You just became the captain of a scavenger spaceship. Supplies are dwindling and you are standing against an enemy much more powerful than you. Will you manage to make the right decisions, to save yourself, your crew, and even more?

The Expanse is the first new IP by Telltale Games released after the studio has risen from its grave.  The game follows the same Telltale formula as the previous titles. But does it bring something more?

Am I welcome here?

The game is based on a TV series which is in turn based on books by James S. A. Corey. That begs the question – do I need to see the show or read the books to enjoy the game? I went in with zero knowledge of the source material and it did not influence my enjoyment of the game. Telltale Games did a great job of explaining the world of Expanse (although a bit simplified) and as usual, there are snippets of data hidden around levels that help you understand everything more deeply if you are interested in collecting them.

On the contrary, I caught up with the show after I played the game and the game has one big advantage when introducing you to the world of Expanse – it follows only one storyline, so it’s a bit easier to get into it when you follow just one small set of characters in one location. Also, the game serves as a sort of prequel to the show, so people who don’t know the show can still be surprised by the fate of certain characters. On the other hand, if you are a fan of the show, you will learn a bit more about the background of the main character, you will have the opportunity to walk in her shoes and experience the world of your favorite show.

Decisions, decisions…

The story revolves around Camina Drummer, who will early in the game have to take over command of the scavenger ship Artemis and its small crew of five people. The game is divided into five episodes and even seemingly small decisions in episode 1 can influence the grand finale in episode 5. For example, when you first start the game, Camina is second-in-command to captain Garrison Cox, who will attempt to murder Camina when she finds something very valuable while scavenging. After you deal with the sudden change in captaincy, the game gives you one of your first big choices – imprison Cox in the cargo hold or throw him into the vacuum of space. The decision whether to kill him or spare him will only have an impact in the last few minutes of the game.

With some choices, you will feel like you don’t have enough information to make the right decision, but that’s how life works and you have to navigate the story with your intuition and basic human decency. As in other Telltale games, your options depend on items you find scattered around the level and on relationships you build with people around you – in this case your crew. They are all rough around the edges and you have to earn their trust through the right dialogue choices. Their trust in you greatly influences the outcome of the game, who will get out alive.

Space, the final frontier

Apart from dialogues, another way to get the crew on your side is to bring them something useful from your scavenging trips. Every episode you have an opportunity to leave your ship and explore a new location. Scavenger ships like Artemis travel across space in search of shipwrecks, which are then searched for anything valuable – supplies, fuel, technology. And this is where Telltale Games introduces the most innovative element. This time your character is not bound by gravity and you are allowed to actually fly in your spacesuit while exploring massive wrecks of battleships or abandoned space stations. The experience of floating through the hallways of destroyed ship sections is very immersive and enjoyable, finally you’re not limited just to the left and right direction.

Your aim on these wrecks is to find anything usable. The crew of Artemis is running out of even basic supplies like food and water, but everyone is also hoping for the “big score”, a find that would make them a huge amount of money. In each location, there are several pieces of technology that you can pick up, like water recyclers, quantum processors, and other pieces of technology, that mostly serve as another way of exposition, learning about the world of the Expanse, or about your crew members who react to your findings. Finding them does not usually influence gameplay, they are more of a collectible. Except for items that are specifically for one of your crew members, like medication or a cigar for the pilot. However, these items are very hard to find, sometimes they are hidden right at the edge of a location, instead of a more logical place. So looking for these items sometimes felt like a cheap way of extending the gameplay of otherwise pretty short episodes (each episode took me around 1 hour to complete).

But apart from certain things being unnecessarily hidden out of the way, the exploration part of the game is very enjoyable and every fan of sci-fi can fulfill their dream of spacewalk. The shipwrecks are full of horror atmosphere, with corpses of former crew floating around a darkened ship. You’re almost glad when the silence is interrupted by the voices of your crewmates, commenting on your findings. The game is full of talented voice actors and the dialogues are well-written so I really liked listening to the crew banter.

Sometimes the exploration is interrupted by environmental puzzles or action sequences. Except for one puzzle, they are all very easy to solve and quick to deal with. The action sequences were my biggest enemy in this game. They are limited to quick-time events, like in any other Telltale game. It feels like a missed opportunity, where developers tried to give players more freedom, but then suddenly fell back into the old patterns. The Expanse went with more realistic visuals than the previous games, making you wish to be part of a giant space battle, but all you get are a couple of QTEs. The free movement your spacesuit usually provides is completely abandoned in action sequences too. You just have to press the right button at a certain point of an animation.

It doesn’t help that the game is lacking some pretty important quality-of-life features too, like the option to skip animations or more frequent saves. So if you make a mistake in the middle of a pretty long action sequence, your character dies and you are forced to repeat that whole sequence again. Or do you want to replay an episode, to see where other choices might lead? Nope, you are not skipping a single dialogue, you have to listen to everything again. And forget about cloud saves…

Don’t get me wrong, The Expanse fully reaches its potential in areas like storytelling, voice acting, and facial animation, where Telltale always excelled. However, with the hint of new mechanics like map exploration, I started expecting a bit more from the gameplay but the game delivered the same formula as in any other Telltale games. So if you are OK with the old Telltale formula, you will enjoy the game. But I’m so ready to move past the QTEs!