Tales From The Borderlands – PAX Sneak Peak

I walked into PAX Prime this year with a plan. I was going to run first to play the co-op of Dragon Age: Inquisition, then run directly to Tales from the Borderlands by TellTale Games – and I was not disappointed. More on Dragon Age later (that should be my new tagline, because I’m always going to have more to say about Dragon Age at some point), but I was thrilled with Tales from the Borderlands. I don’t think the line was ever not capped, so many people were fighting their way in to play this demo.

I was sold on playing this demo because despite my irritation about my expectations of The Wolf Among Us, I super enjoyed the game play (I really do enjoy the interactive story telling format). So matching that up with the world of Borderlands – something that I liked watching someone else play to catch the cut scenes because I wasn’t super interested in 87 billion guns but loved the story and mythos of the game. So moving that into an interactive story seemed like a win to me.

In the demo you play as Rhys, someone from Hyperion who is clearly making shady deals to get himself ahead – not as any of the vault hunters from Borderlands 1 or 2, though they do make appearances in the game. The writing is witty, I was having fun in the half hour demo and only noticed the time passing because my poor feet felt like I should sever them off at the calf by day four of PAX.

Here is what really got me though. I played through the demo at the same time as Jon, and what our choices were at the end changed our endings. Not The Wolf Among Us where no matter what you do, the same person dies and you fall out the window – but just different endings. What happened is that the story is being told by unreliable narrators, so while everything that happens is cannon within the borderlands universe (per Gearbox), it feels like a choose your own adventure story where you get to pick and choose and end up in a different place than where someone else playing the same does.

For example: At the end of this demo where they’ve set it up that Rhys is trying to buy a vault key from someone, and you have to stop the dude from backing out of the deal, you as the player choose if you give a speech to change his mind, or use violence (I won’t tell you what the violence option is, but it’s awesomely funny!). Then Fiona – the other character you get to play as steps in and says something along the lines of “That isn’t what happened. You’re missing the most important part!” and you have the radial wheel to choose what happened. Did Zero bust into the room? Did a gangster break in? Did something MYSTERIOUS happen off screen, or did the bloody vault key shatter? Those are pretty different options that could splinter in any number of directions for a story!

And because Tales from the Borderlands takes place after Borderlands 2, we’re not in a spot like The Wolf Among Us where we have to have the right people in the right places for a story that has already to be told to work. Mmmmhmmmm. I’m sold. I’m in. TAKE MY MONEY.

In the panel with Gearbox, Randy Pitchford (no kidding, I could listen to that man read the ingredients off my shampoo bottle and I’m pretty sure he would sound just as passionate about it as he does video games. I love listening to him speak!) revealed that what happens in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is going to be relevant in Tales from the Borderlands, and that by playing Tales of the Borderlands, it will unlock items and things in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. So for people like me who aren’t super into shooter game it might not be enough to make us jump in and play, I’m willing to bet they’re going to hook quite a few people who haven’t given the episodic story telling games a shot before.

In the end, Tales from the Borderlands was my favorite demo from PAX Prime. I’ve got some time to go before the game comes out, but I’m ready for them to take my money now and let me play.