Tales from the Borderlands

Complete and total truth, I thought this game was a stretch for Telltales. Borderlands is a fine game franchise, and the stories made from its world are fun, but this felt like a recipe for disaster. A story-based, choice-driven game based on the franchise whose main attraction was collecting loot and shooting big monsters? Not sure how that was going to work. I can happily say I was dead wrong in so many ways. While I won't say that this game is a better "Game" than the mainline Borderlands games, Tales from the Borderlands is a solid, super enjoyable, incredibly funny, surprisingly touching, and exciting game. Even if you're not a fan of Borderlands, I suggest you get this game, if not for me, than do it for Loader Bot. The game's story is set on Borderland's favorite hostile planet Pandora. Taking place a few short months after the end of Borderlands 2, Pandora has experienced a degree of relative peace (for Pandora at least) as the evil Hyperion Corporation has gone relatively silence; thanks in no small part to the dramatic death of the corporation's sadistic CEO, Handsome Jack. The story is split between two protagonists: Rhys, a Hyperion middle manager who gets screwed out of a major promotion and now wants to try and take down his rival to rise through the corporate ranks, and Fiona, a Pandoran-scam artist who is trying to raise enough cash to help her and her sister get off of Pandora. In each episode, you divide your control between both characters, helping them through the story to find the "big score" that will make their dreams come true. Along the way they form an unlikely friendship and discover some terrible secrets. The story is schlock, but the enjoyable kind of shlock. It's one part grindhouse-style treasure hunt adventure, and one-part buddy comedy. The characters have all been written with enough personality and charisma that makes their journey addicting to watch, and participate in. Rhys is self-confident and yet also way in over his head, and Fiona is always smooth-talking but also affected by insecurities that make her feel human enough. The rest of the cast balance out being cartoony and rediculous with being relatable and... honestly really really well developed. Vaughn, Rhy's accountant friend, goes on a journey of self discovery as he's torn away from the trappings of the corporate landscape. Sasha, Fiona's gun-toting sister, is a true-blue pandoran survivor but also yearns to break away from her roots, and her family drama, to try and broaden her horizons. But one of the most interesting characters has to be the return of the villain from BL2... Handsome Jack. Or at least, a holographic duplicate of him that is store in Rhys' bionic implants, and who only Rhys can see and interact with (yeah, this game did it before Cyberpunk 2077 ever did). Here, Jack (or his duplicate) is envisioned as a king with no throne, forced to contend with the world's reaction to his absence, and the legacy he left behind. He is frustrated and humbled, forced to see things from a "nobody's" point of view, yeah none of this humbles him, only forces him to realize that the world won't change for him just because he wils it. The last episode has, arguably, the best scene for him, hands down, and maybe one of the bests scenes for a villain from anything I've seen (video game or otherwise). I won't spoil it, but it's one of those scenes that stuck with me. If you buy this game and play it till the last episode, you will know what scene I'm talking about. This is a telltales game, so naturally one of the big draw are the choices. The choices do a reasonable job of being at the least bit funny, or changing a few elements of the games narrative. The choice made at the end of episode 4 changes context more than anything for episode 5. However, the choice made at the end of episode 2 completely rewrites the opening of episode 3, and deeply affects many of your relationships in the game. I'd say that the best choices I made were ones that added more intrigue to the story. Naturally, as players, everyone distrusts Jack and won't give in to his demands, but I always thought it was more interesting if Rhys kept trying to do what Jack, wanted having been a Jack fanboy in the past, and see how that relationship would sour as Rhys' view of Jack eroded as Jack kept pushing Rhys into more and more screwed up situations. Fiona became more interesting (and funny) as she clumsily grew out of being a simple conwoman to being a certified badass when I intentionally screwed up some quick-time events. I said at the start of this review that this game isn't a better "game" than the mainline franchise, and I maintain that statement. This is the best story Borderlands has ever featured, but the gameplay itself is... well Telltales. The game's main drive comes from directing the story by making dialogue choices and mastering quick time events. The other portion comes when you're in locked off areas, walking around, and have to solve a very simple puzzle. Because this game features two protagonists, efforts were made to make Fiona and Rhys feel different. Rhys gets bionic enhancements and can use his "ECHO-Eye" to scan the environment, Metroid Prime Style, for additional info, hacking targets, and unlocking funny flavour text. Fiona meanwhile gets... money. Which she can use to pick certain dialogue and buy cosmetics at stores at select points in the story. Rhys' ECHO-Eye was more interesting honestly, and I know Fiona gets a little deringer too, but that's only for scripted combat sequences, so she getst the short-end of the stick in my opinion. The gameplay, I stress, isn't a terrible experience, and some of the action scenes were genuinely fun, but when compared to Borderland's mainline, RPG-style shooting, looting, and moving, Tales pales in comparison. This may not be a great "Game" game, but Tales from the Borderlands holds a special place in my heart as a solid point-and-click adventure story with some memorable moments. If you're looking for the Borderland's style of gameplay, you'll be underserved, but this story outshines some of the best moments that even Borderlands 2 brought to table. This game has a tale worth telling, and one you need to experience.