So close you can taste the gunpowder
Telltalle has been a busy beehive lately. Having wrapped upThe Walking Dead Season 2and season one ofThe Wolf Among Us, this fall will bring us right into the first episode ofTales from the Borderlands.Darren seemed positiveon the game when he saw it at E3, but for a series likeBorderlandsthat built its name more on its genre fusion gameplay than it’s setting, I didn’t know what to expect or hope for going into this demo.
After it was over, I came out with confirmation that Telltale is still the best at what it does.
Tales from the Borderlands(PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 [preview], Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation Vita)Developer: Telltales GamesPublisher: Telltale GamesRelease Date: Fall 2014
Tales from the Borderlandsdoesn’t stray from the formula seen inThe Walking DeadandThe Wolf Among Us. You move around the world, interacting with characters and making decisions that affect your story and how others react to you. The writing takes an interesting approach to player choice. The story in my demo was told through flashbacks, one from the perspective of the Hyperion agent Rhys, and the other from his cohort Fiona.
Playing as Rhys, we follow him and his coworker Vaughn on their way to purchase a vault key from a shady individual. While his side of the story starts out believable enough, it starts to get a bit fantastical as he rips out peoples hearts and makes a daring escape from Zer0, who also seems to be after the vault key. Eventually Fiona calls him out on his story, and she begins to tell her side, which is unfortunately where the demo ends.
The interesting thing is that Rhys’ actions during his flashback were all decisions that I was making. I could have ripped that man’s heart out, or I could have tried to be diplomatic. I could have told the group that I had to escape a Vault Hunter, or I could have chosen a more believable option. Considering that players will be making these choices in both present day and flashback sequences, I’m pretty excited to see how Telltale wraps up what could essentially lead to twice as many story threads. Of course, what I played is just a slice of episode one, so there is no saying that the entire season will use flashbacks.
The choices and consequences in Telltale’s game would not be half as meaningful were it not for the writing. Telltale seems to have little problem going from the dramaticWalking DeadandWolf Among Usto the slapstick silliness ofBorderlands. The game even takes small shots at its gameplay formula. Later in the demo, Rhys and Vaughn are looking to get through a locked door as one of them says, “If we randomly just found it someplace that’d be amazing.”
After finding the key (surprise, it was just lying around), we are reintroduced to Shade, the incredibly insane and lonely shopkeeper introduced inBorderlands 2‘sPirate BootyDLC. As is his modus operandi, Shade has propped up the dead bodies of pastBorderlandscharacters in his own museum-like showcase, complete with narrated bios. Commandant Steele, killed by The Destroyer. Boom and Bewm, defeated by the Vault Hunters. Professor Nakayama, killed by stairs.
So yes,Tales from the Borderlandsis a Telltale game, and if you like their last few games there’s a good chance you’ll like this one. Though Telltale is handling the writing, theBorderlandshumor is intact, and if you have been following the series there are a good amount of in jokes calling back to previous games. This is a trip to Pandora worth getting ready for.
