At long last, the final episode of The Expanse: A Telltale Series concludes the bi-weekly releases after a huge cliffhanger in Episode IV. Up to this point, Drummer has had to make a lot of long-lasting and impactful choices. Now she has to come to blows with her Artemis crew in what’s sure to be a fight-filled climax. Now, more than ever, your decisions should come to fruition as it’s time to face the crew members you either came to love or despise. Can Episode V wrap things up nicely, or will it jump the shark?

When Episode IV of The Expanse: A Telltale Series came to a close, Drummer just went through her personal hell before being confined to a pirate ship, the Europa’s Folly. Forging an uneasy alliance, she had to go after her old crew, and now she has boarded the ship. Encountering everyone leads to moments that test your perception as much as they rely on choices from previous episodes.

I was actually quite shocked to see the alternative results in the end screen should I have made different choices before. This could encourage replayability for Expanse superfans who can’t get enough Drummer at this point.

This is the most action-heavy episode of The Expanse: A Telltale Series to come. Of course, this is to be expected, as pirates boarding a ship couldn’t have led to anything else but a shootout. I found the timing windows to be particularly tight in one firefight, but I never once missed a cue in my entire playthrough of the game. Once I understood what buttons the game wanted me to press, it became a cinch. A quick left-stick pan, and clicking L2 and R2 with plenty of time to spare made it feel like Drummer was a firearms expert.

In the last few scenes of The Expanse: A Telltale Series, the inevitable show tie-in occurs which will delight fans who know what is coming. For the uninitiated (like me) it’s still an adequate send-off as Drummer has proven to be more than a competent captain and a fairly-interesting character all around. I wasn’t happy to see characters I grew attached to die, especially since I had no way of knowing what to do to save them in subsequent playthroughs. Add on the less than one-hour runtime once more and I couldn’t help but feel like there should have been more interactions to provide even better closure.

As a whole, The Expanse: A Telltale Series is a decent return-to-form for Telltale Games. It’s not going to reach the highs of the company’s glory days, but I saw a lot of new ideas get executed quite well. If the exploration in future games is on par with this title, I’ll be sure to revel in those as well. This is certainly worth picking up if you’re a fan of The Expanse or Telltale, but don’t expect your choices to matter as much as they used to.

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 Episode V

39.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Plenty Of Loose Ends Tied Up
• Lots Of Action
• Lots Of Choices

Cons

• No Way To Know Which Choices Mattered Most
• Still Absurdly Short