Stray Gods: Orpheus wonders what's next after an eternal quest ends

Stray Gods: The Role-Playing Musical was an enjoyable, if somewhat imperfect, adventure that released back in 2023. If nothing else, it was laudable that the teams at Humble Games and Summerfall Studios put together something that was wildly different than the norm. Adventures with consequence-heavy decision-making are all over the gaming landscape, but none had ever attempted to do so in the style of a musical. After calling for an encore, Summerfall Studios came back with a new DLC act that follows Orpheus. While it doesn't heavily impact the main story, it's a fun side story that fleshes out one character's tale while offering a few more musical bops.

Stray Gods: Orpheus checks back in on the title character. Without spoiling the events of the base game, he's last seen pondering his existence in the underworld. His quest for eternal vengeance is now over and the DLC poses the question of what comes next for him. After being restored to life, Hermes guides Orpheus to the mortal world, where a new life awaits. The story takes players through what Orpheus decides to do with it.

It's refreshing to see that players can either approach the Orpheus DLC fresh or they can import decisions from a completed base game file. While I only played through the DLC once, I do wonder how drastically different the story would be without my save file, but the new act was entertaining and short enough to make me want to find out.

Orpheus is heavily carried by the performance of the title character. Star Trek: Discovery's Anthony Rapp turns in an incredible display of musical mastery, completely owning the six songs he takes part in. He mixes his musical numbers with a fabulously light-hearted yet earnest approach to the character. He had me laughing at several points with some of his lines, but he also knew when to express a sense of poignancy after having epiphanies about his newfound existence.

This DLC is ultimately about finding purpose, and the opening beautifully expresses that. Unfortunately, because of its short length, the resolution feels like it comes all too quickly. There isn't really a lot of time to explore Orpheus finding himself and what he decides to do at the end of the story. It especially feels short when looking back and realizing that there's a musical number about Orpheus attempting to speed date that feels like it drags on a little too long.

Stray Gods: Orpheus keeps things short enough that most of the base game's cast is left on the sideline, though it's worth mentioning that Erika Ishii's Hermes makes the most of their extra time with the character. Hermes is a fun sidekick, something we only briefly got a glimpse of in the main story. This DLC's worth playing through if you want more of the Stray Gods: The Role-Playing Musical experience. Just go into it knowing that once it ends, you might still not be ready to see the curtain drop.

These impressions are based on a DLC code provided by the publisher. Stray Gods: Orpheus is available now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch for $9.99 USD.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?