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The Expanse Osiris Reborn Mission Gameplay Puts Captaincy to the Test
Becoming a captain apparently involves knowing when two reckless teenagers are worth derailing your entire mission for. Owlcat Games has revealed new mission gameplay from The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, following the Captain and crew from a questionable proposition in a bar to a pirate stronghold buried inside an abandoned asteroid mine.
Debuting during the Golden Joystick Awards, the Becoming the Captain trailer centres on an optional job involving two teenagers who tried to impress the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) by antagonising space pirates. Players can agree to rescue them or simply prioritise their own mission and leave them to deal with the consequences.
It is a fairly small decision on paper, but that is precisely the sort of choice Owlcat wants to define its RPG. The studio has previously explained how apparently minor decisions in The Expanse: Osiris Reborn can resurface much later, potentially altering relationships, locations and which pieces of content remain available.
Rescuing the Teenagers Leads Into a Pirate Stronghold
Accepting the job sends the crew towards an abandoned asteroid that pirates have converted into a fortified base. What follows offers another look at The Expanse: Osiris Reborn‘s third-person combat, with conventional shootouts giving way to zero-gravity encounters that require players to manage their surroundings while using companion abilities.
One of the teenagers also proves far less helpless than expected, unleashing a swarm of nanobots during the rescue. Those encounters build on what we previously saw during our Gamescom 2025 look at The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, where low-gravity firefights, environmental interactions and tactical companion abilities already stood apart from more conventional cover-based combat.
The new footage puts those systems into a more self-contained adventure, showing how a conversation picked up while exploring can spiral into a considerably larger problem.
Owlcat Continues Building Around Player Choice
The mission also reinforces the wider role Owlcat sees for the protagonist. Players create their own Captain as an Earther, Martian or Belter before taking command of a crew caught between Earth, Mars and the Belt.
Two companions can accompany the Captain directly during missions, with relationships and decisions potentially changing how those characters develop. Owlcat has continued refining those characters following feedback from its earlier beta, most recently recasting and redesigning the default male Captain and his twin J.
Brazilian Portuguese subtitles have also now been confirmed for launch, joining English, German, French, Spanish, Russian and Simplified Chinese.
For a game built around deciding what sort of captain to become, having that identity shaped by something as seemingly incidental as helping two teenagers out of a terrible idea feels entirely appropriate.
The Expanse: Osiris Reborn launches in Spring 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC through Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG. Owlcat has also confirmed it will join Xbox Game Pass on day one.
