I like Telltale Games, or at least the early days of the company. It’s easy to understand why they went down the way they did. They took too many business offers, were churning out three series each year, and this eventually led to both burnout and the quality of their writing dropping. The formula the studio became popular with became outdated within the span of eight years and the sales numbers of their games weren’t doing so well around 2016 and beyond. So naturally they fired a majority of staff, finished up their last game, and closed the gates. Never to be seen again by the public until last year when they came back from the dead and made The Expanse game. That and a year before that they announced the highly anticipated The Wolf Among Us 2, which has quickly become one of my personal most anticipated games of the future after having played the first one weeks ago. Point is that Telltale has had several ups and downs, but if you were to take a careful look at some of their older titles you understand why they blew up the way they did. I was someone who never understood the appeal of this company for a longtime, but upon trying their games I gained appreciation for them and what they try to do with their restrictions.
The first season of The Walking Dead is timeless. Even though you're being railroaded to specific events and choices those little moments felt like they mattered. Choosing what to do when hell breaks loose, trying to stay calm, and protect yourself and the child you took into your care. See how characters’ opinion for you changes on how you treat them, and while this game does not have the depth or memory of something like New Vegas or Baldur’s Gate 3 it still finds a way to make you feel for what you do. The Wolf Among Us is a thrilling noir detective story with a fun fantasy twist. Each character you interviewed and encountered always had something to say to get you closer to the truth. However, they aren’t always willing to give you what you need and you have to decide how to whittle the info out of them. This is made worse with you being the big bad wolf yourself, and everyone in the fable community has doubts about you. Meaning you can try to reason with them and their troubles, or be aggressive and show them you are the monster they see you as. These games don’t have a lot of depth in terms of gameplay, but they do in terms of their writing. That’s what makes the Telltale formula so special. You get to decide how the story plays out, how the cast is perceived, and what kind of person the protagonist is. At least for their earlier games...
Telltale Games are cool, or they were cool at some point. I don’t plan to play every game in their catalog, but at the very least I want to write a full review for one of their titles. Should’ve done it for The Walking Dead, but thankfully we have another one right here I’m willing to go in depth into. Tales From The Borderlands, a collaboration between Telltale and Gearbox Software which follows an original cast of characters as they go on a wild adventure in the Borderlands universe. Tales From The Borderlands is a game that honestly should not have worked seeing how much the Borderlands games are gameplay driven rather than placing a focus on world building. I am about to say something that will piss a majority of gamers off. I do like Borderlands. It’s not the worst game series in the world and it’s doing a lot better than most Triple A franchises. It just never clicked for me in the same way as most people, which is weird considering how on paper it has things that sound cool to me. A semi-open world shooter with RPG elements and enough build variety to offer different playstyles for each character. Crazy guns to wield and loot, comic book artstyle, colorful cast of characters, and funny writing. Thing is, not all of it is handled very well. I think the gameplay is repetitive and is not good enough to warrant thirty hours of play, which is a shame seeing how that’s how long it takes to beat a Borderlands game. I think the rapid loot drops lead to quantity over quality, and numbness rather than excitement when getting a new gun. The stories aren’t well written and the humor is the most obnoxious thing I’ve heard.
That last point I really want to get across, because for the longest time I thought I was crazy. Not liking these games, their humor, and the stories they attempt to tell. It felt like I belonged in the minority, but as time passed a lot of people shared the same thoughts as me. The writing of these games is not good. They have aged like milk and even the second game which is considered the best for a lot of fans has a bare bones narrative backed by a good antagonist. These games fail in terms of storytelling, which is why Tales From The Borderlands should not have worked. This is a game that shouldn’t have come into existence, but it did and somehow it subverted what we all expected back in 2014 to 2015. This is a game that takes the Borderlands universe and adds the depth this series has needed for a long time. Telling a story following a likable cast of characters that develop as the plot goes on, you can relate to, and stick to till the very end. This is the game that makes the most of Borderlands, and I’m happy I finally played it. I love this. It did what I did not expect and that was to care for Borderlands. I wish New Tales From Borderlands didn’t exist or that they retcon that game and give this series back to Telltale so they can deliver us the proper sequel fans have been wanting since 2015. It’s great. One of the biggest highlights of the company. Let’s talk about Tales From The Borderlands and why it deserves your attention.
Story
This section will be explaining the whole first episode of the game. If you plan to play this game yourself then stop reading and go do so. You have been warned. Onwards!
