Expelled! review – “Question your own morality over and over again”

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  • Memorise the best way to make your enemies take the fall
  • Quirky characters that you’ll have eating out of the palm of your hand
  • Repetitive loop gets tiring after a while

With sparkling eyes, compelling charm, and a knack for unconventional storytelling, the Unreliable Storyteller has long been an intriguing literary tool. Place this character within the walls of an exclusive academy teeming with haughty girls harboring hidden scandals, and it’s only a matter of time before turmoil erupts.

Experience a thrilling twist on the detective genre as you embark on inkle’s latest project, Expelled! – set in 1922, where you find yourself falsely accused of a heinous crime you never committed… or so it seems.

The old-timey aesthetic is totally on-point here, especially with the jazzy soundtrack and the lovely voice-acting by Amelia Tyler (of Baldur’s Gate 3 fame). The visuals are simple and clean – there are the students, the teachers, and the school you’re roaming around in, and they’re all wrapped nicely with such a lovely little bow that it’s hard not to be suspicious about the sinister secrets hidden beneath the surface of this squeaky-clean boarding school.
Herein lies all the deliciously evil fun of this sneaky little adventure. It’s meant to be replayed over and over and over again, as each new playthrough will reveal more of the story to you.
There’s also a morality meter you can fill up as you pick out your answers, with some dialogue choices making you more and more evil as you go along. The more sinister you are, the more options open up for you – you can even chloroform an annoying tattletale just to get it over with should you so wish.
I suppose that’s what makes it different from Overboard!, the studio’s previous choice-based “reverse whodunit” that I absolutely enjoyed. For one thing, there were actually fewer outcomes to aim for there, and for another, you already know the full story before you begin your adventure.
On the contrary, Expelled! wields the power of the Unreliable Narrator all too well, so it’ll have you trying to piece together what actually happened on top of trying to clear your name and pin the crime on someone else.

Currently, I understand why it might attract others, but personally, I’d prefer either escaping unpunished or delivering a fitting conclusion to my adversaries.

I appreciate the way various objects unlock fresh possibilities and routes for you, such as taking an item from one room could provide you with a unique solution in another, or timing your entry correctly can significantly alter the results based on who else is there at the time.

This task requires your brain to exercise quite extensively since it involves strategizing the movement of characters from one location to another. The ultimate goal is to complete the gritty tasks efficiently, ensuring they are finished prior to the awarding ceremony at dusk.

This challenge calls for a good mental workout as you must plan out how each character will travel from point A to point B in order to accomplish the tough chores before the evening’s prize-giving event.

As a gamer, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgic bliss while playing this game, reminiscent of those classic point-and-click adventures on the good old MS-DOS systems. It had me constantly pondering about which items in my inventory could be combined and which unexplored combinations I hadn’t yet tried. My mind was abuzz with these thoughts all day at school, eagerly awaiting the moment when I could rush home to test out my theories.

There’s nothing quite like the thrill that comes from seeing something function successfully, and it’s immensely gratifying when your hypothesis turns out to be accurate.

Discussing this topic further might unintentionally reveal crucial details, given how captivating and immersive both “Expelled!” and “Overboard!” are as they share intricate connections. To put it simply, the storytelling is exceptional; however, I find that the execution falters a bit in my perspective, as it seems to pack an overwhelming number of events concurrently, which can make the narrative feel dense or confusing at times.

In simple terms, Expelled! is exceptionally engaging due to its repeating storyline reminiscent of Groundhog Day. Its replay value is incredibly high. However, it might not be ideal if you’re not too patient, as you’ll need to persuade reluctant characters to comply with your wishes.

Additionally, although there are tools designed for quickly reviewing past responses, your fate primarily hinges on your capacity to recall the choices made during conversations. Therefore, it’s crucial to keep your memory skills sharp if you aim to achieve your goal successfully.

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2025-03-12 07:18