Whenever I encounter games with a heavy storytelling component for franchises I have no exposure to, I’ll admit that I tend to get nervous. While I’ve heard great things about the sci-fi series The Expanse, to this point I’ve never had the chance to check it out, so loading up the first episode of this TellTale series, I had concerns about how well they’d manage to onboard people like me coming into it cold. 

I’m happy to report that outside of simply getting acclimated to a game’s characters like you would in any other title, I didn’t have any trouble at all getting up to speed. The folks at Telltale really have a great knack for this, as demonstrated across many other series they’ve adapted before, and before the first full episode was even half-way through I absolutely felt like I understood my character and her crew. I’ll admit that when it comes to major decision points, that may have led to me making uncharacteristic decisions. But honestly, since these stories are told in their own space that’s always been part of the fun anyway, or at least an excellent excuse to return and make different decisions at some point.

I think that really sucked me in though was everything being set in the unfamiliar backdrop of space. Exploring and salvaging a ship in zero gravity, complete with the fun of needing to walk on the walls or float through debris in order to get around was interesting and fun. The high stakes of quelling a mutiny and dealing with pirate attacks make for good drama, and the fact that carried consequences for the decisions you’ve made, specifically in terms of the treatment of your crew, really deepens the experience nicely. While I didn’t get the deep emotional impact from this series on par with something like The Walking Dead, I’ll gladly admit that it sucked me in and kept me interested, and now I’m even more determined to check out The Expanse to see the bigger stories it has in store for me.