The announcement of The Expanse: Osiris Reborn was undoubtedly one of my personal highlights of this year’s Summer Game Fest season.

The Expanse is one of my favorite sci-fi settings, and I’ve devoured all the books and the seasons of the great TV series adaptation on Prime Video. A couple of years ago, Telltale released a game based on the show, but its genre and its scope weren’t exactly thrilling.

This project, on the other hand, is a third-person shooter RPG inspired by the likes of Mass Effect, powered by Unreal Engine 5, and developed by Owlcat Games, one of the best cRPG studios of the last few years between the Pathfinder titles and Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader.

It’s a combo that got me, and a lot of RPG and/or The Expanse fans, very, very excited. Moreover, even though it will feature its own characters and stories, it looks much more closely linked to the main narrative of the series. So, as soon as I got the chance, I reached out to Owlcat Games to set up an interview and bombard them with as many questions as they would answer at this time. Check out the full transcript of my conversation with Creative Director Alexander Mishulin and Head of Publishing Andrey Tsvetkov below.

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn will be released for PC and consoles at an unspecified time. Pre-orders are already available through the official website.

 When did you decide to make this game, and how did you contact the license holder?

Alexander Mishulin: With all our projects, it’s quite a similar story because, internally, we had a group of friends who came out with an internal pitch for the game. We discussed it. We loved it. We talked a lot about how we could make this game, how it could be different and interesting.

The Expanse IP is a very good match for us because of the stories we would like to tell. It’s grounded, with many choices and consequences, and all about people and companions. The Expense is all about how humanity, while being more advanced in 300 years from now, is still very much human with all its genius traits, flaws and everything. When we had an internal pitch that we loved and we understood that we could make it happen, we started working out the business side of the details. We approached Alcon with our idea and they were as excited as we were, so the project began and we started to work on pre-production.

Okay. Is the game still in pre-production, or have you moved to production?

Alexander Mishulin: The development started in 2021. We spent almost a year doing prototypes, transitioning between the genres because the game we are making is not quite similar to the games we have done previously. So we established new processes, established new approaches, and made sure that everything is working well, the shooting parts are working well, and of course, established all the new processes to make content. After that, we started making our vertical slices, and now we are full in production.

As you mentioned, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is a big change for you because you have been making cRPGs, a very different genre. Honestly, I thought that maybe the next step for you would be to make a cRPG still, but with a higher budget, like Baldur’s Gate 3 for example, or perhaps Baldur’s Gate 4, rather. But no, seriously, it was surprising to see you go with this. I also love Mass Effect, so I’m totally in. But I am curious – did you just go directly for the third person shooter pitch, or did you at some point consider making it a cRPG?

Alexander Mishuli No. From the first pitch, it was all about making a third person game because The Expanse is about people. We want you to connect more with the characters, the protagonist and the companions, and we want you to be immersed in this very grounded, realistic, sci-fi world.

We wanted to show you that, and for that, we needed to change perspective and make things more realistic and cinematic. Because of that, we transitioned to the third person, and yes, we were a little bit afraid at the beginning. We started prototyping and made several combat and exploration arenas.

We experimented with different approaches, how we wanted our cover system to work, how we wanted our enemies to work. Just for combat arenas, we had six prototypes in the beginning just to make the combat basics feel right. But for the narrative part, it’s very much still the same Owlcat game with all the different options for you to choose when you’re playing new characters, to embrace them, to feel the consequences of those choices, with all the politics and web of intrigue happening in The Expanse universe. It’s very much the same approach to narrative we had in previous games, apart from the dialogue being more cinematic, more in line with the genre.

You also changed the engine, since you are using the Unreal Engine 5 this time. Was it harder or easier than you thought?

Alexander Mishulin: Yeah, it was part of the process when we were in pre-production. We had to establish different processes. It’s not difficult or something very special or an unusual transition; it’s just a new process to make a new game. Also, we expanded our team for this project. We welcomed new team members from companies that have already done similar games, especially from CD Projekt, so we built not only upon our own expertise and knowledge but also upon our new colleagues’ knowledge, which helped us quite a lot.

Can you share how much of the team is working on The Expanse: Osiris Reborn? I know you have a lot going on. There’s a new Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader DLC on the way, and there’s the new Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy game in development. Can you say how much of the team is working on this one?

