The Exiled
The Exiled was a PvP-first MMORPG built around an open-world arena concept, where the main objective was simple: outplay other players and take what they drop. Whether you roamed solo or grouped with friends, success hinged on landing aimed abilities, reading fights, and surviving long enough to bring your loot back home.
no images were found |
Publisher: Fairytale Distillery Type: PvP MMO Release Date: Feb 23, 2017 Shut Down: August 23, 2022 PvP: Open Persistent World PvP Pros: +Large variety of aimed, skillshot-style abilities. +Worlds that refresh over time. +Meaningful clan conflict. +Flexible builds instead of rigid classes. Cons: -Movement could feel sluggish or lag-prone. -Onboarding was unclear for newcomers. -Content depth felt limited. -Low population on many servers. |
The Exiled Shut Down on August 23, 2022
The Exiled Overview
The Exiled is a PvP sandbox MMO that framed its world as a hostile, open desert battleground. Instead of theme-park questing, the game pushed players into constant tension over territory and resources, encouraging skirmishes around camps, settlements, and valuable nodes. Moment-to-moment combat leaned closer to a MOBA than a traditional tab-target MMORPG, with abilities that had to be manually aimed and timed to connect.
Because attacks were skillshots, positioning mattered as much as build choices. Dodging at the right time, predicting movement, and choosing when to commit were the difference between walking away with someone else’s loot or losing your own. Friendly fire was enabled, which added another layer to group fights, careless shots could punish allies as easily as enemies. Death was costly too, since you dropped everything you carried, turning every roam into a risk-reward decision rather than a routine run.
Players were not the only danger in the wasteland. Hostile creatures contested key areas, and tougher encounters, including bosses, demanded real preparation and coordination. The environment also played into the game’s ambush-heavy pacing. Vegetation and limited visibility could conceal attackers, and it was easy to get caught by a group you never saw coming.
A defining twist was the idea of cycling worlds. Servers were designed around worlds that would eventually end, then be replaced by fresh ones with different geography and resource placement. Alongside that, different servers supported different rulesets, giving communities ways to tailor the overall experience.
The Exiled Key Features:
- Aim-driven combat – abilities function as skillshots, and friendly fire means precision and awareness are mandatory.
- Clan-focused PvP – form groups to contest territory and clash with other organized teams.
- Rotating worlds – each world has a lifespan, then transitions into a new map with altered geography and resource distribution.
- Server rule variety – different rulesets were offered to support different styles of PvP play.
- Territory and settlement control – capture key locations and develop them into settlements, or take them from rival players.
The Exiled Screenshots
The Exiled Featured Video
The Exiled Review
The Exiled set out to deliver a particular kind of MMO experience: a harsh, player-driven sandbox where fights are earned through mechanics rather than stats alone. Its best moments came from the combat model. With skillshot abilities as the baseline, duels and small skirmishes could feel tense and personal, especially when both players understood spacing, baiting, and timing. The lack of strict classes also supported experimentation, letting players shape a kit around preferred play patterns instead of being locked into a preset role.
That same design also raised the entry barrier. When a game is built around precision and punishing death penalties, new players need clear guidance and a smooth early curve. In practice, The Exiled often struggled to communicate what mattered most, where to go, and how to progress safely. For players arriving late, it could be hard to find a comfortable learning space before running into veteran groups, environmental threats, or simply losing gear repeatedly.
From a sandbox perspective, the game’s strongest hook was the fight over map control. Resource pressure and settlement capture gave PvP a reason beyond dueling for its own sake. Clan warfare naturally formed around these objectives, and coordinated teams had plenty to do, scouting, contesting, defending, and punishing overextended enemies. Friendly fire amplified the need for communication, and it helped battles feel less like ability spam and more like coordinated execution.
However, the overall package was held back by feel and scale issues. Movement could come across as laggy or inconsistent, which is especially damaging in a game that asks players to aim and dodge with precision. On top of that, the available content did not always provide enough variety to sustain long-term play for a broad audience. When population dipped, the intended sandbox loop became harder to maintain, fewer encounters, fewer meaningful rivalries, and less momentum for the world to feel alive.
The world-cycling concept was a smart attempt to keep the meta from stagnating. Fresh maps and shifting resources can reset power structures and give new groups a chance to compete. Still, the effectiveness of that idea depends on an active community, and The Exiled ultimately struggled to hold one for extended periods. As a result, many players experienced it as a promising PvP sandbox with sharp mechanical ideas, but not enough stability and density to fully realize them.
The Exiled Links
The Exiled Official Site
The Exiled Kickstarter Page
The Exiled Steam Greenlight Page
The Exiled System Requirements
Minimum Requirements:
Operating System: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1
CPU: Pentium 4 3.46GHz or Athlon 64 4000+
RAM: 2 GB RAM
Video Card: GeForce GT 120 or Radeon HD 2600 XT
Hard Disk Space: 500 MB available space
Recommended Requirements:
Operating System: Windows XP SP3 / 7 / 8 / 8.1
CPU: Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0GHz or Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+
RAM: 2 GB RAM or more
Video Card: GeForce GT 340 or Radeon X1900 GT
Hard Disk Space: 500 MB or more available space
The Exiled is also compatible with Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.
The Exiled Music & Soundtrack
Coming Soon…
The Exiled Additional Information
Developer: Fairytale Distillery
Publisher: Fairytale Distillery
Game Engine: Unity
Game Director: Alexander Zacherl
Technical Direction: Sebastian Dorda
Concept Artist: Michail Mamashew
Head of Communications: David Wells
Music, Sound Effects: Stephen Viranyi
Release Dates
Steam Greenlight Posting: March 13, 2014
Steam Greenlight Approved: November 06, 2014
Kickstarter Campaign Launch: May 12, 2015
Steam Early Access: February 23, 2017
Shut Down: August 23, 2022
Development History / Background:
The Exiled was developed by the Germany-based studio Fairytale Distillery. Founded by Alexander Zacherl in 2009, the team (including Sebastian Dorda) began work on the project in 2013. The game appeared on Steam Greenlight on March 13, 2014, and was approved on November 06, 2014. A Kickstarter campaign followed on May 12, 2015; although the funding goal was not reached, development continued. After further work the project moved through alpha and eventually reached Steam Early Access on February 23, 2017.
Earlier in its life the game was known as “Das Tal,” before being renamed to The Exiled. Despite its distinct PvP sandbox ambitions, it did not sustain a large playerbase and spent long stretches with very low activity, culminating in the game shutting down on August 23, 2022.