New Tales From the Borderlands

Genre: Graphic Adventure / Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in New Tales From the Borderlands: Deluxe Edition, along with Tales From the Borderlands. It is also included in Borderlands Collection: Pandora’s Box, along with Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition, and Tales From the Borderlands.)

New Tales From the Borderlands is a game that combines Graphic Adventure and Visual Novel elements, blending them together with real-time “quick time” elements much in the same way as other games we’ve seen from Telltale Games, such as The Walking Dead and Batman: The Telltale Series. Although… this isn’t a Telltale Games game. Rather, in the wake of massive layoffs and restructuring at Telltale, this game was developed internally at Gearbox Studio itself, picking up where Telltale left off in making a follow-up to Tales From the Borderlands. This game was released in 2022 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

The story of New Tales From the Borderlands takes place shortly after the end of Borderlands 3, and it primarily follows the story of three new characters – Anu, a high-minded (and overly-optimistic) scientist, her street urchin brother Octavio, and Octavio’s fro-yo peddling boss Fran. However, Borderlands series fans who haven’t yet played the series’ third game will likely find themselves very confused, as the game doesn’t take place on Pandora (the setting of all games in the series prior to Borderlands 3), but on Promethea, which gives this game a very different atmosphere than much of the rest of the series. And while it’s not impossible to follow the plot without having played the earlier games, it definitely feels like you’ll want to have played all of them (especially Borderlands 3) to get the most out of this one.

I’ll try to avoid spoilers for any of the games here, simply saying that all three of this game’s lead characters are hoping to improve their lot in life – Anu hopes her research will get a “big break” that will allow her to get the success she needs to uplift her brother out of poverty, Octavio is dreaming about expanding his social circle as a way to get rich… somehow… and Fran is hoping to restore her business through an insurance claim on the damage done during the events of Borderlands 3.

I’ll be honest, this game’s story and characters largely didn’t “click” with me the same way the previous Tales From the Borderlands game did. Of all the characters present here, the only one that I truly liked was a friend of Octavio’s, the dry-witted assassination bot L0U13, who is extremely skilled at killing, but only does so with those he can confirm have a contract out for their life.

It’s not just the characters that are a bit lacking here, the story seems to take quite a while to get going, with the characters taking hours to even meet up with one another. In fact, even a few hours in, it’s hard to tell where the story is even going or what the three protagonists all have in common or why we’re following them (beyond that they all happen to be connected to Octavio). And while the first Tales of the Borderlands featured a stellar voice cast, this game’s voice list is… eh, fine, but it’s just not on the same calibur.

The graphics are still mostly pretty good here, featuring the same sort of messy stylized cel-shaded characters and gritty environments the series is known for (even if not in settings the series is known for). However, on the Nintendo Switch there is a noticeable moment when transitioning to new locations where it takes the textures a second or so too long to load in. It doesn’t detract from the gameplay, but it is noticeable.

The gameplay once again treads through stuff that is pretty standard for the old Telltale games, for better or worse. Once again, you have conversation trees where your choices theoretically have an impact on the plot, though it’s far less clear this time what impact your choices are making. And once again, you have “quick time” events that are… honestly at this point more of a frustration than anything, forcing players to react to actions in real-time by moving a direction on the analog stick or pressing a button, or lining up a target. Once again, I feel this does not add anything of significant value to the game, but it’s here all the same regardless.

There is also a new frustration I found in areas where you roam around and interact with things, in that objects and people you interact with can be extremely finicky about where and how you do so. This made for a fair amount of frustration, and slowed down the pacing of a game that was already too slow.

In the end, I don’t think New Tales From the Borderlands is a bad game, but it feels like a downgrade from its predecessor in virtually every way. The characters are less-interesting, the plot is less coherent, the voice acting is less stellar, the pacing is worse, there’s more gameplay frustration, and the plot is more dependant on having played the game it is a follow-up to while also feeling less overall like it has the same tone and feeling of the other games in the series. There’s still some interesting story and good humor to be found here, and Graphic Adventure fans may still want to give it a look, but mostly this is a game that should be left to the most die-hard fans of the Borderlands franchise.

tl;dr – New Tales From the Borderlands is a game that combines Graphic Adventure and Visual Novel elements that tells a tale set after the events of Borderlands 3. This is a solid sci-fi adventure set in the world of the franchise, but there are a lot more issues this time around, with a slower-paced and less-cohesive plot, less-interesting characters, and some other frustrations. Where the first Tales of the Borderlands game was strong enough that even non-Borderlands fans could enjoy it, this feels like a game that’s really only for the most diehard fans of the series.

Grade: C+

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