With a single episode, Tales From The Borderlands shows that it has the potential to be the best Telltale series released this year.
Let's back up a second, though. The Walking Dead Season Two and The Wolf Among Us are great games. From any other studio either title would have been a highlight of their catalog, but unfortunately for Telltale they had to go and set the bar for so damn high that nothing could compare.
They first started showing how serious they were at bringing back adventure games with more comedic fare like the brilliant Sam & Max series and Tales From Monkey Island revivals, going on to make one of the most memorable games of this generation with the first season of The Walking Dead. That title was so successful that they continued making dark, gritty games, but how could anything else hope to compete?
One (valid) complaint was that things were getting too dour, too bleak. There’s only so long we want to play depressing stories full of characters placed in hopeless situations, after all. Telltale is one of the few studios around that knows how to do comedy, but it hasn't had a chance to demonstrate that in a while.
Here it does, in a game that's more laugh-out-loud funny than any in recent memory. Tales From The Borderlands is necessarily dark due to the subject matter- the series involves lots and lots of bandit murder, after all- but it’s also got that wonderfully sadistic sense of humor in place. It's also one thing Telltale games aren’t known for- action-packed. We should have expected nothing less considering the franchise but Telltale doesn’t exactly have a great track record with action sequences (I still have nightmares of that Jurassic Park rollercoaster sequence…)
Here though, it works perfectly, as long as you don't mind quick time events.
Chronologically this takes place after the events of Borderlands 2 (and thus, the original and Pre-Sequel) and is canon. Whatever happens in this game will be referenced in the inevitable Borderlands 3.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that! The early loader-bot scene which so thrilled us during our early time with the game sets the tone beautifully, and things just get crazier from there, with an absolute rollercoaster of a set-piece kicking off near the end of the episode which concerns a motorcycle race, a case of money, and a villain with a subwoofer implanted into his chest. It's a perfectly executed adventure sequence, where things just go wrong one after the other. When the visuals are so damn entertaining you won’t care that the majority of your inputs are hitting left or right or jamming on a key.
Besides, the story’s where it’s at, and the first episode is clever enough to end on one cliffhanger that opens up all sorts of possibilities for where the next four episodes will take these wonderfully despicable individuals. Wherever and whenever they do, we’ll be along for the ride.
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Tales From the Borderlands was reviewed from a Steam code provided by the publisher. It hits today for PC/Mac, with PS4, PS3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360 versions coming later this week. iOS and Android are also in the works. The first episode will take around 2 ½ hours to complete, upon which you’ll see how close to the other players your decisions hewed. (We all love Loader Bot.)
