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Sometimes selecting an option will cause the story to branch, like when I took Rayen’s brother to task for insubordination, punching him rather than letting it go, an attack he referred to later in the episode. Those options often veer between friendly and standoffish, letting you roleplay different kinds of Drummer. Multiple dialogue options appear on the screen when talking to characters, giving you a short window to choose what to say. (Worryingly, I don’t find one, and I can only imagine this will come back to bite me in a later episode.)īetween those moments of exploration, however, Deck Nine has deviated little from Telltale’s formula. I’m presented with secondary objectives, too, like finding a crystal to fix the med-bay's surgical laser. The pilot isn’t my biggest fan, but this small gift opens the door to a better relationship. While snooping in my pilot’s quarters, I found an empty box of cigars, and then, later on in the mission, I found a pack in the ship’s captain’s room. It can be rewarding to spend time exploring. I can lift off from the floor, float through space, reorientate myself, and engage my mag boots to lock onto a new surface – making what was previously the ceiling into the floor. Although, as I explore the drifting United Nations Navy vessel, navigating the railgun-blasted corridors in zero gravity, I can see how Deck Nine has expanded environmental navigation. The focus isn’t on action but on conversation and frequent use of quick-time events.
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The focus isn’t on action but on conversation and frequent use of quick-time eventsĪ different developer may be at the helm, but The Expanse: A Telltale Series is immediately familiar. Its in-house team is working on The Wolf Among Us 2, while Deck Nine Games makes The Expanse. After 2018, when Telltale management laid off more than 200 employees and LCG Entertainment acquired the studio, the studio is taking on fewer projects than before. While The Expanse: A Telltale Series bears the name of the adventure game developer, it’s being developed by Deck Nine Games, makers of Life Is Strange: Before The Storm, with Telltale acting as publisher. From what I’ve played of the first episode, we’ll see what turned a younger, less experienced Drummer into the pragmatic Belter captain we see in the books and TV show. In The Expanse: A Telltale Series, however, developer Deck Nine Games has decided to focus on a single character’s arc, and it’s set its story years before the turmoil of the main series.
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