The Impact Factor

A Tale Worth Telling

Review

Tales from the Borderlands, Telltale Games (PS4)

Abstract: Tales from the Borderlands is fresh and exciting. Telltale flourishes in their return to comedic storytelling. Original characters feel at home in the Borderlands universe and are some of the best Telltale has ever done. The writing is sharp, witty, and often laugh-out-loud funny. Decisions made in Tales from the Borderlands feel meaningful, both within the game’s self-contained plot and in the Borderlands universe at large. Tales from the Borderlands is a wild ride and a raucously good time. If you’re looking for something clever, funny, fun, or enthralling look no further than Tales from the Borderlands. It’s not only one of the year’s best, but one of Telltale’s best games to date.

Telltale has become somewhat of a staple in my household. Overwhelmingly positive word of mouth led to my acquisition and subsequent playthrough of the turns-out-everyone-was-right-and-this-game-is-incredible The Walking Dead. The way in which the team at Telltale explored human relationships and allowed the player to personalize their character and their world through choice made the first season of The Walking Dead an impressive & memorable experience. The game’s strong narrative propelled the now fiancée and I through, and created a hunger for a type of gaming experience that (to the best of our knowledge) only Telltale could provide. From that point forward we picked up every new Telltale release. The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead Season 2. I wrote a bit about why I love playing these kinds of games here.

We are also huge fans of the Borderlands universe. Borderlands 2 was a game the two of us played for easily 200+ hours together, spanning three playthroughs and 4 different characters. Much like Telltale games, we loved the universe & characters Borderlands built for itself. Being a Vault hunter and exploring, shooting, and looting everything in Pandora was a blast. The dialogue was charming. We even got into the lore of the Vaults and the corporate history centered on Vault hunting. Again, ever since Borderlands 2, Justine and I were hungry for more.

 

Telltale plus Borderlands? Be prepared for a wild ride.

What we never expected, however, was that Telltale’s chocolate would mix with Borderlands’s peanut butter. Announced during VGX, Tales from the Borderlands appeared to be the perfect fusion of our recent gaming interests. But it also filled me with a lot of doubt. Mechanically speaking, the two styles of games appeared immiscible. How would Telltale get across the feeling of being on Pandora, where shooting things is how you spend your day to day? What about the tone of the game? The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us were both dark, gritty stories about loss, evil, and what people do with their back against the wall. Borderlands isn’t all love and hugs, but everything there is steeped in dark humor. Tales from the Borderlands would have to be funny in that uniquely Borderlands kind of way. It was with trepidation that we dipped into the first episode of Tales from the Borderlands.  But in doing so I was met with my biggest surprise yet: not only does Tales from the Borderlands perfectly fuse Telltale narrative & gameplay with Borderlands’s humor & world, but it might be Telltale’s best game to date. It’s really, really good.

You play as two protagonists in Tales from the Borderlands. You have Fiona, the scrappy orphaned thief from Pandora, and Rhys, the quippy pencil pusher from Hyperion (the largest corporate arms dealer in the galaxy). Fiona and Rhys are highly ambitious. They both put plans into action to rise above their stature. Plans that, inevitably, force the two plucky characters to cross paths. And what is this bold, crazy plan? The surreptitious sale of a Vault key. That’s right, a key to what everyone on Pandora seeks—a way to locate, and open, a Vault. The same Vaults that adventurers from around the universe travel to Pandora for. The sale goes…poorly, leading Rhys & Fiona to join forces against psychos, monsters & corporations alike to unravel the mystery of the ‘Vault of the Traveler’ and (hopefully) stay alive while doing so. The story takes a bunch of twists and turns that kept me engaged throughout all five episodes. It’s a fun action-adventure heist told with a thick layer of comedy. Exactly what I’d want from a Telltale Borderlands game.

 

The relationship between Fiona & Rhys is spectacular. It was so fun
to see it evolve over time.

