For a certain kind of science fiction fan, the surprise news of a video game set in one of the most beloved TV and book series, The Expanse, hit like a freight train of hype. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is an action RPG currently in development from Owlcat Games with no release date yet, but that hasn't stopped the studio's creative director, Alexander Mishulin, from giving me some early details about the game.
There are many reasons The Expanse has been so successful, the largest of which is its deft mix of well-written characters interweaved with political intrigue affecting grand theaters. Unlike Star Wars and other popular space fiction, The Expanse -- both the books by James S.A. Corey and the Syfy/Amazon Prime show -- is "hard" science fiction with realistic physics and scenarios. From chatting with Mishulin, Cyprus-based Owlcat Games is making sure all of this makes it into its game.
The announcement trailer for Osiris Reborn, released during Summer Game Fest earlier this month, shows plenty of hallmarks from the TV show: zero-G ship combat, sealed flight suits, tactical gunplay and the protomolecule. But the end showed something even more promising: early gameplay footage that, despite being prealpha and not representative of how the final game will look, represents the third-person exploration that Owlcat Games is aiming to use.
It looks, well, very Mass Effect. Many of Mishulin's teammates are fans of BioWare's legendary sci-fi action RPG series, and he acknowledged that it in some way inspired Osiris Reborn. But he emphasized that the team also drew on RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 for its cinematic story focusing on companions, while Japanese RPGs served as models for great characterization that keeps you attached to characters through the long story of a game.
"I'm not saying we are taking something from, say, Persona 5, but the approach, the idea that characters are front and center of the story and how they evolve all through the story up until the end is a little bit similar," Mishulin said.
Osiris Reborn is set in the same near-Earth area as its source material, specifically during the events of the first and second seasons of the show (or the first two books). It'll have entirely new characters for the player to meet and add to their party, which was done to give Owlcat Games more creative room to tell stories rather than strictly adapt the books or show, though they may run into some more well-known heroes and villains.
Owlcat Games
"You will be seeing with your own eyes the repercussions of Holden's actions, all the situations like The Canterbury, and how it affects people in the belt, people in the inner planets," Mishulin said. "You will be having your own adventure with your own goals, choices, consequences in the same universe [with] all the major events unfolding in this universe alongside your story."
What players will recognize more are the planets, moons and locations they'll visit in Osiris Reborn -- in fact, the game starts on Eros Station. Show and book fans will remember what was happening there at this point in the timeline, and yes, the human-altering extrasolar protomolecule will make an appearance in the game, evoking a similar horror as it does in the show. Relatedly, the corporate subsidiary Protogen that studies the alien molecule will also appear, Mishulin said, hinting that its most sinister project, the human-protomolecule hybrid Caliban, will also show up.
From the trailer and Mishulin's descriptions, Osiris Reborn sounds like it will be very different from other adaptations of the franchise, such as Telltale's narrative-driven Expanse game. And for Mass Effect fans, it sounds like Owlcat's game will have RPG systems and combat that have some similar elements to BioWare's classics, but give players more capability to build characters and play how they want. Mix in strong characters with comparisons to other popular RPGs and Osiris Reborn sounds like a lot of what fans want in a game adapting the franchise.
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