Andrey Tsvetkov: I can briefly jump in here. Sure, we have several projects going on, and right now, we have more than 450 people within the studio. We are very fortunate to have grown to this point with the support of our players. I don’t think we’d like to share the exact number of the actual teams just because it’s not fixed, right? At specific points of the developer process, some developers join the team to help at a specific moment just because of more tasks within production and everything. And then, when it’s needed, some people move forward to other projects as well.

But I can say that we can totally ensure our fans that working on several projects simultaneously wouldn’t impact the quality of each of them. There won’t be a situation where The Expanse: Osiris Reborn damages Dark Heresy in any way or vice versa. We would never jump into this kind of situation if we had the feeling that one of our beloved projects would actually get hurt in this way and fail to deliver the experience we want to our fans.

Can you tell us which of the two new games is launching first?

Andrey Tsvetkov: Not at this point, I’m afraid.

Okay, fair enough. Sticking with The Expanse, do you consider it to be a triple-A game in your ambition and scope?

Alexander Mishulin: In terms of production and approaches, we want our game to be very realistic, cinematic, and approachable. Usually, those are hallmarks of AAA experiences. That said, we are not making it specifically to be AAA.

We are making it in such a way that we imagine a great immersive The Expanse experience, allowing all the players, be them fans of deep narrative games with choice and consequences or fans of action RPGs or just fans of The Expanse to join in, experience the game, and feel very much at home within the game. As much as The Expanse allows you to feel at home, because it’s not really a very cozy universe, but still, this is our approach for this game.

Speaking of the timeline, when does this game start in the narrative we know?

Alexander Mishulin: The game is happening between the first and the second book, or, if we are talking about the show’s seasons, from the first season to the second season and a half. We are telling our own story happening in the universe. When we approached Alcon and talked about the project, they told us that they wanted to expand the universe, to tell more stories, and our vision was the same. We are telling a new story that is happening simultaneously with all the events of the books and the show.

So, you’ll be feeling the repercussions of the destruction of the Canterbury and the events on Eros. You will see some of the events with your own eyes, but for most of the adventure, you will understand how this universe, how the whole solar system responds to what’s happening, and to the adventures of Holden and his team.

I think you teased that some characters may appear in some form, right? I guess it’s too early to share who those might be, though.

Andrey Tsvetkov: We would really love to share it. It’s tempting, but we won’t be doing that now. Unfortunately, it’s too early for us to speak about it. But yeah, we’ll certainly uncover this at some point in the future.

You’ve said that players will create their own character. Character, right? Usually, in most RPGs, making the character also means choosing between different races, each with its own attributes and abilities. Of course, in The Expanse, they’re all humans, except for minor differences, like Belters having a body that cannot bear the full weight of Earth’s gravity due to generations of living in space. But, in RPG terms, will there be any differences in the game depending on your choice of Earther, Martian, or Belter? 

Alexander Mishulin: When you start the game and create the character, you select your origin, and that is a huge choice, not only in terms of RPG elements but also in terms of storyline. It’s your origin story, how you came to be, and many choices and consequences in the game will react to you being from a certain faction. For example, when you visit Ceres after all the events surrounding the Canterbury, the Belt is agitated towards Earthers and Martians. So, if you are not a Belter, you will encounter some forms of aggression towards you. If you are playing with a Belter character, you will feel more at home.

Additionally, some of the choices and some of the options available to you will be different. The same goes for all the origins. They all have different choices and parts of unique content that they will access as the start of their story. And then when the story takes shape, you’ll start to forge your own path, dabble in politics, and probably choose some other faction you want to support, not necessarily your own. Maybe I’m playing a Martian, but I feel that I want to help the Belters, and I want to become friends with this faction, so I build a relationship with them in such a way that I’m supporting their cause and their reaction towards me will slowly change to reflect that.

In the original narrative, Holden and his crew eventually earn the favor of most of the factions. However, sometimes RPGs have mechanics where you must choose between factions and befriending one automatically makes another hostile. What’s your approach here? Can you be a very diplomatic character in good standing with several factions at once?

Alexander Mishulin: I will not answer directly because, first of all, this system and this narrative part are still very much in development. But our vision is that we want you to experience all the political powers and the power plays in the universe. We want you to be able to join a certain faction, try to forge your own path, or try to ignore the factions for most of your decisions. We are trying to provide you with as many roleplaying choices as we possibly can in this regard. Of course, for all those choices, we want you to see the consequences of your actions, whereas a faction will like you or dislike you, or you manage to play one faction against another.

