Kindly Father Internet has dispensed a few new details for The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, Rogue Trader developer Owlcat’s recently announced RPG adaptation of the sci-fi book and TV series. It sounds like it’s operating within the fine tradition of spin-off stories that are always a step behind or a room across from the live action celebrities.
I refer to games like The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, in which the noble human ranger Alsogorn, the stout dwarven warrior Simarli, the shieldmaiden Eowynnish and the other members of the Followship of the Ring pitch in with Gandalf, Faramir and co in scenes that might have been lifted from Petey Jackson’s cutting room floor. Except that turning the Balrog bridge fight into a five-way Final Fantasy slapfest is just naff.
Osiris Reborn will hopefully not be naff, going by Owlcat’s prior work in the party-based RPG space, and in light of the game’s admittedly target-footagesque announcement trailer. It takes place in parallel to the first two seasons of the Expanse TV show, and gives you a new set of characters. Things kick off on Eros Station, an asteroid city that takes a turn for the Eventfully Horizontal in the original James S.A. Corey books. The infamous protomolecule makes an appearance, as do corpo shitlords Protogen, and you’ll hear a lot about the doings of a certain James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante.
“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,” observes creative director Alexander Mishulin in a chat with CNET. “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.”
Mass Effect aside, Mishulin says that the storytelling is “similar” to Persona 5 in how your party members develop over the course of the tale. Crew members who don’t join your three-person away missions won’t twiddle their thumbs in your absence – they can go on jaunts elsewhere.
As for the other kind of character development, making numbers go up and down, “the RPG system is very open, allowing you to build whatever character you like”. There are no classes, which may come as a relief to those of us racked and corroded by Rogue Trader’s cyclopean skilltrees. Seemingly, there is a stronger emphasis on how weapons shape your approach than in previous Owlcat RPGs, though that’s me peering between the lines of the CNET piece. Gadgets include a visor that lets you identify foes through smoke and cover, which isn’t too mindblowing, but definitely helpful.
The game courts the same “hard sci-fi” feel as the show, including the “feeling of the physics and how it should be” in outer space. The protomolecule in the ointment is that while you’ll get your own, lightly customisable ship and be able to fly around in it, they’re won’t be any ship-to-ship combat. No emergency deceleration manoeuvrers, no intricate missile tactics. I guess I’ll have to get my fill of that in Nebulous: Fleet Command.
