Owlcat Games' upcoming sci-fi RPG The Expanse: Osiris Reborn might take plenty of inspiration from Mass Effect, but its game design director says "we do not think of ourselves as a successor" to BioWare's series.
The Expanse devs have previously been open about Mass Effect's impact on their RPG, with creative director Alexander Mishulin calling it a "great inspiration," and game design director Leonid Rastorguev specifically pointing to Mass Effect 2's suicide mission as an influence. Speaking during a presentation attended by GamesRadar+, the devs are asked if they welcome those Mass Effect comparisons or if it's one that they'd rather fans didn't make, and while Rastorguev reiterates that, yes, the BioWare series has had an impact, this game is ultimately still an Owlcat creation.
"We actually said before that we really love the Mass Effect series, and it was a great inspiration for us," Rastorguev begins. "But we do not think of ourselves as a successor to the Mass Effect series or anything like that. We are making our own game, Owlcat game, as a start with our approach to narrative, to choices, to combat mechanics, and so on. So, in some parts, yes, we've played Mass Effect, definitely, and we enjoyed it a lot, but it's still a different game. It's [an] Owlcat game."
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Game design producer Yuliya Chernenko agrees, even though she thanks Mass Effect for leading her to her job in the first place, as she points to the sci-fi RPG and Neverwinter Nights as "two main games" that "made me join, basically, game development in general."
She continues, noting that Owlcat has already made "a lot of other games," and so "we have our own approach" to development.
It's not going to be too long until players can see what the team has been cooking up, anyway. Although the full game isn't set to launch until spring 2027, it's getting a closed beta on April 22 this year for anyone who pre-purchases the Collector's Edition or "Miller's Pack" version.
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is a Mass Effect-shaped rocket that could finally propel Owlcat into the RPG mainstream: "We'd been feeling a growing ambition to go bigger."
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