The thing is, as a big fan of The Expanse, ep 1 left me really excited and looking forward. Ep 1 was a 4.5/5 in my mind because of the character interaction and the very faithful realization of the world of The Expanse, and I was hopeful, along with the devs, that the game would bring more people into this wonderful universe.
Ep 2 was also very strong for me, but I am perhaps atypical because I love space sims such as Elite Dangerous where you are flying in zero-g in 6 degrees of freedom. But I tried 3 runs to find Arlen's blasted meds to no avail and that should have been a warning. Nevertheless, lots of good character interaction, and a possible major decision.
Eps 3 and 4 were were it all fell apart, in that the physical maps became completely linear and character interaction and decision-making both went out of the window. Plus the fan-service focus on Anderson Dawes in ep 4 felt overdone for fans, and was probably an ejection point for non-fans.
Ep5 boiled down to a completely linear story with some pretty obvious choices to fail, and capped if off by introducing a new succeed-or-die button-mashing QTE with a completely new UI with no explanation at all, as THE FINAL GATEKEEPER. If that isn't incompetent game UX, then I don't know what is.
I can't help but feel like the choice of killing Rayen/fighting back is one of the most one-sided Telltale choices, up there with stuff like Conrad in TWD S3. There's like, zero good reason to kill him in this scene, and I'd argue that doing so is objectively worse for the story and characters; you miss an entire character-building sequence with Virgil, you lose out on a whole action sequence on the bridge with Khan, you miss the pay-off of finding the cigar and learning about Khan's backstory/code word, and it sours your relationship with Khan and Virgil. About the only positive I can think of is that it allows Tor to have an on-screen death, but that doesn't really make up for everything else you lose out on.
Does anyone saw any information about sales of expanse? From low numbers of reactions in comments on fb or twitter i would be interested if it was success or another bancruption is on table.
Okay. So I'm interested in doing another run-through of Expanse in order to pop all the other trophies and get my Platinum.
The key thing is with Rayen and how he behaves at the end of Episode 3 & 5.
He's supposed to be able to save Maya so she stays alive. He's also supposed to be able to kill Arlen at the end -- otherwise Toussaint shows up and does it instead (like I had at first)
All this has to do with his hidden Trust level apparently - which I screwed over with his leg in Episode 1.
I read an article that details it, but just to confirm with the community here, I'm supposed to:
Save Rayen's Leg
Give the bros Medicine in Ep2.
Sleep with Maya in Ep2 (allows them to tease the pair in Ep3 (+relationship)
Trust Rayen in Ep3
Obviously don't kill him in Ep5
All this in hand, I should be able to get him to save Maya in Ep3 and kill Rayen in Ep5 for those trophies.
As for Vergil and Khan, I just do their side missions too, which will let me unlock ways to help them in Episode 5 and finish those trophies too?
Thankfully with the short length of each episode, it won't make getting through them all too long... still kinda sucks it is what it is tho...
I don't think sleeping with Maya has any effect on Rayen's trust level. I'm pretty sure the three deciding choices are breaking up their fight in ep 1, saving his leg, and giving Arlen the medicine in ep 2. Do all three, as well as trust him in ep 3, and he'll fight back against Arlen and prevent Maya from getting thrown in the airlock.
Also in episode 5, you need to stay and help Virgil overcome his panic attack, otherwise Rayen will be too injured to intervene during the fight with Arlen.
Okay. So I'm interested in doing another run-through of Expanse in order to pop all the other trophies and get my Platinum.
The key thing… more is with Rayen and how he behaves at the end of Episode 3 & 5.
He's supposed to be able to save Maya so she stays alive. He's also supposed to be able to kill Arlen at the end -- otherwise Toussaint shows up and does it instead (like I had at first)
All this has to do with his hidden Trust level apparently - which I screwed over with his leg in Episode 1.
I read an article that details it, but just to confirm with the community here, I'm supposed to:
* Save Rayen's Leg
* Give the bros Medicine in Ep2.
