New Tales from the Borderlands review – for fans only

The Christmas (playing) season is slowly coming to an end, so there were some “leftovers” that we did not have time to consider during it. As a big fan of Borderlands, I didn’t miss the continuation of the spin-off adventure, although of course there were concerns raised by other authors than in the case of the excellent first part. This time the game was taken directly by the developers from the “home stable” of Borderlands, Gearbox studio. Thanks to this, the game contains the authentic DNA of the series, but unfortunately also suffers from some rather nasty propaganda and a lack of scripting skills. Nevertheless, he has a chance to entertain the fans at least in some places.

• Platform: PS5 (review) PS4, XSX|S, X1, PC, Switch
• Publication date: 21.10.2022
• Producer: Gearbox (USA)
• Genre: adventure animated film
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Data to download: 30 GB
• Game time: 10 hours
• Price: 999 CZK (couples)

Unsympathetic trio

Because it’s an interactive movie at its core (or a cinematic non-linear adventure, if you will), the whole experience naturally rises and falls with the story. The creators decided to freely follow the events of the previous Tales from the Borderlands, so here you will encounter familiar characters from the previous game, but they are always delegated only minor roles or small episodic scenes. Instead, a new trio appeared in the lead role: the timid scientist Ana, her short-tempered brother (street hustler) Octavia and the cool ice cream girl (yogurt) on the cart Fran. The problem is that all these characters are not similar either in appearance or behavior.

I guess that the ambitions of the authors here were to offer heroes “for the modern public”, but like “characters by quota”. I would venture to suggest that they also behave in accordance with the (ideals) of their creators, which makes them hysterical obnoxious boys most of the time. I really don’t feel like I’ve played anything with such dissimilar characters. If this was all intended and the point is to tell a story of “real outcasts of society” or something like that, then I’m afraid this has gone too far and compromises almost every scene and dialogue. It’s true that every story is only as interesting as its characters.

Each story is only as interesting as its characters.

But since I really like this series, I still enjoyed returning to his world and I really liked some of the scenes. The plot, of course, is to find a new Vault in it and an all-powerful artifact so that you can fight the bosses of large corporations. But within the framework of this, we will see, for example, a full-blooded invasion of one of the corporations on a rival planet or, perhaps, a fight with a monster protecting the aforementioned Vault. In addition to narrative passages, I sometimes liked humorous ones, for example, when the characters discover the healing properties of this artifact and begin to experience various injuries on each other. It is a pity that these narrative or entertaining passages are rather in the minority against the backdrop of convulsive boredom.

Worthy expedition

That being said, the whole game looks and works very well, not only does it run smoothly from a technical standpoint, but it certainly doesn’t negate the artistic prowess of the Borderlands series home studio. The aforementioned narrative scenes are truly epic, and the variety of environments is pleasing – from city streets to orbital stations or stylish TV competitions to alien ruins. All this is supported by high-quality dubbing, as well as several worthy songs, which together give the game that truly “cinematic” charge, which, apparently, was the goal of the authors. In terms of performance, there is nothing to complain about.

In terms of gameplay, the game has absolutely nothing to surprise you, it is (apart from the completely unnecessary primitive copycat action mini-game with collecting game chips) a classic dialogue and click adventure with some QTE sequences that you can simplify or fully automate in settings. In a game of this genre, it is absolutely unequivocally true that everything is driven by the plot and its characters. Unfortunately, a few highlights failed to overcome most of the mediocre and embarrassing moments. In addition, the game rather indecently changes the roles and characters of some of the characters from the first part. Despite all this, by the end I found that I really liked this unsympathetic company, and that I would not mind playing another season with them. But compared to the great previous game, it’s still just a B-series.