The story follows two protagonists, Rhys and Fiona, as they recollect the wild adventure the two of them went on months before the present day. What happened was they got kidnapped, and the person who is holding them captive wants them to tell him everything they know. The plot starts off with Rhys and his former position at Hyperion. The same company Handsome Jack led and is now in corporate distress after his death in Borderlands 2. Rhys aspires to be like Jack. Working his way up the corporate chain in the hopes that one day he’ll be the visionary that leads all of Hyperion to a brighter future. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen as his rival Vasquez becomes the new head of Hyperion and demotes Rhys to janitor so that Rhys doesn’t have a chance to rise any further. This pisses Rhys off as he has no control of the situation, but then he hears Vasquez trying to purchase a Vault Key from Pandora. A key that can open a great dimensional vault that stores ancient treasures and a monster. Rhys decides to locate the seller of the key, and alongside his best friend Vaughn blasts down to the surface of Pandora to purchase the key before Vasquez.
The two are bombarded by psychos, wildlife, and thugs who roam the sands of the desert. They do eventually meet the seller of the key, but things go awry as it turns out one of the sellers was secretly a con artist. This is where Fiona steps in. She and her sister Sasha were raised by a great con man named Felix. Taught to survive the threats of Pandora and protect themselves in case anything were to go wrong. The man is basically a father to them, and their latest heist would involve them attempting to steal a briefcase of money from Hyperion lackeys. It doesn’t go as planned as the briefcase is stolen by local psychos. Rhys and Fiona end up having to work with each other to get it back, but things get worse as the briefcase is blown up and the money is lost. Rhys is now wanted by Hyperion for losing a ton of money and trying to screw over Vasquez, and Fiona has been abandoned as Felix betrayed her for the cash. The protagonists are left trying to scramble for anything valuable, but Rhys falls down a pit where he discovers an old facility once run by Atlas. A tech giant that was bought out by Handsome Jack. There they discover a plan called the Gortys Project. A plan where they would locate and open a vault without the need for a Vault Key. With some hope on their side the gang decide to push forward and try to figure out where this vault is located. All the while a mysterious handsome stranger assists them.
Gameplay
Telltale Games have always followed this structure I like to best describe as, “What if you took a click and point adventure, combined it with visual novel elements, and the dialogue choices you see in a Mass Effect game?” Most of the time gameplay is very narrative focused with constant cinematics, but occasionally you get dumped into sections where you have to roam around and solve puzzles. Some problems aren’t solved easily and that’s why you have to roam around until you find the item needed to progress. Find said item, use it in the right place, and now you can proceed with the story. That’s not the real meat of these games though despite it being the most video gamey aspect. The real meat of Tales From The Borderlands and any Telltale game to be exact is the cinematic presentation and dialogue choices. What you say to every character and how you treat them will change the flow of the story and how they perceive you as the journey goes on. Maybe you treat one character really well, and so later on they help you out during a bad and stressful situation. Maybe you spare somebody, or you hurt them which leads to them having a bad perception of you and not wanting to help. Maybe you kill them and they are gone for the rest of the journey. Even small acts like witty remarks will be something they could go on to remember and use against you in the future. This aspect about Telltale titles is interesting. Not well handled, but it makes playing these games a little more impactful to the player.
Sometimes the story can diverge in two different directions. Whether that be moral choices you have to make at the moment, or getting to choose where you go first. This helps add a bit more variety if you decide to redo episodes or do future playthroughs of the game. Maybe being in one place first over the other is a better idea, because who knows if what you want from that place will still be there when you come back. That or you won’t be able to go there at all as the story pushes you forward or a catastrophic event forces you out. Again, you are railroaded into doing specific things. Each episode in this game will always end in a specific way, but everything that leads up to the end of an episode is interesting and you want to pay attention. Choose the right responses and respond quick enough, because dialogue is timed in this game and staying quiet all the time may not be a good perception for most characters. Learn to talk and you’ll do great. That’s all I really have to say about the gameplay. Simple yet entertaining seeing how the story is doing the best it can to keep you entertained. Hopefully you can track down where this vault lies and get back at those Hyperion scumbags.