* Sleep with Maya in Ep2 (allows them to tease the pair in Ep3 (+relationship)
* Trust Rayen in Ep3
* Obviously don't kill him in Ep5
All this in hand, I should be able to get him to save Maya in Ep3 and kill Rayen in Ep5 for those trophies.
As for Vergil and Khan, I just do their sid… [view original content]
I don't think sleeping with Maya has any effect on Rayen's trust level. I'm pretty sure the three deciding choices are breaking up their fig… moreht in ep 1, saving his leg, and giving Arlen the medicine in ep 2. Do all three, as well as trust him in ep 3, and he'll fight back against Arlen and prevent Maya from getting thrown in the airlock.
Also in episode 5, you need to stay and help Virgil overcome his panic attack, otherwise Rayen will be too injured to intervene during the fight with Arlen.
You know, I just realized there hasn't been any "Behind the Belt" video for the final episode. Despite my disappointment with the series, I actually did enjoy watching what goes behind the scenes of creating the episodes.
...I guess they fired the people who were making those videos lol.
You know, I just realized there hasn't been any "Behind the Belt" video for the final episode. Despite my disappointment with the series, I … moreactually did enjoy watching what goes behind the scenes of creating the episodes.
...I guess they fired the people who were making those videos lol.
LMAO I clicked on that and it gave me an actual, extremely rare constructive twitter interaction??! WOW.
Rando with the "choices don't matter lol" faced with the social media intern genuinely changing their mind about the "multiple choice ripples". That's cool haha
Pretty sure they said somewhere, probably on Twitter, that a final episode will release eventually.
EDIT:
https://twitter.com/telltalegames/status/1709643182479376408
I actually didn't hate or dislike the game as a whole, BUT wow was it short. I'm unsure why it wasn't just 3 episodes, and after finishing it I can't remember a single beat in the story! Just a shame
Very fun episode, as a fan of The Expanse, there's a lot of references to get through, particularly on the Star Map (which updates during each of the three segments, which was nice to see). Chrisjen is, as always, a great character and it's just fun seeing her deal with trying to stop so many fires all at once while she's getting undermined by political rivals.
I think people will enjoy the story even if it's small scale and set in only one room, though I'm not sure if people who aren't fans will care too much about all the references, but I think it can be easily seen as showcasing just how much is always constantly happening and how much she has to juggle with while trying to be connected with her family, even if she does put her job ahead of them a lot.
5h18min for all episodes + dlc.
I've already posted my opinion on this game (Telltale's worst game since Jurassic Park) and this dlc was made precisely for fans of the series, something Telltale never did before since their games were friendly to those who had never heard of that universe and to existing fans.
And what do I think of that? horrible, this episode managed to be as boring as that dlc for Life is Strange: True Colors, it's even quite similar: 1 room, you repeating the same activities every day until the game ends, FUN!
We've already had news of several employees being fired, if Telltale continues in this quality we'll see the 2nd end of it again. They should do something with Batman since they still have the license and make Season 2 of The Wolf a masterpiece, otherwise...
Just played the DLC and I really enjoyed it lol. Despite being essentially a bottle episode, considering a majority of the DLC takes place within the confines of a single room, I thought it was really engaging and surprisingly fun going into the politics of the world. Especially with how you can play people to work with you, and the amount of conversations and interactions you can have throughout the DLC. Also I absolutely love Shohreh Aghdashloo's voice so that's a big plus in my book. I think this is might also be the longest episode in the game at nearly an hour and a half for me.
Just finished The Expanse, including the bonus Episode "Archangel" and I think the game was okay.
The Episode lengths weren't great, sure it's good if you missed achievements and want to scoop up the rest, which is something I need to do for the data logs in Episode 3 and the Scavenge items in the first three Episodes, but the length of the Episodes could've been better. I do like a bit of exploration in games but I think there's way too much in this game, which makes sense, space isn't a condensed area, it's actually pretty vast, but finding specific items, like the medicine for Arlen (I think?) is needlessly difficult, at least for me, I found it eventually but it was hidden in such a weird spot. I heavily extended my playtime in each Episode because I spent that much time looking around interacting with stuff, and I still managed to miss certain items. I feel that they could've added a little indicator that you can toggle in the accessibility menu to help assist in finding those little items in the side quests, there are some dialogue cues that do indicate where you may find some stuff, but I feel more could've been done to make finding these items a little bit easier, especially given the size of the regions you find yourself in during most Episodes.
