Tales from the Borderlands

Overview

Tales from the Borderlands is a five-part sci-fi point-and-click adventure game developed and published digitally by Telltale for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Mac, and most iOS and Android devices. Episodes were periodically released between November 25, 2014 and October 20, 2015.

Taking place in the same universe as Gearbox's Borderlands series of first-person shooters (set shortly after the events of Borderlands 2), players control two protagonists: Rhys (an ambitious employee of the antagonistic Hyperion Corporation trying to get back at his new boss alongside his friend Vaughn) and Fiona (an infamous con artist planning a major heist with her sister Sasha). When both are captured by a mysterious stranger somewhere in Pandora, they must re-tell (sometimes unreliably) how they reluctantly grouped up and attempted to become rich.

The fourth of Telltale's "tailored story" set of games (made famous by The Walking Dead), the bulk of this game relies on making decisions through actions and timed conversation trees, complete with branching consequences that tailor the player's story to the choices they make. Unlike the previous games, these are not purely moral choices (due to the game's lightheartedness). Players also engage in action sequences (using a series of quick time events). Both protagonists have their own unique features during gameplay (such as Rhys scanning objects with his electronic eye and Fiona collecting and utilising loot to her advantage).

Purchasing the full game (or its Season Pass) and tying it with the player's Shift account grants the player a number of game-themed weapons and character skins for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! The game was later re-released in retail form by 2K for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Following the closure of Telltale on November 2018, the game was delisted from all digital storefronts. The Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC versions of the game were later re-published by Gearbox as a complete digital package on February 16, 2021, along with a new Nintendo Switch version.

Episodes

Episode 1: Zer0 Sum (November 25, 2014)

After a deal gone horribly wrong, a Hyperion employee named Rhys must make a shaky alliance with a con artist named, Fiona, in order to track down the money they both believe is theirs.

Episode 2: Atlas Mugged (March 17, 2015)

While Rhys tries to escape from Handsome Jack's shadow, the group attempts to learn more about the Gortys Project while being hunted by both Hyperion and the vengeful August.

Episode 3: Catch a Ride (June 23, 2015)

Rhys and Fiona come face to face with criminal, Queenpin Vallory, while navigating through the jungles of an Atlas terraforming facility in search of the next clue to finding the vault.

Episode 4: Escape Plan Bravo (August 18, 2015)

Rhys and Fiona are forced by Queenpin Vallory to travel to Helios and retrieve the next Gortys upgrade.

Episode 5: The Vault of the Traveller (October 20, 2015)

The past and the present collide as Handsome Jack takes control of Hyperion and the identity of the Stranger, as well as the location of the vault, is finally revealed.

Development

Despite the game's high critical reception, developer Telltale revealed in a 2017 retrospective that the game's sales faired poorer than anticipated, falling so short in fact that the development of the final few episodes were wrapped up by a "skeleton crew" of a handful of developers who worked extra hours as a voluntary choice. According to one of the game's directors Nick Herman that although the game wasn't losing money it wasn't selling as well as expected and so a deal was made with the rest of the studio in order to finish the project:

"About halfway through, we made a deal with the studio that if they let us go on, we would give up like 95 per cent of our staff as long as they let us maintain a skeleton crew.

We had at least one person from every department working on the game. But that's a very small team for an episode."

System Requirements

PC

Minimum

• OS: Windows XP Service Pack 3
• Processor: Core 2 Duo 2GHz or equivalent
• Memory: 3 GB RAM
• Graphics: ATI or NVIDIA card w/512 MB RAM
• DirectX: Version 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 3 GB available space
• Sound Card: Direct X 9.0c sound device
• Additional Notes: Not Recommended for Intel integrated graphics

Mac

Minimum

• OS: Snow Leopard (10.6.X)
• Processor: 2.3 Ghz Intel
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: 512 MB NVidia or ATI graphics card
• Hard Drive: 3 GB available space
• Additional Notes: Not recommended for Intel integrated graphics or Mac Minis or early-generation MacBook