‘The Expanse’ Does a ‘Mass Effect’ With New Game ‘Osiris Reborn’

Prime Video’s The Expanse ended a few years ago, but the sci-fi franchise hasn’t completely gone away. During Saturday’s Future Games Show, viewers were treated to the reveal of Osiris Reborn, a new video game.

Developed by Owlcat Games and set during the show’s first two and a half seasons (and featuring some returning cast members reprising their TV roles), Osiris puts players in the boots of a Pinkwater mercenary enjoying shore leave on Eros Station. After things go to hell, the merc gets caught up takes a ship and puts a team together to uncover a system-wide conspiracy. Your merc, or the Captain, has three backgrounds to choose from (Earther, Martian, or Belter), different abilities depending on their class, and is playable in a third-person perspective while issuing squad commands to two teammates in combat. Sound familiar?

Yeah, Osiris Reborn sounds pretty Mass Effect, something design producer Yuliya Chernenko admitted in an IGN interview. Much of the Owlcat team first played BioWare’s RPG franchise when they were young, and it “left a lasting impression. We’re building on that legacy and expanding what players on what players anticipate from this experience.”

Despite the comparisons, creative director Alexander Mishulin went on to stress this would be would be an Owlcat title through and through, with “more choices and…more focused on a modern approach where you can make your own playstyle, make your own experience through the game.” He considers The Expense a “perfect universe” to bring the studio’s ideas for a sci-fi action-RPG to life, calling its world “grounded in realism and complexity, perfect for telling a story how we like — mature and character-driven, where your choices truly matter.”

If this sounds cool to you, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is “coming soon” to PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S.

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