Where Telltale really succeeds is in creating extraordinary characters. Over the course of Fiona & Rhys’s journey they form an eclectic group of funny, strange, and thoroughly memorable characters. This was one of my biggest concerns coming into Tales from the Borderlands. Borderlands had already established such great characters. Creating new ones that felt like they belonged was a gargantuan undertaking. On the other hand, relying too strongly on series staple characters would feel unambitious. Tales from the Borderlands perfectly straddles that line: most of the cast is brand-new to the universe, with franchise veterans playing only small, supporting roles. I cannot emphasize enough how much I loved the characters here. Rhys is the perfect mix of inept, cocky, goofy & endearing. Fiona is at once scary, tender, sarcastic and badass. Vaughn, Loader Bot, Gortys, Sasha, Vasquez, August. Everyone. Everyone was fantastic. Saying too much more would go into spoiler territory, but I really want to emphasize how distinct and memorable the cast of characters is in Tales from the Borderlands. Many evolve over time, growing alongside the player as your actions becoming increasingly bombastic. I’d love to see Tales from the Borderlands’s cast come back again in the future and, if the ending is any indication, I think I just might.

 

Tales from the Borderlands has quite the cast. Loader Bot & Gortys are two
2015's best. 'Hi.'

Narratively, Telltale deserves special commendation as well. The studio nails its return to comedy in Tales from the Borderlands. Jokes felt effortlessly funny, supported by great dialogue and goofy physical comedy. Sure, a lot of what actually happens in Tales from the Borderlands is pretty dark, but Telltale approaches the subjects with the franchise-established lightness and wit. Tales from the Borderlands also allowed Telltale to play with their storytelling. For the first time in their modern suite of titles, Tales from the Borderlands is told from two different perspectives. Seeing, and playing, two sides to the same story felt fresh. Two protagonists also allowed for a more ‘epic’ journey. You could be doing two totally different (and insane) things at the same point in the game’s timeline because you controlled both Fiona and Rhys. It enhanced the feeling of the player’s importance to the game’s narrative, making my choices feel even more meaningful. On that note, too, Tales from the Borderlands is also the Telltale game in which your choices have the biggest impact on the actual plot of the game. Usually, your choices don’t really affect the overall outcome of the story but rather act as a way to define your protagonist. Your decisions influence the way they see & interact with their world (thereby affecting the story because of how they react to the set events). But in Tales from the Borderlands the decisions you make have profound implications. Not only do they define much of your experience in the game’s final chapter, but they also have tremendous consequences for the world of Borderlands. Your decisions dramatically alter the fate of Pandora. As a newcomer to the franchise, it might not mean much, but to a longtime fan it will be interesting how the events of Tales from the Borderlands will affect future Borderlands releases. They pretty much have to.

 

You make big decisions. Be prepared to live with the consequences.

If you’ve played a Telltale game before, you will know what to expect from gameplay. During conversations, you’re able to choose one of four dialogue options and characters react accordingly. Between conversations, Tales from the Borderlands lets the player walk around in small areas, talking to other characters or moving towards the next objective. Quick time events (QTEs: quickly pressing a button after a specific prompt appears on screen) are used for the game’s many action scenes. It’s what Telltale has done for a while, but it works. Layered on top of the old gameplay are some new systems, though. As Rhys you can use your robotic eye to scan your environment, which is used for both world building and comedy. Fiona can loot containers for money, which can then be used to customize her outfit or vehicle. Gameplay isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but it’s fun, functional, and supports the game’s strong story and characters.

QTEs galore, but they work well. Don't forget to dodge.

One of the most striking elements of Tales from the Borderlands is how Telltale plays with their own narrative and gameplay conventions. Perhaps the comedic nature of the source material prompted the studio to experiment, often offering tongue-in-cheek commentary on their standard practices. Narrative-wise, Tales from the Borderlands toys with the concept of the unreliable narrator. Neither Fiona nor Rhys are the best, most honest people you’d ever meet, and that comes across in their storytelling. Much of the game’s story is told via the two characters recalling their experiences. Heroic moments are embellished, nitty-gritty details are omitted. It’s sometimes hard to know what exactly happened. It’s a very cool feeling. Further, while Telltale gameplay systems are kept the same in Tales from the Borderlands, how they’re used is worth writing about. There are moments where the standard ‘choose one of four options’ only offers one choice to make. Another moment plays with how ridiculous video game shootouts can be, and how even more ridiculous it is to do with using only QTEs. A final moment plays with the idea of a QTE, asking the player to perform a Mortal Kombat like series of inputs. These tweaks, as small as they may be, made playing Tales from the Borderlands feel fresh and exciting.

 

Small touches keep the gameplay fresh. I went with the Riot Shield.

I still think back to my time with Tales from the Borderlands. It was one of my favorites this year. Telltale fan or not, Borderlands fan or not, please play this game. Comedy, characters and silly fun don’t get much better. Tales from the Borderlands is a delight.

Tales from the Borderlands

5/5