The male main character in The Expanse: Osiris Reborn will be completely recast ahead of the game’s eventual launch next year.
The sci-fi RPG recently received a closed beta — essentially a demo — across all platforms, including PS5, with the intention being that developer OwlCat Games could farm as much feedback as possible.
For the most part, the early look seems to have gone down reasonably well; the cover-based combat’s quite punchy and there’s obviously so much potential in The Expanse’s existing universe.
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But there are also a number of very common criticisms amongst players. For example, many fans of the source material have taken umbrage with the writing, which can be a bit too quippy for its own good — something that the original books and TV adaptation tend to avoid.
The chief complaint, however, is that the male main character — and his twin brother J, voiced by the same actor — sound utterly out of place. Both protagonists exhibit an oddly sassy tone, and they often come across as jarringly casual.
The voice work just doesn’t gel with characters who are supposed to be hardened space mercenaries, and so, following on from a bombardment of negative feedback, OwlCat is chopping and changing.
The developer clarifies: “While the voice actor for the male protagonist and J put in a lot of good work, they felt less expressive than we wanted. Because of this, we are changing the voices of the male protagonist and J.”
Indeed, this was my main criticism of the demo, which I previewed on PS5 last month.
I wrote: “I played through the beta as both [protagonists], and while the female voice was mostly fine, the male voice was genuinely bad enough to pull me out of the experience multiple times.”
The article continues: “I don’t know if it’s just a case of crappy direction, but the male protagonist sounds completely out of place. This guy’s supposed to be an all-action mercenary, but he sounds like an LA-based LARPer who’s trying way too hard to convince his weekend friends that he’s right for the role.”
I do feel bad for the actor. While it’s certainly not a great performance, it does feel like the result of a serious miscast as opposed to a total lack of talent. Still, the beta was released to gather feedback — and that’s exactly what the developer’s been handed.
OwlCat also promises improvements to character animations — facial animations included — and an overall smoothing of the game’s “tone”, which it feels can be a little inconsistent. You can find the studio’s full statement over on the official Steam page.
Have you played the Osiris Reborn beta? Are you glad to hear that the protagonist’s being recast? Choose a dialogue option in the comments section below.
