Eight months have passed and the expansion pack is finally here, but will it live up to the lofty expectations of Meg and Nicky?

It’s funny reflecting on the interviews with writer Jon Brown about his and his friends’ experience with hype for new game releases, seeing how literally this experience is translated to the script for this episode. Kingdom Scrolls’ new expansion pack is finally here, Nicky and Meg have booked time off and are equipped with ‘laptop trousers’ among other things as they prepare for a marathon session. Can it be everything they wanted?

The answer is layered. For Meg, many of the new elements introduced are problematic – she can’t get past the ‘dumbing down’ of the story and characters. For Usman, it’s all weird but he’s lost to the game by this point anyway. For Nicky, the expansion pack represents a grave income-related danger – loot crates.

For a little while it seems almost as if the worm has turned in the Dead Pixels writers room – Nicky’s self-awareness of his crippling new addiction doesn’t really serve to offset how tragic it is, and Meg’s attempts to engage with Alison almost feel like the show has decided its central characters’ obsession is unhealthy and bad. But then, cleverly, the show manages to twist that feeling on its head as Nicky, Meg and Usman find a new way in which to unite and bond in the game and their shared experience of it. It’s dark as hell, but it works.

Verdict: Unlike Kingdom Scrolls itself, this is one expansion pack worth downloading. 8/10

Greg D. Smith