Fans of the sci-fi franchise The Expanse will get to try a slice of the upcoming game The Expanse: Osiris Reborn in a closed beta available now to those who preorder it. Though it's only a brief demo lasting around an hour, it gives a taste of what the full game has in store, and there's nothing stopping you from trying it multiple times to see what you missed -- that's what I did, and I heartily recommend it.

Access to the beta doesn't come cheap: Though the base game costs $50, players will need to head to Owlcat Studios' online store to buy either the $80 Miller's Pack edition or the $289 Collector's Edition to try out the same demo I got to play. The beta covers a short chunk of the game with some fighting, some investigating, some lore and a big cliffhanger. It's going to be a long wait to see what else happens, as the game won't come out until spring 2027. 

And yes, Osiris Reborn feels a lot like Mass Effect -- a third-person shooter with role-playing elements and a lot of characters for players to get to know. The glimpse I saw in the demo, assuming it's representative of what players will experience in the final release, will feel like a coming home to fans of the Mass Effect franchise. Thankfully, it's unmistakably set in the universe of The Expanse, with the realistic science, interplanetary culture clashes and conspiracy twists like those found in the franchise's "hard" sci-fi books and show. 

I'll admit, as a fan of the show, I was tickled by references I recognized, including a news report explaining the destruction of the merchant ship The Canterbury (the event that kicks off the series) and mention of a video by hero James Holden, though it doesn't show it. That aligns with the Owlcat developers' assurance that the game will take place at the same time, but not largely overlapping with, the events of the show and books. 

Far and away the best part of the demo -- which you'll need to run through twice to see -- is how different decisions change outcomes of the story. What seems like a standard request from your character alters another's destiny and appears likely to have bigger payoffs later in the full game (I'll share what happens next in the following section).

In the demo, you take on the role of an unnamed mercenary signed up alongside their twin with private firm Pinkwater Security. The demo lets you play as one of four pre-made builds, such as a hacker focused on gadget-based damage or an officer skilled with guns, with origin choices from Earth or the asteroid belt beyond Mars (known as Belters).

The main character and their twin return from a mission gone awry (presumably the one that opens the game) as the only survivors of their mercenary fireteam on Eros, the space station overrun by the plague-like extraterrestrial protomolecule in the books and show. Relieved after their ordeal, they're free to wander Pinkwater 4 Station, and I recommend you do so to chat with the wanderlust-filled vendor Luciana and the glum ship dispatcher Harry. Talk to enough people and poke around tablets and computer stations, and you'll uncover side quests. If your engineering skill is high enough, you can hack open a door.

Then your main character must go up to make their report, explaining to station master and Pinkwater boss O'Connell what happened to your squad on Eros. Unfortunately, something has tracked you back from that cursed place, and you'll have to shoot your way out of Pinkwater 4 to reach your stolen ship, piloted by your new squadmate Zafar.

Osiris Reborn demo: What's kept and jettisoned from Mass Effect

I'll come back to the unsuspectingly critical significance of the choice you make with O'Connell, but (now we get into spoilers), it's the coolest thing in the demo and the most unlike Mass Effect -- or rather, the natural evolution of what BioWare's game series always promised. As a squad of armored-up enforcers from the shadowy company Protogen board the station looking for the main character, they can either tell O'Connel to stay out of the way or convince him to have Pinkwater's security forces put up a fight.

If you convince them of the latter, you'll have help during the firefights to come as you blast through the station hallways and exterior to escape to your ship. Combat is much like Mass Effect as you run from cover to cover shooting your enemies and using abilities, including grenades or drone swarms, to even the odds. You can also command your squadmate (in the demo, your sibling J) to make strategic attacks that'll disrupt enemies, such as blowing up barrels or destroying enemy cover. 

The best part of combat in the demo was the zero-g segments that Owlcat's developers hinted at in our March interview. As I wandered around the exterior of the Pinkwater station trading fire with Protogen goons, I stepped onto a platform at a different angle -- and the camera bent to adjust as my magnetic boots kept me right-side up, but my enemies lay tilted below. It wasn't quite shooting from the ceiling as Osiris Reborn's reveal trailer showed, but it was an awesome recreation of the way zero-g combat appears in The Expanse show. 

One of the better departures from Mass Effect is how you can mix and match your kit at any time, liberating you from the "class" restrictions of BioWare's series in favor of starter bonuses from your background (such as greater athletic skill from being born in Earth's 1G gravity). In the demo, you can mix and match your three gadget slots, and I swapped out my incendiary rounds for an explosive rocket I picked up. There are also four subsystem equipment slots for armor and other buffs. You can also swap your guns for any you pick up along the way, and upgrade all of the above mid-mission with different scrap materials.

As Osiris Reborn is an RPG, there is a skill tree system to put points into once you get enough experience to level up, but what I saw in the demo was adequate, yet not too exciting. The Leadership tree boosts your squadmates' stats and capabilities when commanded, and the Gadget tree enhances abilities like the drone swarm, but the gun-related tree just boosts damage. It's necessary, but not nearly as novel as the story and choices.

Speaking of which, there are mid-mission choices that branch your path in enjoyable ways, such as choosing whether to wait for your squadmate Zafar to distract an orbiting Protogen ship so you can reach the airlock it's patrolling, or take a different airlock through a gas-filled tunnel. Far more chilling is the realization that if you convinced station master O'Connell to rally Pinkwater to fight for you at the beginning of the demo, you'll find the living quarters strewn with many of their dead bodies once you arrive.

Fight your way back to the same lobby you'd peacefully entered at the beginning of the demo and you'll be faced by the highly armored enforcers and the fierce Protogen operative commanding them, standing between you and your ship. Thankfully, Zafar is ready to help, and you can call in strikes from the gunship's point defense vulcan guns ("PDCs" in Expanse parlance) that burst through the opposition, giving you a window to board and escape. 

Now comes the most promising part of the demo: If Pinkwater fought alongside you, the Protogen operative unflinchingly guns down O'Connell and, as you rocket away in your ship, obliterates Pinkwater 4 Station with a nuclear explosion. But if you told O'Connell to stand down at the beginning of the demo, he and the station live another day, albeit at gunpoint. To me, it's a shocking binary arising from a choice that would be innocuous in another game but carries serious consequences in the world of The Expanse. It felt like a brutal outcome that matched the harsh world of the books and show.

In a little over an hour per run-through, the beta demo for The Expanse: Osiris Reborn offers an insightful look at the meat and potatoes of the game's combat, abilities and equipment. But we'll still have to wait to see how the story, characters, relationships and romances play out -- the most promising elements to discover, as far as I'm concerned (and, I'd wager, plenty of Mass Effect fans, too).

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn comes out spring 2027 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, starting at $50. Fans who preorder the $80 Miller's Pack edition or $289 Collector's Edition get access to the beta.