As a kid, did you hurriedly flip back to the start of your choose-your-own-adventure book to try for a better ending? Did you ever take the ladder out of your Sims’ pool just to see what happened? Did you take Clue way too seriously?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, creatives at Inkle might have a game for you.
This follow-up to Overboard! takes out-of-her-depth scholarship recipient Verity Amersham — voiced by Baldur’s Gate 3 narrator Amelia Tyler — through an unforgettable day at her 1920s all-girls boarding school.
In a Groundhog Day-like retelling of a cruddy day, gamers start Amersham’s school day from the top. She stirs awake in her dormitory as the sun rises. 7:30 a.m.? Yuck. She wipes the sleep from her eyes, acquainting herself with her surroundings: her clairvoyant roommate Nattie, her cuddly plush, a trinket shelf, her Bible. As Amersham approaches her window, a crash rattles the campus. The sound? A classmate tumbling through the library’s ornate stained glass window. Before players know it, they’ve taken the hot seat (pew?). Authority figures wag fingers, fellow pupils hang their heads. YOU pushed your classmate!
Um, wait. It didn’t really happen like that… Let me start over. It was more like this…
Gamers zip back to 7:30 a.m. But wait — in that brief moment of narrative clarity, Amersham might’ve learned something. She restarts her morning, but this time, she can leverage what she discovered in her last go. That quick conversation with a faculty member prone to oversharing, the insider info a little brown-nosing got you — keep it in your back pocket.
Keep in mind that time keeps ticking as you work to combat kooky accusations and ultimately prevent your expulsion. Check your class schedule (if you can find it) and make sure you don’t miss Chapel. Consider the realities of young Amersham’s scenario: a girl from a working-class family scores a scholarship to a snooty private school in 1920s England. This game is played at a systemic disadvantage. Your societal and socioeconomic position means you’ve been granted limited control. But remember, what’s not given can sometimes be taken. Despite pious appearances, some of Amersham’s privileged and well-connected peers and superiors didn’t get where they are by playing nice.
In a cathartic and anti-establishment coming-of-age mystery, help Verity Amersham prove her innocence by any means necessary. If your Verity’s untapped well of rebellion runneth over, she can outwit classmates, blackmail staff, and fudge the truth. If you remember to don your goodie-two-shoes, you can let the chips fall where they may and duck back down into your King James Version.
Expelled! scores straight-A’s for its ability to amplify the stakes in an already-immersive genre. Among the game’s most appealing features are its super-cute art style, endless ways to peeve peers, and hilariously witty dialogue options, many of which build or burn bridges along the way.
The title’s navigable menu, customizable read speed, on/off profanity switch, and other accessibility features make Expelled! a class act for all ages and skill levels. As someone with her iMessage voice memos set to 1.5x, the ability to speed up banter to my own pace keeps me in the game.
If you like puzzles, mysteries, young adult novels, and in-game actions having long-lasting implications, you’ll thrive at Miss Mulligatawney’s School for Promising Girls.
I was able to enjoy gameplay without a hitch on my Lenovo Legion Go. User-friendly graphics settings and storybook-like visuals mean Expelled! won’t punish handheld device batteries quite like the Owl does her pupils.
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A lifelong gamer raised on classic titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Croc, Stephanie brings her expertise of gaming and pop culture to deliver unique, refreshing views on the world of video games, complete with references to absurd and obscure media.
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