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

The Wolf Among Us (PC, Xbox 360, and PS3)

The fables and characters within that we know and love weren’t actually born on the page. They lived in their own world, a place they referred to simply as the Homelands. But  were driven out by The Adversary and his empire which lead them to our world. They consolidated their survivors, forgave their past crimes against each other, and established a community in New York City. There’s another community upstate called The Farm for the inhuman characters — don’t worry about it, no one else does… You play as Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of Fabletown. Something’s stirring in the rotten underbelly of this city and Bigby’s going to get to the bottom of it — because detective things.

History

I can sum up the development of The Wolf Among Us in one word, delay. The game was announced in June of 2011 and announced again –for some reason–  in on October 2012. It got named in February of 2013 and was going to be released in January-March of 2013 and was postponed until June-August of 2013. The first episode was finally released in October of 2013.

Fun Fact: Adam Harrington is the voice of both Bigby and the Woodsman. As such, Harrington spends a lot of time talking to himself.

The Wolf Among Us was completed on November 4th 2014. It’s competition was Flashback (Playstation Network and PC), Batman: Arkham Origins (PC, WiiU, PS3, and XBox 360), and Deadly Premonition: Director’s Cut (PC).

Experiences

The Wolf Among Us offers an incredible experience as an investigator, the detective that CSI has taught us to think we are. Telltale gives us the choice to play our Bigby however we want and I chose to play him with one simple rule: Everyone gets one warning, no more, no less. And sometimes that bit me in the ass. So it’s your Bigby and your rules. The replay value of the game is seeing what happens under different circumstances cleverly disguised as offering the pleasure to make a different Bigby.

I mean, is it worth it to be the fairest? But being a tyrant is fun.

Gameplay

The Wolf Among us is a narrative and choice driven walk and click adventure with quick-time-event combat sprinkled in. You control Bigby, walking around, picking stuff up, looking at evidence, and talking to people. And you’ll do a lot of talking. Every dialogue section has 4 options — and silence is always an option. The other big part of the game is choice. Every so often the game will offer the player a mutually exclusive choice i.e. if Bigby goes somewhere he can’t be in the other location at the same time. Meanwhile, anything could happen in your absence. Telltale, as always, does a wonderful job of making your choices feel like they really matter even when they might not. Especially considering some of your choices can have huge impacts on the state of the game.

Sometimes it’s literally a matter of life…

… And death.

The Gush

The music in this game is wonderful. The menu music puts me in a contemplative mood and the chapter beginning music gets me all fired up to play. It creates this moody and sleazy atmosphere for this modern film noir setting.

The story is top notch. It reacts to your decisions marvelously and those decisions aren’t always cut and dry. The story also tackles big issues that people face today like the nature of government, law enforcement, and fear. You’ll learn something about yourself going through the story.

This is the only game where someone can experience the Fables setting and it’s a treat to see. Being a fan of the Fables comic enhanced my experience but it’s not a necessity, the game does a great job explaining the setting on its own. It’s also just wicked fun to be Bigby — such stronk, much wolf punch.

It’s also beautiful watching Bigby and Snow be awkward as hell.

This game looks great, it’s incredibly stylized. Everything just pops out even though it’s gritty and grimy. The setting design naturally draws the eye right to where it needs to go.

The voice acting is evocative and incredibly emotive. From Toad’s cheapskate complaining to Gren’s rebel without a cause attitude every voice actor is bringing their A-game.

The Kvetch

The combat is a little weak. It gives the player a sense of agency when it comes Bigby’s violent side but the failure scenario just takes the player back to the beginning of the fight. It’s a tough situation from a design perspective. They couldn’t just hold the player’s hand because that might seem insulting and taking it away from the player means they’d be lacking agency during the fights, like they were watching Bigby and not controlling him. It all just seems a little odd because Telltale games are about choice and in combat I get incredibly worried that I’m going to mess up, not make the wrong choice.

We get it, Bigby will beat ’em up.

The Verdict

The Wolf Among Us is a wonderful Telltale game and a wonderful narrative driven experience in general. That being said, the player doesn’t actually do much. They’ve got a lot of input, they’ve got a lot of options, but it’s a very passive game. If you want a game where you’re doing stuff all the time then this is not be for you. This game is much more thinking about the character you’ve got int your head and what they would do or say, then the game generally does it for you. If that sounds like the sort of experience you want then go for it. It’s going for $25 on Steam right now and I’d wait until it dropped to about $20.

