One among my greatest gripes with the mainline Borderlands series is its humor. I’ve had some good laughs whereas enjoying, however Borderlands’ jokes land more like a shotgun blast the place some hit and others don’t. That’s okay in bursts, however shotgun blast after shotgun blast can get exhausting. Telltale Video games’ tackle this universe, Tales From The Borderlands, remedied this by offering a more nuanced and delicate tackle the humor coursing by means of the franchise’s veins. It turned considered one of my favourite Borderlands video games, with an amazing story and memorable characters.
I’m joyful to report Gearbox’s tackle that system in New Tales From The Borderlands retains that very same humorousness with a vastly improved visible type more consistent with the series’ latter entries. It additionally contains a cast simply as memorable – I already need more of them. Sadly, although, your complete package deal is let down by a lackluster overarching narrative missing cohesion, and I’m left wishing Gearbox gave these characters a greater story to exist inside.
New Tales From The Borderlands options a number of acquainted faces and names with Tales From The Borderlands’ Rhys, now CEO of gun-manufacturer Atlas, and different mega-corporations like Maliwan and Tediore. A lot of the recreation takes place on Promethea, which Borderlands 3 gamers ought to acknowledge.
Altruistic however internally egocentric scientist Anu groups up along with her adopted street-smart brother Octavio, his assassination bot LOU13, and Fran’s Frogurt proprietor Fran. Collectively, they intention to guard Promethea from a Tediore invasion, safe a hidden vault treasure and, finally, try and create and alter the world with an anti-gun system. The story units this up fairly properly within the first episode of this five-part story, and I used to be excited to see the place it went. However only a few hours later, I used to be left confused.
With out spoiling something, the story bounces between seemingly random subplots that really feel unimportant to the first battle. At one level, I’m determined to dodge a Tediore invasion. Then, an hour later, I’m on a Shark Tank-like recreation present making an attempt to pitch Anu’s system to traders. After which, my main concern is seemingly to open a enterprise amidst the rubble of the Tediore invasion that’s nonetheless ongoing. I needed more of the save-the-world narrative the primary episode arrange, however the aspect beats and steps alongside the way in which are distracting and loosely hooked up greater than anything.
The story does wrap itself up properly, with a candy second of a bow on prime, and by the point the credit rolled, I used to be joyful to have skilled what this squad of characters went by means of. I simply want your complete recreation featured the cohesion I felt within the first and remaining episodes.
Story apart, New Tales From The Borderlands options 4 of my new favourite characters on this universe. Anu is humorous and quirky in a basic scientist-getting-in-the-way-of-herself means, and a few late-game revelations add more depth to her persona that I admire. Octavio performs it cool, and I had enjoyable shaping the type of “cool” he's with my selections. Fran is a sexually-confident middle-aged girl who’s put apart subtlety in favor of outright telling folks, “we should bone.” She feels probably the most like a basic Borderlands character – with a handful of fart jokes, too (admittedly, considered one of these made me snort so much).
LOU13 was my favourite, although. His deadpan humor and his journey to interrupt free from the parameters of his assassination programming stored me smiling your complete means by means of. Every character shined in their very own methods when remoted, however collectively, my favourite conversations in the entire recreation passed off, letting every riff on the others in distinctive methods.
After all, the success of those moments got here all the way down to Gearbox’s glorious character writing and the alternatives the sport introduced me with at each trivial and pivotal moments within the narrative. I might set Fran up with an enormous energy play of a comment when arrested by Tediore troops, or I might simply have her reply questions by making fart noises. I loved crafting my tackle every of those characters and Gearbox, very similar to Telltale, excelled in that regard.
Principally gone are the Telltale “this person will remember” notifications. In concept, this can be a good contact, because it removes that gamified aspect from the system and permits the participant to stay with their selections with out understanding how they have an effect on the story. In follow, although, I missed them. With out these tip-offs, save for a number of random ones that happen with out rationalization, I felt like I had misplaced a contact of company. Positive, I used to be selecting the alternatives I needed, however I struggled to piece collectively how my actions affected the grander narrative. The moment reactions have been there; it was straightforward to inform if Octavio, for instance, didn’t like what Anu stated. However how my actions exactly modified the broader narrative remained a thriller. I had guesses all through, however I'm wondering if Determination X led to Consequence Y.
I additionally wasn’t impressed by what I used to be doing once I wasn’t choosing dialogue selections. Gameplay boils all the way down to swiping left, proper, up, or down, or urgent a button, mashing it repeatedly, or holding it down. Sometimes, you'll be able to stroll round a small space to seek out cash or discuss with locals, however these didn’t do a lot for me. This sort of journey gameplay was the usual years in the past on the peak of Telltale’s growth, however it feels previous now, and I needed more selection.
Occasional minigames, corresponding to a parody of a turn-based JRPG, or one other the place I needed to hack into a pc by eradicating NSFW spam on a display, helped in that regard, however I nonetheless needed more.
Vaultlanders, a minigame that seems a number of instances in every episode, is a enjoyable minifigure-based combating recreation however just for the primary few instances. There are Vaultlander figures to gather in every episode, and every has its personal stats and talents, however it issues little. I by no means struggled to defeat an enemy and by no means anxious about my skills or stats. That’s as a result of enjoying entails mindlessly spamming the assault button and sometimes dodging by swiping a route when the enemy assaults. Like all the opposite minigames, this one may be skipped totally, however I used to be desperate to discover a function for its inclusion within the recreation and performed by means of every one. Sadly, I didn’t discover a function, and these rapidly turned pace-breaking annoyances I needed to take care of once I simply needed to get again to the story.
Nonetheless, by the point my 10-hour journey in New Tales From The Borderlands ended, I used to be joyful to have skilled it. There’s good in there, however it’s typically muddled by dated mechanics that really feel more compulsory as a result of Telltale did them within the earlier recreation relatively than one thing essential to its enjoyment. The cast is superb, and as a character-driven expertise, this recreation excels. I simply wished Gearbox propped them up with a narrative as sturdy as their particular person arcs.
In the end, New Tales From The Borderlands seems like more of the identical and followers of the primary are more likely to take pleasure in this, however given it’s been practically eight years since that first one, I needed more of an evolution.
