The humor here works because Rhys and Vaughn basically bumble through it by sheer luck and the violent capabilities of Loaderbot. So how does Tales From The Borderlands get around it? By turning these segments into occasions for slapstick, like this fight that Rhys and Vaughn find themselves in early on in Episode 1 when surrounded by bandits: Telltale’s formula for pressing a single button for complex character actions in these sorts of sequences just isn’t compelling. Even the first season of The Walking Dead had a particularly weak gunfight sequence that’s pretty bad in comparison to everything else that game does wonderfully. ![]() Okay, let’s face it: Telltale’s action sequences, essentially quick-time events, have never been stellar. While the plot might have the appearance of a straightforward story, its unreliable narrator-hook and the pacing make it special. Though this is largely Rhys and Fiona’s story, the larger cast of characters also boasts colorful personalities, most of them with their own arcs that are resolved by the game’s finale, like nerdy and swole Vaugn or loyal, hilarious Loaderbot – who has the best lines in the game. Seeing how these two people end up in the same place and where they go from there is a great thread that works to keep you playing from episode to episode. Rhys is cowardly, but witty and smart Fiona is selfish, but can talk her way out of any situation. These two, and the rest of the cast of characters, are far from perfect people. ![]() This works on a number of levels, allowing both Fiona and Rhys’ vastly different personalities to emerge as they each give their side of the story, bickering intermittently, while also shining a light on their different environments and who they are as people. The game uses a structure inspired by the Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon, jumping back and forth between Fiona and Rhys’ perspectives as they recount to the stranger how the two of them reached this point. How Fiona and Rhys relate to each other is also puzzling, though it’s clear Fiona has a lot of hatred for her fellow prisoner, kicking sand in his face and insulting him. The story opens with a masked stranger dragging Rhys, a former company man for the corporation Hyperion and Fiona, a con artist, through the desert toward an unknown destination. While the vast majority of M-rated games seem to revel in bleak environments or be stories of desperation or revenge, Tales is a rare comical game for adult audiences with a beating heart. Tales From The Borderlands is about a lot of things: friendship, greed, finding family and redemption, finger-gun fights. This is largely because Tales smartly focuses on its cast of brand-new characters, so it’s a self-contained sci-fi swashbuckling adventure that just happens to take place in the Borderlands universe. Basically, all you need to know is that Pandora is a deadly place and that Handsome Jack is a selfish, maniacal butthead, and you’re good to go. Though Tales From The Borderlands takes place after Borderlands 2, explicitly references events from that game, and features characters from the series, you can play Tales without having ever touched a Borderlands game. You Don’t Have To Play Borderlands To Understand It Now that the game is available free to PS Plus members starting today, I thought I’d take some time to lay out why I think it’s the best game that Telltale has released (yes, even better than The Walking Dead) and why it’s worth your time. One of the first things I did when I joined Game Informer was declare it my personal Game of the Year for 2015, to the skepticism and dismay of my fellow editors. Your every decision as both Rhys and Fiona will affect the people and world around you: this is a game where YOU are the final author in a brand new Borderlands story set on the unforgiving world of Pandora.I’ve hardly been quiet about my love for Tales From The Borderlands. You are Rhys…and you are also Fiona, because like every tale worth telling, there are two…oh, you read that part already? Well, it’s important to remember that there *are* two sides to every story, and you my friend, you will tell this tale, or…tales, through the choices that you make. Who is telling the truth, and why is it important? ![]() Lured into danger by a Vault key and all it promises, the unlikely duo are thrown together with a common goal and a huge amount of mistrust. Set after the events seen in Borderlands 2, Tales from the Borderlands is about Rhys, a Hyperion company man looking to become the next Handsome Jack, and it’s also about Fiona, a Pandoran con artist out to score the biggest of all swindles. Especially one about a Vault key, the Hyperion Corporation, bandits, loot, gangsters, Vault Hunters, secret Atlas tech, explosions, getaways, extortion, betrayal, and mayhem. Like all good tales, there’s more than one side to a story.
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