on Google Preferred Source Google News Link copied to clipboard By Ari Notis Published Aug 30, 2026, 11:00 PM EDT Gamescom 90 impressive minutes with Owlcat's Mass Effect successor
Image: Owlcat Games Add Us Add on Google Preferred Source Google News Summary Generate a summary of this story Jump links Jump Links The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is a brand-new story in Expanse lore Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap You can’t jump in The Expanse: Osiris Reborn , the upcoming third-person shooter set in James S.A. Corey’s expansive universe of interplanetary politics.
There’s precedent here: You can’t jump in the original Mass Effect trilogy, the games to which Osiris Reborn is frequently (and rightfully) compared. But there’s also a lore implication; most scenes in The Expanse are set in spaceships, on space stations, or at lunar ports with variable gravity. Its characters regularly wear magnetized boots so as to stick to the ground. Jumping? Not exactly recommended.
To be clear, this rationale does not come directly from developer Owlcat Games. At Gamescom 2026, I recently played 90 minutes of a mid-game level of The Expanse: Osiris Reborn . A producer watching along would not officially confirm or deny series lore as the reason why you can’t jump in the game. But it nevertheless struck me (hi, big fan of the show) as a small detail showing Owlcat is creating what could be one of the most faithful gaming adaptations ever.
Image: Owlcat Games The Expanse: Osiris Reborn takes place concurrently alongside events from seasons 1 through 3 (or Leviathan’s Wake and Caliban’s War , for the book readers out there). You don’t play as James Holden and the (in)famous crew of the Rocinante . Instead, you’re a custom character, joined in your party by your identical twin, named J, and a suitably BioWare-like cast of misfits. Though you’re not a major player in timeline-critical events, you experience many of them from a different perspective. And yes, characters like Holden do appear in the game in various capacities, though none showed up during my preview.
Much ado has been written about how combat in The Expanse: Osiris Reborn mirrors combat from the first three Mass Effect games: third-person, cover-based shooting where you direct two squad mates to perform various strategic actions. Having played it myself now, yes, everyone was right — and the combat rules.
It’s punchy and responsive. Fights require both tactical planning and instinctual repositioning to survive. There’s a frenetic tension evocative of the great hits from the golden age of third-person shooters, a technical brilliance here that should appeal even to players who don’t even know what a Beltalowda is. Given the merits of Osiris Reborn ’s combat, going into my demo, I fully expected the game to primarily be occupied with shooting lots of bad guys. But much like the best action RPGs, I went more than half an hour before experiencing any combat, and got the sense I could’ve spent way longer exploring if I had more time to do.
Image: Owlcat Games Image: Owlcat Games Image: Owlcat Games Image: Owlcat Games Image: Owlcat Games Close Image: Owlcat Games Image: Owlcat Games Image: Owlcat Games Image: Owlcat Games Image: Owlcat Games The mission I played through, “Beetle in the Anthill,” was supposedly around the 10-hou…