The Expanse: Osiris Reborn has given off palpable Mass Effect vibes since developer Owlcat Games announced it earlier this year. Creative director Alexander Mishulin recently tried to put some distance (though admittedly not much) between Owlcat’s latest and BioWare’s most popular RPG series. But having just watched Owlcat’s recent environmental showcase for its upcoming sci-fi adventure, I’m back to thinking that Osiris Reborn is going to be Mass Effect as heck.
The showcase comprises ninety seconds’ worth of environment flyovers showing off different areas of the game, interspersed with scenes of the player-character walking around in third person. There’s also an in-fiction voiceover in which two mercenaries discuss where they’d like to dock after finishing whatever mission they’re currently on.
Said voiceover is directly related to the story, as Osiris Reborn has you play as a merc working for a firm called Pinkwater Security. The discussion ends with the pair choosing the asteroid Eros as their destination, where Osiris Reborn begins.
While there’s no combat or dialogue sequences depicted in the video, it nonetheless channels Mass Effect enormously: The moody lighting and gunmetal corridors of Ceres station could easily stand in for ME2’s own merc-filled hive, Omega. But it’s also just evident in the way environments are staged, the way NPCs are positioned and animated. The way the player character moves.
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The environments aren’t the only area where Osiris Reborn seems deeply indebted to Mass Effect. Following a lockdown on Eros, you need to gather an ad-hoc crew and commandeer a ship as you’re drawn into a system-wide conspiracy. All of which is fairly standard RPG stuff, but the game also has third-person combat and a cover-system in which you’re accompanied by two other companions, which is a little more specific, and very different from Owlcat’s previous, more traditional CRPGs.
Most tellingly of all, an accompanying press release states “Your leadership decisions will determine how squadmate loyalty shifts under pressure.” What’s that? Osiris Reborn has a system that determines loyalty? Now where have I heard that before…
To be clear, I am completely behind all of these decisions. I would do (minor) crimes for a (good) new Mass Effect game, but everything that’s happened between Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: The Veilguard has left me doubtful that BioWare remains capable of providing that. Osiris Reborn, though, looks like it knows exactly what Mass Effect fans want and intends to supply them with it, albeit with a slightly different sci-fi flavour.
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