Tales from the Borderlands Ep. 1: Zer0 Sum

Game Info

For one reason or another I’ve always found it difficult to finish episodes of Telltale Games.  I enjoy the story but maybe it’s the super long cut scenes that sometimes I may or may not care about that start to bore me.  Tales from the Borderlands right off the bat has a similar approach to Telltale’s previous efforts but this title has so much in common with the source material be it the quirky humor and style of the characters and environments, that it feels like a fast-paced roller coaster ride all the way through the first episode.

(The review below may contain light story spoilers, though attempts were made to keep details as vague as possible.)

Tales from the Borderlands has you taking control of two main characters.  The first, Rhys, is an employee of the Hyperion Corporation and is living is day to day life on the space station orbiting Pandora.  Your old boss has lost his role and you find yourself up for the promotion.  Unfortunately, Vasquez (voiced by Patrick Warburton, AWESOME!), has different plans.  With the help of a few colleagues, you plan to go down to Pandora and buy a vault key from under Vasquez’s nose.  This is where the game starts to take off.  At the meeting for the purchase of the vault key is where we meet the second character you control, Fiona.  Fiona’s back story is that she and her sister Sasha were  orphans on Pandora who learned to swindle and steal from a young age.  They were taken in by a con artist named Felix and shown the ropes.  After your two characters cross paths we start seeing the story intertwine and really comes together.

The controls are very similar to most of Telltale Games’ graphic adventures.  You watch cut scenes and at moments of a big decision you are given the opportunity to choose what to say using one of the shape buttons on the DualShock 4.  The responses usually range from nice to snarky to just being a flat out a-hole.   The choices you make will influence the story in one way or another as you progress, sometimes not displaying it’s outcome until one of the later episodes.  During the action heavy sequences there are also quicktime events which will have you tapping buttons or swinging the analog stick to stay alive.  Luckily, Borderlands is action heavy and these scenes break up the monotony of the movie scenes quite well.

While your exploring in certain areas each character has there own unique ability as well.  Rhys has the ability to hack or scan objects using his eye piece.  This will either give you a brief description of the item or help you progress in an area.  Fiona’s ability is to collect and barter with money.  This can change the way a conversation may or may not carry out depending if you have money to purchase something or persuade someone into helping.  Another cool feature is that you play as regular everyday characters on Pandora and not the vault hunters.  The Vault Hunters do make appearances though and the cut scenes with them in them are pretty rad.

The graphics and artwork look spot on from the source material. Telltale has done a great job of embodying the experience that we have come to love that Greabox has created.  The cel-shaded art style looks glorious in high definition and makes the decision to put the pre-sequel on last gen systems a real head scratcher.  The soundtrack and voice acting is also excellent and right with what we have come to expect from this series.  The intro song grooves and will have you bouncing your head just like you do when playing the series in it’s shooter format.  There were a few frame rate hiccups I experienced but it wasn’t bad enough to detract from the experience.

The Recommendation

If you are a fan of Borderlands then this is a no brainer.  Telltale has managed to make there infamous graphic adventures and pull characters and themes from the Borlands universe without sacrificing the look and feel of the main game.  I loved my time with this title and one of my only complaints is that it is only released as episodes and not in lump package.  This is definitely a title you won’t want to miss.