Tales from the Borderlands

Gameplay

Tales from the Borderlands is an episodic point-and-click graphic adventure comedy video game similar to Telltale's other games. It was released in five episodes. The player is able to move their player-character around the world's environment, interacting with objects and initiating conversation trees with non-player characters. Choices made by the player influence story elements in future episodes. The game also includes some degree of the shooter elements, featured in the Borderlands series, particularly the procedurally-generated guns and loot generation. The game is confirmed to include an exclusive unlockable item for use in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

Setting

Tales takes place in the Borderlands universe, primarily on the planet Pandora. Long-standing fables of a Vault containing vast treasures on Pandora has drawn numerous "Vault Hunters" to the planet, as well as the corporate interests of the Hyperion corporation who maintain military-like control of the planet from an orbiting base. The game occurs after the events of Borderlands 2; Hyperion's long-standing president, Handsome Jack, has been killed by the most recent Vault Hunter arrivals, and it has been discovered that there are numerous other Vaults scattered throughout the galaxy, leading to a search for more Vault Keys that can open these new Vaults.

Characters

The player separately controls the story's two protagonists Rhys (Troy Baker) and Fiona (Laura Bailey). Rhys is a Hyperion employee, who has been working with his co-worker and best friend Vaughn (Chris Hardwick) to get promoted into the higher ranks of the company but is stymied by his new boss and rival Hugo Vasquez (Patrick Warburton). Fiona is a con artist working on Pandora along with her sister Sasha (Erin Yvette), both who learned under their adoptive mentor Felix (Norman Hall). The story explores how the characters came together, showing common events from the perspective of both characters in a manner called the "Big Fish version of what happened" by Telltale's Kevin Bruner. Other new characters in the game include Rhys and Vaughn's co-worker Yvette (Sola Bamis), the ruthless black market fencer August (Nolan North), the bandit leader Bossanova (Jason Topolski), and a mysterious stranger (Roger L. Jackson) shown during in medias res scenes during the episodes. Episode 2 introduces two new characters, the hooligans Finch (Dave Fennoy) and Kroger (Adam Harrington). Episode 3 introduces the gang lord Vallory (Susan Silo), the Atlas scientist Cassius (Phil LaMarr), and the robot Gortys (Ashley Johnson).

In addition to original characters, the game also features returning characters from the main Borderlands games (voiced by the same actors from the original games) including Handsome Jack (Dameon Clarke), businesswoman Mad Moxxi (Brina Palencia), gun salesman Marcus (Bruce DuBose), the Hyperion Loader Bot (Raison Varner), madman Shade (Brad Jackson), Hodunk clan leader Tector (Joel McDonald), and Vault Hunter Zer0 (Michael Turner). Episode 2 features the appearance of mechanic Scooter (Mikey Neumann), junkdealer Janey Springs (Catherine Moore), and ex-Atlas assassin Athena (Lydia Mackay). Episode 3 features the appearance of the Vault Hunters Brick (Marcus M. Mauldin) and Mordecai (Jason Liebrecht). Episode 5 features the appearance of the robot Claptrap (David Eddings).

Story

NOTE: The following summary is a high-level overview of the game and may not include all variations in the story that can occur based on the player's choices.

Tales is presented in medias res as a mysterious stranger has captured Rhys and Fiona, and listens to them tell their individual sides of the story of how they got to this point.

Rhys, a Hyperion employee up for a promotion, learns that he is demoted to janitor by his new boss and nemesis Vasquez. Overhearing Vasquez's deal for a Vault Key worth ten million dollars, Rhys and his co-workers, Vaughn and Yvette, plan to get the Vault Key first as revenge for their mistreatment. Rhys and Vaughn arrive on Pandora and manage to reach the location with protection from a Loader Bot. At the meeting place, Rhys retrieves an ID drive from the corpse of Professor Nakayama before meeting with the dealers, August and Sasha. Unbeknownst to the Hyperion duo, the Vault Key presented by Sasha is a fake created by Fiona and her group, Sasha and Felix. Just as Rhys, Vaughn and August discover the Vault Key is a fake, the meeting is crashed by a fight between Vault Hunter Zer0 and bandit leader Bossanova, who steals the briefcase of money. Rhys and Vaughn tenuously team up with Felix, Fiona, and Sasha to track down the money. At Bossanova's base, a former Atlas outpost, the team finds themselves entangled in a bandit death race with the briefcase as the grand prize. As the race proceeds, Zer0 disrupts the event while attacking Bossanova, causing the briefcase to be tossed around until it is caught by Felix who plans to take it for himself. However, he triggers a biometric security bomb upon opening the case that destroys the money. Felix either dies in the explosion, or survives and escapes. As the four regroup, they find a secret chamber in the Atlas base containing a device that displays a map to a new Vault. As they look, Rhys learns that this is part of the "Gortys Project" as he comes to face with a hologram of Handsome Jack.

