Tales From The Borderlands - Episode 1 - Review

When I first heard about Telltale teaming up with Gearbox to create a new story in the Borderlands world, I laughed, hard. The story in the Borderlands titles has been pretty thin, in reality just an excuse to connect the spaces to explore, but this is Telltale, a group known for crafting a narrative that can defy all expectations.

When you first start the game you meet Rhys, a Hyperion company man who aspires to be like Handsome Jack and then you meet Fiona, a Pandora native who has lived her life one con after another, the two of them are being held captive by an unknown person who asks them to explain what they know and it is here the story kicks into gear. At first we are taken to Helios the station that you can see from anywhere on Pandora and into the life of Rhys, who alongside Vaughn, is living pretty high as his promotion is about to come in. But when he enters the office of his boss, he is met with quite the shock as Mr Henderson is no-more and has been replaced by Mr Vasquez.

Here we get our first chance to control where the story goes and after some time, break out Rhys’ enhanced eye. It at this point that we learn Vasquez has gotten a lead on a vault key, one of those rare items that allows its user to enter a mythical vault filled with untold goodies and after being demoted to Vice President of Janitors, Rhys has decided he wants to take it for himself and bring down Vasquez. Vaughn is ok with the plan and with some additional help, they make their way down to the planet’s surface and we get to explore the world of Pandora all over again.

After a while and a series of chaotic events we are returned to the present and there we get to hear what happened from Fiona, who leads a very different series of events up til they both meet. What really had me invested in the story was that of Rhys and Vaughn, the two of them share a lot of the same goals, but they take very different approaches to them, but they still work together for a common purpose. Fiona and her sister Sasha have been raised to trust no-one and steal what they can, so those two playing a lot at points and then not never really shocked me. What did however was just how fast the story gained ground and took me on a wild rollercoaster of an adventure.

Alongside all of this was the same look that I have known since my first time on that bus, many years ago now. Having the same visual style helped sell that this was the same world more than anything, with the main titles in the series showing very little animation on anything that was trying to kill you, being able to interact with characters in bars and such was refreshing. While some of the places look like they could have been removed from the main series, where Fiona calls home is really something special. The other element that really works is the voice acting, each of the characters as a great tone and they sound weighted, but even better than that is hearing the voices of some of the regulars as well.

Perhaps the only real problem with the game, is that if feels like it is on rails the whole time you are playing, there are very few times that you are allowed to explore on your own, with most of the time you are locked to a set path. Sure, this could change in future episodes, but it has set a tone for the gameplay that could be hard to break.

For the first episode in the series, we are treated to some interesting characters, great set pieces and treated to a world that feels lived in. Here is hoping the remaining episodes keep going up.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Telltale Games

The Pros

+Characters have lots of charm and feel real

+A new way to experience the joys of Pandora

The Cons

-Context for newcomers is lost quite easily

-No real chances to explore the world, just being lead around on a straight path