Osiris Reborn’s Greatest Strength Already Outdoes Its Biggest Weakness

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I first sat down to play The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, but it certainly wasn’t what I ended up getting. I knew at the time that the game was heavily inspired by Mass Effect, but that’s something I feel like I’ve heard many times before. Some of those experiences weren’t inherently bad, necessarily, but they also never reignited in me that same feeling the original Mass Effect trilogy gave me nearly two decades ago. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, on the other hand, already has my hopes high that it could finally be the game that brings me back to BioWare’s glory days, and so much so that I don’t know if I can handle waiting until next year to play it in its entirety.

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn may be based on The Expanse—a popular science fiction series of novels by James S. A. Corey that was later adapted into a TV show—but it looks, sounds, and plays like the most Mass Effect game since Mass Effect itself. That alone has me thoroughly intrigued, despite going into it as someone who’s not at all familiar with The Expanse. That being said, it’s not perfect, though nothing is. It does already seem to have one glaring weakness that is highlighted all the more by its greatest strength. Fortunately, developer Owlcat Games still has at least a year to perfect that weakness and bring it up to par with The Expanse: Osiris Reborn‘s best feature.

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn’s Combat Is Solid But Simple

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn‘s current greatest weakness is, without a doubt, its combat. However, I say that in a measured way, because while I do believe it is the area the game is weakest in, it’s far from weak on its own. In fact, it’s solid, smooth, and intuitive, and I’m convinced most players (even Mass Effect fans) will be happy with it, even if that happiness is nothing more than pure contentment.

It’s also worth mentioning that my hands-on preview of The Expanse: Osiris Reborn was only around 90 minutes long, and I’m fairly certain what I played was near the beginning of the game. As such, combat could feel even better in the RPG’s later stages, and that could be especially true if Owlcat focuses on improving it over the next year before it launches.

Nevertheless, the reason Osiris Reborn‘s combat is currently the game’s greatest weakness is because it’s considerably simple, and that likely comes down to how little it seems to have evolved since the original Mass Effect trilogy. For the most part, combat scenarios in the game boil down to players finding cover, remaining behind it while enemies fire, and then emerging during an opening to return fire. There are also a handful of abilities they can use that can do everything from stunning enemies to damaging them, and their companions even have skills that can make use of the environment to bring enemies down.

As I said, it’s solid, and it works just fine. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with The Expanse: Osiris Reborn‘s combat, even in its current state. Can it be improved? Of course, it can. Should it be improved? That depends on how far Owlcat goes with it, because there may even be a point where it can evolve too much and lose the Mass Effect feel that’s likely to appeal to fans who have been searching for it since the trilogy concluded in 2012.

At the Very Least, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn’s Combat Is More Challenging

Even with its combat being as simple as it is, it’s definitely more challenging—at least, based on what I played. I do use the word “challenging” lightly, though, because The Expanse: Osiris Reborn isn’t a hard game, it’s just slightly more difficult than Mass Effect ever was.

In the original Mass Effect trilogy, I was more than comfortable relying primarily on my weapons to get the job done, and rarely did I feel punished for exiting cover. I didn’t outright ignore my non-weapon-based skills, but I didn’t depend on them either. In Osiris Reborn, on the other hand, there were plenty of moments during my short time with the game that I felt I absolutely needed to use my skills, or I wouldn’t make it out alive. To me, that’s a sign that Owlcat is willing to evolve Mass Effect‘s combat, even if it has currently only evolved in the sense of cornering players into more varied playstyles than a simple point and shoot.

Even so, none of this changes the fact that The Expanse: Osiris Reborn‘s combat is, at the moment, the game’s greatest weakness. There is clear room for growth and improvement, though Owlcat may still need to be sensitive as to how much room there actually is. Despite being what one might call a “weakness,” however, the game’s combat is still not even the most important aspect it needs to nail if it truly hopes to capture the magic of BioWare’s Mass Effect trilogy. More than anything else, characters and companions matter, in the depth of their dialogue and the relationships players can build with them over the course of the game.

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn’s Characters and Companions Are Where It Shines

Where Osiris Reborn truly shines is in its characters and companions, and it’s precisely why I walked away from my preview of the game feeling like it was a genuine Mass Effect competitor in the making. Most Mass Effect fans don’t look back on their time with the original trilogy and think about its combat or how extensive the skill trees were. Instead, many of us remember the relationships we built with our companions, their stories and hardships, and the wide variety of characters we encountered on our journeys. As such, that is arguably the one thing The Expanse: Osiris Reborn needs to pull off if it hopes to succeed in the same space as Mass Effect, and judging by my experience with the game, it’s off to an impeccable start.

I didn’t even get a chance to meet all of Osiris Reborn‘s companions, but I’m still convinced Owlcat has done right by them, simply based on the kind of interactions I had with side characters like Larry and Luciana. It seems that Owlcat has built what feels like an actual world I want to plunge myself into, as even the characters I assume I won’t be spending too much time with in the final version of the game, I’m willing to give my time to.

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing their stories, seeing their personalities come to life in their dialogue and expressions, and testing any limits they might have with skill checks, blunt statements, and probing questions. Larry and Luciana, specifically, had me walking away hoping I would encounter them again at some point in the future, but even if I don’t once I play through the full game next year, I was thankful for the time I did get to spend with them.

It helps that the voice actors responsible for bringing them to life did such an excellent job with them. There’s nothing more immersion-breaking than when a character’s delivery makes them sound more like a robot than a person—or like someone simply reading from a script. In those cases, it’s exceedingly difficult to build any kind of relationship with them, and it also makes the world feel too artificial for me to care about it. It appears Owlcat knew The Expanse: Osiris Reborn‘s characters would need to sound as genuine as they look for the game to capture that iconic Mass Effect magic, though, because that’s exactly what happened for me.

Unfortunately, the majority of the time I spent with the game during my preview was with The Expanse: Osiris Reborn‘s combat and exploration. I understand that’s the more engaging part for some, but I personally don’t mind when a significant portion of gameplay is devoted to character interactions. It’s one of the main reasons I love Mass Effect so much, and it already looks like one of Osiris Reborn‘s standout features. Here’s hoping the final version of the game leans even harder into that element, because it’s working for it so far.

Developer(s)

Owlcat Games

Publisher(s)

Owlcat Games

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

Number of Players

Single-player

Steam Deck Compatibility

Unknown