Camina was okay, but as Poogers said, her character is already set in stone, she is going to make a particular choice because it's in her character to make that particular choice, past Telltale games were more flexible in that front as obviously there's a character we are controlling that does have core beliefs and characteristics not defined by the player, but even with the likes of Batman, who has a character that is set, we could choose to be more brutal as Batman than usual.
The game doesn't provide much leeway to those who haven't watched The Expanse, throughout the game I hear about Dawes, and he has history with Drummer, but it's so much of a mystery, he did instruct her to kill people which led to her being on the run, but it's not a great jumping on point for those who haven't watched The Expanse but wanted to play the game because it's the first Telltale game in a few years. I think it's better suited to those who've read the books, watched the show and consumed The Expanse in other forms of media.
There was little to no time with the crew, you get a moment or two with each of them, but it's not really enough to motivate you to care about them, I did like those moments with the crew, Khan, Maya and Virgil especially, I felt the twins were a bit obnoxious but I didn't dislike them. I did like Maya and Drummer's relationship, I felt Drummer needed to have someone that she could let pierce through that cold exterior and expose her more sensitive side, let her feel a bit human and live rather than be driven solely by protecting the Belt, which isn't a bad purpose for her to give herself, but she's human, I feel she needs to have a more personal connection, and she does have that with the Belt and all who live there, since she is from the Belt, but with Maya, it's a more up close connection that she can bounce off and let her try and find some fulfilment and contentment in herself.
As for Archangel, I did get a bit bored in this Episode, lots of dialogue yes, but so little things to interact with, I interacted with everything multiple times, trying to get every little bit out of the Episode as I usually tend to do with these sorts of games, but the limited setting made the time feel like it was dragging. It was nice to delve into the politics of that universe, I tried to be calm and diplomatic whenever I could, I wanted to deregulate the private spaceports, build the water tower and raise the taxes in order to fund the building of that water tower, which you know, is a bit of a necessity and for the common good. I think I could make for a decent politician I didn't get to push for those policy decisions because it wouldn't give me the votes I needed, which was a bit shit but I suppose that's politics 101, why give an essential mineral like water to people who need it when you can just epically own Dunning for wanting to build a water tower and have her be credited for it?
I did like Avasarala and her voice, even if she sounds like she goes through a pack of Marlboro Gold on the daily. She is a bit of a hardass but I guess, politicians gonna politician, I felt very sad for her in the Ending, and I think the Episode does do a decent job of making her a human with emotions and feelings instead of a cold politician who does things just because it's her job, it's clear to see she does care to a degree about the Belt (even if I think it was mostly due to her son being deployed and not wanting to make the Belt a warzone with him trapped in the middle), and the stress of the position she is in, there are a couple of moments that do reflect on the stress it has caused her to manage various planets within that solar system, if I were in her job, I'd probably be smoking a pack of Marlboro Gold a day too.
Choices weren't terribly difficult to make, and it was odd seeing such limited options, but I am very pleased with my choices, as thankfully everyone in my playthrough lived.
I think Episode 1 was the best, along with Episode 3, I think each Episode does have its moments of goodness but those two to me are the best when it comes to interacting with the characters. Episode 4 was okay, very linear, a bit trippy, and very frustrating, that puzzle to open the mine, I was stuck for ages trying to find that clue, and just hitting random lines on the monitor to hopefully beat the puzzle, I've heard enough of Drummer talk about how she only has hours before she runs out of oxygen, in the span of 20 minutes I was frustrated, interacting with literally everything I could in the room, and to hear Drummer stress how she only has hours of oxygen over and over again, I did have a heated gamer moment as a result.
It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't great, I'd say it is okay, but nowhere near as memorable as prior Telltale games. If it gets a Season Two I'd be surprised, and I wouldn't mind, but there's a lot that needs to be done to make Season Two a worthwhile product.
