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Sci-fi RPG fans have been searching for a Mass Effect successor for more than a decade. At Gamescom, I went hands-on with two games that are trying to fill that gap. Wizards of the Coast’s Exodus impressed me with its cinematic scale and quirky personality, but The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is another great option that’s also releasing in the first half of 2027.
Thankfully, Osiris Reborn isn’t targeting just The Expanse experts and the people who have seen every episode of the TV show ten times. It perfectly balances the deep sci-fi style of the book and TV series with a story that is separate. As someone who has played the Telltale game and watched some of season one of the show, I don’t know the lore deeply (not even close), but I understand the tone and appreciate how entrenched its world-building is. I was worried that Osiris Reborn would throw so many character names, place names, and details of events at me that I wouldn’t be able to fully connect with it.
Instead, Osiris Reborn focuses on its own story, without abandoning the lore or the wider world. While I’m sure there will be callbacks and cameos for those of you who know what to look for, you don’t need to know about the franchise’s other characters and events to understand Owlcat’s new story. The game is set at the same time as the first two books in the series, in the run-up to the disaster on Eros Station. You play as a captain who works for Pinkwater Security, and you can customize them however you see fit.
My demo introduced me to the first companion who joins you, who also happens to be your identical twin, Jay. You explore a space station, figuring out what’s happening and speaking to people to try and get out.
Exploration and conversations were central to the first half of my demo. I was scheming my way into a gated area to see what was in a shipping container, or messing with digital records to get what I needed. Skill checks make things easier, and it’s pretty easy to upset people if you don’t quite have the persuasion skills just yet. Looking around the station, there are files to read, people to learn from, and side quests to make a start on. While some of the conversations are just with people hanging around outside rooms or standing at the end of corridors, the writing is great.
The conversations are deep, as you’d expect, requiring you to consider everything that has happened to you so far and think about the things you’ve learned from other NPCs. It’s a pretty dry game, lacking the unique personality and silly side that I enjoyed in Exodus, but that fits in with the world of The Expanse. It’s serious sci-fi stuff for serious sci-fi fans, so it’d be strange for Osiris Reborn to suddenly depart from that. I’m hoping that you’ll be able to build a personality for your own character and your companions as the story progresses, but we’ll have to see when the full game launches.
The combat isn’t particularly fast or fluid, but it feels a little more well-rounded than Exodus’s. Instead of leaning heavily into combat abilities, gadgets, and the skills of your companions, the actual shooting is the core of Osiris Reborn’s combat. It’s a pretty standard cover-based shooter, with much of the action in my demo taking place in cramped rooms on the ship, and your gadgets are there to complement that.
You’re able to instruct your companions to shoot certain enemies, send out a drone to attack while you’re hiding behind cover, or press a button to remotely blow something up nearby. I loved staying behind a wall, blowing up barrels on walkways above me as unsuspecting bad guys tried to take me out. I struggled with the combat at first, as it’s a little clunky, but I quickly got used to it.
Where the combat does fall behind other modern competition is in how cinematic it is. Action in Osiris Reborn feels quite static and restrictive. Cover is your best option, and you need to think more methodically about how you’re going to take out the group of guys in your way. This isn’t a third-person shooter with neon laser attacks and the like going off around you. It’s somewhat more grounded and simple, which some people will enjoy.
I think The Expanse is a world that’s perfect for narrative-focused RPGs. It’s a lore-filled series that lives and dies on the quality of its characters. If Owlcat Games can get the story right, I think Mass Effect fans are going to be pretty happy.
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