Two years ago, after the 2012 VGA Awards, the guys from Gearbox and Telltale went to a bar. After a couple of drinks, they began to discuss all sorts of bold ideas like “Let’s work together!».

Surely, behind the scenes of the gaming industry, such conversations are not uncommon — just imagine how many joint projects between EA, Ubisoft, Valve and others washed away the morning hangover. But Gearbox and Telltale seized on the idea and continued to discuss it soberly. So the door to the universe Borderlands opened not only to those who like to shoot in the company of friends, but also to fans of quests, interactive stories and quiet single-player games.

Another Pandora

To start playing Tales from the Borderlands, You don’t need to be an expert on the previous parts of the series. The first few minutes clearly and clearly depict the world of Pandora. On the one hand — the vile intrigues of the Hyperion corporation on the orbital station. On the other hand, there is absurdly inflated crime and lawlessness in the spirit of an apocalyptic western on the planet itself. But, unlike the main Borderlands , here, shooting is no longer an every-minute activity, but a completely serious scrape.

Those familiar with Telltale series will feel right at home. This is a familiar cartoon stylized as a comic book with a constant choice of lines in dialogues, rare puzzles and reaction exercises. However, puzzles and exploration of locations in the spirit of classic adventure games have become very rare and short. First of all, we have an interactive story.

There are three heroes here. Rhys, the Hyperion manager, was on friendly terms with his bosses and was already figuring out the right facial expression to react to the news of the promotion. But the Horrible Bosses-esque scene left him with a mop in his hand and an obsession with destroying the new boss of Hyperion, who had popped up out of nowhere and ruined all his plans. To do this, he goes to Pandora — to make a deal behind everyone’s back.

► Rhys’s old boss https://orca88casino.co.uk/mobile-app/ went down the drain along with his promotion plans.

Rhys is a cunning and chatterbox, but far from a fighter. Therefore, when everything goes wrong, a real Tarantino black comedy begins: long tense conversations with a quick and funny bloody release. Rhys comes with a couple of simple gameplay mechanics: an eye-scanner, which in rare quest moments displays additional (usually unnecessary, but funny) descriptions of objects, and a robot control console for action scenes — on it you need to select weapons and indicate targets for attack. Also purely symbolic, although a funny feature.

The second heroine, Fiona, is a local swindler. Charming, resourceful and much better prepared for trouble than Rhys. It so happened that in the deal he had in mind, Fiona was not the last participant, and problems put them on the same side of the barricades. It also has gameplay features — a bank account at several points allows you to choose special options if you have enough money. You have to decide when, what and how much to spend. Fiona also has a retractable single-shot pistol hidden in her sleeve, like an assassin. But when to spend this one bullet and whether to spend it at all — you also decide.

► Rhys and Fiona. Fiona is slightly out of focus, but still nothing.

Liar, liar, liar

We don’t play as the third hero, but he is worth highlighting — because we watch the story, for the most part, from his position. A nameless bandit in an Asian cone hat keeps Fiona and Rhys tied up in his lair and interrogates. The entire plot of the first episode is what they tell him, sometimes together, sometimes in turns. Most of the scenes you see from two points of view, which differ in details and quarrel between the heroes. Whether they are lying or not, you will have no choice but to take what is happening on faith. Just like this bandit.

Sometimes Fiona and Rhys will have to answer the question: so what happened next?? You choose the answer yourself, and you get a strong impression that the characters are really making it up on the fly, trying not to diverge too much in their testimony. This gives rise to a strange, but truly unique experience: you feel like both a deceitful narrator and an incredulous listener at the same time.

► Sometimes heroes are helped by Zer0 from Borderlands 2. Slashes enemies and posts emoticons on his face display.

Unfortunately, this side also has a downside. When the bandit asks the heroes to continue the story, it seems that the chosen answer will send the story in a new direction — but in fact this is an imaginary, albeit well-presented (as usual in Telltale stories) non-linearity. All the proposed situations will happen sooner or later, and the hero will simply emphasize the chosen moment in the story.

You can also find fault with the fact that there are almost no puzzles and classic gameplay left — but this is a matter of taste. The emphasis on dialogue and interactive cutscenes only benefits the dynamics of the story.

Tales from the Borderlands shows Pandora exactly the way you want to see her outside of races with friends and guns. With dark humor, tense dialogues and dangerous adventures. With contradictory characters, charming but suspicious. With laughter mixed with blood.

And also Tales from the Borderlands Telltale brings back something we’ve really missed — the humor and frivolity that was in their previous games. But all this comes with quality The Walking Dead And The Wolf Among Us.

The perfect start to a potentially perfect story in the Borderlands universe without shooting or co-op — funny, fast-paced, reckless and faithful to the source material. A great return of Telltale’s stories to the light and frivolous tone that we’ve missed a bit with the last two dramas.