment as the initiative grows.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

+11

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75%

Audience ScoreBased on 432 reviews

story27 positive mentions

optimization11 negative mentions

The game combines elements of base building and exploration in a Stargate-themed setting, reminiscent of Evil Genius.
The narrative choices during missions add depth and engagement, making each exploration feel unique.
The graphics and overall atmosphere are appealing, creating an enjoyable sci-fi experience.

The economy is unbalanced, making it difficult to sustain your base and manage resources effectively.
AI behavior can be frustrating, with medics and soldiers often neglecting their duties during critical moments.
The game lacks replayability due to limited content and the inability to revisit planets for additional resources.

story
193 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
83%
3%
The game's story is set in a Stargate SG-1-inspired universe, where players manage a base and send teams on various missions, encountering a mix of exploration, diplomacy, and combat. While the narrative includes engaging mission events and choices that can impact outcomes, many players feel that the overarching story lacks depth and can become repetitive, especially in the late game where the focus shifts to resource management rather than narrative progression. Overall, the game offers a fun premise with potential for expansion, but the execution of its story elements and mission variety could benefit from further development.
- “The exploration part of the game is sending teams on missions to other worlds, where they can bring back samples that become science points to level up technology or encounters where you can make key choices for your team.”
- “I love the little story bits when you explore different planets as it adds more to the game.”
- “The balance seemingly hits right, the story is enjoyable, even if the player is mostly reduced to passive observer, watching the real heroes of the journey through small window of video feed when they need to consult on something.”
- “The game loop becomes boring rapidly because there are no overarching storylines of interest or significance.”
- “There is no semblance of story elements which create interest.”
- “The trouble is that you get the base constructed by about the mid-game, after which you just watch your squads go on missions without you.”
gameplay
112 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
76%
4%
The gameplay of the game is characterized by a blend of base-building mechanics and exploration, drawing inspiration from titles like *Evil Genius* and *Dungeon Keeper*. While the core gameplay loop is engaging and offers a solid foundation, many players find it becomes repetitive and tedious over time, particularly in the late game where mechanics can feel unbalanced and lacking depth. Overall, the game shows promise with its innovative ideas, but it requires further refinement and additional content to enhance the overall experience.
- “The gameplay itself is good, base building too, research tree done well.”
- “The game gives enough tutorial to play, while leaving many mechanics to discover.”
- “At its best, this gameplay loop is satisfying and addictive.”
- “Whilst this game has a novel idea, after only an hour or so I found the gameplay incredibly repetitive.”
- “The end game grind/replay value would be fine for me if it was just the game mechanics, but staring at the screen watching characters live their best life like they don't have a mission set for weeks at a time just isn't fun.”
- “Gameplay is bland and gets boring really fast.”
graphics
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
81%
8%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players noting that while they are decent for an indie title, they often feel dated and lack visual flair. Many users mention bugs and performance issues, particularly in late-game scenarios, and express a desire for more aesthetic improvements and variety in visual design. Overall, the graphics are considered solid but in need of further refinement to enhance the overall experience.
- “The art style and sound design are well done and seem rather polished for an early access title.”
- “While some of the other reviews criticize the game's art style, frankly anything better than the single pixel I'm used to when observing real exoplanets is a win.”
- “Graphics are okay right now for lower to mid-end systems, which is a plus as far as accessibility goes.”
- “The graphics look dated even for 2015, and can be overly complicated when it comes to some mechanics, so a longer game might get annoying until you pass the initial gameplay loop.”
- “The graphics in the game are all right, but faces are especially old school and a bit disappointing.”
- “Visuals and textures need improving, with more color, ambient occlusion (baked shading), etc. I especially dislike the rock terrain that surrounds the base.”
optimization
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
50%
39%
The game's optimization has received significant criticism, with many players reporting performance issues, particularly in mid to late-game scenarios where stuttering and frame drops become prevalent, even on high-end machines. While some users noted that the game runs mostly stable with minimal crashes, the overall consensus is that it requires substantial optimization improvements to enhance the gameplay experience. Additionally, specific hardware configurations, such as AMD graphics cards, may benefit from tweaks to improve performance, but the game's current state is seen as poorly optimized and frustrating.
- “For a small team that is working on it, it's surprisingly well optimized as far as resource load on my machine.”
- “- very good optimization”
- “The game has potential, but needs significant fleshing out - more game systems, more conflict, more reason to keep playing, more optimization, and some meaningful/clever introductions of randomness to make it worthwhile to play the game more than once.”
- “The game feels poorly optimized; I have a new machine that runs almost all games on ultra without issue, but this game chugs and gets consistently framey after mid-game, without putting any demand on my machine.”
- “Add to that poor performance, bugs, and a few really questionable design choices, and you end up with something more frustrating than fun.”
- “The performance is below par for what is on offer.”
stability
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
92%
The game's stability has received mixed reviews, with some players reporting significant bugs and performance issues, particularly with NPC AI and startup freezes. While a few users note improvements and a generally smooth experience, many still encounter glitches that detract from gameplay, especially in the late game. Overall, the game shows potential but requires further optimization to enhance stability.
- “I'm loving the game! It runs great after just an hour of play. The bots that build are relatively quick and don't need to recharge, so they work continuously.”
- “The game has a solid performance overall, with only minor bugs in the research bench priority that aren't irritating.”
