Games often tell us that our choices matter these days, but often those choices can boil down to a good or bad choice, or they matter only for the immediate aftermath of your decision. Branching narratives are difficult, but Owlcat Games - the developer behind The Expanse: Osiris Reborn - is making sure that we'll feel the effects of our choices throughout our time with the game.
In a new blog post, Owlcat Games essentially splits the biggest choices into three major categories. There are decisions that shape the story, those that shape your companions, and the choices that ally you or ruin your relationship with major factions. Owlcat uses an example from the beta of The Expanse: Osiris Reborn for the story decisions. In the beta, we see mercenaries have followed us back to Pinkwater 4, and are threatening to tear the station apart to take us with them. Choose to fight, and the situation on the station begins to spiral out of control. Avoid the fight, and the station avoids casualties.
That might make it sound like the latter option is the easy good choice, but Owlcat doesn't want to boil things down to black and white decisions. Take Polly, for example. Our youngest crewmate and impressionable Belter, she's looking to forge her own path in the solar system. There's no right or wrong choice to make with her, but at a point in the game you give her a mentor that will change her role in missions, her dialogue, and even her appearance.
The character you play is also of vital importance in The Expanse: Osiris Reborn. Origins shape your initial paths and connections, but there's not one archetype that defines how you'll play throughout. You might be an Earther who sympathises with the Belt, or a Martian who turns on his own.
