Certainly one of my greatest gripes with the mainline Borderlands collection is its humor. I’ve had some good laughs whereas enjoying, however Borderlands’ jokes land extra 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 extra nuanced and refined tackle the humor coursing via the franchise’s veins. It grew to become one in all my favourite Borderlands video games, with an ideal story and memorable characters.
I’m pleased to report Gearbox’s tackle that method in New Tales From The Borderlands retains that very same humorousness with a vastly improved visible model extra in keeping with the collection’ latter entries. It additionally includes a forged simply as memorable – I already need extra of them. Sadly, although, the whole bundle 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 just a few acquainted faces and names with Tales From The Borderlands’ Rhys, now CEO of gun-manufacturer Atlas, and different mega-corporations like Maliwan and Tediore. Many of the sport 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 just some 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 sport present attempting to pitch Anu’s system to buyers. After which, my main concern is seemingly to open a enterprise amidst the rubble of the Tediore invasion that’s nonetheless ongoing. I needed extra of the save-the-world narrative the primary episode arrange, however the aspect beats and steps alongside the best way are distracting and loosely connected greater than the rest.
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 pleased to have skilled what this squad of characters went via. I simply want the whole sport featured the cohesion I felt within the first and closing 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 traditional scientist-getting-in-the-way-of-herself manner, and a few late-game revelations add extra depth to her character that I respect. Octavio performs it cool, and I had enjoyable shaping the sort of “cool” he’s with my decisions. Fran is a sexually-confident middle-aged girl who’s put apart subtlety in favor of outright telling individuals, “we should always bone.” She feels essentially the most like a traditional Borderlands character – with a handful of fart jokes, too (admittedly, one in all 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 saved me smiling the whole manner via. Every character shined in their very own methods when remoted, however collectively, my favourite conversations in the entire sport came about, 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 wonderful character writing and the alternatives the sport offered 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 like Telltale, excelled in that regard.
Principally gone are the Telltale “this particular person will keep in mind” notifications. In principle, this can be a good contact, because it removes that gamified ingredient from the method and permits the participant to stay with their decisions with out understanding how they have an effect on the story. In follow, although, I missed them. With out these tip-offs, save for just a few 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 mentioned. 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 deciding on dialogue decisions. Gameplay boils all the way down to swiping left, proper, up, or down, or urgent a button, mashing it repeatedly, or holding it down. Often, you possibly can stroll round a small space to search out cash or discuss with locals, however these didn’t do a lot for me. This kind of journey gameplay was the usual years in the past on the top of Telltale’s improvement, but it surely feels outdated now, and I needed extra 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 extra.
Vaultlanders, a minigame that seems a number of instances in every episode, is a enjoyable minifigure-based combating sport however just for the primary few instances. There are Vaultlander figures to gather in every episode, and every has its personal stats and talents, but it surely issues little. I by no means struggled to defeat an enemy and by no means apprehensive about my talents or stats. That’s as a result of enjoying includes mindlessly spamming the assault button and infrequently 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 desirous to discover a goal for its inclusion within the sport and performed via every one. Sadly, I didn’t discover a goal, and these rapidly grew to become 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 pleased to have skilled it. There’s good in there, but it surely’s generally muddled by dated mechanics that really feel extra compulsory as a result of Telltale did them within the earlier sport slightly than one thing essential to its enjoyment. The forged is superb, and as a character-driven expertise, this sport excels. I simply wished Gearbox propped them up with a narrative as robust as their particular person arcs.
Finally, New Tales From The Borderlands appears like extra of the identical and followers of the primary are prone to get pleasure from this, however given it’s been almost eight years since that first one, I needed extra of an evolution.
