I will be upfront and honest that when I originally played the first Borderlands, two things were being constantly shoved in my face: 1) My computer at the time could barely run it at 30FPS and 2) “Wait until the ending…” of which I was constantly teased about from Wiggin as it is (SPOILERS) disappointing. Then when BL2 came along, for some reason Wiggin wanted to try it out but my old computer could barley run it at 10FPS so sadly I never got to fully play it until many years after it had come out on my new computer.

With that being said, after finishing the first Borderlands…I was not exactly the biggest fan of it at the time, being younger and all also had something to do with it. But then growing up a bit, being able to play both games at a minimum of 60fps and just enjoying the story…I found myself becoming a true fan of the Borderlands series. So when I was “reborn” into liking it, I remembered the Tales of the Borderlands game that had come out awhile back. And being it was my birthday, I decided to try it out for multiple reasons:

1) Two voice actors stood out in the game that I liked: Chris Hardwick and Patrick Warburton, the rest I had heard of but didn’t know of them that well.
2) Being a new fan of the BL series, I wanted to see what happened after #2
3) I also wanted to try a “story” game, instead of a FPS/RPG/RTS made around a story.
4) Also it being Telltale games and them having a very long track record of story-only type games, I figured why not try it out.

I will try not to spoil any story points other than what I know of the trailer…so you already know as much as you know from watching that…but I can honestly say that the story of this is fantastic. A universe with such potential, of so many characters and never really get to see them as anything other than “quest givers” and giving a joke here and there, giving them some kind of back story in this wacky, dubstep ironically, meme riddled, monster laden, “guns…guns everywhere” world is great. I’d love if they would make another Tales and have it be about the main vault hunters from any of the games, new, old, or “pre-sequal.” But that’s for another time to ask.

For a simple explanation, you play two characters and see the same story from a different perspective that is intertwined. Rhys, the first character you play, is a lowly Hyperion desk jokey who get’s cut out of his promotion and plans revenge with his friends Vaughn and Yvette on there boss. Fiona, a con artist on Pandora along with her sister Sasha, get involved with said revenge. I won’t spoil the details too much here, suffice it to say the game is very cleverly written, and very real feeling people in the story. They don’t feel like “generic NPC #767 with 1million hitpoints of health” and more like real people.

As a related note here, being an audiophile and a person that is easily effected by voice/emotion and can tell the difference in people simply by there voice…yay useless skill…the voice acting in this game is PHENOMENAL! YES CAPITAL LETTERS GOOD WITH EXCLAMATION MARK!

And I don’t actually know if voice actors out there read the reviews of the games they work on but if I by some wild chance they do, Troy Baker (Rhys), Laura Bailey (Fiona), Erin Yvette (Sasha), and of course Dameon Clarke (Handsome Jack…yes he’s back kiddos, but you already got that hint in the trailer) and all the other voice actors in this game, you all did such an awesome job, I loved every second of it and hope that you guys get the recognition you deserve or an award or anything…just…YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! And I don’t know if it’s Athena’s voice actor (Lydia Mackay) or just the character she plays…but SHE’S AWESOME!

Okay…toning down my fan freakout moment there…sorry. Anyway, like I said, fantastic voice acting, a story that is very well written and feels very real, and of course some classic Borderlands humor put in. The story changes upon the choices you make, people living and dying by your choice…if you get that choice that is…and of course hitting on Sasha awkwardly like all nerds would, is a choice that you can do with the real feeling of awkwardness coming through the screen and making you hide your face when you feeling like you’ve done it.

Some old friends we know show up, Zero being one of them, Scooter and of course Marcus of Marcus Munitions narrates each opening episode, in his classic Marcus narrating ways. Like I mentioned, I would like them to make another BL story about some, if not all, about the vault hunters we’ve played in the past.

There are some odd points in the game, giving you control of characters to walk around certain points, while interesting, is a bit awkward. 3rd person controls and only being able to control in straight lines with the W,S,A,D keys…again not horrible, just awkward. But being able to walk around and examine things like you would if it was an FPS is nice.

I can’t easily talk about the game because obviously it’s a story game and not game play elements like “shiniest graphics” or “best audio” or “best gun/hat simulator” or anything like that. I can only say the story is good, the graphics look like classic BL…cartoon/comic style animation…the music is great especially with the intros, and the sound is good. There are quick time events, which usually don’t spoil anything horrible, and some choices go by quickly so you have to read and choose quickly or else the game will assume you choice nothing but to be silent.

I can’t say much more without spoiling the rest of the story but if you wish to spend an hour and half to two hours playing an episode, getting to know these people, and maybe even liking them (or not) then I suggest it. This type of game is one of the things behind the defense of games being “interactive movies,” this is an interactive movie. Games like this are fantastic and unless you want mindless violence with explosions, turn away from this. But if you want to enjoy a great story, great voice acting, and have a laugh or two, this is a great game with a GREAT ending.

Note to Telltale: (No spoilers) Why Telltale? Why did you give me a heart attack at the end of the game? WHY!? It was great but WHY THE FEELINGS! I didn’t know what to feel.Thanks again.