These moments are buoyed by smart writing (“Expanse” authors Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham assisted with the story) and nuanced performances, particularly from Gee. Twist your ears around the staccato space creole of the Belter’s native language and terminology—“felota,” “bosmang”—and you’ll find a tender, engrossing, frequently exciting story about a crew revealing their true colors in a crisis.
But when matters turn from talking to floating, “The Expanse” starts to lose a bit of oxygen. You’re often stuffed into a vac suit and magnetic boots, zipping around zero-G as you navigate the wrecked ships you loot for goods or fuel. It’s pretty cool once you get used to it, but there is a learning curve, and there’ll be more than a few times you bump into a random bit of flotsam, or a wonky camera will get wedged in a tight corner. Moreover, there’s little to orient you in the vastness of space, which can make it difficult to fulfill certain side objectives.
Still, these niggling control issues feel small, given the weight of the storytelling surrounding them. The first three episodes are well-structured, using a new external threat (a pirate ship in pursuit, a long-dormant colony) to reflect unique interpersonal pressures on the Artemis crew and how they reflect on your leadership choices as Drummer. From the get, you’re faced with agonizing dilemmas. When a crew member’s leg gets pinned by a vault of valuable cargo you need to survive, do you jettison the vault or cut off the leg? Do you sleep with the cute crewmember, or do you decline for the sake of crew cohesion?
All of these choices, big or small, promise a significant impact on your playthrough, with seismic impacts on characters you’ve grown to love over two or three hours of play. (At the end of my playthrough of episode three, I was crestfallen at an expertly-played moment of tragedy I tried the whole episode to avoid.)
“The Expanse: A Telltale Series” feels like a welcome resurrection of the former and a redemption for the latter. More than anything, I was impressed at the game’s fidelity to the show and characters that inspired it, from the show-accurate feel (right down to the theme music and chittering location titles) to Gee’s beautifully vulnerable performance. “The Expanse” is a universe of hard choices, where a sardine-can spaceship, and the people you’re stuck in it with, are all that separate life from death. It’s a perfect backdrop for the Telltale style, and it’s a relief to see them come back with such an effective bang.
The first three episodes were made available for review. The first episode of “The Expanse: A Telltale Series” is now available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, with new episodes dropping every two weeks.