Hopefully The Wolf Among Us 2 is in a much better shape and turns out better than The Expanse, it wasn't exactly the splash I wanted from Telltale in their first game since their revival, I am happy that we've got a new Telltale game and it wasn't awful, but it wasn't spectacular either.
We're finally playing! One accessibility setting I (and my disabled partner) are wishing was implemented would be a way to remove the occasional dialogue timers. It's annoying that we can remove the event timers but not the dialogue ones - both timers present the same kind of accessibility barriers for folks with motor or neurological issues.
Comments
I have no hope for the wolf among us 2 after finishing the expanse.
The thing is, as a big fan of The Expanse, ep 1 left me really excited and looking forward. Ep 1 was a 4.5/5 in my mind because of the character interaction and the very faithful realization of the world of The Expanse, and I was hopeful, along with the devs, that the game would bring more people into this wonderful universe.
Ep 2 was also very strong for me, but I am perhaps atypical because I love space sims such as Elite Dangerous where you are flying in zero-g in 6 degrees of freedom. But I tried 3 runs to find Arlen's blasted meds to no avail and that should have been a warning. Nevertheless, lots of good character interaction, and a possible major decision.
Eps 3 and 4 were were it all fell apart, in that the physical maps became completely linear and character interaction and decision-making both went out of the window. Plus the fan-service focus on Anderson Dawes in ep 4 felt overdone for fans, and was probably an ejection point for non-fans.
Ep5 boiled down to a completely linear story with some pretty obvious choices to fail, and capped if off by introducing a new succeed-or-die button-mashing QTE with a completely new UI with no explanation at all, as THE FINAL GATEKEEPER. If that isn't incompetent game UX, then I don't know what is.
On a more serious discussion note:
I can't help but feel like the choice of killing Rayen/fighting back is one of the most one-sided Telltale choices, up there with stuff like Conrad in TWD S3. There's like, zero good reason to kill him in this scene, and I'd argue that doing so is objectively worse for the story and characters; you miss an entire character-building sequence with Virgil, you lose out on a whole action sequence on the bridge with Khan, you miss the pay-off of finding the cigar and learning about Khan's backstory/code word, and it sours your relationship with Khan and Virgil. About the only positive I can think of is that it allows Tor to have an on-screen death, but that doesn't really make up for everything else you lose out on.
Hard concur.
Does anyone saw any information about sales of expanse? From low numbers of reactions in comments on fb or twitter i would be interested if it was success or another bancruption is on table.
Okay. So I'm interested in doing another run-through of Expanse in order to pop all the other trophies and get my Platinum.
The key thing is with Rayen and how he behaves at the end of Episode 3 & 5.
He's supposed to be able to save Maya so she stays alive. He's also supposed to be able to kill Arlen at the end -- otherwise Toussaint shows up and does it instead (like I had at first)
All this has to do with his hidden Trust level apparently - which I screwed over with his leg in Episode 1.
I read an article that details it, but just to confirm with the community here, I'm supposed to:
All this in hand, I should be able to get him to save Maya in Ep3 and kill Rayen in Ep5 for those trophies.
As for Vergil and Khan, I just do their side missions too, which will let me unlock ways to help them in Episode 5 and finish those trophies too?
Thankfully with the short length of each episode, it won't make getting through them all too long... still kinda sucks it is what it is tho...
I don't think sleeping with Maya has any effect on Rayen's trust level. I'm pretty sure the three deciding choices are breaking up their fight in ep 1, saving his leg, and giving Arlen the medicine in ep 2. Do all three, as well as trust him in ep 3, and he'll fight back against Arlen and prevent Maya from getting thrown in the airlock.
Also in episode 5, you need to stay and help Virgil overcome his panic attack, otherwise Rayen will be too injured to intervene during the fight with Arlen.
Ye, this is correct, or at least what worked for me during my replay some time ago
I know nothing of this game other than it may be the end for ma boy Bigby
You know, I just realized there hasn't been any "Behind the Belt" video for the final episode. Despite my disappointment with the series, I actually did enjoy watching what goes behind the scenes of creating the episodes.
