Owlcat Games, the Cyprus-based developer behind role-playing titles like Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, is preparing to release The Expanse: Osiris Reborn in spring 2027. The upcoming third-person shooter and role-playing game is set in the universe of the nine-book Expanse series and its television adaptation. Players will command a spaceship captain leading a found-family crew through the far-future solar system, with zero-gravity combat and dialogue-driven narrative choices. The game marks a departure for Owlcat, which is known for top-down role-playing games rather than third-person shooters.
A beta version released in April drew praise for its combat and visuals, but players criticized the story and voice acting. The beta also lacked “Belter creole,” the language construct used by characters in The Expanse series. Owlcat has since said it plans to address player feedback, including recasting at least one voice actor. The studio expanded its staff to build the game, which represents its first attempt at the shooter genre.
The game’s narrative takes place around the same time as the first two books in the Expanse series, a setting that presents challenges for adaptation. Owlcat’s design director, Leonid Rastorguev, said via email that the studio is using an internal system called Etudes to track player decisions through narrative flags and triggers. These choices can range from cosmetic effects to blocking content, causing character deaths, or altering the ending. Players can select their character’s backstory and appearance, but the character develops based on decisions rather than skill classes.
The game features three competing factions from the source material: Earth, Mars, and the Belters of the asteroid belt. Rastorguev said keeping good relations with all factions will be difficult, with only one chance to stay on everyone’s good side. Players can also mentor crew members, advancing their skills in different areas. Critics of the beta noted that some choices do not produce immediate, visible outcomes, with one combat decision playing out nearly identically regardless of the player’s selection.
Owlcat acknowledged that beta players have not yet seen how far those decisions ripple through the story. Rastorguev explained that players want to feel they have left a mark on the universe, but The Expanse has established canon and major characters whose fates are already fixed in the books and show. He said the key is giving players enough information to know they have set something in motion without revealing the full chain of consequences. Events may be referenced later in conversations, in-game news reports, or world changes.
The game’s choice system draws clear comparisons to the Mass Effect series, which raises concerns about endings that collapse many decisions into a few basic outcomes. Rastorguev said Owlcat has thought carefully about this, finding ways for some choices to feel meaningful on a universe-wide scale, with consequences extending years beyond the game’s main events. The game will have multiple endings, but Owlcat has not announced how many or how different they will be from one another.
