Owlcat Games has a respectable legacy in RPGs, from Pioneer games to their successes in the world of warhammer 40,000 in dishonest trader and the next dark heresyThe studio has earned a reputation for delivering deep, traditional RPGs that don’t compromise player choice in their narratives. It’s a fascinating legacy compared to industry titans like Bioware, a studio that was built on a similar foundation, but has evolved its RPGs to make them grander. more film offers They lose a little of that crunchy core.
And yet, Owlcat now finds itself at a similar potential evolutionary point with The Expanse: Osiris Reborn—what could be is mass effect momentlaunching the studio to the stars with a beloved franchise and its most stylish game yet. But after spending some time with Osiris rebornRecently, ahead of its wider release today, fans of previous Owlcat games who fear those flashy visuals may have come at the cost of depth appear to have nothing to fear.
Osiris reborn is so inspired by Extension novels written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the direction pseudonym James SA Coreyand the beloved Syfy/Prime Video adaptationtaking place during the events of the first two books and the previous seasons of the show. The beta itself is at a fairly early stage of the experience: your player character and his twin brother J (in the full game, you’ll be able to customize your gender, appearance, background (Earthling, Martian, or Belter), and overall archetype, which will be reflected in J’s design) are Pinkwater mercenaries who find themselves trapped in the Protomolecule outbreak on Eros, fleeing Protogen enforcers when they arrive at a Pinkwater station in search of safe harbor, just for things to be resolved. go wrong, of course.
Every moment you’re playing Osiris rebornit’s hard not to understand mass effect out of your head, even if the developers had not yet discussed the influence of that series on Osiris rebornIt is clear to see it everywhere. The game shifts Owlcat’s bread and butter from isometric, strategically driven RPG traditions to a shooter-driven third-person action RPG, packed with cinematic dialogue cutscenes with branching conversations. The emphasis here is on cinematics: it looks great, it’s easily the most visually lavish Owlcat game yet, and it strikes a nice balance between aesthetic influences inspired by Extension TV show while also drawing on elements from the books (a fun one? You get tall, lanky Belters, whose growth is affected by life in space, unlike the way they are seen in most of the show). It’s a shame, then, that Owlcat has status on record about using generative AI in the game’s early conceptual phases, promising that the game’s final assets will be created by humans, a first for the studio, because it was clearly an unnecessary own goal with such rich sources of inspiration that ultimately translate so well here.
Once you and J make yourselves known at the station, things naturally start to go a little wrong to allow some action to occur. Again, this is up to here, so mass effectas you run from one place to another, shooting and using skills (Osiris reborn It doesn’t have a class system, but rather a series of trees that you can invest points into as you level up, but the beta gives you the choice between pre-set starting points called “Leader”, a more standard gunplay soldier, and “Hacker”, a more skill-based loadout), and command J. Osiris reborn It trades a tactical pause in the action for issuing commands for a strong slow-motion effect, which is fun and lightly puts pressure on you to think quickly, and punctuates the gunplay with fun environmental options, such as ordering your companions to destroy parts of the environment based on their given abilities.
It’s also worth saying how much the visuals contribute to the combat, with environments really showing the destructive wear and tear of your actions. This is an especially fun twist in moments where you’re fighting outside, in the vacuum of space, and Osiris reborn it really leans into its sound design (it’s not completely silent, but rather the sound is heavily muted to invoke claustrophobic feelings) and some fun level navigation options that really make those moments feel distinct from regular gameplay, even if they’re mostly aesthetic flourishes rather than actual tangible differences (at least at this stage of the game).
As we’ve said, a lot of this still feels very mass effect. Where Osiris reborn starts to distinguish itself, and show a little more of Owlcat’s usual depth, is its dialogue and skill systems. There’s no Paragon/Renegade morality here, and not only can dialogue branch off into different paths in almost every conversation, as well as a litany of combat-specific skill trees, but each character also has a handful of social skill trees to flesh out that impact on dialogue and exploration outside of combat. Persuasion, of course, can be used to unlock new dialogue options, such as convincing the station merchant to tell you the gossip he heard while selling his wares, or asking the station commander to gather his crew to help you defend yourself when Protogen calls. Several more allow you to interact with the environment differently, such as engineering and athletics tests that allow you to unlock paths you wouldn’t otherwise be able to access; A particularly fun take on the standard perception test common in RPGs activates a sort of “detective vision” superimposed on success, allowing you to find items you might not otherwise have been able to notice.
This type of mechanical depth is also included in the equipment you’ll encounter throughout the game. Of course, there are plenty of stats on weapons and armor (and they can be further customized through the game’s crafting system for more advantages), but your equipment becomes important as it is also the source of your skills rather than your skill trees, allowing you to unlock inherent powers, allowing you to customize your skill set to find a combination of skills that suit you and your team, and there is plenty of equipment that can modify certain skills, traits, and other things beyond normal stat boosts.
With only one mission selected in a game expected to last around 30 hours, the beta is too small to really say how deep Osiris reborn It will go with the ways you can influence its narrative and its mechanics. It can be completed in about an hour, and while you can replay with different character presets and it’s a fun time, it’s not really enough to justify spending at least $80 on a fancy edition of the game that comes with access, or even more than that if you go for the almost $300 Collector’s edition. There’s not enough to see how your choices will affect your dynamic with your party members and the broader narrative here (for example, playing as an Earthling didn’t appear in any dialogue or choices outside of some combat barking), but what is here makes it clear that Owlcat hasn’t completely abandoned its RPG legacy to pursue AAA brilliance with Osiris reborn.
If the full game can build on the potential shown in this portion and really show how its systems and skill-based interactions can drive inventive visuals and action from beneath the surface, Osiris reborn could be more than just a compelling curiosity for Extension fans looking to revisit that rich world – you could go a step further than its guiding light in mass effect and also strikes a much better balance between action and deep RPGs along the way.
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn The beta will open to players who have pre-ordered the Miller’s Pack or Collector’s Edition starting today, April 22. The full game is expected to launch in spring 2027 for PC, Xbox Series X and S, and PlayStation 5.
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