Thoughts
Tales From The Borderlands is fantastic in terms of utilizing the Borderlands universe to tell an actually good narrative with it. I want to get this out the way first. I love this game and I strongly recommend it even if you’re not a big Borderlands fan. The story is fantastic and can honestly be seen as its own thing. Like even if they didn’t set it in the Borderlands universe it would still do pretty good. I’ll talk more about the narrative shortly, because my biggest gripe deals with how this is as a video game. You probably shouldn’t be looking at it from this perspective anyways, because these games are more like popcorn movies you sit to enjoy rather than having to get skillful enough to push forward. As a video game it’s alright and when comparing it to previous works by Telltale this is the one that feels the least like a click and point adventure. Now those elements weren’t strong in The Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us either, but at least in those games it worked and you had to think from time to time. The Walking Dead had problems you had to carefully work your way around, because you don’t have what you need to solve the problem through easy means or one wrong move could lead to you dying instantly. Wolf works despite not having the same amount of item hunting, because from a narrative perspective you are trying to get the info you need to solve the big psycho killing mystery the game is about.
Tales From The Borderlands and its click and point adventure gameplay isn’t very strong in both gameplay and narrative terms. I will say it’s pretty creative when it wants to be. Both of our two protagonists have abilities that set each other apart. Rhys has a cyber eye that can scan files and reveal wiring nobody else can see. He also has a shock baton to electrify contraptions and force things away or open. Fiona has a gun with elemental rounds and can loot cash allowing her to buy whatever she needs. However, I feel like they could’ve done more, because the things I just told you are only used a few times. I also think puzzles where you gotta swap between the two and make use of everything they had would have given puzzles more depth and offered a wide array of puzzle ideas. So gameplay-wise it feels like there was room for improvement. Narrative wise the item hunting and puzzle solving just feels off even to me. I don’t know why we have to walk around to find stuff. The other two Telltale titles made item hunting work, but this game just feels there for the sake of having it.
With that out the way let’s talk about everything I actually love about this game. Borderlands has always had an artstyle I liked this combination of cell shading and comicbook visuals, and it made sense to give it to a studio who also specializes in stylized visuals. This game looks great and has some of the best animation I’ve seen from this series. Borderlands 3 animation might be a bit smoother, but Tales From The Borderlands has the more stylized look and feel. I like how expressive the characters can be even when the facial animation isn’t much. I like how colorful everything is, how it all pops out to the eyes, and the characters are memorable not just for their personality but often their designs match who they are. Fiona is a smirk con artist and her outfit shows off finesse but a bit of traitorous behavior. Rhys has an outfit that makes him look like he has been working for Hyperion for a while, but not enough time for him to be a well respected member of the company. You have all these characters with cool designs, personalities, and traits and despite their actions being radical none of them were all that hateable. Part of the reason why is due to the writing and we’ll talk about how this game does this series justice for once.
Borderlands has always had interesting parts to the world, but it never wanted to fully explore them. You have vaults containing ancient treasure and dimensional beasts. A planet teaming with all sorts of alien life. High tech companies competing for resources, and much more. However, they never fully elaborate on this stuff. It’s flashy for the sake of being flashy and that’s not good when you’re a writer who needs to account for everything in the world. Tales looks at this and says, “What if we explored it more?” So the game opens up on a Hyperion space station where we get to see how everything operates. How the employees of Hyperion are trying to handle the death of Handsome Jack and how stressed everyone is. They’re at least more orderly compared to the inhabitants of Pandora below. We get to see different townships on Pandora and that there is more to the planet than just psychos and monsters roaming about. There’s one town that quite literally reminded me of the Undercity from Arcane. Being hidden deep beneath the earth, and being lit up with several neon lights all of which are mainly purple, green, or blue. With nothing but thugs roaming about or people trying to lay low. Our characters witness these different parts of the world and through it they change. They learn to appreciate aspects they aren’t used to, and the lives they once worshiped become tainted as they learn more about the harsh truths.
Rhys is one of the most likable characters in the Borderlands series and for good reason. He aims to be the best, and the man he takes inspiration from is what drove him for the best. He loves the company he works for, but with time he hates it. Not only because he realizes he meant nothing to them in the end, but also because the man he was inspired by is actually terrible and would take advantage of him in every single possible way he could find. He learns what he wanted was undesirable so he tosses his dreams aside to form a new one. A better one not tainted by greed or to be fed power. Tales of The Borderlands has a fantastic narrative. I don’t know if it’s perfect, but it’s one that’ll keep you interested. Plus the game is actually funny. None of the poopy jokes this series usually does. It knows when to vary its humor and nail those jokes. I love this game. I give Tales From The Borderlands a 9/10 for excellence at best.
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