Tales from the Borderlands (Android, iOS, PC, Mac, PS3, PS4, XBox 360, XBox 1, and your toaster.)

It’s come to my attention that this game is pretty graphic and pretty violent. If you don’t dig graphic violence or buckets of gore you might wanna skip this one.

So far in the Borderlands series we’ve opened one vault per game, the vaults of the Destroyer, the Warrior, and the Watcher. Each of which contained a giant alien monster that earned its title. In each game we’ve played the badasses who’ve shot and blasted their way to open them up. This time around things are a little different. Done are the days of gun toting, level-upping, loot-based vault hunters. Now is the era of speaking, decision making, and high silliness — I mean, you’re playing a con-woman and a pencil-pusher, what did you want from them? You play as both Pandoran native Fiona and Hyperion corporation lap-dog Rhys– con-woman and pencil-pusher respectively– when a struggle to survive turns into a plot to open a vault — you know, because loot. Make choices in this point and click adventure on everyone’s favorite toilet of a planet, Pandora.

History

Talk of a Telltale Borderlands game began after Gearbox and Telltale worked together on Claptrap’s inclusion in Poker Night at the Inventory 2 (Here’s my post for Poker Night 1 if you’re curious). Discussions began as Gearbox designers admitted that the FPS roots of Borderlands prevented them from including elements that wouldn’t mesh with mechanics. These were things that Telltale could capitalize on as well as all of the Borderlands characters who don’t get a spotlight in an FPS game.

Not to say that this game doesn’t have its share of bloodshed.

Tales From the Borderlands was plagued by release delays. The first episode was released on November 24th 2014, the second episode was released on March 17th of 2015, and the final episode wasn’t released until October 20th 2015 (For reference The Wolf Among Us’ first episode was released on October 11th 2013 and it’s final episode was released on November 4th of 2014). It’s competition on its initial release Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS3 and Xbox 360), Assassin’s Creed: Unity (PC, XBox One, PS4), and Thomas Was Alone (PS4, WiiU, and Xbox One).

Experiences

As another Telltale adventure game you’re sure to feel a pit of indecision grow in your stomach. Playing to character might lead to dire consequences and even the most innocuous of decisions will leave you in tears. The emotional tension reaches a fever pitch with the introduction of Loader Bot — one of the mooks from Borderlands 2 but this one’s got a personality. I’ve never cared about robots more in any game ever. Never have I felt so connected with a being of synthetic thoughts, wires, and circuitry. Made all the more impactful considering the terrible things you can do to him.

Treat your loader bot well, he’s sworn to protect.

Gameplay

Tales from the Borderlands is like your average Telltale adventure game. You’ll enter into conversations with people, choose your responses — and remember that silence is always an option (unless someone demands information under penalty of death, you should probably answer that person)– walk around areas, and poke things with proverbial sticks. Tales from the Borderlands is unique insofar that you play as…

…and…

That’s right, you’re playing as two different characters. Certain chapters and sections are played as certain characters so there’s no switching at will. This can make things complicated because sometimes they don’t have each others’ best interests in mind. They’re both in it for the money, they both want all the rewards, and they’re not exactly on good terms — this game takes place after Borderlands 2, you know, when Hyperion tried to conquer the planet and kill the local populace. You can split them apart, and take sides, as they squabble for what they want or you can unite them and they’ll work together more smoothly.

And remember, the other characters will remember and react to what you say and do.

The Gush

Fiona and Rhys’ unique mechanics are just plain fun and characters having mechanics is yet to be in a Telltale game. Rhys’ cyber eye allows him to look things up in the Hyperion database for fun jokes and additional information whereas Fiona has the ability to collect and spend money. Although, I will say, Fiona’s cash was a more useful even though I’m not sure how it impacted things — but that’s the nature of Telltale games, you’ll never know what matters.

Although, I will admit, the scanning function is very entertaining.

The characters in this game are fantastic, as is befitting a Telltale game. One of the NPCs was so deceptive that they legitimately fooled me. Hell, I got fooled a couple of times. Even when the evidence was piling up against people I defended them until they sprung their traps.

Even though it’s an adventure game it feels undeniably like a Borderlands game. Pandora oozes through the content and becomes a character unto itself. Even if you’re not familiar with the setting the game does a great job at getting you familiar with things thanks to Rhys’ fish out-of-water character.

Expect to see new characters and old favorites.

This game will give you an attack of the feels. Some tragedies and events are unavoidable, others will be all your fault — not that you’ll ever know. So just be ready for a few cheers and more than a few tears.

The Music in this game is on point. Between recycling old tracks, licensing music, and creating their own it invigorates Tales to have its own unique style. It’s definitely Pandora, but it’s no longer the Borderlands you knew.

The Kvetch

This game has a lot of graphical glitches. I can’t tell you how many time characters clip through objects and bizarre, immersion-breaking, events take place. It’s really easy for me to ignore because at no point does it compromise understanding of events but it was a little annoying.

I’m not sure why the characters had such a large inventory. I went through the game without using, and without the opportunity, to use most of my items. I was constantly paranoid about a series of grenades I had picked up 3 episodes ago and they never came into play.

The Verdict

Tales from the Borderlands is available for $25 on its various platforms and I’ve got an interesting relationship with this pricing. When I think of it as the full game for $25 I think, “Well, it’s just a choose your own adventure. I’d say it’s really worth 20 .” But when I think about it as $5 per chapter I think, “I would totally spend $5 per chapter on this silly and fun game,” so… that’s odd. In any event, however you have to justify the value of the purchase I’d say go for it. It’s a super fun game that I had a great time. It’s got replay value out the wazoo if you’re the type to investigate how each decision effects play.

