Finally, we space opera fans are getting another RPG set amongst the stars. Well, I say the stars, but really, it's just in the solar system. But trust me, that's plenty big enough. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is adapting the best-selling sci-fi books and beloved TV series into a game, and it's taken inspiration from Mass Effect 2's suicide mission.
The Expanse is set in the near future when humanity has colonized the solar system. Earth and Mars are the dominant superpowers, with workers in the asteroid belt treated like second-class citizens.
The game is set towards the latter half of the first book and will follow events from that and the show, but you'll be busy leading a crew on their own missions, separate from that of the cast we already know and love.
"You will have two [companions] in the party, but we also wanted the others to help," game design producer Yuliya Chernenko tells WccfTech in a Gamescom interview following a hands-off demonstration. "So, we are ensuring that even though companions might not be in your squad, they're still engaged in the story and the mission. In this case, our companions on the ship are guiding us and helping us escape ProtoGen."
ProtoGen is a shady scientific organization with a mercenary wing that is wreaking havoc on the system. The opening of the game sees you escaping a casino asteroid on which the company is performing a deadly experiment.
"That's where we want to differ from the other games in the same genre, because even if you take two companions with you, the others don't just sit idly on the ship," explains game design director Leonid Rastorguev. "They try to be useful. They contact you over the radio to give you some advice. They might even appear in the mission in a particular place, or they might have a particular role in the mission. You need to assign them to this role so that they will have other stuff to do during the mission."
For any Mass Effect fans among you, and let's be honest, that's probably most people reading about a space RPG, this will sound familiar. That's not an accident, as the game's suicide mission "was the inspiration, yes," Rastorguev says.
"Basically, the idea is that we wanted you to feel like a team, and it's weird when the team is sitting on the ship and you're risking your life on the mission," Chernenko explains. "They are helping, working together."
I'm fine with games making you pick and choose who you take into battle with you, but it is odd that the rest just sort of chill out while there's some world-ending threat looming. So, I'm excited to see this be implemented in the full game whenever it comes out.
While you wait, check out the best space games you can play right now.
