Inkle – the studio behind Eurogamer favourites including Heaven’s Vault, A Highland Story, and 80 Days – has unveiled its latest adventure: 1920s boarding school mystery Expelled! (exclamation mark theirs not, mine), which is coming to PC, Switch, and mobile on 12th March.
If any of this rings a distant bell, that’s probably because Expelled was teased last June, in the form of Miss Mulligatawney’s School for Promising Girls. At the time, details were scant – its Steam description merely contained a flyer for the titular academy promising, “The best education the 1920s have to offer! – but now, slightly later than expected, all has been revealed.
Expelled is being pushed as a follow-up to Inkle’s well-received 2021 ocean liner whodunnit Overboard!, and is described as a “next-gen visual novel with a wicked twist”. It sees players attempting to clear their name following the fenestration-based attempted murder of a boarding school prefect, all by mounting their own investigation – which might even involve blackmail and betrayal, depending what they’re willing to do to get their way.
All this involves players – cast as scholarship student Verity Amersham, voiced by Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Amelia Tyler – navigating the simulated story world of a 1920s boarding school (in which characters move around independently in real-time, remembering everything they see) attempting to eke truths and secrets from staff and students alike. Players have just one day to solve the mystery and escape punishment through subterfuge and cunning – perhaps even choosing to frame someone else if they so choose.
Inkle says one playthrough of Expelled should last no more than 45 minutes, but each run features new leads and opportunities making it “massively replayable”. And it’s not just a question of avoiding expulsions; players can also work toward other targets, such as rising to the position of head girl, or solving other mysteries, like uncovering your best friend’s dark secret. And all this is accompanied by a jazz soundtrack featuring music from the likes of George Gershwin, Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong, and Bessie Smith.
Expelled!: An Overboard! Game launches for Steam, Switch, iOS, and Android on 12th March.
fbq('init', '560747571485047');
fbq('track', 'PageView'); window.facebookPixelsDone = true;
window.dispatchEvent(new Event('BrockmanFacebookPixelsEnabled')); }
window.addEventListener('BrockmanTargetingCookiesAllowed', appendFacebookPixels);