Owlcat revealed what the “non-Mass Effect” theme song will sound like. Here’s where the crew would give it two thumbs up.

BioWare fans are going through a tough time right now. Dragon Age: The Veilguard was better than most people realize, yet the studio still seems to be on its last legs, despite the fact that Mass Effect 5 is in the works. Our only consolation is that other developers are picking up the baton and continuing the tradition of big, cinematic, multi-character, wish-fulfillment RPGs. These include Larian, CD Projekt RED (CDPR), and perhaps now, Owlcat. Their upcoming game, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, with its unmistakable Mass Effect vibe, can also be added to this list.

A few days ago, Owlcat shared the game’s theme song, composed by Paweł Perepelica (Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader for the studio. It’s difficult to get excited about an upcoming game’s music, but The Expanse: Osiris Reborn may be an exception. The combination of a space opera-like orchestral sound and cyberpunk synthesizers transports us back to 2007, the era of saving the galaxy. Both Mass Effect and Owlcat’s game draw from the same military-influenced sci-fi wellspring of the ’90s and ’00s, though Mass Effect tempered it with the more naive sensibilities of the mid-20th century.

We are curious to see how Owlcat will perform as it expands from isometric CRPGs into action RPGs. The studio’s journey is reminiscent of CDPR and Larian’s, who gradually gained popularity with tough, complex, and admittedly flawed RPGs. This could be Owlcat’s The Witcher 2 or Divinity: Original Sin 2—when it outperforms its weight class in terms of production and development quality.

We can’t say yet whether The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, which doesn’t have a release date yet, will be like that. But let’s be optimistic.

Source: PCGamer