Next Week: Space Funeral

Poker Night at the Inventory and Trusting the Designers (Windows and Mac)

Deep in the bowels of the city there’s a secret speakeasy, The Inventory. It was established in 1919 in anticipation of the passing of American Prohibition. The owners of the establishment had also heard that the 18th Amendment was going to outlaw games and amusements, something they would not stand for– as proprietors of a games and amusement company. The Inventory served game enthusiasts and creators for years and began to cater to game characters as well. They remained hidden for 90 years and they’re still open for business, offering games, gambling, and liquor to those who find their establishment. You are a gambler of some renown who has come to The Inventory to make some scratch playing some high stakes Texas Hold ‘Em.

And down we go via secret street elevator. You can even see Sam in the background.

History

Poker Night at the Inventory was born of the desire to create a sequel to Telltale’s Texas Hold ‘Em, that game’s focus on banter, and a conversation between Telltale employees about “what videogame characters do when they’re not ‘on the clock int he games we play.” Telltale already had the license to Strong Bad and Sam and Max because of their work on the modern Sam and Max installments and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. They then focused on acquiring a Team Fortress 2 character as the designer’s themselves enjoyed the game immensely. It was these talks with Valve that created a healthy relationship between them later on.

Poker Night at the Inventory was released on November 22nd, 2010. It’s competition was Super Meat Boy (PC), Call of Duty Black Ops (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii), and Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii).

Gameplay

Texas Hold ‘Em is one of the most popular and simple iterations of Poker. At the beginning of each round each player is dealt two cards face down. These cards belong to them and only they can use them to build a five card hand– the game automatically chooses the best hand your cards can make. There’s a round of betting. Three cards are dealt face up, these cards may be utilized by anyone to build a their hand. There’s a round of betting. A fourth card is dealt. Another round of betting. The final card is dealt followed by more betting. Then everyone reveals their cards and the most statistically unlikely hand is declared the most superior.

Ranked from most rare to least.

The real draw of the game is learning the tells of the other players. They don’t have perfect poker faces, they let go of little bits of information regarding the quality of their hands all the time. It’s up to the player to figure out what action correlates to what hand state. For example, if the Heavy slams his fist on the table he’s got bad cards. It’s most difficult to learn the tells of the cartoonish characters Max and Strong Bad but they do have them and I think they’re pretty funny.

The other gamblers at the table are Strong Bad from Homestarrunner.com, Max from the Sam and Max adventure game duo, The Heavy from TF2, and Tycho from Penny arcade and they act just like you’d imagine them to. Every so often one of the characters will offer collateral instead of money. Defeating them will earn the player an in game trophy and out of game loot– as in special items in other games, not a pile of jewels or something.

Such as Strong Bad’s one-of-a-kind special Dangeresque prop glasses.

Experiences

The enjoyment a player derives from this game is directly related to how much they trust the designers. I told someone that I was playing this game and they said that it didn’t matter, that the game was rigged, and that the AI could just count cards whenever they wanted. I think that’s an unjust estimation. The big difference between me and my friend here is that I trust the designers not to allow the game to work that way and that he didn’t.

If the designer loses the player’s trust then there’s no way for the player to have fun. That being said, I saw time and again how the characters were loyal to their character– The Heavy or Max plays just about exactly as you’d expect him to. The game earned my trust by sticking to its rules. None of the players ever present a tell in an attempt to deceive– sometimes a character might perform the tell for a bad opening hand but turn it around by the end.

The Gush

The Banter is really where this game shines. I think it’s really funny and it doesn’t present the same conversations too often. Some of it’s way out there and really deep into the mythos of each of the characters but some of it’s based on something as simple as the character’s appearance.

There’s also something delightfully silly about someone scooping up poker chips with a shovel.

All of the characters have character and I really like that. It comes through in the repeated attitudes. Strong Bad dislikes Tycho and will often insult him. The Heavy considers Strong Bad to be a little Heavy. I hadn’t even heard of Sam and Max before this game and it’s Max’s playing… style that got me interested in them.

I mean, the resemblance is uncanny.

A deck of playing cards goes for anything between 2 and 20 dollars. At 5 dollars, Poker Night at the Inventory measures up pretty well to the cost of a deck and it throws in the experience of hanging out with a bunch of silly characters to sweeten the pot.

The Kvetch

Eventually every mine runs dry. It takes a long time but eventually you’ve heard everything they’ve had to say. I pick it up every once and awhile but I’m not sure if I’m hearing something new or if I forgot I had heard it.

The aesthetics can get a little dry after a long time. It’s always the same guys, table, and Inventory every game. There’s no way to change it up.

The Verdict

 I’m fond of poker and I’m fond of videogames. This game is like the peanut butter cup of these two ideas, it’s goddam delicious. This isn’t a game that brings on long play sessions it’s more of touch and go and come back to experience. It’s definitely worth the 5 dollar value if you purchase it on Steam. I’d say you’d enjoy the game if you’re familiar with at least half of the characters and enjoy poker.

Next Week: The Bard’s Tale