I haven't laughed this hard about dismemberment in a long time. In addition to that, they continue to match the Borderlands' dark-yet-lighthearted style perfectly. The writers, Pierre Shorette and Adam Hines, do a really good job of drawing you in just enough to bop you on the nose with the fourth wall, and it made me laugh every time. A lot of the comic beats involve breaking the fourth wall, so you have a lot of jokes that involve characters looking into the camera, or reminding you that you're playing a game, or that you're listening to a story that's probably more fabrication than fact. And for a game that relies heavily on quick time events, Tales from the Borderlands is doing an admirable job of getting you to feel something when you take an action.Įven though the controls in Tales do a good job of getting you to engage it, the writing is taking steps to prevent you from becoming too immersed in it.
In these instances, even if they're getting you to sit at attention and interact with the game, they aren't getting you to engage in it. I feel like quick time events get a bad rap for a few reasons, most notably that if they aren't implemented with some forethought, they quickly become tedious and repetitive. And in the final minutes of the episode, there's an event that made me genuinely go 'Ah, no! Get it! AAH!' And when it was over, I realized that all those reoccurring 'catch the thing' events were preparing me for something big and it hadn't even occured to me. I really appreciated that in the first few minutes, there's an event that requires you to catch something and the same type of event kept cropping up throughout the episode like a reoccurring joke. The good news is that for the most part, they feel purposeful, well placed and well executed. Which is always fun to watch.Īs I've said before, since this is a point-and-click adventure that takes place in the world of a First Person Shooter, it's very action-heavy, meaning that there is no shortage of quick time events. Sasha and Vaughan have some great moments in this episode (especially Vaughan), but for the most part their narrative purpose is to sit on the sidelines and provide snarky commentary. In this episode, we see Fiona show that she's willing to get her hands dirty to do what needs to be done, and Rhys shows that he's ready to make a deal with anyone at just about any cost to get what he wants. That isn't to say that the quality degrades afterward, but in those first fifteen minutes there is so much plot set in motion and the writers brilliantly hit all of their jokes, that the opening scene happens to stand out among the rest. The first scene of this episode is definitely the strongest. If you haven't played the first episode yet and don't want anything spoiled, you should check out my review for the first episode, Zer0 Sum.Ītlas Mugged picks up exactly where Zer0 Sum left off- The gang finds a map to a vault, and are staring in awe at the giant hologram of Pandora, while Rhys is recoiling in fear at the hologram of Handsome Jack that only he can see. If you haven't already guessed, I'm talking about the second episode of Tales from the Borderlands, Atlas Mugged. But I digress, let's talk about the actual game. I can't wait for one of the characters to give us a flashback where they tell us a story inside of the story that's being told by the two protagonists in the story that's being told to us by Marcus. I have a sneaking suspicion that the writers might be trying to cram as many layers into this story as possible. It takes a small step away from Telltale's usual style in favor of the Borderlands aesthetic, but I really enjoy it because it means that Tales from the Borderlands is pulling a Grand Budapest on us. But Tales takes a slightly different route by having a character tell you what happened over a roughly sketched motion comic, instead of a trailer playing back all of your choices. That's nothing new- both The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us did short recaps before each episode. Just like the intros to the Borderlands games, each episode opens with the gravel-throated Marcus Kincaid (of Marcus Munitions) recapping the story so far, and reminding you of the choices you've made.
Marcus begins the second episode of Tales from the Borderlands with this gem- the first of many winks and nods to the camera that get thrown at you throughout Atlas Mugged.
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