The Expanse: A Telltale Series Episode 5 – Europa’s Folly Review: A Fast-Paced Conclusion
The Expanse: A Telltale Series has been an uneven ride, but its fifth and final episode, Europa’s Folly, does provide a satisfying conclusion to the overall story where your choices, both throughout the game and in this episode, matter.
When we last left Camina Drummer, she was headed back to her ship to reunite with the crew who abandoned her. Accompanied by a murderous pirate, she’s unarmed and has to decide what path to follow. Are the relationships she’s built strong enough that her ragtag crew can come together in the end, or does she prefer to go on a rampage of revenge?
The Choices We’ve Made
Right from the first encounter upon returning to the Artemis, I felt my choices throughout the series mattered. While you were abandoned to die, most of the crew didn’t know it, and even some of those who did weren’t on board with what happened. The very first person I encountered was one who wronged me, but they clearly didn’t want things to go the way they did. It made for an excellent moment as I had to decide how much guilt they deserved for what happened and whether revenge was appropriate. If I’d gone another way, I could imagine this entire episode going very differently, and I’m curious about replaying it with that alternate route. The way I played Drummer here, though, there was no other path besides the one I chose that made sense.
As I moved through the Artemis, I got a moment with each surviving member of my crew, each of them informed by the relationships I’d built and the choices I’d made. If I hadn’t taken the time to get to know Khan, for example, there’s no way our encounter could have played out the way it did or that it would have been nearly as satisfying. I loved getting a moment with each crew member and how I had a choice to make with each of them. While I was mostly happy with how things concluded with these characters, the statistics at the end of the episode definitely suggested that a less satisfying path for many of them was possible.
Missed Opportunities
I said I was mostly happy with the conclusion, and that caveat is important here. While many of the individual moments here are strong, and there are intriguing teases that could tease an opportunity for a sequel game still set before The Expanse television show, or which could just lead to the events of that show, one character, in particular, doesn’t get a satisfying ending. Considering he’s the one I was most looking forward to confronting upon my return to the Artemis, it’s hard to not look at that as a missed opportunity. The game’s overall mystery involving a dangerous weapon also ends with a whimper more than a bang. I don’t mind that the game ultimately decides to focus more on strong character moments rather than a space MacGuffin, but it does leave me wondering why we spent so much time on it in the first place.
It’s also worth noting that this is easily the shortest and least gameplay-focused episode of The Expanse: A Telltale Series. There are a few brief QTE segments and some brief moments when you can explore your ship one last time, but large portions of what happens here are told entirely through cutscenes. Sure, you get to make dialogue choices, but with Telltale making such an effort to allow you to fly around and letting players feel more in control than they have in past games, it feels strange to end on an episode that has so little interest in these mechanics.
Conclusion
Despite the overarching story not fully coming together, however, I had a great time with Europa’s Folly. It’s an action-packed, fast-moving conclusion that takes the time to give most of the game’s cast a moment to shine and satisfies from a character perspective. I’d mostly say the same about The Expanse: A Telltale Story as a whole. While the game definitely has pacing issues, and parts of its story feel like they’re mostly there to fill time, its cast of characters is brought to life in a way that made me look forward to returning to them every couple of weeks. It’s not a perfect return from Telltale, but it leaves me excited to see where the studio goes next, and hoping we get to see more of this crew.
Final Verdict: 3.5/5
Available on: PC (Reviewed), PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One; Publisher: Telltale Games; Developer: Telltale Games, Deck Nine; Players: 1; Released: September 20th, 2023; ESRB: M for Mature; MSRP: $39.99
Full disclosure: This review is based on a copy of The Expanse: A Telltale Series provided by the publisher.
