3/5 ★ – Hill417's review of Tales from the Borderlands.

When a game franchise receives multiple installments, one of them will either highlight the series’s strengths or weaknesses. In the case of “Tales from the Borderlands” it emphasizes the good and the bad. Not for the game, but for Telltale themselves. Let me start with the pros and that is the story. A salaryman working at Hyperion named Rhys was robbed of his promotion by his corporate rival Vasquez and is demoted to a janitor. So he and his best friend Vaughn plan to ruin his career out of spite, but one thing lead to another and they soon find themselves looking into “the Gortys Project” along with two thieves, sisters Sasha and Fiona (Fiona being the second playable protagonist). This project may just lead them to a Vault, where they will find vast riches. I would explain what I meant about “one thing lead to another”, but that would spoil some of the whacky hijinks and I don’t want to rob you of the hilarity that ensues. This may not be a traditional Borderlands game (a shooter), but the humor and tone of those games is still embedded in the final product. By that I mean it never takes itself so seriously and almost everyone is super sarcastic and jaded. I think it’s the actors and their delivery that makes the comedy work. For Rhys he is voiced by the one and only Troy Baker. I’d like to think his portrayal of “the Boss” in Saints Row prepared him for Rhys. Laura Bailey plays the stern con artist Fiona. Then there is her sister Sasha played by Telltale regular Erin Yvette. There are also some returns and cameos from characters from the previous installments (again no spoiling) for some good old fashion fan service. As per usual the combat is comprised of quick time events and moving the joy stick in time so there isn’t anything resembling a challenge, but when the QTE’s are executed they feel like it is a slapstick routine, which works better than it has any right to. It wouldn’t be a Telltale game without choices and your decisions are a factor on who will join you in the final battle, but it never felt like my choices had to much of an impact until the last episode. Which is one of Borderlands weaknesses that transfers over from other Telltale titles. Despite the characters being endearing, the plot engaging, and the dialogue well written, with all of the positives I loved from the developers, it came with all of the negatives. For starters I couldn’t tell if there was lag or the dialogue was out of sync with the voice. Sometimes the lips were not matching with what the characters were saying. There is also the issue with the music. Sometimes it will suddenly rise to max volume and will be louder than the dialogue, yes I turned the music down, but it just sporadically jams back up to eleven out of nowhere. The awkward animations would go a long way in breaking the immersion as was the stuttering before and after the loading screens. I could go on and on about the glitches and stuttering, but we would be here all day. This was just one of many games that Telltale just didn’t take the extra time to polish, which was the sad fate of many of their games. Still if you can get pass the bugs and finish the game, you can experience what Telltale were the masters at, that being storytelling.