The Expanse: Osiris Reborn preview — Filling a Mass Effect-shaped void

Having played so many of Owlcat’s games, I never could have anticipated what I would get with The Expanse: Osiris Reborn. I barely have any clue about this universe and wholeheartedly anticipated yet another isometric, text-based RPG. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Mass Effect‘s legacy lives on and that it has been reincarnated as Owlcat’s title.

As the title of the game suggests, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is set in The Expanse universe invented by James S.A. Corey for his eponymous series of novels. The game puts you in the shoes of a Pinkwater Security employee who survived a viral outbreak while working on Eros Station. It turns out the outbreak was started by a strange group known as Protegen, whom the player fights throughout the campaign. While it shares a universe with the books and TV show, it’s an isolated story that doesn’t overlap much with them.

Right off the bat, the game surprised me: it was made on Unreal Engine 5, since Owlcat is primarily known for working with Unity to make its RPGs. The game makes liberal use of cutscenes, no doubt due to the UE5’s strong support for them, and really lets us “zoom in” on what is going on. Instead of a top-down, isometric perspective, The Expanse is a third-person RPG that really puts you in medias res, allowing a more personal and upfront connection with the world around you.

It controls much like Mass Effect, with over-the-shoulder camera angles and dialogues where the speaking character is focused on. Each character, also unlike other Owlcat games, is voiced, and the reliance on heavy text boxes is almost entirely gone. There are loads of options to choose from in each dialogue, with the consequences echoing either immediately or somewhere down the line. Of course, skill checks and other strong RPG elements are there, too.

The overall atmosphere and vibes also reminded me heavily of Mass Effect, even though there was no apparent mix of galactic species like in BioWare’s series. The story seems a lot more focused and grounded than ME, but the “generic but not really” science fiction aesthetic in Osiris Reborn constantly told me I needed to go back to finish the ME trilogy.

Add to that the combat, which is real-time with no pausing, and you’ve got yourself a real spiritual successor to Mass Effect, perhaps the first one that really can be considered as such. It’s a cover shooter like any other, but it makes heavy use of the companion system, where you have to order your allies to take cover, shoot particular enemies, and so on. It’s very reminiscent of recent Obsidian RPGs in that regard as well, complete with satisfying gunplay, a good kick on the weapons, and strong feedback that truly makes you feel like you’re handling a weapon.

Unfortunately, my experience was marred by extensive technical issues that prevented me from fully enjoying what Owlcat has done here. However, that’s all fine since the game is at least a year away from release, meaning that most of those problems will be ironed out in time. Unreal Engine 5 is very demanding, and Owlcat didn’t sacrifice any of its visual capabilities for this game.

Every texture looks realistic, and each reflection is immensely detailed. No part of this game looks bad whatsoever, and the graphics really help the art style come together and “pop” more than in some other games by the studio. That comes at a cost, and driver issues and crashes were very frequent, I’m sorry to say.

At any rate, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is something to look forward to. The writing isn’t that great or as good as, say, Pathfinder titles, but I’m willing to hold my breath until the title comes out in full and lets us see what Owlcat Games has made. I’m confident it’s going to be a blast, and if the beta is anything to go by, it’ll finally give us the opportunity to experience Mass Effect again for the first time, even if it isn’t exactly the same.

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Vampire Crawlers offers different Gems for you to obtain on your run, and you can use them to modify the cards in your deck. They’re obtained randomly, but some of them will dramatically change how your drafted deck works.

You can use this guide to keep track of how every Gem works before you choose one on your run.

All Gem effects in Vampire Crawlers

The table below has a list of every Gem along with its in-game effects.

Name	Effect
Amount	Adds the number of projectiles.
Area	Adds the area effect of a card.
Armor	Adds Armor.
Armor Strike	Deal Armor as damage when played.
Bombard	Adds an explosive bomb.
Coin Card	Creates Coin Shards.
Copy	The card is copied when used.
Countdown	Mana cost reduces when not used.
Crawler Caller	Summon all Crawlers to Hand.
Decimate	Deals 10% of enemy’s health as damage.
Destroy	The card gets destroyed, but you get coins in return.
Double Damage	Hits twice as hard.
Drain	Heals when the card kills an enemy.
Draw	Draws an extra card.
Duration	Increases Duration stat.
Easy Combo	The card always benefits from combo.
Echo	Replays the previous card’s effect.
Evolution	Evolves the card into a more powerful weapon.
Greed	Increases Greed stat.
Growth	Increases Growth stat.
Increase Mana Cost +1	Mana cost is increased by 1, so it can be used in a higher Combo.
Increase Mana Cost +2	Mana cost is increased by 2, so it can be used in a higher Combo.
Kill Count	Deal current kills total as damage to a random enemy.
Leader	Attacks deal extra damage while the card is in your Hand.
Magic Hat	Beckons a dove from above.
Magnetic	Draws another of the same card, if you have one in your deck.
Mana Rebate	If the card would reduce Mana to 0, receive double Mana instead.
Midas	Playing cards earn coins while this is in your hand.
Might	Increases Might stat.
Mug	Earns coins when the card kills an enemy.
Nduja	Deals spicy damage.
Purple Trigger	Adds Purple color trigger.
Quick Draw	The card is always drawn first at the start of an encounter.
Rainbow	Adds all color triggers.
Recycle	Card skips the Discard pile.
Reduce Mana Cost -1	Mana cost is reduced by 1.
Reduce Mana Cost -2	Mana cost is reduced by 2.
Refund	Refunds Mana to play.
Restore HEalth	Recovers health after an encounter.
Retain	When the card is drawn, it stays in Hand until used.
Return	Returns to hand after playing.
Reverse Combo	Allows the next card to continue the combo while breaking the base rule of increasing mana ascendancy.
Triple Damage	Does three times the base damage.
Wild	Makes the card Wild.
Yellow Trigger	Adds a Yellow Color trigger.
Yin Yang	If you’re on even mana, you’ll gain 1 mana. If you’re on odd mana, you’ll draw 1 card.

When drafting in a Gem, you should always pay attention to the character that you’re using in your deck. Vampire Crawlers offer 21 characters to unlock and equip, and they have their unique strengths. Also, pay attention to the weapon combinations and evolutions since the effectiveness of a specific Gem will depend on your existing deck components.

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