#Tales from the borderlands intros plus#

Telltale makes a lot of noise about how their narrative-driven games are about letting players make choices that matter. These openings are also a way of making Telltale’s episodic structure more interesting, with each episode actually opening with a unique intro that feels like a heavily stylized television episode. The ones from episode 4 and 5 are also pretty fantastic, though they’re all compelling in their own respective ways.

The one from the second episode is one of the best and it’s early on in the series, so there aren't too many spoilers in watching it if you want to get taste of what I’m talking about here: They’re great sequences that are filled with energy and humor, and all of them are memorable. One of the constant stylistic devices Tales employs is an episode opening with a catchy music number. Rhys’ constant well, I can’t believe that worked but ok! reactions to each enemy encounter recalls the combination of violence and humor you might see in Pirates of the Caribbean and Firefly. 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

#Tales from the borderlands intros plus#

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. I’ve hardly been quiet about my love for Tales From The Borderlands.