...I guess they fired the people who were making those videos lol.
Pretty sure they said somewhere, probably on Twitter, that a final episode will release eventually.
EDIT:
LMAO I clicked on that and it gave me an actual, extremely rare constructive twitter interaction??! WOW.
Rando with the "choices don't matter lol" faced with the social media intern genuinely changing their mind about the "multiple choice ripples". That's cool haha
I actually didn't hate or dislike the game as a whole, BUT wow was it short. I'm unsure why it wasn't just 3 episodes, and after finishing it I can't remember a single beat in the story! Just a shame
Uhhh... the bonus episode is out on Playstation... it just kind of released without fanfare.
Wow. You're right, it's out and available for Free for the Deluxe people...
Dunno if I can pull myself away from Alan Wake 2 tonight, we'll see 😅
Very fun episode, as a fan of The Expanse, there's a lot of references to get through, particularly on the Star Map (which updates during each of the three segments, which was nice to see). Chrisjen is, as always, a great character and it's just fun seeing her deal with trying to stop so many fires all at once while she's getting undermined by political rivals.
I think people will enjoy the story even if it's small scale and set in only one room, though I'm not sure if people who aren't fans will care too much about all the references, but I think it can be easily seen as showcasing just how much is always constantly happening and how much she has to juggle with while trying to be connected with her family, even if she does put her job ahead of them a lot.
5h18min for all episodes + dlc.
I've already posted my opinion on this game (Telltale's worst game since Jurassic Park) and this dlc was made precisely for fans of the series, something Telltale never did before since their games were friendly to those who had never heard of that universe and to existing fans.
And what do I think of that? horrible, this episode managed to be as boring as that dlc for Life is Strange: True Colors, it's even quite similar: 1 room, you repeating the same activities every day until the game ends, FUN!
We've already had news of several employees being fired, if Telltale continues in this quality we'll see the 2nd end of it again. They should do something with Batman since they still have the license and make Season 2 of The Wolf a masterpiece, otherwise...
Just played the DLC and I really enjoyed it lol. Despite being essentially a bottle episode, considering a majority of the DLC takes place within the confines of a single room, I thought it was really engaging and surprisingly fun going into the politics of the world. Especially with how you can play people to work with you, and the amount of conversations and interactions you can have throughout the DLC. Also I absolutely love Shohreh Aghdashloo's voice so that's a big plus in my book. I think this is might also be the longest episode in the game at nearly an hour and a half for me.
The Expanse will be making its way onto Steam on the 20th!
That's pretty fast release from Epic to Steam. I guess Telltale was paid for 4 months exclusivity.
Just finished The Expanse, including the bonus Episode "Archangel" and I think the game was okay.
The Episode lengths weren't great, sure it's good if you missed achievements and want to scoop up the rest, which is something I need to do for the data logs in Episode 3 and the Scavenge items in the first three Episodes, but the length of the Episodes could've been better. I do like a bit of exploration in games but I think there's way too much in this game, which makes sense, space isn't a condensed area, it's actually pretty vast, but finding specific items, like the medicine for Arlen (I think?) is needlessly difficult, at least for me, I found it eventually but it was hidden in such a weird spot. I heavily extended my playtime in each Episode because I spent that much time looking around interacting with stuff, and I still managed to miss certain items. I feel that they could've added a little indicator that you can toggle in the accessibility menu to help assist in finding those little items in the side quests, there are some dialogue cues that do indicate where you may find some stuff, but I feel more could've been done to make finding these items a little bit easier, especially given the size of the regions you find yourself in during most Episodes.
Camina was okay, but as Poogers said, her character is already set in stone, she is going to make a particular choice because it's in her character to make that particular choice, past Telltale games were more flexible in that front as obviously there's a character we are controlling that does have core beliefs and characteristics not defined by the player, but even with the likes of Batman, who has a character that is set, we could choose to be more brutal as Batman than usual.
