Tales From The Borderlands is, in my opinion, best described as Disney's Pixar for adults. But the way in which my actions in Tales From The Borderlands drastically changed smaller outcomes and character traits, but left the larger story in tact, says something about the mastery behind this branching "choose your own adventure" style story. I've read many an article arguing that, despite all the "choices" given in contemporary games, there is still no real freedom. Shaping the two main characters was, perhaps, my favourite part of Zero Sum. At first I was happy with my choices when managing cash and inventory, but as the story progressed I found that I had become too pragmatic with my decisions, and this was at odds with the cutthroat character I had begun to mould Fiona into. In fact a lot of Fiona’s choices come down to resource management, and the story pushes you to wager whether the use of a certain item would benefit you now or later. Rhys has a synthetic "echo eye" that you can switch on in any environment, adding an extra layer to exploration, and Fiona uses currency as a means of bartering. Thanks to the Loader Bot, the helpful Hyperion bipedal, players are given the chance to change loadouts and even out the odds for our pen pusher heroes. That being said, the manner in which Handsome Jack is introduced in Tales From The Borderlands is very clever, and sets up one of the game’s most interesting plot twists, so I’m thankful for that at least.Īlthough Tales From the Borderlands is heavy on the story, it’s also the first time Telltale has experimented with various other gameplay mechanics. But it seems Handsome Jack is here to stay, in one capacity or another. With Tales From The Borderlands, I was hoping Telltale would be given the opportunity to craft its own bizarre and magnetic villain, which it's proven can be done with the bandit leader, Bossanova - a dub step loving, death race host. Ever since this character exploded in popularity it’s like 2K Games has put a red line through its future Borderlands line-up and added the comment "needs more Handsome Jack." The Pre-Sequel even offered a Handsome Jack doppelganger as a playable character, which came with two of its own Handsome Jack Holograms. Handsome Jack has slowly grown into a sort of figurehead for the franchise, with the latest console addition, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, basing its entire story around his origins. With the Borderlands console sequel, 2K Games hit gold with the villain, who was met with much appraisal from fans and appeared on a number of "best bad dude" lists between 20. My only beef with the story - and it is very much a personal one that you may or may not share - is that it's hinted that Handsome Jack will play an integral part over the course of the season. But this storytelling device lends itself to some of the game's funniest moments where we constantly see Rhys, a victim of hubris, levelled by Fiona’s version of the story. Both characters are deceptive one is a charming corporate chump, the other a seasoned thief, and it's never made clear whose version is actually true. As the story overlaps when the two characters finally meet, players are given the chance as Fiona to remember the events told by Rhys from her own perspective. After spending some time with Rhys and his eager buddy, Vaughan (voiced by the wonderful Chris Hardwick of nerdist), we get to hear the story from Fiona’s perspective. Rhys, a Hyperion employee on the cusp of a life changing promotion, tells his version of the events that lead him to Pandora and his current predicament. It all starts with an enigmatic masked man(?) dragging Rhys through the desert. It's an uncommon structure for storytelling in a video game, but one that works extremely well, resulting in what is hands down one of the most hilarious games I have ever played. Set after the events of Borderlands 2, Episode One of Tales from The Borderlands is told as a frame story (a story within a story) through our two playable characters, Rhys and Fiona. And Tales From The Borderlands is one of the studio's best yet. With one of its two latest adaptations (the other being Game of Thrones - A Telltale Adventure), Telltale Games ( The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead) has flipped the franchise on its head, doing what Telltale do best and scrapping conventional gameplay elements and focusing on a beginning to end, immersive narrative experience. Some enjoyed jumping straight into the action without having to sit through lengthy cutscenes others pined for something more - a motive to keep grinding. The first game was also known for its almost complete lack of story. Since its creation, the Borderlands universe has become known for its rewarding loot-fests, grinding RPG elements, wasteland setting, and plethora of masked psychos, skaggs and ruthless vault hunters.
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