The Expanse: Osiris Reborn - third-person action-RPG from Owlcat Games

[Quillon]

fantasyfags' tears make this worth it even more, go owlcat!

also bg3 doesn't need a killer, any serious attempt wouldn't be much more different than it where as this gaym will tie bioware's hands even more; we may not barf at the sight of new ME after this at least if they won't shutdown the studio before then

 

[Inec0rn]

Nah i will still barf at new Mass Effect because the franchise is ass. Also i think we've had 100x shit warhammer games, please no more.

 

[Hellraiser]

Business practice shows us that taking IPs "nobody cares about" and doing something new with them (game adaptation, franchise reboot/revival, new movie adaptation etc.) while playing the "cult IP" card to hype it up amongst the ignorant masses can make a lot of money

Sure, but in this case, they're following a product with a much broader appeal. They're not exactly coming into uncharted water with this IP.

I assume you mean W40k by "this IP" - safer isn't better in the long term and licensing agreements as such are fickle, 2 or 4 years from now GW might have other ideas on developing the IP. Or you get the LOTR situation where EA decided it would cost too much to keep the license and doesn't even try to remaster/rerelease the LOTR games (possibly because the IP owner keeps asking for more of a cut). Owlcat would need to diversify at some point and do either a new original IP or license another setting or I guess go back to Pathfinder, otherwise GW would have too much leverage over Owlcat's financial future.

Furthermore if the studio heads had plans to go into popamole/action RPG anyway, it is possible that GW would be unwilling to risk allowing Owlcat to try their first shot at an action game with their IP, coming in the wake of Space Marine 2 doesn't help here, as that most likely set some bar at GW for any future W40k game pitches of the action-kind.

Alcon is most certainly more desperate and willing to have people experiment with the IP, as AFAIK they only had that telltales game and some comics besides the show. GW no doubt has more people knocking at their door and they can be picky and make more demands. Also from Owlcat's side, if the project crashes and burns or there's some falling out with Alcon, they have a lot less to lose in non-financial terms regarding their relationship with the IP owner.

 

[Israfael]

40K is certainly more safe in terms of that almost every gaymer knows about the Empra, Horus, spess mehreens and whatnot, so you don't have to explain whole premise of the setting and there isn't much of a moral dilemma in the grim darkness of the future (which in Expanse and the similar scifi flicks like Caprica or SG:U boils down to the typical normies' complaint that there is no one to root for, although in the show the Belters were made more sympathetic (noble rebel-like archetype) than in the books, especially in the later ones)

 

[Infinitron]

Whoever wins: Swen Vincke already likes this.

The only studio approaching the human resources to do a possible "BG3 killer" opts out of it to do a Bioware -- the very thing that helped Larian and Owlcat to ascend and get some money in the first place.

But Larian also gave up on money by not doing a BG3 expansion.

Game developers are skilled professionals and sometimes they just want to do something new.

 

[Quillon]

they just want to do something new.

inb4 dos3

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

I assume you mean W40k by "this IP"

No, I meant the Expanse, where a game from a mid-sized, previously niche developer will be following a relatively well known TV show from a major production studio. Not exactly an IP nobody cares about.

 

[Nirvash]

Lol wait a fucking minute, this is not even a rpg but a real 3d mass effect wannabe?

They are insane, this can legit kill the studio.

 

[Hellraiser]

I assume you mean W40k by "this IP"

No, I meant the Expanse, where a game from a mid-sized, previously niche developer will be following a relatively well known TV show from a major production studio. Not exactly an IP nobody cares about.

Ok, now it is clear and I do agree with the sentiment, although in this case I can see where the codexian edgy hyperbole of some users was coming from, especially in the context of doing a W40k AAA action RPG instead of one set in the Expanse. It's not yet a setting established as one selling games like crazy by brand recognition and is comparatively riskier, but hardly extremely risky - especially when compared to an alternative of doing an original setting for their first AAA popamole game.

 

[luj1]

Game developers are skilled professionals and sometimes they just want to do something new

In the past, sure

 

[scytheavatar]

Whoever wins: Swen Vincke already likes this.

The only studio approaching the human resources to do a possible "BG3 killer" opts out of it to do a Bioware -- the very thing that helped Larian and Owlcat to ascend and get some money in the first place.

But Larian also gave up on money by not doing a BG3 expansion.

Game developers are skilled professionals and sometimes they just want to do something new.

We have no idea what WOTC was demanding from Larian and if BG3 DLCs were going to be easy money.

