Background
(I do realize I’m reviewing a 3 year old game… my bad)
I love the Borderlands Game series. I played Borderlands 1 when I first met Nick; we were just dating and I realized how much he loved video games. Instead of being a pain about it, I asked if I could play too (I played games before that obviously, Halo and stuff like that). We beat it pretty quickly and had a ton of fun along the way.
Fast forward to 2012 (2 years into our relationship) and Borderlands 2 came out. I absolutely adore this game. Nick and I played together and have beat it many times through. We’ve played all the DLC and holiday expansions. We both have max level characters, as well as many others, started in an effort to help friends (we always end up going back to the high level). The Borderlands Series is easily one of my top favorites. (My car is named Sir Reginald Von Bartelsby for hell sakes haha!)
So – for the month of May Tales from the Borderlands (episode 1) was free on the Playstation 4 Store. I figured “What can it hurt? I might as well try it.” I downloaded episode 1 and started playing – and absolutely adored it.
It’s obviously different from Borderlands 1, 2 and the Pre-Sequel. Those are first person shooters where you are a badass Vault Hunter who is large and in charge. In Tales from the Borderlands, you play as two characters, Rhys and Fiona. And you aren’t doing (a lot) of combat – you are mostly choosing dialogue, making decisions and scanning things. It takes place after Borderlands 2 and is a “Choose Your Outcome” story. I’m 3 out of 5 episodes in – so there may be some spoilers – but not many.
Playable Characters
Rhys is the first character you play as. Without trying to give away too many spoilers, he is smart, confident and will do whatever it takes to rise up in the Hyperion chain of command. He has a neat eye that can scan things, assess them and helps a lot when playing the game. He’s a kind character (at least the way I’m playing him) who makes good decisions and trusts easily.
I love Fiona. She’s the other playable character, and she is a con artist. Along with her sister, Fiona is just trying to score big. She can actually carry items in an inventory and seems to be in charge of the Money of the group. She’s a great fighter, smart thinker and I think she’d make one hell of a Vault Hunter.
Main Group:
- Vaughn: Rhys’s best friend – accountant, nervous, funny
- Sasha: Fiona’s younger sister and partner in crime – brave, tough, loyal
- Loader Bot: (Easily my favorite character) Rhys requested a loader bot at the beginning of episode 1 – and he’s stuck by us ever since. Strong, funny and helpful.
There are some other characters (INCLUDING SOME FROM THE ORIGINAL BORDERLANDS 1, 2 and Pre-Sequel! *insert heart eyes emoji here*) that join the group, help the group or … y’know…. try to murder the face off of everyone (It is Pandora) – but it’s not hard to follow along with who is who.
PROS:
- Good fun! I love stories in video games, and this is basically playing a Story. Telltale games did an AMAZING job.
- The graphics are great! Cartoonish, clear and stay true to Borderlands style
- The humor is the BEST. I don’t know what it is, but all of the Borderlands humor just gets me. This game is no different. Whether it be descriptions from Rhys’s Eye Analysis, or Loader Bot being “Coooool bro,” I guarantee you will laugh.
- You DON’T have to know or have played any of the other Borderlands games to play this one! The story is completely different! Sure, there are some characters from the games and some history from the games in it, but you can play it as a standalone game with no prior knowledge
CONS:
- You can rewind parts of the story, which is neat if you made a decision you think you’ll regret later, but I wish I could rewind shorter. Or at least choose where I’m rewinding back to. I hate going through a large part (you can’t usually skip anything) again because of one stupid dialogue choice I made.
In conclusion, I think this game is awesome. It’s a good, funny story with likable characters. It has just enough Borderlands that fans of the game should adore it and people who just wanna play a funny game on the world Pandora will like it too! I recommend it highly!
********** 10/10 stars from me!
