The Expanse: A Telltale Series hit a narrative snag in Episode III. Its pace slowed to a crawl whilst only being less than an hour in length. Telltale’s big comeback has been mostly positive, but The Expanse desperately needs to stick its landing to ensure the company is back on track.

The bi-weekly releases have kept fans in check, and now that episode IV is out to the world, it’s only a wait until September 21st before this title can reach its conclusion. Most of the five-episode Telltale series’ have huge plot moments that come about in their fourth episode. Is that the case within The Expanse: A Telltale Series’ Episode IV, “Impossible Objects”?

As Episode III closes out, Drummer is stranded from The Artemis after a tense encounter and some deception. Based on your choices, in Episode IV, you’ll either be dealing with a massive loss or going it alone on the giant rock you landed on last episode. Desperately low on oxygen, Drummer is tasked with sending out a distress signal but has to travel all across the station to do so.

As her life signs get increasingly lower, the hallucinations and disassociation come in droves as Drummer has to face her past while fighting for her life. The visuals and audio within this sequence are divine. In fact, they are probably the best storytelling the game has had up to this point.

One of the prevalent issues in The Expanse: A Telltale Series‘ Episode III is still present within Episode IV. You have zero interaction with the crew of the Artemis, despite spending the vast majority of your time with them in Episodes I and II. It’s a completely missed opportunity, as even a quick transmission call would suffice in pushing forward the story. In failing to do so, I’m left starting to care less and less about these individuals that I went out of my way for in previous episodes.

This is sacrificed to focus on Drummer’s backstory which hasn’t been touched upon much. That would be fine, except Drummer hasn’t had a conversation with the crew since the very start of Episode III. Tack on minor choices never coming into play, and the story only succeeds through moving forward and not reflecting on your previous actions. This is a departure from the Telltale formula, but acceptable to move things forward.

While the length of The Expanse: A Telltale Series’ Episode III was abysmally short, it’s almost doubled within Episode IV. Multiplying a low number by two still yields a low number though. In total, there are only about four or five scenes as opposed to III’s three. The difference this time around is that there’s much more going on in Episode IV so each minute feels like it’s worth something instead of a narrative bridge.

Things really pick up near the conclusion. I’m scared to see what happens in the early moments of the final episode, which means the cliffhanger paid off. It’s great to see The Expanse: A Telltale Series pick up some steam again and let’s hope things close out with a bang in Episode V, “Europa’s Folly”.

A PlayStation 5 review copy of The Expanse: A Telltale Series was provided by Telltale Games for this review.

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The Expanse: A Telltale Series

39.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Stakes are Raised
• Great Cliffhanger
• Fascinating Hallucination Sequence

Cons

• Still Devoid of Crew Interaction
• Once Again, Very Short