HomeFeaturesThe Expanse: A Telltale Series
The Expanse: A Telltale Series episode one veers dangerously close to a slightly boring Dead SpaceBut its tetchy crew just about rescues it
But its tetchy crew just about rescues it
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Telltale Games
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Telltale Games
The Expanse is one of those TV shows that I’ve started to watch about three times now. Matthew (RPS in peace) and I keep hearing great things about it, but every attempt we make has always ended the same way. We get a couple of episodes in, determined to make it a little bit further than we did before, but there’s just something about it that can’t quite hold our interest long enough to properly stick with it. One day, though, I do hope to finish the first season of The Expanse, and my ideal scenario is for the episodic prequel game from Telltale and current Life Is Stange custodians Deck Nine to be just the kick up the bum I need to get through it.
The Expanse: A Telltale Seriesstarted the fortnightly release of its five episodes on the Epic Games Store last week, and I played through the first, Archer’s Paradox, over the weekend. As you’d perhaps expect from a first episode, the plot scales lean heavily toward setup here as opposed to actionable ‘so and so will remember that’ choices. Still, its centrepiece of exploring a big exploded battleship to find some sort of money-printing macguffin is also like such a sedate, threat-free version ofDead Spacethat it can’t help but feel a little lightweight at the same time - and that’s not just because you’re floating around in zero gravity for half of it. It does a reasonable job of laying down what I hope is some good groundwork for the origin story forTV favourite Camina Drummer, and her fellow crewmates are a fun, bubbling pressure cooker of personalities just waiting to spill over into conflict, but I do also worry that the game will have the same truncated fate as my attempts to watch the show.
I’m still not particularly enamoured with The Expanse’s Belter slang, but I get that it’s an established part of the books and the show, and most of the time it was fairly easy to follow along with what it all meant. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Telltale Games
The crew introductions are playfully done. You only really get a single character beat with each of them in this opening episode, but the seeds of future conflicts are sown reasonably well. Your pilot Khan clearly thinks you’re a royal pain in her ass, but she’s tough as nails and the option to riff off her insults feels like the start of a begrudging but mutual respect. Belter twins Arlen and Rayen, meanwhile, are affable but chaotic humans constantly getting into trouble, and in this episode are the main fulcrums for the bigger story decisions. There’s also Maya, who’s quite good pals with Drummer, and I suspect their obvious bias towards one another will become a source of contention with the crew later on. Finally, there’s the very sound egg that is Virgil the doctor, whose cool head and rational approach to problem solving is a welcome balm amid the tensions elsewhere.
When you arrive on the ship, it’s clear something’s gone very wrong with the previous crew. Here’s hoping this isn’t a sign of what’s to come for you and your own crew… |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Telltale Games
It’s not quite CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS, but it sure is getting there… |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Telltale Games
Crucially, though, I was quite pleased to see that most choices now have binned Telltale’s classic timer, giving you ample space to mull and consider your options before committing to a response. Whisper it, but this actually came as something of a relief to me, though some still produce that eternally shrinking bar that signals you need to make a quick-ish-fire decision, just to liven things up a bit. There are also a handful of more action-oriented sequences - such as a friendly wrestle between Drummer and Maya that, in classic Telltale fashion, teaches you how combat works in the game - that require specific quicktime button prompts or jabbing the analogue stick in particular directions to succeed. But these felt like the exception rather than the rule in episode one, and I’ll be keen to see how or if this balance fluctuates down the line.
The space exploration is fairly sedate, but it’s a welcome change of pace from endless walking. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Telltale Games
My biggest problem with this opening episode, though, is what you actually end up doing in it. Exploring a giant exploded carrier ship looks cool on approach, but in practice is quite a confusing space to navigate and pick through as you’re floating around in zero-g, and it’s not immediately obvious whether the extra scrap you scavenge actually has any pay-off or reward. It’s also quite low on drama, apart from one key decision involving your chaos friend Rayen. I mean, there’s even an attempt at the whole Dead Space blood graffiti on board this abandoned, and clearly very massacred ship, but the neatness of their handwriting is so preposterous that it can’t help but feel like a budget knock-off.
