In case you missed it, Expelled! is an Overboard game, which they have added to the title to presumably ensure that you make the association. Which isn't a bad thing, in terms of telling you in a few words what this new Inkle game is about.

We reviewed Overboard! a few years back and if you played and enjoyed that, this is very much in the same vein. You aren't at sea this time, and who knows who dunnit? Perhaps she dunnit herself??

Its 1922 at Miss Mulligatawney's School for Promising Girls, and the hockey captain has rather regrettably exited the building through a rather high upstairs window. You are Verity Amersham, scholarship student and not the 'right sort,' so the incident is the perfect vehicle for your expulsion, whatever your involvement. Your mission, should you accept it, is to stop that from happening.

Like Overboard!, you have a defined period of time in which to operate and a number of locations you can frequent. Talk to people, go back and forth, gather items, explore some more, all in the name of finding a way to stop your expulsion.

If you fail to prevent it you simply try again, but fortified by the knowledge of your earlier effort/s. Each play through can potentially build on what you have already experienced.

I say potentially because my second play through lasted way less time than my first. But my current play through is lasting considerably longer than any that came before, so unpeeling and applying the layers is clearly helping.

Certain things will help. Previous dialogue answers you have used will be apparent, an objectives list is available, and you can choose to restart a chapter, so if you liked what came before but not where you currently find yourself, hit rewind and try again.

There is also an intriguing morality element in play. You can sort out its nuances for yourself, but based on my limited playtime (about 2 hours and into my fifth run through) I imagine more than honesty will be needed to be successful.

Expelled! uses an animated story book presentation, and plays played entirely with the keyboard. It autosaves at the start of a chapter and is largely unvoiced. Music and sound effects provide the noise. My run throughs thus far have been 20 to 45 minutes.

Not being expelled has never been so enticing.