The Expanse novels by James S. A. Corey are set in a near future world where the decisions of politicians, corporations, detectives, and soldiers have big consequences for the fate of the Solar System. Likewise, your decisions in Owlcat Games’ The Expanse: Osiris Reborn can prove just as momentous. Case in point, you’re not going to get a warning before making a call that gets most of a space station killed. That's what I learned during an hour-long closed-door preview of the game at Gamescom, which was hands-off but did allow me to dictate certain choices.
Osiris Reborn takes place amidst the first two books in The Expanse series or the first two and a half seasons of the excellent Syfy/Prime Video TV series. You control a pair of identical twin mercenaries working for Pinkwater Security, who made the very unfortunate decision to visit the asteroid Eros when the corporation Protogen was conducting an experiment there involving an extraterrestrial material. The siblings escape by stealing a Protogen shuttle, bringing trouble back to the Pinkwater space station.
I’m a huge fan of The Expanse, but you don’t really need to know all the backstory of the conflict between Earth, Mars, and the Belters to get into this game. You certainly don’t need to know anything about the alien Protomolecule since the characters will be learning its secrets as you go. When you arrive at Pinkwater Station, you can watch the momentous broadcast from The Expanse protagonist James Holden explaining the nature of the bioattack on Eros. Owlcat looked to the series for the visuals of key characters and the world, and has promised some of the actors will make appearances in the game.
You can choose the gender of your starting character as well as a preset build, like marksman (a sniper) or officer, which mostly relies on assault rifles. This isn’t a class, just a choice of starting equipment and abilities. You also choose where your character is from, which impacts their appearance and story.
The space station is very lively and detailed, down to menus showing what they eat — algae apparently — with NPCs gossiping about the news. We chat with Luciana, who has fresh supplies from Europa we can buy and seems to want to tell us what everyone else on the station is looking for.
Larry, an exhausted station worker, punctuates his dialogue with Belter sign language and asks us to do him a favor by bringing a birthday present to his mom so he doesn’t have to pay for shipping. He says it’s a painting but is adamant that we don’t open it. The quest is called “A Purrfect Gift.” Is it a picture of a cat? Is it a cat? Am I a cat smuggler? The developers leading my demo won’t answer these pressing questions.
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn Space Station corridor
Image: Owlcat Games
But that mystery will have to wait as a Protogen ship approaches the station, demanding their stolen spacecraft back. You can tell the station commander you’ll find a way to escape or, if you have a high enough persuasion score, you can convince him to take up arms against the corporate security. We tried this and it was not a good idea.
The twins sneak out through the vents, but are quickly spotted and shot at by Protogen security, the color switching to grayscale to indicate our low health. This is a particularly tricky portion of the game as it’s just you and your sibling — usually you’ll have two companions — so it requires making good use of cover and the environment. Luckily, your friend Zahar, one of the first companions you get, is guiding you remotely from your stolen ship.
Your sibling, J, has the ability to take advantage of structural weaknesses. A well-placed shot can cause the ceiling to collapse or blow up parts of the environment to catch enemies on fire. Companions all have their own specialist ability, so a hacker might be able to use a terminal to hit people nearby with an EMP blast while a sniper can provide supporting fire. The impact the fighting is having on the environment is impressively detailed, with the walls quickly becoming pockmarked by bullets.
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn Space Station
Image: Owlcat Games
The station is so swarmed by Protogen agents that Zafar encourages you to go outside to sneak around. The view from outer space is gorgeous, with Jupiter looming large against the starscape and the station’s spinning ring. You can walk on any surface using your magboots and the camera adjusts based on where you’re standing. Sound is toned down: no one can hear you scream in space, but you can still sense movement in the vibrations beneath your boots.
Exploring thoroughly rewards you with crafting materials, money, and equipment, with some paths locked behind skills you or your companions have. Protogen has figured out your ploy, and engages you on the station exterior, where the debris they create by shooting up the environment floats around in space along with the bodies and globs of blood. We spot a sniper using a scanner ability and break through his cover using an armor-piercing weapon through his cover.
After the heated battle there’s an impressive cutscene where the brothers use thrusters on their backpack to float up, compensating for the station’s drift while dodging debris and barely making it to the ring where their ship is. They can choose their method of approach based on advice from your companion, which will both impact what you encounter and your companion’s reaction.
Going back into the station, we see the results of the choice. The place is littered with bodies and we even see a Protogen agent executing a captive. The station arsenal has been mostly depleted by the people who fought back, but there’s still a few items to grab. As a particularly imposing Protogen soldier in power armor comes at you, Larry bails you out and sends you on your way with a reminder of that package. I really hope it’s a cat.
The fighting takes us back to the place where we started the demo and onto our ship, where we meet up with Zahar. After that, we’ll have the freedom to explore Ceres, Mars, and Luna with a branching story that should take 20 to 30 hours, running parallel to Holden’s story. The decision made on the station proved to be disastrous for the people there, but the race to safety was exciting, filled with a mix of complex fights and dramatic cutscenes. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how my choices impact the rest of the game.
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