Since its reveal, Exodus has been compared heavily with the Mass Effect games. It makes sense, in many ways. The team behind the game did work at BioWare, and it's a sci-fi RPG where you and a rag-tag team of companions take to the stars. However, there are some major differences, and it seems a split between story and combat companions could be one of them.
From Exodus' website, we see that we've got some reveals of character designs and bios of some of the game's companions. As mentioned above, it seems Exodus splits the companions between who you take with you on a mission, and who will be a part of your crew primarily for the story's purpose.
Tom Vargas, Elise Charroux, Salt the Octopus, Phaedra, and Suliman make up our combat companions. Tom, Phaedra, and Suliman seem to be wearing rather basic kit, so here's hoping we can style them in some cool armour and space suits as time goes on. Salt the Octopus is perfect as he is, and I'll be taking him everywhere. Otherwise, there is a fear of perhaps some of these guys looking a little... plain?
The story companions are a bit more mysterious. We know of C.C. Orlev and Emrys, but the rest have their names and bios redacted. One of which we can see looks a lot like a wolf, though, so we can tick a four-legged friend off our wishlist for now.