I know that the devs behind The Expanse: Osiris Reborn have what it takes to create a great RPG. I know that you don’t just get given the license to a hot multimedia franchise without earning it. I’ve heard that Rogue Trader and the Pathfinder games have got the sauce, and I’ve heard Owlcat’s name in connection with Baldur’s Gate enough times to make me sit up and take notice. But after an hour with Osiris Reborn, I’m yet to see that come shining through.

It’s an unfortunate consequence of the way an event like Gamescom shakes out that The Expanse: Osiris Reborn was not the first multimedia, cover-shooter, sci-fi RPG I saw last week. It’s an even more unfortunate consequence for Owlcat that I happened to see Exodus first. But it’s not in the direct comparison that The Expanse falls down – it’s in how the time I got to spend with it played out.

TV RPG

As I mentioned in my Exodus preview, you can rarely get a feel for the strength of a game’s role-playing in the course of an hour-long demo. But you can be given a sense for how and why your character has ended up in their present surroundings, or who they and their companions are as people and how they fit into this world. You can also get a sense of how the decisions that have already been made about your character might alter how other players’ decisions would alter their experiences. What I played of Osiris Reborn didn’t seem to highlight that, preferring instead to focus on combat and ties to the TV show.

The mission in my demo is relatively simple. I arrived at an outpost’s well-guarded storage facility in search of data contained within a case. Discretion is of the utmost importance, and my companion (my own twin, J) and I are kitted out in plausible, if unlikely, Osirian space suits. Despite our attempts to stay unnoticed, one of our first encounters with base personnel is being found in the wrong place by a pair of guards. I prepare myself for some kind of disagreement, hoping I’ve got a silver-enough tongue or at least a fast-enough shot to stay out of trouble. But, as it happens, it’s one of the guards who talks his more trigger-happy colleague into leaving us alone, and I’m left to explore the base unimpeded.

It’s just one example of how I’m never really challenged as I wander around the space. Despite the station’s security systems getting increasingly wise to our presence, no-one on the ground ever asks us to explain ourselves. I’m able to peek through public computer terminals and wander into server rooms without ever being confronted, despite J noting how outdated our disguises look. It’s not until we meet one particularly ornery quartermaster that anyone prevents us from doing exactly what we please, and in this entire sequence I’m only offered a couple of ability checks.

Eventually, I’ve secured the information I need and plot a quick getaway. That’s undone very quickly, however, as I learn that I’m not what the security system has been reacting to. A squad of soldiers rappels down through a huge hole they’ve blown in the roof of the station, inadvertently upsetting the biohazard container strapped to the ceiling. That’s home to a scary, crystalline figure that should be very familiar to series fans, but it’s also an excuse to beat an even speedier retreat.

As chaos unfolds around the hybrid and I’m forced to fight my way out, I start to get more of a sense of what Osiris Reborn is trying to do. My pre-assigned character build is focused on remote allies – a drone and a turret that can be deployed to get angles on foes upon whom you don’t have an accurate line of fire – a very specific build that doesn’t limit my ability to enjoy some solid gunplay. It’s a perfect fit for the solid cover shooting that makes up much of my demo’s second half. During one section where I’ve got limited cover and enemies are coming from above me, and another where a beefy enemy is able to throw firebombs to flush me out of hiding places, I have to actually think about how to use my skills to survive.

It’s a faster-paced sequence than my infiltration, a frantic escape attempt that’s half fighting past security and half fleeing from the monster on our tail. Eventually realizing that the hybrid will slaughter the base’s civilian population, however, we’re forced to stand and fight, concocting a plan that will use a solar array against it.

The downside to that is it requires drawing our pursuer to the base’s agricultural center, where we come across a bunch of farmers who are at risk. Tasked with deciding whether to send one companion to shepherd the civilians to safety or keep them with me to even the odds, I elect to fight in a pair and let the farmers fend for themselves. Whether that’s the wrong choice or not, I don’t get to find out – admittedly, a couple of civilians get pulped, but that’s only because they ran the wrong way, and I wasn’t about to lose a companion just before a boss fight.

Sadly, the demo ends before the fight begins, so I didn’t get to see the consequences of my actions, just the ruined body of some unfortunate spacer and a very angry hybrid advancing towards us. I’ve seen enough to suggest that Osiris Reborn is a decent Expanse game and a solid cover shooter, but I come away without any sense of what kind of RPG it is. I’m confident enough in Owlcat’s previous games that I’m sure it’ll deliver on that aspect too, but I wish I’d had a little more opportunity to shape my version of this world.

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