We went hands-on with 'The Expanse: Osiris Reborn', and it's a hard sci-fi 'Mass Effect' successor with show-stealing zero-G sections

Owlcat Games hasn't shied away from the fact that The Expanse: Osiris Reborn looks and feels a lot like BioWare's Mass Effect series, and after going through the upcoming action RPG's closed beta, we can confirm it really feels like an evolution of those games in a more grounded setting. During the recent Q&A preview session we were able to attend, game design director Leonid Rastorguev didn't ignore such comparisons and instead fully embraced them: "Obviously, we've played Mass Effect, we love it, most of the team does, and it was an inspiration for the game, but still the game is an Owlcat game in terms of narrative, the choices, the mechanical systems, the combat systems..." After a 50-minute run with the agile closed-beta demo, it's easy to see what he means. What we played was basically the second main story mission of the game, which kicks off right after an explosive start on Eros. For our protagonist, an officer and a hacker preset were available, but no control over the playable character's (and their sibling's) appearance was given. Still, picking the Belter background made them taller and more slender due to growth in a low-gravity environment — a nice bit of world-building that the TV show couldn't capture. Article continues below (Some quotes in this interview have been editorialized and lightly trimmed for better flow) (Image credit: Owlcat Games / Future) It's touches like that which make The Expanse: Osiris Reborn a distinct take on space RPGs. …