Hello all, Ric here with a video covering a prequel to the Expanse series.
While the show may be finished with its 6 seasons, Telltale Games and Deck Nine Games
have brought forwards a story that follows some events in the years prior to the series.
Now, a disclaimer, I was flown out to L.A. to experience the video game itself as well
as get some time to explore some props from the show and that was a fantastic experience
and a lot of fun.
So, while I’m going to remain objective, I feel its best to simply address the lore
and setting of the game, rather than jump in with a review.
I will give my thoughts later on in the video if you are interested.
For now, let’s take a look at the time the game takes place in.
The Expanse game is set 7 years before the beginning of the series placing it in 2343
and follows the life of the Belter Camina Drummer before she turns up in the show, which
the game sets itself as a prequel to.
This character was greatly expanded in the shows, effectively a merger of several roles
from the books and as such Drummer has this area in her backstory that is mostly unwritten
and it is into this spot these chapters fall.
Assuming you know what a Belter is, but if not, that is the collective name for those
who live among the asteroids and outer planets of the Sol System, while Earth and Mars are
separate worlds, the Belters are often the labourers caught in the middle, trying to
eek out a living while supplying these two powers.
Rather than following the political movers and shakers of the Expanse’s series that
shaped the interplanetary events of the show, the Telltale game will focus on a more personal
level, the crew of the one ship.
The characters aboard it and the numerous different factions are less represented in
their entirety and more in the diverse origins of the crew of the Artemis.
So what do we know of Camina Drummer?
Well she was born on Ceres station where she worked as a dock-hand for her early life until
she met Anderson Dawes.
She signed on to Anderson Dawes’ OPA faction and acted as a high ranking member within
the organisation even at a young age, where she worked alongside him in establishing his
own goals.
However, over time she grew disillusioned with Dawes’ ego and violent methods, beginning
to drift away from him, earning herself a bounty in the process.
Eventually she found herself teaming up with Fred Johnson after he too left Dawes to begin
his own OPA faction housed on Tycho Station.
It was here that she would rise to the head of security for Tycho, a position we would
find her in at the start of season 2.
And as a side note, when it comes to the Outer Planets Alliance, the important thing to remember
is that there are multiple viewpoints on just what a Belter form of government should look
like and much internal clashing between the factions, although not as much as we would
see in later seasons of the show.
Originally it was made to sound as if Drummer left and immediately signed up with Johnson,
however this game seems to place itself after her departure from Ceres station but before
she became re-involved with the OPA factions.
In this time she has signed on with a salvage crew on the Artemis, a Belter vessel captained
by a former UNN earther, Captain Cox.
Cox very much still wears his achievements as a matter of pride, even after leaving the
inner planets although he still bears a strong streak of superiority about him that does
him no favours in the Belt.
Drummer serves as the Executive officer, the second in command who heads up the missions
in the field.
Alongside these two, there is the cranky old ship’s pilot Khan, the grouchy grandma of
the crew and two more Beltas, the twins Arlen and Rayen Morozov.
These two are loyal to one another, but one is far more brash than the other.
Maya Castillo is a former Martian Marine and engineer who has left the MCR in favour of
a life on the belt and is someone who sees the beauty in space travel, even amid the
dangers.
Virgil Marks is the ship’s medic and a gifted surgeon, one whose skillset would better serve
his career at a far more prestigious location, but clearly there is more behind his presence
than first appears.
In terms of events unfolding at this time, according to the chronology of the Expanse,
Mars is about to uncover the Protomolecule on Phoebe and set up its station there, so
this is all taking place before the beginnings of the spread of that research and experimentation.
Characters like James Holden are still in the United Nations Navy and Alex in the MCRN.
Amos is more of a wild card as ever so don’t expect cameos from the series regulars.
Although who knows.
At the introduction of the first mission, the Artemis is running low on morale and money
due to recently poor hauls, but they have a tip on the wreckage of the UNN Urshanabi,
an Earther vessel hauling something of value and it has yet to send out a distress call
despite the catastrophic damage.
They have a lead on it before the UNN sends out a search party, so it looks like an ambitious,
but easy haul.
Of course, this game is chapter one of a 5 part series that will be released in waves
every two weeks.
This was done because previous Telltale titles have had quite a long delay between their
chapters, and this smaller time frame better mirrors the air time of a streamed series.
So the game itself is run on the Unreal engine and one of the new Telltale’s initial wave
of titles created by the studio Deck Nine.
If you are unfamiliar with the Telltale formula, they basically create narrative experiences
with a focus on player choice and dialogue.
Options you select will result in different outcomes along the same overall tale meaning
you can replay the series and theoretically have entirely different scenarios unfold with
even different people being alive or dead by the end.
After talking to devs, it sounds like this title is an attempt to push that even further
than prior ones with an experience that “keeps on branching” rather than focusing back
to a single, or limited conclusion.
The chapter I played was, pun intended, expansive, in a way that Telltale games are not usually
known for.
For ages the formula has been to explore a room with a handful of interactables, the
scale here has been opened up to a larger canvas with the wreckage of the Urshanabi
being the centrepiece this time.
There are hidden corridors, salvage and dialogue hidden on far away scraps, you don’t just
have to follow the quest objectives.
However this has led the chapters to be shorter overall, at least in my experience and I took
my time.
Although I cannot say if I uncovered everything.
Additionally it’s hard to tell from this initial chapter if the game truly is as open
to different paths as it appears considering it was only about 2 hours into the story but
that’s something time will reveal.
One feature I did enjoy was the smooth transitions between mag-boot walking to free floating
in microgravity.
The first time I noticed the gravity shifting was when I climbed a ramp on the bridge and
instead of tackling it by hoisting your legs higher as you would stairs, Drummer’s perspective
simply shifted, the room tilted and she remained upright, now at an incline to her previous
position.
Then it clicked that “oh yeah, the only Gee I have to worry about is this one right
here”.
Aside from this, I did encounter moments where
Drummer would get stuck on something in corridors, but this was nothing that could not be overcome,
just a bump in the gameplay.
The animations and lighting in particular are phenomenal and that’s a plus on a game
that attempts to capture the cinematic feel of the shows.
Overall, I’m going to be playing this when I can, I might even add a playthrough to the
channel but until then, I’ve been Rick and fly safe and farewell.