The Borderlands adventures where you aren't primarily concerned with blowing away psychos and stealing alien treasure, they place a little more focus on the characters. We get 3 playable protagonists in New Tales, Dr. Anuradha Dhar, Octavio Wallace-Dhar, and Fran Miscowicz. They're all amiable idiots in very different ways. Fran was the one I liked the best, she's the wildcard of the bunch and her mix of angry impulses (both through rage and through her other "wiles") made me laugh the most. Dr. Anuradha grew on me as the game went on, she's brilliant but lacks any common sense and she can't help tripping over her own two feet trying to solve Promethea's problems. Octavio was the least likeable, he reminded me of a less charismatic version of Michael Pena's character in Ant-Man. He's thick as a brick and way too confident which can be a workable mix if it's handled properly. He was more grating than anything and the character didn't gel for me. The biggest standouts were in the supporting cast and they help keep the game moving. But some of them get sidelined for large sections of the plot and I was all too disappointed when they bumped off my two favourites at the end. This isn't new for this series but I'm not 100% Gearbox understands which characters their audience will enjoy. I still got enough out of the new characters to enjoy the game but it was far from a perfect record.
We follow Anu, Octavio and Fran in their quest for vengeance against Susan Caldwell and her tyrannical reign as the CEO of Tediore. The mission to save Promethea is a righteous goal and I was never completely bored of Anu, Fran and Octavio bumbling their way towards their just desserts. The gameplay follows the Telltale model but there are plenty of breaks to liven things up. We get some more of the meta moments through Fran's flashbacks and the group's appearance on Sink or Swim, the Vaultlander fights are simple but fun (if not just to see Bad@$$ Super Fan in his brief appearances) and the free roam sections are brief and avoid some of the pitfalls of previous Telltale adventures. New Tales may not rewrite the formula but it deviates enough to bring something new to the table.
New Tales has many moments where things start to really click. I liked 2/3 protagonists, there are some great side characters, the game has many moments where I laughed hard (pretty foopin hard in fact) and while the story isn't top notch, it was worth following. The biggest problem was that all the pistons on the engine that is this game couldn't fire at the same time. Every time I was laughing, the characters would do something unbelievably dumb or I'd start really getting into the story and then there would be a run on sequence that killed the pacing etc. The game just couldn't flick all the switches or light all the pyres at the same time and it ruined New Tales' chances of being a true success. It was a shame but I tried to be pragmatic about it. There's always the next scene and I try to remember the shining moments instead of dwelling on when New Tales came up a little short.
I adore the original Tales from the Borderlands. It's my second favourite Borderlands game (after Borderlands 2) and it holds a special place for me. I don't know if I've ever seen a game company follow another and succeed so completely and understand the property so thoroughly as Telltale did with that game. As long as you were okay with the gameplay style Telltale employed, I don't know how you could come away from it disappointed. There were memorable characters, an involving story, tons of sharp comedy and a faithful take on the mythos of the Borderlands universe. I'm not trying to wax poetic but the point I'm trying to make is that if you're bar for the success of New Tales is something on that level, you'll be disappointed by this game. But if you're willing to take the bad with the good, this is a pretty good initial effort from Gearbox. They didn't need to make this game and I'm happy with the double they hit even if it wasn't a homerun. I know it was met with a lot of criticism but I still liked this game quite a bit and I'll be playing it again. I'd like to extend Gearbox a sincere thank you for making New Tales and although I get the feeling this game won't be a smash hit, I'd also love another chance to play around in this world again if given the opportunity.
