The Expanse: A Telltale Series – Review

The Expanse: A Telltale Series is an episodic adventure game developed by Deck Nine and published by Telltale Games. Deck Nine Games studio is famous for its narrative story games like Life is Strange and with The Expanse: A Telltale Series, they set the bar of their games even higher. Just by visualizing the start of the game, you can say it is the best-looking game from Deck Nine and for those who love The Expanse (TV Series), it is going to be an immersive experience for them.

Now, the players don’t need to know the story of The Expanse TV Series to play the game because the Telltale game series is a prequel story to The Expanse TV series. So, if you haven’t watched the series, you will still enjoy the great narrative story of a scavenger crew in space.

Story & Gameplay

The Expanse: A Telltale Series story takes place a few years back before the original The Expanse TV Series. You will get to play as Camina Drummer, a smoldering firebrand who is a head secretary at Artemis, a Salvage Vessel. As players experience the starting scene and play through the first episode, Camina Drummer becomes the captain of Artemis leading a crew of 5 characters. Each episode of the game has several major choices that have consequences somewhere down the road. You won’t get to witness the consequence at the moment but in the later episodes. So, the whole main plot line and the reveal of the ending of the story depends on the choices of the players.

The Gameplay of The Expanse: A Telltale Series is similar to previous Deck Nine games but with additional content. You will get to play Camina Drummer, voiced by the original actress, Cara Gee, who nails the character once again in the game. You can walk around your vessel and talk to other characters to learn more about them and even offer items to them that you can find by exploring the space as the episode progresses. The choices are what make the episode lead ahead and several choices in each episode can shape-shift the story.

There are 5 episodes in total which were released between July and September and you will get to shape the story with these episodes. Since all the episodes are now released, players can entirely complete the story of Camina Drummer. The game also does a great job of showing elements of space exploration. Although, there is not an immense space exploration you do get to experience certain elements like Zero gravity, jetpack, and gravity shoes that allow you to walk upside down in a room.

Almost in every episode, you will get to go out of your vessel to explore and hunt for valuable resources because you are the leader of a scavenger crew. Throughout the scavenging course, you can find several items by exploration that can be of use or can be given to the characters to make a better relationship with them. If you have messed up a choice and want to get an opposite result, then you can always replay the episode to get an alternate ending to the episode. So, there is a decent replayability option in The Expanse: A Telltale Series.

Visuals and Sound

The visuals of this game are by far the best one from Deck Nine but if you compare the visuals with the modern gaming AAA titles, you might not find it much compelling. However, the effects on the characters’ emotions are the ones that enhance the experience of the game. As there is a lot of talking in the game and the cutscenes, if you pay attention to the emotions and facial gestures of the character, you will get an immersive experience of a story-driven game.

Another thing that enhances the experience of this game is voice acting. The voice acting for all of the characters is exceptional and with the detailed facial expressions, the voices of the characters will make you feel like you are watching a series.

Verdict – Score 8/10

The Expanse: A Telltale Series is a great game that does justice to narrative story games but it only offers a playtime of 5 – 6 hours throughout 5 episodes in total. However, the replayability factor of the game can allow you to extend your experience to get every possible ending to each chapter and stretch the overall time to 10 hours. Despite a few ups and downs in the game, it is a great game especially, for the players who love story-driven games.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series is available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Series S.