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?
Story
This is a review of Episode 5, for episode 4 go here
Catching a ride on a spaceship heading to Helios, we find our party just as we left them, with Handsome Jack implanted into Helios itself and the party getting track down by our old friend Yvette. Having to escape from Jack, party find themselves hunted by him at every turn as he takes over all control of the space station. Rhys comes up with an idea to defeat Jack, to destroy the core itself and power him down.
From destroying part of the core, Helios is set on a collision course with Pandora, forcing the different parts of the party to escape from the space Station. But with Vallory’s thugs, Loader Bot, Gortys, Rhys, Fiona and more having to escape all separately it is quite a dash for an escape pod.
I don’t want to write much more about the story as it is really spoiler-ish and full of all your choices up to this point, with even more choices ahead of you. However it is full of references and epic moments so look forward to it.
Playing through the final episode took around 2hours, on an alternate run it took just a little less.
Gameplay
With less of a focus on investigation, since you have completed all you needed to up till now, this episode is chuck full of Quick Time events, with a battle scene akin to Street Fighter in its combo setups, as well as another Fiona multiple choice segment to fend off 3 foes. Depending on your previous choices there will be some options available to you near the end, affecting the way the fight plays out and the actions you take during it.
There was something missing from the final episode, it didn’t feel like a culmination of all previous game systems and mechanics, but more of an action packed climax. While it isn’t a bad way to end, I did feel it lost some of the flair from previous episodes in the series.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
Bringing all your choices together, both in character choice be it from them being alive or you treating them well, to endings to story arcs. Some choices and endings were cut off without being able to see the final result which was rather disheartening, leading into a sequel that I doubt will happen. The climactic fight at the end felt and looked awesome, no matter who you chose to take with you, it didn’t feel out of place at all. The episode also tried to pull at heartstrings yet again with some of the scenes, which I would say were done very well and were effective.
With the ending as it is, I felt kind of ripped off, it did what a lot of other games did and ended with a cliff-hanger and did not tie up loose ends. With a game that has made you wait almost a month for each episode it continues to make you wait for answers which feels very insulting. While it had a great ending for some parts, with some wish fulfilment here and there, it felt flat towards the very end.
Overall, Tales From The Borderlands Episode 5 gets a 4/5, the climax was very well done with a very sour tasting ending. The gameplay had no nick picks to speak of really and everything fit in nicely, including the references and music choices. Some characters were added in with little to no explanation or argument which I felt could have been eased in better. The overall package is amazingly presented and contains some amazing points in the story, though the slower parts are kind of immersion breaking with some choices feeling hollow.
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.
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