- “I'm excited for the potential of more events to be added, similar to what Stellaris has with anomalies, which would enhance the stability and depth of gameplay.”
- “Great concept, pulled down by performance issues and various bugs/glitches.”
- “Even after release, the game is buggy in the AI movement where NPCs are just stuck or cannot reach stations because of walls next to them, even if they have access right from the front.”
- “It freezes so bad that I can't even stop it via task manager, and I'm forced to reboot the whole machine, which is just so annoying that it destroys the whole experience.”
grinding
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
91%
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and unbalanced, particularly in the endgame where repetitive mechanics and a lack of automation lead to excessive clicking with minimal meaningful choices. While the game starts off enjoyable, it quickly devolves into a standard grindy management sim, making team composition changes and resource management feel cumbersome. Overall, many reviewers express that the grinding detracts significantly from the overall experience.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Unbalanced and grindy endgame.”
- “That said, the end-game devolves into tedious repetitive mechanics right now, with very little automation meaning you end up spending more time clicking through things than making any worthwhile choices.”
- “Unfortunately, once these initial teething troubles are overcome, the game becomes your standard grindy management sim.”
replayability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
Overall, the game's replayability is viewed as limited, with many players expressing that once the initial playthrough is complete, the challenge diminishes significantly. While some appreciate the potential for future updates to enhance replay value, the current design feels rigid and lacks long-term engagement, leading to a consensus that it may only be worth playing at a discount.
- “Strong replay value too.”
- “They have all the pieces and ingredients for a game with legs to be an amazing roguelike with tons of replayability.”
- “Would I recommend it - yes, it is worth it, but it doesn't have massive amounts of long-term replayability - once you have worked out how to play, it loses some of its challenge.”
- “Zero replayability after one playthrough.”
- “I really liked this game initially but struggle to keep my interest after a few playthroughs while we wait for the next update, simply due to the lack of replayability.”
- “It feels like there will be no long-term play or replayability given the rigid design.”
music
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The music in the game is generally enjoyable and contributes to a chill atmosphere, though some players noted issues with balance and confusing tonal shifts that can detract from the experience. While there is no voice acting, the sound design is considered adequate, albeit somewhat flavorless, with some players feeling that it blends into the background rather than enhancing gameplay. Overall, the music works well but lacks standout moments that would make it memorable.
- “I love the music, sending out gators every few days on missions, building a nice base... very chill game.”
- “Though sometimes, the music does strangely seem to 'lilt' towards sounding like something bad just happened, then springs back to sounding like something positive happened, which can be confusing if you're expecting audio cues.”
- “Nothing to really write home about, but the sound and music for the game works.”
- “The end game is quite slow to progress, and the base design and music are fairly flavorless.”
- “Though sometimes, the music does strangely seem to 'lilt' towards sounding like something bad just happened, then springs back to sounding like something positive, which can be confusing if you're expecting audio cues.”
- “No voice lines, which is fine, though it could help with alerting the player to new updates aside from nebulous audio stings and swells that tend to blend in with the background music.”
humor
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is characterized by snarky dialogue and entertaining conversations, drawing comparisons to a lighthearted take on sci-fi themes like SG-1. Players appreciate the original storylines and unexpected challenges, though some feel the humor could be enhanced with additional content. Overall, the comedic elements contribute positively to the game's enjoyment, despite some technical shortcomings.
- “This is an interesting game and a lot of fun; the snarky humor in it is funny, and I hope they add more to it.”
- “The conversations are funny, and the exploration is entertaining.”
- “And the sci-fi reference to face huggers is hilarious, by the way; I'm not even sure it was intended to be that funny.”
atmosphere
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
The atmosphere of the game is characterized by a charming and mild 'evil genius' vibe, enhanced by impressive graphics and sound effects that create a chill and immersive experience. Reviewers appreciate the unique atmospheric effects and the calming synth score, which contribute to a curious and engaging environment. Overall, the game's atmosphere is well-received, adding depth to the gameplay experience.
- “Ei is and always was a cute little game with a nice atmosphere.”
- “First impression wow, didn't expect graphics this decent, wasn't expecting those sound effects and atmospheric effects. The sound effects are especially good, creating a nice chill atmosphere with unique construction camera shake.”
- “Until then, I’m giving Exogate Initiative a subject-to-change aggregate mega score of 2.91/5 (full scoring breakdown in video, from 'plot' to 'sound'), and I'll give a quick shoutout to the game’s calm yet curious synth score that does a nice job of building atmosphere.”
- “The atmosphere feels like a mild 'evil genius' lair, but it lacks depth and immersion.”
- “The overall atmosphere is underwhelming and fails to engage the player.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users have noted a shift in the game's monetization approach, leading to a more positive perception and moving away from initial criticisms of it being a cash grab.
- “They have changed their attitude towards communications now, so I apologize for calling it a cash grab.”

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12h Median play time

13h Average play time

9-20h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 13 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Exogate Initiative is a management game.

Exogate Initiative is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 13 hours playing Exogate Initiative.

Exogate Initiative was released on January 28, 2025.

Exogate Initiative was developed by Xeno Bits.

Exogate Initiative has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its optimization.

Exogate Initiative is a single player game.

Similar games include Space Haven, Stranded: Alien Dawn, Cosmonautica, They Are Billions, KeeperRL and others.

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