The Expanse: A Telltale Collection picks up proper the place the primary episode left off. Issues have been in a little bit of disarray, so the opening moments of The Expanse: A Telltale Collection Episode 2 are a bit hectic. Nevertheless, Camina Drummer is now the captain of The Artemis, which implies our selections ought to now matter greater than ever. Regardless that we’re technically nonetheless within the first half of the sequence, by the top of the episode I actually really feel like issues are shifting ahead.

The Expanse: A Telltale Collection – Episode 2 (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Collection X|S)
Developer: Deck 9
Writer: Telltale
Launched: August 10, 2023
MSRP: $39.99

A well-known gameplay loop

I’ve to confess, Episode 2 is similar to Episode 1. We begin out onboard the Artemis, earlier than encountering a ship particles subject. We navigate the wreckage, discover a number of hidden objects, then end out the episode again on the Artemis. Don’t get me flawed, the narrative moved ahead in Episode 2. However with every of those episodes solely lasting about an hour and a half up to now, I’m beginning to fear a bit.

Hear, I perceive…that is The Expanse. It is smart that we’ve spent all of our time within the depths of house up to now. However, that doesn’t make it a enjoyable gameplay loop. Area appears to be like simply as stunning because it did within the first episode, however navigating the derelict ship felt a bit an excessive amount of like I had simply achieved the identical factor. It might be cool if we get to discover a station in some unspecified time in the future, and even possibly go to Earth, Mars, and even one other planet. Regardless that that’s extremely unlikely given the overarching narrative of The Expanse, I do assume it might be cool to do.

About midway by means of the episode, there’s a new gameplay aspect by which you need to navigate the wreckage whereas dodging the lasers from drones which can be looking for you. It’s nothing game-changing, however it’s good to see Deck 9 making an attempt so as to add some new gameplay mechanics right into a narrative-focused title.

Selections do appear to matter

Whereas I seemingly made some massive selections within the first episode, I wasn’t certain in the event that they have been truly going to finish up mattering or not. Moreover, I went out of my technique to full some “aspect missions”, acquiring varied objects my crew had requested.

To my shock,  the alternatives I made truly appeared to influence what occurred all through this episode, which is nice. Additionally, it looks as if going out of my technique to collect these further objects additionally made a distinction too. For instance, in Episode 1 our medic had requested a brand new laser crystal for our surgical machine on the Artemis. I used to be capable of finding it and in Episode 2 somebody required a surgical process. The process was seemingly efficient particularly as a result of I discovered the laser crystal. I’m a bit interested by what would have occurred had I not discovered it.

As a aspect observe to The Expanse followers, that is undoubtedly the Camina Drummer from the present. As I stated in my impressions of Episode 1, Cara Gee knocks it out of the park. I’m actually glad they have been capable of get her to reprise the voice of Drummer. There are a number of selections you need to make all through this episode, they usually actually felt like Drummer choices. On the finish of the episode, we meet up with our crew on the Artemis. We actually get to see the consequences of Drummer being captain, which I’m certain is establishing future episodes.

In two weeks we’ll check out Episode 3 at which level I believe we’ll have a good suggestion of the route The Expanse: A Telltale Collection is taking.