Tales from the Borderlands is another game developed by Telltale Games in their line of Episode Point-and-click adventure games, following in the steps of The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. With the companies rise to popularity of late they have taken upon themselves to create several different games within the same time span, with a Minecraft Telltale game being announced just recently people have seen a link to this and the quality of rushed products. Is Tales from the Borderlands affected by the increase in workload?
Oh look, it’s Troy Baker… never expected him to be a voice here
Story
This is a review of Episode 1
The story starts off with yet another Narration from Marcus, telling of Vault Hunters and the people of Pandora, pointing out 2 new heroes for us to follow, Rhys and Fiona who then like to derail Marcus and tell of their own stories. Rhys being demoted after his last boss being shot out an Airlock by his Nemesis and Fiona trying to recover after a deal gone sour.
The perspective of the game switches between both Rhys, with his Bionic-like eye that can scan items for information and clues and his Stun Baton to blow enemies away, and Fiona who relies of Money and wit to get by. Rhys is a longshot from the previous games Telltale have done, from the strong Wolf Bigby, and the confident and endearing character from The Walking Dead, to a sometimes snivelling and boneless Hyperion pencil pusher that Rhys is. Fiona on the other hand is a born thief who has survived on Pandora her whole life and has been toughened up because of it, though she does have points where her will is broken.
Rhys finding out about a Vault Key deal that his nemesis is wanting to buy goes down to Pandora with his Accountant friend Vaughn to take it from under his nemesis Vasquez’s nose. Through Bandits and scary displays he finds the man the trade was with, August, and they start the deal. Switching over to Fiona we see the other side of the tale, that it was a huge setup with a fake Vault Key.
Twists and turns later the gang find themselves working together to get the money, which had been stolen by a Bandit boss, back. Changing roles between Rhys and Fiona as they make their separate ways to the end goal.
Playing through the story for the first time took me 2.5 hours, the next time it was around 2 since I knew where items where and didn’t bother looking at the investigative options. I did 2 full playthroughs, one being as mostly “Good” as I could be and one being something closer to “Evil”, though the game shadows in a morally grey area. As well as seeing how some conversations played out with each option being chosen to see the endings.
Gameplay
Just like the previous games by Telltale, Tales from the Borderlands plays more like an investigative game with action segments that are full of quick time events. Moving the cursor over an object you can Look, investigate, talk to, interact or attack, interaction allows for finding items behind others or moving them to allow you access to different areas. If you’re controlling Rhys you can also use your Hyperion tech eye to scan the area for additional information or hidden items.
Besides he moving around and interacting with the world you will be put into segments that require movement strokes and button presses to react to what happens, from either dodging an attack or using your weapons to defeat the enemies around you. These parts of the game can include several choices or simply need you to follow along and press the buttons so that you don’t hit that “Game Over” screen when it happens, though this isn’t true all the time.
Your characters will also spend over half the game talking to one another, continuing the style of up to 4 responses with varying responses. From the witty and smart responses to shouting “I Have the Shiniest Meat Bicycle!” which only people who enjoy the series will understand, you can get a good response out of the other side. While the game does give you choice it does seem irrelevant at times, with the conversation going the same way no matter what you say.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
Just like the other games in the franchise, Tales From The Borderlands lacks in its depth when it comes to having the choices make an impact on the game, with some choices only changing 1 line and never being referred to again and only 5 choices having a major impact. This is seen heavily in the beginning scenes where the game jitters as it loads the pre-determined ending to a conversation and ignores your previous inputs.
The loading in this release is smooth and quick, a huge improvement from Wolf, though the loading screens occur too often and become a staple when you move through any door or end a conversation. It can break immersion pretty quickly when a conversation leads to a loading screen then you in a caravan where the conversation continues and you are thrown into another action sequence.
It could be the character design, but it feels like your choices and decisions don’t change much, as the characters have in-built personalities that override your decisions. Rhys can’t stand up for himself as he whimpers away at any sign of aggression and cannot punch someone to save his life, whereas Fiona cannot fail at talking her way out of a situation and she is hard-coded to have a silver tongue.
Overall, Tales From The Borderlands Episode 1 gets a 3/5, it’s a nice story and shows off quite a big amount of humour and choices, though it would seem to only appeal to fans of the series. The choices lack any depth in the first episode, with very few having long reaching consequences, at least until later episodes. You really have to play later episodes to see the better part of this game in my opinion and the beginning episode hides away a lot of what the game as a whole should deliver.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
