If you’ve played Borderlands 1 or 2, you’ve probably wondered at some point what Pandora life is like as a non-vault hunter. Well, Tales from the Borderlands does a great job of taking our hands to lead us to overlook the vibrant world of Pandora before shoving us into it’s abyss of violence and insanity. The first episode, ‘Zer0 Sum’, has finally been released and it fully succeeds at bringing players a familiar world with a brand new perspective while making sure newcomers to the franchise aren’t left in the dust.
Tales from the Borderlands throws us into a world most known for it’s absurdity and being down-right demented but still manages to put us in the shoes of characters we truly care about. The game revolves around two protagonists the player controls: Rhys (Troy Baker), a morally ambiguous corporate ladder-climber, and Fiona, (Laura Bailey), a morally ambiguous con woman. Rhys being from Helios, a base on the moon of Pandora that contains the oppressive Hyperion corporation, he views Pandora as little more than a cess-pool of human and evolutionary garbage. Fiona, being from Pandora, hates Hyperion and anyone who contributes to it’s perpetual oppression of Pandorans. And so it follows that any story writer who tells you these two shouldn’t be stuck in a life-threatening situation together is no story writer at all. Thankfully, one of the lead writers of Tales from the Borderlands is Stephan Vladimir Bugaj who’s past writing projects include WALL-E and Ratatouille. His sense of humor and wit is very present within the story while making no compromise in giving the respect the harsh and unforgiving Borderlands universe deserves.
Taking place after Borderlands 2, our story begins with our two protagonists captured and interrogated by and unknown enemy forcing them to tell the story of how they got into such a situation. As they take turns telling their respective sides of the story, the player controls certain dialogue and choices made by that character. The mechanics involved don’t falter much from past Telltale games; the player will often be prompted between four different dialogue options that are usually under the duress of a timer. Action sequences are Quick Time Events (QTEs) that will prompt the player to input certain commands for their character to avoid (or inflict) certain death. While Rhys or Fiona can die, the game brings the player back to our characters being kidnapped and reminds them they’re still alive, so that can’t be how it went down.
At least in this first episode, the gameplay doesn’t feature much in the field of finding items or solving puzzles to progress in the story like Telltale’s previous games. While a lot of the decisions in the story do feel somewhat altering, acquiring items or having Rhys or Fiona interact a little more with the environment would have felt like I had more control over the outcome. There is a button for both characters to view a lacking inventory. There is also a button to activate Rhys’ ECHO eye implant that allows you to scan certain things in your environment. This doesn’t seem to serve much of a purpose other than being incredibly entertaining and humorous. The same button for Fiona doesn’t do anything but allow you to view how much cash she has on hand. You’re able to purchase a couple of things in the game but these are entirely cosmetic and temporary. It’s possible her ability to have money will come in handy in future episodes.
Tales from the Borderlands is a little more action-heavy than what we’re used to from Telltale. The events in between can often feel lacking when it’s not serving up laughs as much as it could. But where it lacks it certainly makes up for with some hilarious moments that will be remembered throughout the series. Rhys and Fiona are often telling their own side of the story that contradicts the other in slight and humorous ways. Rhys’ delusions of grandeur get the better of him when he’s asked how he repaired a deal gone wrong and you have the option of seeing him either effortlessly rip out someone’s heart or use mind-blowing charisma to get his way, neither of which actually happen.
There are, of course, a number of references and characters that allude to the Borderlands series. As the episode title suggests, Zer0 cameos speaking in his trademark haiku pattern. Shade, the lonely nutcase who talks to dead people makes an appearance as well. But Rhys and Fiona’s respective sidekicks often step into the spotlight on more than one occasion and make their way into our hearts. Vaughn (Chris Hardwick) is a Hyperion accountant and Rhys’ best friend. Sasha (Erin Yvette) is Fiona’s little sister and literal partner in crime. Both give amazing voice performances and provide truly lovable characters. In some ways, I’m far more excited to see what happens with them in future episodes than Rhys or Fiona.
On a technical level, Tales from the Borderlands suffers from a few things; after loading into a new scene, a bug occurs that sometimes cuts off the first line of dialogue right in the middle. Another off-putting issue involves Zer0’s voice track being extremely loud compared to other characters’. Not to mention, near the end of the episode no adjustments were made to the loud revving of engines and heart-skipping soundtrack overwhelming that of the actual dialogue to the point where turning on subtitles is a necessity. These issues didn’t impede my experience too much, but they are oversights that I feel were a bit lazy. These bugs are easy to ignore with how much fun you’re having and if you don’t mind reading dialogue for even a small portion of the episode.
In spite of gaining the reputation of one of the busiest and prolific game studios as of late, it’s clear Telltale still puts every effort into their projects to make well-told and polished stories in a unique format that grows in it’s popularity. Episode 2 of Tales from the Borderlands is titled ‘Atlus Mugged’ and has no release date yet. But if it’s anything like Telltale’s past projects, it’ll be about a month before we’re able to see it. Getting your hands on this game is easy; it’s on PS3 & 4 as well as PS Vita, XBox 360 & One, PC/Mac. On console, each episode is $4.99 or you can get a Season Pass getting you all five episodes for $19.99. On PC/Mac, however, you can only purchase a Season Pass for $24.99.
I’ll be playing and recapping each episode as it comes out. When the finale is released, I’ll have a final review score for you! What were some of your favorite moments of Tales from the Borderlands: Zer0 Sum? Let us know in the comments below!