While Rhys tries to make sense of Jack's appearance, the gang discover video log sent from a Gortys facility in the abandoned town of Old Haven, by former Atlas assassin Athena. Deducing that the facility may hold clues about the Gortys Project, they head to Old Haven in their caravan only to be attacked by moonshots fired from Hyperion's moon base and a Rakk Hive. Although they manage to evade the moonshots and kill the Rakk Hive, Rhys and Vaughn end up thrown out of the badly damaged caravan during the carnage. With the help of Jack and Loader Bot, Rhys and Vaughn escape a vengeful Vasquez's attempt to kill them and then head for either Hollow Point or Old Haven. At Hollow Point, Fiona and Sasha enlist the help of the mechanic Scooter to fix their caravan while they lay low at Felix's house. Inside, they discover a hidden crate containing supplies and an ECHO log detailing Felix's reasons for betraying the two - protecting them Vallory, the gang lord August works for (and unknown to them is his mother). He also leaves them each a present, consisting of a sleeve-gun upgrade for Fiona and a decorative watch engraved with the sentence "Time heals all wounds." for Sasha. After evading two of Vallory's thugs - Finch and Kroger - and the vault hunter Athena, Fiona and Sasha depart on their fixed caravan for Old Haven.

At Old Haven, the group is ambushed by Vasquez and August, who forces them into a secret underground Atlas complex that Rhys discovered. Using the two pieces of the Gortys core, Rhys and Fiona construct a sphere-shaped device; the Gortys Unit. However, Rhys accidentally triggers the base's security drones, forcing him to either follow Fiona's diversion or let Jack control the drones. Regardless, the group escapes the facility, but runs into Vallory, Finch, and Kroger. Infuriated by their treachery and the trouble it caused, Vallory kills Vasquez and tries to kill the group - only to be stopped by Athena, who was secretly hired by Felix to mentor and protect Fiona and Sasha. Afterwards, they activate the Gortys Unit, which is revealed to be a small robot. Gortys explains that she was created by the Atlas Corporation for finding the Vault of the Traveler, which can somehow teleport across the universe. However, as Athena killed most of Atlas' employees, Gortys is not fully upgraded and asks for the group to take her towards the location containing next upgrade.

Following Gortys' directions, the gang arrives at an Atlas terraforming facility tended to by an old man, who advises them to disable the security defenses guarding Gortys' upgrade. Rhys and Sasha enter through the botanical gardens to disable the defenses and Fiona and Athena head out for the upgrade station, while Vaughn stays behind with the old man and the robots. While hacking into the Atlas systems, Rhys and Sasha discover that the mysterious man is Cassius LeClemaine, the last known Atlas employee on Pandora. After recovering the upgrade and learning about his true identity, Athena confronts and threatens to kill Cassius. The gang is subsequently ambushed by Vallory, who had hired two Vault Hunters, Brick and Mordecai, to apprehend Athena. Despite their efforts, the gang is defeated, with Brick and Mordecai taking Athena back to their headquarters at Sanctuary. Gortys is then forced by Vallory to reveal that her next upgrade is on Hyperion's space station, Helios.

Now forced to work for Vallory, the gang - minus Vaughn, who either escapes with Cassius or is held hostage by Vallory as insurance only to escape later on - forms a plan to infiltrate Helios and retrieve Gortys' upgrade, which is located in Handsome Jack's old office. Having Scooter and his new partner - Athena's girlfriend, Janey Springs - convert the Caravan into a spaceship, the gang fly to Helios with Finch, Kroger, August, and Scooter joining on board. Midway through the journey, Scooter sacrifices himself to detach the malfunctioning booster rockets before they explode. Arriving onto Helios disguised as Vasquez, Rhys learns that Yvette was secretly working for Vasquez from the beginning. Fiona attempts to enter the office as a tour guide, but accidentally sets off the security lockdown. While Rhys manages to enter the office through the prison levels, Fiona and Gortys confront Yvette, who has captured Sasha. After Rhys acquires the upgrade piece, Jack then proposes handing over full control of Hyperion to Rhys. Rhys then either accepts or decline the offer only to have Jack seize control of Helios.

As Jack seizes control of the station, he announces his plan to graft an endoskeleton into Rhys' body to take control of him. Horrified, Rhys escapes Jack's office while Fiona, Sasha, and Gortys attempt to escape after subduing Yvette -the latter of which Rhys has the option to save. With Helios in lockdown, Rhys heads to the power core and is forced to disable it. Although his actions end the lockdown, it causes Helios to fall out of orbit and onto a collision course with Pandora. In the hangar, Finch and Kroger betray the group to save themselves. August has a change of heart and tries to stop them only to be wounded as Finch escapes on the caravan with him, Gortys and Sasha. After helping Fiona escape, Loader Bot sacrifices itself so that Rhys can board the last escape pod. Back on Pandora, Jack tries to download himself back into Rhys' cybernetics and kill him. To end Jack for good, Rhys forcibly removes all of his cybernetics and either destroys Jack or leaves him imprisoned inside Rhys's EchoEye. Meanwhile, Fiona discovers that Vallory used Gortys to open the Vault, enlarging her but also unleashing the vault's protector - a massive monster known as the Traveler. During the fight, the Traveler kills Vallory and most of her gang. At Gortys' request, Fiona and Sasha destroy Gortys, closing the Vault and banishing the monster. In the aftermath, Fiona and Sasha return to their daily lives while Rhys takes control of the Atlas Corporation with a document from Jack's office and rebuilds his cybernetics.

