MarkB
Legend
It wasn't a ship, it was an asteroid base. And these guys don't look military, more like independent contractors like the Rocinante crew, so they're unlikely to have access to power armour.
Upcoming AAA/AA CRPGs or story-based RPGs (updated 15/04/2025)
- Thread starter Ruin Explorer
- Start date
It definitely did not give me an "Expanse" feel, but I have only ever engaged the audiobooks (which are among my favorites; I have listen to the whole series twice).
payn
Glory to Marik
It still didnt feel very The Expanse to me.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
I feel like you're nitpicking here because you're not thinking about this as an RPG but as a piece of fiction in the Expanse setting. "combat/exploration area is larger than is entirely plausible" and "PCs are fighting more enemies than is strictly realistic" are two of the most basic and common videogame (and for the last 25-30 years, TTRPG) tropes out there. I can't think of a single AAA RPG in the last 20 years where they weren't true. I guess there might be some indies out there but, certainly not AAA or even AA. Certainly every Bioware, Owlcat, Bethesda Game Studios, Larian, FromSoft, Obsidian, CDPR and so on RPG has those tropes.
If you insist on being a setting purist to the point where those very basic tropes are unacceptable to you, I think it's obvious no modern videogame based on that property is going to remotely acceptable.
MarkB
Legend
Visually it follows the design language of the Expanse TV series very closely, and a small team assaulting a base or enemy ship is something that happens several times during the series, whether TV or novels. Not sure how much closer it could get while still being a cover-based RPG shooter.It still didnt feel very The Expanse to me.
payn
Glory to Marik
I think no video game being remotely acceptable is a large stretch. Despite all that it doesn’t feel like the Expanse it feels like generic shooter with expanse skin which is hardly new. It’s all run of the mill is what I’m saying. Skipping the expanse and making it a generic sci-fi shooter would have saved some money.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
Christ Microsoft must have given them a lot of money - very AAA production values and huge difference to what they were showing a . I'll be very interested to see how the time-travel elements actually work out. I noticed they stuck to a pretty small cast of NPCs in the trailer - that could be just because it's early days or maybe they're keeping it compact so the time travel can be significant?
Liked the music, that's for sure!
I mean, either you don't play shooters much, or you're being a bit silly on purpose. Third-person shooters are rare as hen's teeth to start with, so never generic, and this is a Mass Effect-style RPG, not a "shooter". I feel like you're making my point for me re: stretching to dismiss it.
Again, it's not a "shooter" any more than the ME series, Cyberpunk 2077, and so on are (by the same logic, BG3 is a "turn-based strategy game" and BG2 is a "Real-time strategy game"). Also presumably not re: "saved money"? I can't imagine they didn't consider making their own IP - that's generally the more profitable way to go - for them to have chosen to go with The Expanse must have been on the basis that they'd make significantly more money that way - and they probably will, because most expanse fans are not purists who object to basic videogame tropes like "one character takes out a whole bunch of guys".
As supporting evidence I would point to pretty much every "game based on a book/movie/show" where it's genuinely rare for the main character in the game to not kill at least 10x as many enemies as the "real" character would, sometimes much more than that. Players don't generally complain about this.
payn
Glory to Marik
The fact that you consider a discussion on subjective opinion winnable, is yet another example of why its best to not engage any longer. Have a good one.