Either way the idea that Owlcat can remotely come close to being a "Larian killer" is laughable. No such studios exist right now and if one does exist one day it wouldn't be a studio with a track record of saying fuck it to polish.

 

[The Nameless One]

Y'all know what to do.

 

[Donald Gordon Lord]

Rhobar121 Agree, thought Vords tomb was great. I love a good dungeon crawl.

Ch 4 in Wrath and 3 in RT both suck because they break the flow of the game up to that point. It's like they spliced in the start from a different game and it's just like fuck it whatever.

Also the fact that you can't get the full ending in Kingmaker w/o sucking the villains clit is LOL.

Ya let's make out with the bitch that makes people explode.

 

[ArchAngel]

Lol wait a fucking minute, this is not even a rpg but a real 3d mass effect wannabe?

They are insane, this can legit kill the studio.

Or it can turn them into new Bioware.. oh wait..

 

[Donald Gordon Lord]

BTW, are Owlcat writers any good? Because as much as i like to shit on Bioware they did have decent writing chops as far as shitty failstream developers go, and normies were kind of keen on the writing of those games.

They can be. Nothing groundbreaking, but solid genre work when they aren't trying to ram DEI shit in there. Or putting atrocious backer content in.

 

[Rhobar121]

I don't know why you're complaining about the choice of license.

Just because the setting isn't terribly popular means it was cheap, and they probably don't have to worry about retarded brand owners like Disney or WotC.

They could always make something of their own, but if they lack the skills or desire, buying a license cheaply is a pretty good choice.

Whoever wins: Swen Vincke already likes this.

The only studio approaching the human resources to do a possible "BG3 killer" opts out of it to do a Bioware -- the very thing that helped Larian and Owlcat to ascend and get some money in the first place.

But Larian also gave up on money by not doing a BG3 expansion.

Game developers are skilled professionals and sometimes they just want to do something new.

How shitty must WotC be if Swen decided to burn all bridges and quit working together after one project.
They even decided to cancel work on a DLC that would probably be pretty easy money.
I wouldn't be surprised if the subclasses introduced in patch 8 were originally supposed to be part of the DLC.

 

[Donald Gordon Lord]

• Companions are front and center of all Owl cat games but in The Expanse they will be the biggest pillars.

hoo boy lmao

 

[Israfael]

fuck it to polish.

Larian isn't really better than Owlcat at bug fixing, both DOS2 and Divinity's Gate were rife with bugs (although I didn't play the latter, but was told of the next thing), there was something like that the offhand weapon didn't receive the power attack to hit penalty. It's just their PR machine somehow gaslit whole aRpooGee crowd that the bugs don't matter (and even milquetoast Cohh said something like 'bg3 last act was even more bug ridden than PFKM')

 

[Rhobar121]

fuck it to polish.

Larian isn't really better than Owlcat at bug fixing, both DOS2 and Divinity's Gate were rife with bugs (although I didn't play the latter, but was told of the next thing), there was something like that the offhand weapon didn't receive the power attack to hit penalty. It's just their PR machine somehow gaslit whole aRpooGee crowd that the bugs don't matter (and even milquetoast Cohh said something like 'bg3 last act was even more bug ridden than PFKM')

BG3 was at least possible to complete on release and apart from a few side quests (mainly act 3) and performance drops there were no major issues.
Kingsmaker and WotR were impossible to complete around release.
WotR some mythic patches were so broken that they caused soft lock or worse and the best advice Owlcat gave was to start the game over (lich & demon).
So that's bullshit.

 

[Israfael]

BG3 was at least possible to complete on release

It was still bugged and there were progression locking issues of kangmaker grade. And what is even a 'release' for BG3, they've been keeping the game in greenlight access for years. It was tested to the T (especially in the part that forms the reviews), but still there were mechanical issues in a vastly more lobomized ruleset. In any case, I'm not saying I'm confident Mishulin et al will pull it off (I'd rather see them making proper RPGs instead of testing their toes into the decline cesspit) or that I support ME-cancer or bear-barrelmancy cancer either.

 

[Nirvash]

• Companions are front and center of all Owl cat games but in The Expanse they will be the biggest pillars.

hoo boy lmao

Like, 1/3 if not half the appeal of mass effect is the dating sim part.

BG3 was at least possible to complete on release

It was still bugged and there were progression locking issues of kangmaker grade. And what is even a 'release' for BG3, they've been keeping the game in greenlight access for years. It was tested to the T (especially in the part that forms the reviews), but still there were mechanical issues in a vastly more lobomized ruleset. In any case, I'm not saying I'm confident Mishulin et al will pull it off (I'd rather see them making proper RPGs instead of testing their toes into the decline cesspit) or that I support ME-cancer or bear-barrelmancy cancer either.

