I wouldn’t mind seeing how many people took the exact same path as me. It’s certainly interesting, but at this point it would be great to get even more complex. The game keeps track of what you did, and at the end of the episode, you can see how many people went the same way you did. It’s not much, but it is nice.Īs usual with any Telltale game, part of the fun in making your big choices is comparing these choices with others. There are points in the story when you can spend money to equip different accessories. When using Fiona, she can keep track of her bank account. This allows you to scan various items for flavor text. When playing as Rhys, you can press L1 to use his cybernetic eye. Don’t get too excited though when this happens, you have maybe a hallway you can walk down or something. Occasionally, you’ll be allowed to move around and explore a bit. Again, these choices don’t seem to affect the story at large, but do allow you to roleplay a bit. A couple of these big choices ask you whether or not you want to use that bullet. For example, Fiona carries a small pistol with just one bullet. When this happens, there are only a couple of choices. These pop up during big moments in the story, and pause the game to let you carefully choose how you wish to proceed. It’s kind of like a two hour quick time event. It will just send you back a few seconds though. Failing these doesn’t always lead to death, but death can happen. During action sequences, you’ll have to rotate the analog stick or press buttons as they pop onto the screen. The conversations will differ slightly based on your choices, but the overall plot is largely unaffected. You can pick any of them or remain silent, but you only have a brief window to choose. During conversations, you’ll be presented with four different options. When you do get to chime in, you have two primary methods. When it comes to mechanics, the game is lacking. Speaking of “game”, let’s talk about how this thing works. Still, I can honestly say this is one of the best sounding games I’ve played all year. The only problem I had was sometimes the voices got drowned out by the music. Add in the crazed rants of the psychos, the ethereal effects of Zero’s abilities, and the rocking soundtrack, and it’s a recipe for success. Featuring the voices of Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Chris Hardwick, and Patrick Warburton, the cast is truly top notch. The audio department is where the game really shines though. These problems are constant, but the fantastic art style makes up for it. It will pause frequently to load up variations of speech, words will be cut off, and sometimes the sound will go on without the video. The game also has the typical TT technical issues. That being said, the animations are a bit stiff, and there’s an issue with words not syncing up with lips. You could even be forgiven for thinking you were just watching a cutscene from one of the FPS games. The cell-shaded art style of Borderlands lends itself well to the Telltale look. All of the humor, charm, and fun is present and accounted for. While things are, predictably, left open for a sequel, there wouldn’t be much of a problem if this ended up being it. On top of that, there’s still plenty of time for some last bits of character growth. While there are some threads that are open ended, the important points get resolved, and they get resolved in a satisfying manner. Let’s just say that you can’t craft the perfect team without having made some allies around the way.Īs far the story goes, it’s a resounding success. It all boils down to a chaotic final section that ups the ante while providing a decent payoff for your decisions. The episode moves quickly, despite being the longest in the series. We get to see what Jack’s plan is, we get to decide Yvette’s fate, we get to see what happens when the vault is opened, and we even get to see what some our choices have wrought. Issues and plot lines start getting resolved one right after the other, with very few breaks in the action. Things were going swimmingly, until the girls were put up at gunpoint and Handsome Jack finally made his move. Under the thumb of Vallory, they were forced to track down the last part Gortys needs to summon a vault. When we last left our heroes, they were stuck on Hyperion. Each episode has been a joy to play through, and this final entry is no exception. While TftB hasn’t done much to shed the idea of Telltale’s games being a technical mess, the story and characters has done a great deal into establishing faith that slogging through the game will be worth it. (Note: As with all episodic games, certain parts of this review will be carried over from my review of the first episode. Tales from the Borderlands: Episode Five – The Vault of the Traveler
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