The game doesn't provide much leeway to those who haven't watched The Expanse, throughout the game I hear about Dawes, and he has history with Drummer, but it's so much of a mystery, he did instruct her to kill people which led to her being on the run, but it's not a great jumping on point for those who haven't watched The Expanse but wanted to play the game because it's the first Telltale game in a few years. I think it's better suited to those who've read the books, watched the show and consumed The Expanse in other forms of media.
There was little to no time with the crew, you get a moment or two with each of them, but it's not really enough to motivate you to care about them, I did like those moments with the crew, Khan, Maya and Virgil especially, I felt the twins were a bit obnoxious but I didn't dislike them. I did like Maya and Drummer's relationship, I felt Drummer needed to have someone that she could let pierce through that cold exterior and expose her more sensitive side, let her feel a bit human and live rather than be driven solely by protecting the Belt, which isn't a bad purpose for her to give herself, but she's human, I feel she needs to have a more personal connection, and she does have that with the Belt and all who live there, since she is from the Belt, but with Maya, it's a more up close connection that she can bounce off and let her try and find some fulfilment and contentment in herself.
As for Archangel, I did get a bit bored in this Episode, lots of dialogue yes, but so little things to interact with, I interacted with everything multiple times, trying to get every little bit out of the Episode as I usually tend to do with these sorts of games, but the limited setting made the time feel like it was dragging. It was nice to delve into the politics of that universe, I tried to be calm and diplomatic whenever I could, I wanted to deregulate the private spaceports, build the water tower and raise the taxes in order to fund the building of that water tower, which you know, is a bit of a necessity and for the common good. I think I could make for a decent politician
I didn't get to push for those policy decisions because it wouldn't give me the votes I needed, which was a bit shit but I suppose that's politics 101, why give an essential mineral like water to people who need it when you can just epically own Dunning for wanting to build a water tower and have her be credited for it?
I did like Avasarala and her voice, even if she sounds like she goes through a pack of Marlboro Gold on the daily. She is a bit of a hardass but I guess, politicians gonna politician, I felt very sad for her in the Ending, and I think the Episode does do a decent job of making her a human with emotions and feelings instead of a cold politician who does things just because it's her job, it's clear to see she does care to a degree about the Belt (even if I think it was mostly due to her son being deployed and not wanting to make the Belt a warzone with him trapped in the middle), and the stress of the position she is in, there are a couple of moments that do reflect on the stress it has caused her to manage various planets within that solar system, if I were in her job, I'd probably be smoking a pack of Marlboro Gold a day too.
Choices weren't terribly difficult to make, and it was odd seeing such limited options, but I am very pleased with my choices, as thankfully everyone in my playthrough lived.
I think Episode 1 was the best, along with Episode 3, I think each Episode does have its moments of goodness but those two to me are the best when it comes to interacting with the characters. Episode 4 was okay, very linear, a bit trippy, and very frustrating, that puzzle to open the mine, I was stuck for ages trying to find that clue, and just hitting random lines on the monitor to hopefully beat the puzzle, I've heard enough of Drummer talk about how she only has hours before she runs out of oxygen, in the span of 20 minutes I was frustrated, interacting with literally everything I could in the room, and to hear Drummer stress how she only has hours of oxygen over and over again, I did have a heated gamer moment as a result.
It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't great, I'd say it is okay, but nowhere near as memorable as prior Telltale games. If it gets a Season Two I'd be surprised, and I wouldn't mind, but there's a lot that needs to be done to make Season Two a worthwhile product.
Hopefully The Wolf Among Us 2 is in a much better shape and turns out better than The Expanse, it wasn't exactly the splash I wanted from Telltale in their first game since their revival, I am happy that we've got a new Telltale game and it wasn't awful, but it wasn't spectacular either.
If anyone still cares, Telltale released the last Behind the Belt episode.
We're finally playing! One accessibility setting I (and my disabled partner) are wishing was implemented would be a way to remove the occasional dialogue timers. It's annoying that we can remove the event timers but not the dialogue ones - both timers present the same kind of accessibility barriers for folks with motor or neurological issues.