Several months later, during present day, the stranger reveals that he is trading Rhys and Fiona to for a captured bandit leader held by Kroger, who survived the crash of Helios. The stranger kills Kroger only to be captured by the Bandit Leader, who reveals himself to be Vaughn. Back at Helios' ruins, Vaughn explains that he is leading the survivors who in turn revere Rhys as their savior from Hyperion. After interrogating him, the stranger reveals himself to be Loader Bot, who had witnessed Gortys' destruction, rebuilt itself using Jack's robotic endoskeleton and donned a new guise to find out the truth about the group's motivations, fearing they would have lied to cover themselves if they knew who he was. Deciding that Gortys was programmed to open the vault and thus cannot be free unless she completes her mission, Loader Bot plans to rebuild her, open the Vault, and destroy the monster. Fiona then assembles a team of Vault Hunters, calling back Sasha and choosing three out of seven possible characters: Zer0, Athena, August, Cassius, Felix, Janey Springs, or Claptrap.

If Felix is chosen, he doesn't partake in the mission but rather makes video-contact with Fiona to explain his prior actions. Felix had known all along that the Hyperion suitcase was rigged and had actually planned for it - he hid 9 million dollars inside an armoire and used the bomb-blast to fake his death, hoping to divert Vallory and Hyperion to him and away from Fiona and Sasha. However, the unexpected fiasco of the Gortys Project caused Vallory and Hyperion to come into conflict with the group anyway, and Fiona and Sasha did not learn of the plan because Hyperion's moonshots blasted the armoire out of the caravan. Felix promises to keep in contact, telling Fiona that they deserve better lives and re-affirming his love for them.

With the team together, the group plans to have Fiona and Sasha infiltrate the Traveler's body to disable its teleportation ability, while the rest of the team lures it in front of Helios' moonshot cannon. With the manual control and motivation of Rhys and the other Vault Hunters, Gortys fights the Traveler to a standstill. Meanwhile, Fiona and Sasha enter the Traveler's body to plant explosives on the Traveler's "teleportation gland", however Sasha ultimately stays behind to ensure the charges detonate. Without its teleportation ability, the Traveler is quickly killed by the Gortys and the moonshot cannon. Fiona and Rhys find Sasha mortally wounded amidst the Traveler's body, but manage to heal her using Felix's present for her, the pocket watch, which is revealed to be a revival device. While the rest of the group gathers loot and Loader Bot leaves with a now-free Gortys, Rhys and Fiona race for the Vault entrance. After thanking each other, they open the Vault chest together, which teleports them away to an unknown location.

Development

The concept of Tales bore out from the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards, according to Telltale's Steve Allison. Telltale and Gearbox had already worked together previously to bring Borderlands' Claptrap robot to Telltale's Poker Night 2. Representatives from both Telltale and Gearbox were present at the ceremony at adjoining tables, and over the course of the event, the idea of combining their respective talents on a project came out. Following the ceremony, Telltale and Gearbox began to explore the possibilities, realizing that the Borderlands universe had a large number of characters with interesting stories that Telltale could build upon, as well as continuing to explore fan-favorite characters that the series had developed. Gearbox noted that with the three prior Borderlands games, they had created an interesting universe but as a first-person shooter, the player's interaction with characters in that world was limited, and saw the potential in having Telltale expand upon their universe in a meaningful manner.

Voice actors from the previous Borderlands games returned to voice characters in this game, including Dameon Clarke as Handsome Jack. Troy Baker (originally Sam Witwer) and Laura Bailey voice the two main protagonists, Rhys and Fiona. Additional voice actors include Nolan North as August, Patrick Warburton as Hugo Vasquez, Chris Hardwick as Vaughn, and Erin Yvette as Sasha.

Episodes

The game was separated into five episodes, released in intervals. A physical disc-based release containing all five episodes was released on April 26, 2016 for personal computer and console versions.

Reception

Tales from the Borderlands has received critical acclaim. Critics have praised it for its story, characters, action sequences, humor, choice driven gameplay, and faithfulness to the source material while criticism was mainly directed towards the game's graphical glitches.

All five episodes received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. The first episode was an honorable mention for Best Narrative at the 2015 Game Developers Choice Awards.