Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Rrp: £18.99 (Steam), £18.99 (Humblebundle) £18.99 (Gog.com)
Released: 25th November 2014
Available on Steam, Humblebundle, gog.com
Played using: a Xbox 360 control pad.
Welcome back once again traveler to Pandora, this time there is a different tale to be told. Not one of vault hunters and their grand deeds but one that is no less significant.
Telltale returns once more with Tales from the Borderlands an interactive narrative adventure similar to the Wolf Among us and Walking Dead series.
In this game you play as Rhys a worker bee within Hyperion who’s… Been working rather hard lately. You also play as Fiona, a Pandoran who happens to be a con artist.
A word of warning, this game spoils Borderlands 2’s ending in the very first cutscene. So… Yeah, if you’ve somehow not completed Borderlands 2 or heard about its ending you probably should play this. Actually it also drops a few minor spoilers for the presequel too.
Also I apologise for the lack of video with this review but I couldn’t take any video that didn’t spoil the story at all, sorry.
There are many things within this game that follow the usual patterns, the story is told over five chapters, you only get a limited to respond to a conversation or situation, and your choices change the way certain aspects of the game play out.
These choices are actually not only reflected in the gameplay itself but in the prologue that proceeds each chapter (read by Marcus).
Now that we’ve covered what is the same lets go over what’s different.
As I mentioned earlier you play as both Rhys and Fiona depending on what the narrative demands (as in you don’t get to flick back and forth at will). These two characters have their own unique skill that can, and will, be used to progress the story.
Rhys can use his augmented eye to scan the world around him giving a little information about what is around him and later in the game it becomes more advanced.
Fiona… Well Fiona has money and can find it around the world. This money can open more options for you in the game such as clothing changes that will cause a scene to play out differently.
I have to say I really think that this format works well with the theme of Borderlands, mixing the right level of silly humour, snappy dialog and action. It helps that their graphics engine (which is now starting to show its age a bit) works really well with the cel shaded aesthetic of Borderlands.
It’s interesting playing as someone who isn’t a vault hunter within the Borderlands universe and how they react and cope with the incredible violence that permeates Pandora. These characters you play as can’t preform the super human feats of the vault hunters, most of the time they scrape by and wait for those that are stronger than them to kill each other and scavenge off the bodies.
You might think that there would be lots of cameos from characters that have appeared in the main Borderlands series and DLC’s, and you’d be one hundred percent correct, there are butt loads.
The game even gives you a free item for Borderlands the Presequel just for installing the game (although you’ll need to actively collect it).
The question is do you need to have played the Borderlands games in order to enjoy this one? Well the answer is kinda, yeah. I mean, you don’t have to have played them but certain scenes become more poignant and some characters actions will make more sense if you have.
Either way I have to recommend this I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this game and I really hope they make a sequel.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Wolf Among Us
The Curse of Monkey Island
The Borderlands series
