Ten or so years ago, the game developing company TellTale Games was practically a household name thanks to the runaway success of their breakout hit, TellTale’s The Walking Dead. From there, the studio went on to produce one hit after another (alongside the occasionally lackluster adventure), such as Telltale’s Jurassic Park, TellTale’s The Wolf Among Us, and Telltale’s Batman. However, after years of praise, the formula was beginning to get a little stale, and TellTale Games eventually collapsed under the pressure in an infamously disastrous bankruptcy.
Nowadays, TellTale Games has undergone renovations and a resurgence, and is doing much better for itself. They have two games on the horizon, one being a sequel to The Wolf Among Us, and another being set in the universe of Amazon’s The Expanse. I’m really happy that the developers have managed to bounce back financially and in the public eye…though I am saddened that their greatest masterpiece might never see a sequel of its own. I’m also saddened that so few people remember it.
Tales from the Borderlands released in 2014, and is set in the Borderlands universe created by Gearbox Studio. The game had an extremely troubled development cycle, to the point where (reportedly) only five staff members continued to work on the game and push it to the grand finale. As a player, though, you’d hardly notice this challenging production, because the end result is an unforgettable adventure with one of the greatest stories in gaming, a highly memorable cast, and consistently hilarious dialogue and set pieces.
First, though, let me explain how all TellTale Games work. They are all considered episodic adventures, and are about ten-hour-long stories broken up into five, two-hour chunks. In the game, you walk around, pick up items/clues, spend a lot of time talking, and engage in QTE (Quick-Time-Event) sequences during fight scenes. A certain level of reflexes is required to play these games, but otherwise, they can be easily enjoyed by just about anyone.
Anyone who isn’t overwhelmed by simulated social anxiety, that is. See, TellTale games pride themselves on offering choice and variability to the player. Run into someone you don’t like? Insult them! Does your character have to give an important speech? Crack some jokes instead! The options are pretty vast…but the characters and the world will ALWAYS remember what you’ve done. The person you insulted might come back to fight you later, and the crowd you disappointed with jokes might kick you out of their club because of it. Obviously, the outcomes would be vastly different if you had acted in other ways.
This means two things. For starters, it means that the games are inherently highly replayable, because they are both short and offer so many new and exciting outcomes based on your decisions. Secondly, it means that almost everyone who plays will have a different first experience from someone else, and due to the ease of streaming/uploading playthroughs of TellTale games, these games really saw extreme success on YouTube and Twitch. If there’s a way that you might want to play these games (apathetic comedian, straight-laced hero, witty jerk, etc.) the options are available to you.
Tales from the Borderlands retains all of these key TellTale Games principles, while also borrowing judiciously from the Borderlands series it is based in. This means key Borderlands characters make cameo appearances, the art style is evocative of that series, and the trademark Borderlands irreverent, ridiculous, and somewhat dark humor is here, and in peak form. Best of all, you don’t actually have to be a Borderlands fan to enjoy the game, as it still introduces you slowly to the world and its denizens, and doesn’t gatekeep newbies from enjoying everything on offer just as much as someone else.
So, what goes on in Tales from the Borderlands? What’s the skinny on the plot? Well, I’m glad you asked…
The world of Borderlands is a desolate and dreary place, and one frequently filled with bandits, psychos, looters, and craziness (think Mad Max, but even zanier). The central planet is Pandora, a primarily desert world, and above Pandora floats the H-shaped space station Helios (literally, it’s shaped like the letter H). Helios is staffed by the Hyperion corporation, which is largely a group of immoral and greedy yuppies seeking to exploit Pandora and its denizens for profit.
The game begins with you in control as Rhys, a significantly less jerky Hyperion office grunt, who dreams of a bigger position with the company. Alongside your best friend Vaughn, you manage to steal a corrupt official’s shiny new car and schematics to rob a lucrative and secretive vault on Pandora, and set off in pursuit of treasure and fame. You and Vaughn are woefully underprepared for the mayhem of Pandora, however.
At the same time, a con-artist duo rising up the ranks of Pandora’s underworld are also looking to nab the secret vault’s treasure. This duo is Fiona and her sister Sasha, and they are experts at manipulating people and using the chaos of Pandora to their benefit. In a surprisingly twist, you actually ALSO play as Fiona. Tales from the Borderlands alternates between Rhys and Fiona’s perspectives, and you have to make decisions for both of them at critical junctures in the story.
Eventually, after a fair few amount of zany shenanigans, Rhys, Vaughn, Fiona, and Sasha all meet up, and circumstances force them to work together in order to find the secret vault and lay claim to the treasure inside. The group of four get along about as well as you’d expect (read: not at all), but based upon your dialogue choices and behavioral actions, the group can become as close-knit as family.
Along the way, you have your work cut out for you while trying to find the vault. You have to contend with the corrupt official whose car you stole (voiced in impeccable fashion by Patrick Warburton), fend off a duo of mercenaries hired to hunt you down, evade a terrifyingly powerful crime boss, and keep a psychotic A.I. from stealing your body. You do have some help though, curtesy of memorable characters such as the stoic Loaderbot, the adorably ecstatic Gortys, and the too-cool-for-school bounty hunter Athena.
Like most TellTale adventures, Tales from the Borderlands isn’t necessarily anything to write home about in terms of its gameplay. You slowly walk around during investigation-type sequences, and you push a few buttons in the QTEs during the action scenes. Primarily, your character engages in conversation with different individuals, and the most interaction you have as the player is picking a dialogue option from a menu.
This isn’t to say that the gameplay is boring or uninspired, nor is it to claim that Tales from the Borderlands does not do its best to spice things up. Rhys has a robotic eye, and he can use that eye to scan objects in the environment. It’s almost never required, but it ALWAYS leads to hilarious and inane flavor text. Fiona can collect money during her scenes, and then depending on how much money you have, you open up additional possibilities further down the road. Action scenes are also extremely creative, ranging from a mass-scale fingergun battle, to a mano-a-mano giant robot versus massive monster melee.
Still, the most award-worthy thing about Tales from the Borderlands is its incredible characters and storyline. Every single character is amazingly presented, amazingly written, and amazingly well-acted. I mean, in a game that manages to wrangle together Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, and the aforementioned Patrick Warburton, how could it NOT have top-tier voice acting? There’s hardly a single wasted scene or joke that doesn’t land in the entire game, and the variations in outcomes based upon your choices are all equally entertaining and high-quality writing examples.
It’s a masterful story that manages to handle all story beats, too. Obviously, I’ve talked about how funny the game is, but there are an equal amount of serious, character-building story beats, frantic and tense action scenes, dramatic revelations, and a healthy dose of heartbreaking emotional twists, especially in the unforgettable climax. I always give bonus points to a game/movie/show/book that manages to make me cry, and Tales from the Borderlands is no exception to this.
My two favorite characters in the entire game are Loaderbot and Sasha. Loaderbot, despite in theory being a simple droid, has some of the most endearing, quotable, and developed character beats in the entire game, and his heroic antics frequently carry your ragtag group of treasure hunters to glory. Sasha is…amazing. She’s extremely witty, adept at gunplay and smooth talking, extremely loyal, and willing to go to any length to help save those closest to her. She’s one of my favorite video game characters ever, and just barely missed out on the “Top 10 Gaming Protagonists” list I did a while ago.
Is Tales from the Borderlands worth your time? A million times yes, I can hardly recommend it enough. It really helps that the simple adventure style of gameplay lends itself to an ease of access that anyone can enjoy, but the game is simply so good it’d be worth experiencing anyway. Excellent characters, hilarious and heartfelt storytelling, and an altogether unforgettable journey.
10/10
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 