Next Week: Kingdom of Loathing

Borderlands (PC, Playstation 3, XBox 360)

Introduction

In a galaxy of planet purchasing corporations– that are embroiled in a brutal debate as to which of them is actually bigger than God– four childhood friends join to fulfill their dream to find the greatest treasure in history. This treasure is rumored to be kept in The Vault on the lawless planet of Pandora– I mean look at that guy up there, if he’s the average citizen this might not be a great place. These Vault Hunters will weather through Bandits, the wildlife, and annoying robots to reach the fabled Vault with all its immense riches– that is… if treasure is what lies within.

Picture here is the main cast, from left to right, Roland the Soldier, Lilith the Siren, Mordecai the Hunter, and Brick.

History

Borderlands was designed to run on a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3. At the time of release the engine would be five years old. The developers made up for this simple engine with a cel shaded and cartoonish world design that would be memorable and visually appealing. The old design was meant to be much more realistic. After this realistic design was scrapped the Art Director felt so offended that she walked out on the project.

Rumors abound that the deadline for the game got pushed forward surprisingly in the final stretches of the game. Speculation abounds that this is what caused the ending of the main game to be so lackluster.

Borderlands was released for PC on October 26 2009– what is it with 2009 popping up a lot lately? It’s competition included League of Legends: Clash of Fate (PC), Bayonetta (PS3, XBox 360), and Saw: The Video Game (PS3, Xbox 360)

Nostalgia

When this game came out it was super exploitable. The computer club that I frequented bought one copy and simply removed the disk after they started up the game. This way everyone there was able to play at the same time together and we didn’t have to buy four copies of it on our limited budget. We came into a snag though because although we made character profiles there was no cloud support. Every time we wanted to play we had to use the same computers if we wanted to play our level appropriate characters. It lead us to keep switching computers and starting new characters. We eventually got to the end but we played through the opening section so many times we had strategies specifically for getting through it as quickly as possible. We would position people at quest markers the game hadn’t given us yet, ready to go to other areas as they unlocked.

Gameplay

This game is described as a loot based shooter. The player assists the people of Pandora and they’re given more powerful weapons, shields, and grenades in return– oh yeah, and cash which is kind of useless.

Each of the different characters has an action skills and abilities that they can spend skill points on. It’s really easy and cheap to redistribute a characters skill points. Certain items offer the character passive abilities or bonus points to different skills. These abilities are usually pretty similar but the action skills couldn’t be more different. From siccing large birds on enemies to pummeling them with your fists in a berzerk rage, these skills will heavily influence the way you play.

The game was touted as having a Bazillion Guns and they weren’t kidding around. From machine pistols to rocket launchers this game has weapons large and small for intrepid Vault Hunters and Bandits alike. Each weapon can have different parts on it that change its appearance and stats. One assault rifle might reload really quick or have interesting elemental power which really mixes things up.

Very rare weapons also have special enchantments that appear in red text with no clear explanation to their effect– trust in their awesomeness.

The Gush

I was listening to the soundtrack when I was writing this and I found it to be remarkably good. I hadn’t really been paying attention to it when I was playing– too busy shooting people and trying not to get dead and all that– but now that I focus on it I really like it a lot. It’s got this sort of western movie, mysterious, alien, and Diabloesque nature to it that I really dig. Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked was a perfect choice for the title theme as well. Showing off the mercenary nature of Pandora.

Even though cash is a largely useless resource– there’s not usually a gun available for purchase that’s better than what you have– it’s still fun in it’s own way to imagine this character’s fortune growing to an immense size.

The writing in this game is decently comedic. It seems to cover up for the games lack of compelling narrative and I think it does that pretty well. Some of the jokes fell flat but the later DLC campaigns got more funny as they went on.

The creature design for this game is really cool. The character design is pretty good too. I’ll never forget Helena Pierces wicked scarred face or Ned’s absurd mustache poking out over his surgical mask.

I dunno what that thing is but I think it’s coming this way and I’m not entirely comfortable with that.

The DLC in this game made up for the lame ending in my opinion. The delectable camp of the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, the real closure brought by General Knox’s Armory, and the sheer ridiculous fun of the Robolution were all a great time to be had by all.

The Kvetch

The bandit design is originally reminiscent of Mad Max or some similar post-apocalyptic setting and I thought it was really interesting. As the game went on and it was more of the same masked individuals I became very bored with it.

Killer bird things ripping out the eyes of masked thugs! This should be awesome but it’s sort of worn after the 50th time.

It’s something so small but it was a point of contention among me and my friends for the longest time. An abilities has ranks from 0-5. Class modification items can boost skills in rank. Does that mean they still cap out at 5 or can they be pushed beyond that limit? The answer is that they can be pushed above fifth rank but the game doesn’t inform the player as to the new statistical advantages.

This all being said, the skill menu looks quite nice. It just would have been great if there was an inclusive tooltip or something.

The planet of Pandora has all sorts of strange animals living on it and they’re all pretty cool. The Vault was reportedly built by a race of aliens known as the Eridians. That’s pretty cool, how the aliens left it behind. It would be quite the mystery if it wasn’t for the fact that actual living Eridians show up, especially during the finale. They have no desire to communicate with the player and serve only to create loose ends.

The ending of this game is a real let-down. After hours of mounting tension it’s revealed that The Vault was a hoax, which could have been cool in itself but it’s actually some sort of prison for a monster. Instead it was exacerbated by the existence of the Eridians. It makes sense why they wouldn’t want you to open it but then why would they have made a key to open it in the first place? I just… don’t understand.

The Verdict

This game is most enjoyed with friends but it’s ultimately disappointing. The DLC helps alleviate the shoddy ending but I’ll never forget the time I was promised mystery and subsequent closure and was given a Space Vagina Kraken in return.

“Hey guys! Itsa me!”

Next Week: Braid