The Expanse is a great gaming experience from Telltale, but it stumbles in pacing

In my review of The Expanse: A Telltale Series that only covered the first two episodes, I pointed out that Telltale’s return was timid, but showed a lot of quality in the storytelling. And up to that point, in fact, the plot had been moving along consistently until the third episode was released…

Slowing down the pace

If the rhythm of the game’s plot was consistent, with the arrival of the third episode things strangely take a different turn. In the episode in question there is an even greater focus on Camina Drummer and the objective in this part is to finally present the object coveted by the characters presented so far in the game, but the result was a chapter with few important decisions.

The graphics and music are still excellent, that’s undeniable. Despite the strangeness that the game can still bring with the character design, everything is very detailed and beautiful. The sound design still gets a lot right and is what pulls the player into the immersion.

Returning to the issue of the third episode, even with the twist that occurred, the player still gets the feeling that something is different. And this can also be noticed by spectators.

Race to the Finish

But then we arrive in the fourth episode and we have a chapter full of explanations about the protagonist. It’s a very introspective episode for the character and to show viewers who Camina Drummer is and what decisions she made before boarding Artemis and the reason for having a reward on her life.

It is unquestionable that it is a very important part of The Expanse, as anyone who has never watched the TV series has no way of knowing who the protagonist is and what her crimes were. In this objective, the episode delivers very well, but it is at this point that the player may wonder how this Telltale series will end, as only 5 episodes were promised.

But without getting ahead of myself, at the end of the episode there are very important events that excite the player and whoever is watching the broadcast. Remembering that, as it follows the previously established rhythm, the fourth episode still has few seemingly important decisions.

However, despite the great cliffhanger at the end of the fourth episode, in the last episode things strangely accelerate. But they speed up a lot.

Many decisions at the end of The Expanse

Decisions that reflect changes in the last part appear all the time, it seems that they are even to make up for previous episodes or to somehow deliver an ending.

Look, all the action isn’t a bad thing, but it’s so rushed that if normally all episodes the player can finish with an hour or more of time, here the episode ends in 45 minutes even though it’s possible to waste a good few minutes exploring Artemis.

However, the events are all very convenient solutions for the episode to end within a stipulated time.

But there are good things in these last hours of the game: the characters’ performances are good until the end. There is even a small appearance by another character from the TV series, which I believe makes a better connection with the original media.

Katsutoshi