The Expanse: Osiris Reborn—the RPG that is in the making—gets the details of future gameplay from the developer interview done by the industry leaker Shinobi602. Besides the extensive character customization and the 30-40 hours of gameplay, the interview reveals that one would be able to develop romantic relationships with companions, and the storyline would be influenced by the player’s choices, all this taking place in the relatable sci-fi universe. The game developer, Owlcat Games, has previous experience in working on titles such as Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader and is…
To summarize, Shinobi602 has revealed a lot of things about The Expanse: Osiris Reborn and it is already very clear that the game will be excellent. Truth be told, everyone was aware of Owlcat’s involvement, but this kind of intricacy seemed like a completely different tale. They are, in a way, erecting a standardized, premium-quality RPG amidst the most thrilling sci-fi universes. The Belt, Mars, Earth… Your character’s origins can be from any of those planets. And to make it more interesting, you get an identical twin brother?? I am, to tell you the truth, quite astonished by the extravagant character creation detail that I did not expect.
Playtime is around 30 to 40 hours, which, to be honest, sparked a bit of discussion right in the comments section. User Tokenn said, “30-40 hours… sounds far too short.” Which I must say is a reasonable comment; there are times when we all seek those long 100-hour epics. But then another user, D, raised a good point: “They probably just mean that’s how fast it can be completed if you just run through it. It’s probably 60-70+ for people who actually do side missions, explore, interact with their crew, etc.” And I fully support that. Just look at it this way – Mass Effect 1 was estimated at about 20 hours but if you did everything it was way longer. Therefore, the time limit should not be a reason for panic yet.
We are really talking about action things, and the first thing they mentioned is that they have a non-binding “play style preset” system. For example, you can start as a Sniper but if you come across a good shoulder cannon, you will just… use it. It is up to you to mess around with guns and gadgets, but the devs also said that at some point you will “need to commit”. You cannot completely change your build every five minutes, which for story consistency I guess is the understandable part.
They definitely consider choices to be of great importance. The developers have suggested that the game will be full of such choices, and that in certain instances a little prompt will be given if a choice is extremely critical, but for the most part? No big alert. You have got to bear with it. The most astonishing part is that not every decision has a major effect on the story. At times it is just character flavors for the dialogues, which is very nice because it gives the world the dimension of reality. Not everything you say has to save the galaxy; sometimes you are just a person, you know?
Oh, and as for the companions, they are going to follow the full BioWare route. Each companion will have his or her own history, factions, aims… and differ in their opinions on everything that you do. They may hold views that contradict yours, they have their common relationships (and the developers said it would be like drama!! because when you are with others in a small space for a long time, disagreement is bound to happen!), and you can either assist them with their personal stories or just ignore them. And yes… “There will definitely be romance in the game.” That is what they said. So, I guess you can start to get close to a Belter or a Martian. Besides, there are certain characters that may die. So, be astute in your choice, my friend.
Super realistic is the feel they are after because, and this is a very important point, it’s The Expanse. Thus, everything from technology, through weapons, to space travel must feel like it really happened. No magic, just the laws of physics and radiation. A character like this can even be made who is more about gadgets than guns, using items like protective drones and shields. They are all over the place for drawing inspirations: Mass Effect and Persona for the RPG play, The Division and Gears of War for the cover-shooting, and Uncharted/The Last of Us for the AI companions’ behavior during fights. That’s quite a mix of ingredients.
Gamers are thrilled but also… distracted? Many of the replies were simply people begging for more from the TV series. User XxDogsaysMeowxX sorrowfully asked, “But where is season 7?” while others debated the game’s potential release on PlayStation and Xbox.
