As I anticipatingly boot up the final episode of The Expanse, I am struck with the thought of whether it will live up to expectations and do justice to Drummer’s story after an eventful four episodes. Do Telltale and developer Deck Nine deliver? Let’s find out!
“Europa’s Folly” opens with a tense ambience where Drummer is taken as a prisoner by the pirate brute Tor, who is acting on the pirate queen Toussaint’s orders to retrieve back the MK Core. Entering the Artemis with Drummer being accompanied by Tor, the players are once again greeted by its familiar surroundings almost as if coming back home after a hard day. However, as I almost relaxed, the game hit me with a major decision making moment just two minutes into the episode.
Episode five of The Expanse takes Drummer through the Artemis as she reunites with her crewmates where secrets, lies, and betrayals are revealed. No matter what choices you make, Drummer’s interactions with each of her crew members feel bittersweet, just like the finale episode had intended. As the looming threat of the MK Core hangs in the balance, the plot, however, gives more importance to Drummer’s character in order to tell the players that no matter what, she is a survivor just like most Belters, even when life isn’t so kind to them in the universe of The Expanse.
Although the gameplay in this episode was once again mostly QTEs, the overall series felt like a revamp to the Telltale formula. By adding focus on exploration and incorporating side quests, developer Deck Nine made the game feel more immersive, allowing the players to get to know the universe and its characters better. My one small gripe about the gameplay, as mentioned in my previous reviews, is the combat being fully QTE based. I hope they will explore a bit more to change that as they did with the exploration.
The Expanse’s cast delivered incredible performances; they did a great job by adding soul and depth to these characters. I grew to care about the characters I previously knew nothing about. With the return of Cara Gee to voice the fan favorite character Camina Drummer and Shohreh Aghdashloo to voice Chrisjen Avasarala in a bonus episode out soon, I do hope the trend continues to bring in original actors from The Expanse show whenever there is a video game.
As the final episode of the series is out, it begs to answer the question, is Telltale’s The Expanse a worthy addition to the popular franchise, especially for new fans who can directly jump in, enjoy it, and even check out the show later? As someone who had never consumed the books or the show, The Expanse was a very new universe to me when I decided to review the Telltale title. I never expected the game would lead me to binge watch the show and enjoy the universe for all its great details and amazing characters. In fact, watching the show and playing the game side-by-side made the experience all the more worth it.
Even though the end of Telltale’s The Expanse is a culmination of the players’ decisions from the previous four episodes, Camina Drummer’s story is not done yet. The conclusion of the series is just a new beginning for our main protagonist, who is slowly becoming the hardened shell of a character we all know and love. The finale of Telltale’s The Expanse neatly ties Drummer’s journey to the TV show, so if new players are wondering what’s next for the character, they can easily start watching the show and get excited about all the little easter eggs and cameos from the game.
With Telltale back, I do hope they continue to explore this franchise with more games featuring more characters from the universe of The Expanse. I can’t deny the excitement to find out what the studio has in store for us in the next few years. If it is anything like The Expanse, we are surely in for a treat!
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