Tales from the Borderlands – Episode One: Zer0 Sum
Like a great televison series, the first episode of Tales from the Borderlands will likely leave you wanting more. For established Borderlands players, it will be like watching an episode rather than playing a game with the majority of the running time played out like a giant scripted cut-scene. Yet, it has everything expected in the Borderlands franchise: a gritty but cartoony art style, plenty of blood and guts, slapstick violence and characters that drip sarcasm and attitude like blood off of Zero 8’s katana. Oh, did I mention the blood?
Tales is clearly designed for Borderland’s existing fanbase. It’s chock-full of references and nods to the previous two main games, and the main protagonists represent the two types of players likely coming to the game; Rhys is the newbie to the planet Pandora and Fiona is a smooth-talking, gun-slinging Pandoran native. Through both of their stories you get a definite taste of what the world of Borderlands is like, and hopefully for the uninitiated it will leave you wanting to know more. Because it’s very short, the story doesn’t give much background information, so those who are new to the franchise will likely feel they are missing out. In that way, Episode One may underwhelm players new to the series.
Importantly, if you went from Tales back to the original Borderlands' games expecting more of the same, you’d be disappointed. Sure, developers Telltale, Gearbox and 2K have made sure that Tales looks and feels like the Borderlands world, but the actual gameplay is quite different. It’s not a romp-‘em-stomp-‘em shooter, instead combat in Tales is infrequent, though where it does feature is in larger events. Mostly, player action is in a series of quick-time events. Though you’ll need to be paying attention, this isn’t one of those games that will punish you heavily for missing a window like, say, Tomb Raider.
The dialogue too is a selection of quick-time options and the game records your major choices to compare with other players. A slight complaint is that often the time to select a dialogue option is a little short. However, the result of your chosen words can be quite predictable because much of the script is ridiculously clichéd. Outside of combat, there is a small amount of the point and click interface that Telltale has resurrected (pardon the pun) with The Walking Dead. As a warning, there are sections of the game where you should really think before clicking, because you’ll only get one shot to bag the loot. However, it’s not as expansive as other point and click games, and with a controller it can sometimes be easy to lose the little pointer. PC gamers should be aware that the window the game lauches in can be quite small and unadjustable, making text difficult to read, which can affect your player decisions at the beginning of the game
For established fans, Tales from the Borderlands is a great opening act. It has simple combat, snappy dialogue, and great voice acting. For players new to Borderlands, this is a decent appetiser but may well leave you feeling hungry. Either way, there's sure to be great demand for the next course.