Of course, there are also some light mechanics supporting it. I will not delve into details, but we want the game to be a whole experience, not too narrative-focused or too mechanics-focused. It’s a balanced experience. When discussing character creation earlier, I focused more on narrative, which is part of the character creation, but there is also a mechanical part supporting the narrative. The same goes here.

Companions are going to be a big part of the game, right? Can you say how many there will be?

Alexander Mishulin: I couldn’t tell you the exact number of companions, sorry. But as for the approach, we want the companions to be front and center of all our games, but this time around, we are trying to give them an even bigger spotlight. You are going on a mission with two companions, but the rest of the team is not left behind on the ship. They can still help you fulfill your mission objectives in many different ways.

Probably somebody will stay on the ship and help you with the ship throughout the mission, or some of the companions can go fulfill their own objectives, or they can form a second team that goes through the mission on a different path. Sometimes you’re meeting them, helping them out, or they’re helping you out and you’re progressing through those missions. It’s not like every mission has a similar pattern, so every time it is different. Sometimes it’s more focused on a couple of companions. Sometimes it’s more your own personal story. But overall, we are bringing companions to the missions as much as we can.

Okay. I know you confirmed that there will be romance, right?

Alexander Mishulin: Yes.

What differences, if any, will there be with the romances seen in your most recent game, Rogue Trader?

Alexander Mishulin: When we’re approaching romances in our games, we try to make it interesting, both in terms of decisions and in terms of how you approach certain characters through romances and how romances show the characters from a different perspective. The same goes here. It’ll be deep narrative experiences that allow you to understand your character better, understand the companion better, and go through this story in the way you like.

Speaking of combat, can you share how many active abilities you are targeting? I would wager less than in a CRPG.

Alexander Mishulin: We want our players to have a lot of freedom in how they play the game. You can select a character that is more weapons-focused, and then you will be relying more on weapons, on shooting and your targeting skills, but you can also create a character that has more focus on abilities and playing from abilities’ perspective and building your gameplay and your choices to support your abilities depending on that or a mix between the gunplay and abilities. You will feel the difference and you can build your character to support the play style you want.

To do that, we are trying to make a game that is accessible, perhaps not with all the building options like in Pathfinder or Rogue Trader, but there are still a lot of synergies to find and a lot of perks to choose from, so you can rely on that. We want all the players familiar with cover shooters, with action RPGs and, of course, with Mass Effect to feel at home.

Ranged combat obviously plays a significant role given the setting, but can you make a melee-focused character?

Alexander Mishulin: You can create a character focused on close-range combat, using weapons like shotguns. Also, you saw in the trailer that one of the characters was carrying a shield and had a shoulder cannon, so you can go into close-range combat with a more defensive stance. So, if you favor this approach, there are some options that will be available for you in the game.

As you have noted, The Expanse is quite grounded compared to other sci-fi settings. I’ve read some comments on places like the Steam forums, where some people feel that it might be duller to make a game in this setting compared to, say, Star Wars or Star Trek. What’s your response to this concern?

Alexander Mishulin: The Expanse is grounded, but it’s still over three hundred years in the future. And if you just look at some weapon prototypes available to the military, they already feel like futuristic technology. It’s just not a common place.

We’re also providing our players with different devices for their abilities. Some of them are very much grounded, but others are a little bit more futuristic. There are also drones that are becoming the staple of modern combat. There are still a lot of things to choose from, even if we are talking about realistic combat right now, and we are, of course, pushing forward because 300 years have passed and allowing players to choose more grounded sci-fi abilities as well, especially for the characters that are more focused on ability use.

Right now, when we play our internal builds, we feel a lot of differences in those play styles. We are making very different builds and have a lot of options to choose from. We are hoping our players will share our experience as well.

Will there be ship combat in The Expanse: Osiris Reborn?

Alexander Mishulin: There is no huge mini-game that allows you to play ship combat as a mini-game, but traveling on a spaceship is very much part of The Expanse and we want you to feel that. So there is no full-fledged mechanic, but there are some surprises regarding this in the game.

Okay. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Thank you for your time!