The Expanse

We sit down and review The Expanse: A Telltale Series. The second episode of the choose-our-adventure prequel to the IP. Here is our review of The Expanse so far

The next episode of The Expanse: A Telltale Series is out there and our review of the season continues forward. Episode two is here with Deck Nine kicking things up a bit more with the fact we can die in the episode along with the normal twists and turns we know from Telltale Games from before. It may sound a little shocking, but we dive in to see if it is also fitting. This is The Expanse and all of that, so it should be going a little darker out there. Kick back, grab a drink, and join us all as we dive into the second part of the review to see just how the game is holding up and if it warrants your time to dig in as of now on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, or PC.

Story

Even though there was a good place to start with the last episode of The Expanse, we kick off a little bit down the line where the crew is being chased by pirates. The crew not wanting to die or lose their cargo, need to outthink them, outrun them, and figure out a way to not end with all of their living. All while still trying to figure out if the next big score is a real thing or just something to keep one of the captives alive still. That is the story we have so far with the current play-through we have gone with, so things might vary for everyone else at this point.

Hated

I do have to say, it was a little jarring to feel like we did a time jump in The Expanse here without much of a recap to go on out of the gate. Maybe that is on me for not diving in and just pressing start on the next episode, but it did feel as if there was something missed just to get into the action. Sure, that level of pacing was nice, but for the first few minutes of the episode, I felt a little lost. having played the previous episode of The Expanse: A Telltale Series days before, everything was still fresh in my mind, but this seemed a little off to me. More so when it is shown that there was not a flashback to show how we got to the point we did. Thus, breaking the narrative structure set before. That not being a bad thing, but when there is little to go on to explain things even in the episode, it makes the story falter just a little bit.

Also, weirdly, this episode had only one major choice that seemed to be needed in the game. I am not saying each episode needs to have a plethora of options to go with, this one only gave us one major choice and it does not feel like it is going to be all that critical in the grand scheme of The Expanse here. Especially when the gameplay added options that could get us killed in the story. Something that would reset and have us start over, but never lead to anything final in the story of The Expanse here. Maybe my opinion on this will change later on, but this felt like a filler episode more than anything and we are only two episodes in now. Sure, there is going to be some filler, but even the "big choice" felt like it was just something that needed to be tossed in to check a box and not add to the overall experience being crafted here.

Loved

Even though it felt like it could have played more into the story of The Expanse: A Telltale Series, I do have to say that adding in some deadly option in the mix of the world was a nice touch. More so when you find out that these are linked to us moving and timing things more and not basic QTEs in the story. There are a few of those, sure, but then there are the drones that we have to treat just like many other stealth games out there. A nice twist to the gameplay of The Expanse and it did not lose any of the pacing or core value of the game. Some games have this more as a detriment when forced in, but it was not only fitting to the story but also to the overall experience to better show off the characters and the deadly nature of the universe we are exploring out there. Now if only there were some setbacks for us not navigating it perfectly each time…

While I griped on it all before, it does seem like there is a different way some of the collectible and side missions in The Expanse: A Telltale Series are handled. Unless I am seeing them wrong. While I did come across another side mission where I felt like explored everything and could not find the one object in the game, I did get to turn in many that I did not expect to have had at this point too. It is a little weird and breaks the norm that we have known for years in video games, but maybe this is how The Expanse is trying to further shake things up in the core gameplay loop the story games have out there. Maybe I was just lucky and found a few things I did not know needed to be found. We will see in future episodes, but it was nice to have that little achievement pop up after feeling like it was missing in the previous episode.

Overview

While the story for this episode of The Expanse does feel a little bit more of a filler episode than anything, it does feel like it will be building to something grander along the way. That is my hope for it all at the very least. The big choices did not seem to have any noticeable impact yet, but that could change in future episodes. It was nice to have some other gameplay mechanics that did not rely on QTEs show up in The Expanse: A Telltale Series so that made things feel a little fresher. At this point, still, I am in the camp of giving it a go every few weeks to see how the story expands. If it looks like something you want to experience on your own, pick it up. If just want to see how our story evolves, follow along in the following video and series as we post each episode as we play them.

I give The Expanse: A Telltale Series 7 Killer Drones on the Killer Drone scale.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series was developed by Deck Nine and published by Telltale Games for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on July 27^th, 2023. A PlayStation copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.