In Town Mode, the party can talk to people, purchase from shops (provided they have enough gold), train the characters (provided they have sufficient gold and skill points), find sub-quests, pick up items (from Exile 2 onward, items can be stolen) and enter Combat Mode.

[2] Once here, the party discovers a civilization formed from the outcasts of the Empire above, a culture beset by constant warfare and monsters galore.

The characters become a rallying point around which the people of Exile who desire vengeance gather to focus their energies into finding a way to strike back against the cruel Emperor of the surface.

Together, the party manages to assassinate Emperor Hawthorne in his throne room, banish the demon king Grah-hoth who was becoming a significant threat to the citizens of Exile, and secure an escape route to the surface.

However, while the members of the expedition are at first stunned by the sheer beauty of the land around them, they begin to notice that things are not as perfect as they seem.

The slimes the party encounters are only the first part of what becomes a series of monsters and terrible occurrences that are blighting the Empire and laying it to waste.

The most prominent meeting places on the web of the Blades of Exile community are the official company-hosted internet forum.

In June 2007, Jeff Vogel released the source code and game content for Blades of Exile, which is currently under version 2 of the GNU General Public License.

Reviews described the Exile trilogy as a "throwback" to old fashioned role-playing games, with deep, complex gameplay and simplistic graphics.

"[15] Exile II: Crystal Souls was an honorable mention for MacUser's award for the best shareware game of 1996, behind winner Escape Velocity.

The review concluded that Exile III was "more of the same old thing: inexpensive, challenging, interesting, exciting and entertaining.

[20] Inside Mac Games awarded Blades of Exile 3 out of 5, calling it "a nice, solid CRPG" that offered value for money and ran bug-free.

The reviewer found the introductory scenario lacking in story, with too much repetitive combat and "plot-checks that have the potential to really aggravate".

Each iteration sported a new layout and color scheme, as well the individual elements, like the inventory and character roster boxes, were also changed to display information differently.