New Tales from the Borderlands Review - IGN

Updated:

Oct 20, 2022 11:05 am

Posted:

Oct 20, 2022 11:00 am

The information that New Tales from the Borderlands exists astatine each warms my heart, considering that it had to defy the decease of Telltale Games to bash so. The archetypal 2014 episodic escapade grabbed maine with its fantabulous writing, crisp consciousness of humor, and likable main characters successful Fiona and Rhys. While the unconnected, full-game-in-one-box follow-up gets a batch of things right, its attempts to soma retired the Telltale look – not to notation the runtime – bog down what is different a comic romp connected a caller satellite with a caller formed of anti-heroes.

What I similar astir astir New Tales from the Borderlands are its 3 caller protagonists: the prudish, know-it-all idiosyncratic Anu; her street-smart, fame-chasing adopted member Octavio; and the rageaholic frozen yogurt store proprietor Fran. L0u13 (“Louie”), a killbot who starts to question the intent of his one-note beingness and gets a batch of laughs by the clip the extremity credits roll, is besides on for the thrust successful a non-playable role. New Tales was handled by Borderlands developer Gearbox itself successful the aftermath of Telltale’s demise, but the prime of its characters and their wit is reasonably consistent.

The radical starts retired connected their respective idiosyncratic paths but is rapidly brought unneurotic by, successful emblematic Borderlands fashion, a Vault, its treasure, and an evil corporation. And the archetypal 80% of New Tales does a alternatively bully occupation of mimicking what made the archetypal Tales crippled truthful great: silly wit delivered admirably by talented question seizure and dependable actors, cartoonish violence, and abstracted but interweaving plotlines. And similar Vaughn and Claptrap earlier them, immoderate of the broadside characters you conscionable on the mode proviso immoderate of the astir memorable moments, notably the nameless, action-figure-obsessed Tediore firm soldier, the codependent talking weapon Brock, and the ex-Psycho fittingly named Stapleface. You’ll person plentifulness of chances to propulsion zingers and one-liners astatine everyone, beryllium they person oregon foe, and your 4 dialog options successful each speech are ever appealing capable to marque it pugnacious to rapidly take conscionable one.

That said, playing New Tales arsenic a full, non-episodic crippled truly highlights wherefore the Telltale-style escapade works champion episodically: it’s ideally consumed successful tiny doses. To New Tales’s credit, it gives you each accidental to play it that way, with breaks betwixt its 5 1-2-hour episodes that amusement however your choices comparison to different players, conscionable similar successful Telltale’s original. Within each episode, though, existent gameplay is astir comically minimal, which volition beryllium acquainted to Telltale veterans. There are nary puzzles to talk of; you’re mostly conscionable watching cutscenes and performing the occasional quick-time lawsuit – though I bash person to springiness props to the fantabulous euphony video montage-style sequences that hap successful each episode. Sure, your controller is down, but they’re a amusive and refreshing mode to interruption up the ample swaths of QTE’s and dialog trees.

New Tales tries to springiness your hands much to bash by occasionally letting you rotation astir a scene, examining objects and opening crates for currency that you’ll ne'er beryllium capable to walk each of connected the cache of cosmetic quality skins, oregon enactment successful minigames specified arsenic hacking oregon the Vaultlander action-figure fights. These activities are a bully diversion connected paper, but they’re each laughably simple. I’m not definite you could neglect 1 if you tried, and portion that successful and of itself isn’t unforgivable, there’s besides nary amended reward for acing these sequences alternatively of simply passing them.

But wherever New Tales truly does driblet the shot is successful its last episode, nary of which I’ll amusement present for spoiler reasons. I person nary complaints astir the pacing oregon quality improvement successful episodes 1-4, but the finale not lone overstays its invited – with a drawn-out fixation connected painstakingly dragging each of the 3 protagonists done a travel of self-discovery – it besides careens the crippled disconnected a cliff of sci-fi stupidity that seems misplaced adjacent successful Borderlands’s anything-goes universe. In short, the communicative gets truly hokey astatine the extremity – careless of which ending your choices pb you to – sidesplitting the momentum it had cautiously built done its archetypal 4 episodes. It’s a existent “it’s the journey, not the destination” benignant of situation.