Will you be able to survive down in Pandora! Find out in the review!
I recently received a review code for Tales From The Borderlands, the brainchild from Telltale games and Gearbox. Let me just say that the game has left me wanting more from the series and can’t wait to see what the series has planned next. There is a lot to cover so without any more delay, lets jump right it!
Tales From The Borderlands takes place after the events of Borderlands 2 and plays in 5 episodes that should take about 2-2.5 hours to complete. After you finish you find yourself wanting more and it’s really hard to stop playing just one episode without jumping right into the next one!
You play as Rhys, the young Hyperion employee that’s trying to make it big in said company. You also play the role of Fiona, a con woman who’s great at her job, which is grifting. You will use the skills that both playable characters bring to the table for your advantage.
Rhys has cybernetics that allow for electronic hacking. Fiona on the other hand has to use her quick wit to trick people for her own vices. Since you’re both of these “humanitarians,” you’ll have to put their skills to the test to survive in Pandora.
Without giving away too much of the story, everyone is after a Vault Key that is thought to be on Pandora and everyone will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. That’s all the story I’m giving out so you’ll just have to play the full game to find out what happens and trust me, you will be glad you did.
Tales From The Borderlands plays like a “point and click” adventure where your actions will effect what will happen in the long run. A better comparison might be a “choose your own path adventure book” where you can decide what path you take. You have control of how the situations turn out by how you react to certain dialogue or events. The con might take a deadly turn if you can’t swindle the buyer into thinking that you’re a certain character for example.
The whole game plays out like this where you decide practically everything such as what locations you travel to or who is in your group. The level of customization plays into the game as well when you need to decide how the characters will look in a certain vehicle or outfit to trick other people into believing their con.
The look and feel of the game look perfect for the location of the game, which is primarily Pandora. What I mean by that is the wasteland of Pandora fits the grainy-at-times look of the characters as well as the steam-punk looking outfits and gangsters look. It would appear that Pandora could have used the Wild West as a point of inspiration for the look.
The controls for the game are pretty straight forward as I mentioned before that it plays like a point and click adventure. Dialogue is spoken through assigned buttons on the PlayStation 4 controller, when needed. You also had actions assigned to the two control sticks of the PS4 controller. This was one of the minor issues I had with Tales From The Borderlands in the regard that it would be hard to tell when actions were going to appear onscreen.
What I mean by that is some of the actions that were given to the control stick probably should have been assigned to a button. Actions like being able to catch a flying projectile or throwing a punch/finding the right place to hit someone would have been better suited for a button. The results appear to come out right in the end either way but it depends on the events of the scene, like if your being shot at. If not timed right, you’re going to die but you just restart from the last save-point so it’s not too much of a killer. Most of the time the controls are very simple but they can catch you off guard at times like when you’re not expecting actions to appear on screen.
Tales From The Borderlands has some of the better writing/humor I have come across for a game like this. You don’t expect action games like this to have great writing and be hilarious but found myself cracking up the whole time I was playing the game.
The delivery from the star-studded cast had a lot to do with my good time as well as it has a great cast. Each one was better than the last and they made the game that much more enjoyable. From the main characters of Rhys (Troy Baker) and Fiona (Laura Bailey) sounding like they had great chemistry with each other to the likes of Patrick Warburton (one of my favorites from Seinfeld) and Chris Hardwick bringing something different to the table. As I mentioned before, combine the writing with the humor and the voice cast and you have something great here!
To recap, Tales From The Borderlands is a fun, hilarious entry into the Borderlands franchise. You make all the pivotal decisions and in turn those options tell the story. The writing is some of the best I’ve heard/seen and the voice cast plays into that. The simplistic controls can be tough at times but just keep your eyes on scene and on the prize all the time. You never know when something is going to jump out and take you down. Better stay on guard!
It’s these reasons that I’m giving Tales From The Borderlands for the PlayStation 4 a 9.5/10.
I would like to thank Telltale Games for the PlayStation 4 Review code.
Score: 9.5 / 10
