Owlcat Games is making a game adaptation of The Expanse, and it kind of rules.
The Expanse is turning into a rather unlikely sci-fi franchise, it seems. While the titular book series written by James S. A. Corey (a pen name shared by authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) is undeniably excellent, even a fan like myself would never have guessed that it would eventually spawn a six-season TV series, a boardgame, a tabletop role-playing game, and now two video game adaptations.
The first game adaptation, entitled The Expanse: A Telltale Series, was developed by current Life is Strange franchise steward Deck Nine Games and Telltale Games. The second game adaptation hasn’t come out yet, but it looks quite a bit more ambitious: The Expanse: Osiris Reborn. This action-RPG is developed by Owlcat Games, and looks to infuse the franchise with Mass Effect flavour, while putting the fate of its characters in the hands of players.
I had the chance to play through The Expanse: Osiris Reborn’s beta, and while I had some gripes about its approach to the Expanse's universe, I’m certainly more invested in its future now.
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn
Developer: Owlcat Games
Release date: Spring 2027
Price: US$49.99 (Standard Pack)
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
What is The Expanse: Osiris Reborn’s beta about?
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is far from ready for its Spring 2027 release window, but those who pick up the game’s Collector’s Edition (US$289) or Miller’s Pack (US$79.99) can jump into its Closed Beta right now. We were given media access to this beta, which offers roughly 60–90 minutes of playtime, and thus got a sneak peek at how the game is shaping up thus far.
The game ostensibly pulls from Amazon Prime Video’s The Expanse TV adaptation as its source material, featuring a similar visual style for its space stations, faction-based outfits, and technology. A brief mention of a recent infection on Eros also clued me in to the fact that the game might be set around Season 1 or 2 of the series, right before the franchise’s storytelling scope expanded rather massively.
The demo, which appears to skip an opening sequence from the full game, puts players in the shoes of either a female character from the Belt or a male character from Earth, though you don’t get to mix and match these backgrounds. The protagonist is also accompanied with their twin sibling J, along with the unseen mechanic Zafar, who helps them out over voice comms. The latter two characters appear to be the game’s first real companions.
The story picks up with the player exploring a space station that belongs to their employer, allowing for a little freedom of exploration. Here, the game’s Mass Effect inspirations become immediately obvious–talking to characters presents you with tiles of dialogue choices, and prodding NPCs can result in discovering different dialogue paths.
Sometimes, you can only gather key worldbuilding details by asking the right questions–in my case, having enough Persuasion points allowed me to shake some juicy gossip out of a nearby merchant. However, the demo didn’t quite allow me to find out if this additional knowledge poised any benefits later on–like being afforded more dialogue choices or alternative story paths, for instance.
While this exploratory section did a lot to make me believe that The Expanse can actually work its magic via an interactive medium, it also exposed much of the game’s inconsistencies with its source material. For example, I did hear some of the TV shows’ iconic slang terms (The Expanse’s dialogue is famously filled with slang specific to each of its many interstellar factions), but the accents were completely off.
Belters speak in a very particular way in the TV show, influenced by its fictionalised Belter Creole language. In the series, it’s easy to tell an Earther and a Belter apart–if not by the way they dress, then by the way they speak. Their accents couldn’t be more different. The demo immediately loses sight of this with its female Belter protagonist speaking in a regular American accent. Other slang terms are also thrown around, and much like the characters’ accents, they feel almost haphazardly put into place here, seemingly without the understanding of why and how they came to be in-universe.
Besides some rather cheesy dialogue, I didn’t have much of a bone to pick with the rest of this demo’s story content. My only complaint is that the premise hasn’t quite begun to intrigue me just yet–I’m still waiting for some kind of hook to prove that these characters are part of a larger and more compelling story that's worth following. References being thrown to the main series only reminded me that the “main” characters of the story, the ones I do care about, are entirely offscreen.
That being said, the demo does escalate in action pretty quickly.
What is The Expanse: Osiris Reborn’s combat like?
Here’s where The Expanse: Osiris Reborn’s demo sets itself apart from Mass Effect: it’s pretty damn challenging to beat. After exploring the space station, players will quickly find themselves up against a massive new threat, who seems more than willing to level the entire station in order to capture them.
I must have died five times before I stopped underestimating the game’s enemy AI here, and finally started to be more tactical in how I approached its combat scenarios. In the demo, the player is given two abilities–a swarm-like ability that seeks out enemies, and a taser that stuns enemies. Both abilities operate on a cooldown, but it’s J who appears to be the greatest weapon in their kit.
In combat, J is able to take out enemies when called out by the player, but they’re also able to manipulate the environment by blowing up walls and ceilings to create cover. A brief sojourn to space also introduced space combat, which weirdly doesn’t seem all that different from non-space combat, besides the muted sounds of gun violence.
Where the demo’s dialogue and exploration sections left me rather mixed, its combat gave me quite the opposite impression. While I would have liked more ways to get around these encounters, the notion of having even more gadgets and companions to play through these sections with is exciting. The visual effects and sound design accompanying combat–from the explosions to the warping environments–also feels pretty top-notch, if a tad inconsistent. Gunfire, for example, feels limp despite said guns tearing enemies apart with ease.
Verdict
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is shaping up nicely, though it does have a few kinks to work out ahead of its full release. Thankfully, developer Owlcat Games is already taking action by addressing a few of these beta’s pain points. The developer is swapping the male protagonist and his sibling’s voice actor, for example, and planning changes to the in-game combat, animations, and more.
This is a promising start, though the game still has a ways to go if it’s going to live up to the TV series.
Is The Expanse: Osiris Reborn based on the TV show or the books?
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is based on the Amazon Prime Video series The Expanse, not the books by James S. A. Corey, which serve as the series' source material.
When is The Expanse: Osiris Reborn coming out?
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is set to launch sometime in 2027.
Who made The Expanse: Osiris Reborn?
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is developed by Owlcat Games, the developer of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader and Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy.