Ocat games are like COMPLETELY BROKEN at release, the "wait xx updates to be able to finish the game" will not fly for a mass effect.
Expect a Overwhelmingly Negative on steam.

 

[luj1]

Ch 4 in Wrath and 3 in RT both suck because they break the flow of the game

Owlcat's entire design philosophy breaks the gameplay flow

 

[Sratopotator]

Why is the worldbuilding [in ME] juvenile?

I mean, even at its best (ME1) the setting is a love letter to pulp-scifi/space-opera, so it's full of "trashy" ideas.
Races that might as well be human factions (but with a twist!) - not alien at all [with, like, one exception?]. Romance in space! Chosen one narrative. Clear good/bad guys (they tried, but failed to create some depth here). Oh-so-epic story. Mature themes are (with some exceptions) portrayed basically as an adolescent boy would imagine them.
Granted, ME1 does not go full retard here, but it gets more and more juvenile with each iteration. Stuff like a supposedly invincible enemy that you shoot space-rockets at and win, and shit like that.

That fits pulp-scifi tropes, I suppose, so at least there is no false advertising here, but it is juvenile as per the "source material".
(Expanse also shares some of those tropes, expecially the later books. AND most computer games' worlds have that level of immaturity, so it's not that surprising)

 

[babayaga]

I would not recommend people to play WOTR without playing Kingmaker for the same reason why you should play Dark Souls games in release order: these game built upon each other. Without playing Kingmaker, WOTR will feel overwhelming and too hard to get into. It will be difficult to play Kingmaker after experiencing WOTR too, and Kingmaker while a game with major issues is still good enough of a game that everyone should experience it.

I disagree. WOTR has autoleveling so it is more beginner/normie friendly. It's enough already reading through all that for your character but then you have to do it for the rest.
Kingmaker is unbearable in the second half and I almost dropped it. Most people have the same experience. Why would anyone play WOTR after dropping Kingmaker?
(I did but it is only because I bought them in a pack)

 

[Hellraiser]

Why is the worldbuilding [in ME] juvenile?

I mean, even at its best (ME1) the setting is a love letter to pulp-scifi/space-opera, so it's full of "trashy" ideas.
Races that might as well be human factions (but with a twist!) - not alien at all [with, like, one exception?]. Romance in space! Chosen one narrative. Clear good/bad guys (they tried, but failed to create some depth here). Oh-so-epic story.

Most of those, apart from the aliens*, are the writing/story rather than the worldbuilding as such though.

The background lore bits in the codex where the bulk of the worldbuildings is are of a higher quality than the usual Bioware cliche deluge in the actual dialogue. Things like how element zero works, descriptions of space combat in the setting (which goes out of the window in all the cutscenes, but still), how some of the alien societies are organized (Salarians for instance, but also Quarians and the Geth), blurbs about the random planets, some technobabble, those tend to avoid obvious Biowarian or popculture science fiction cliches and seem quite atypical of Bioware, even if those ideas and concepts were derivative of something less obvious or less known**. Just like it is not so obvious how much in Mass Effect is conceptually lifted from Pohl's Hechee Saga/Gateway series (which has arguably more juvenile writing than ME at some points, Pohl tried to be edgy too much at some points, which aged badly), from which by the way the Expanse steals from as well.

However I do realize it's kind of hard to ignore blue alien space babes that can mate with everyone, the stereotypical space warrior culture (two actually, Krogan for the "barbarian" flavour, Turian for the more civilized ones), ancient evil of doom threatening teh galaxy, advanced dead precursor civilization and a bunch of other in your face stuff trashy ideas as you called them and cliches.

*Although let's be honest here, if you want some form of intergalactic society that isn't full of xenophobes that shoot everybody on sight or play the Dark Forest game, the species forming it have to follow roughly the same social rules and thought process so that they can somehow try to get along, especially over the course of centuries like it is in Mass Effect (or Star Trek, Star Wars etc.), and they can't just be crystaline greygoo hiveminds or starfish aliens communicating by gamma ray blinks with a penchant for speaking in their equivalent of haikus.

**Which I expect they were because otherwise Bioware's writing in general wouldn't be so cliched. Unless they had their one good writer locked away in the basement, forced to write just background lore in order not to make the rest of the lot look like hacks.