I have found myself in a period of relative gaming downtime, with nothing really to do in my three main games of choice that have occupied most of this year to date, The Division 2, Destiny 2 and Anthem. I am starting to get hyped up for Borderlands 3 this fall, and I thought I’d check out Tales from the Borderlands, the 2014 Telltale (RIP) title set inside the Borderlands universe. And now that I’ve beaten it, and played a bit of Borderlands 3 to boot, I’m going to go ahead and recommend it as a must-play for anyone looking forward to the sequel.
I remember when Tales from the Borderlands came out, and I wasn’t terribly interested in a story-based Borderlands game that would not be about shooting and loot, at least in the traditional sense. And yet playing it now, I think you should play it before BL3 for two key reasons.
First, it’s just…really good. Borderlands may be a lot of things, but it’s not a series with all that many emotional moments. I think the most I’ve ever been moved by the series in several hundred hours of play is finding out the history of Tiny Tina’s parents or watching Jack kill Mordecai’s bird. But those moments are few and far between, and Tales from the Borderlands is a chance to play a game set in this universe with actual emotional stakes between your characters, con artist Fiona and Hyperion middle manager Rhys, and those around them.
There’s some really great stuff here from a character development and world-building perspective, and you’ll form connections from everyone from your work bro to your potential love interest to a vault hunter mentor to a loader bot, of all things. The story is compelling and the writing is good. The “wackiness” of regular Borderlands is there, but toned down a bit and without the game being shooting 98% of the time, there is a place for a number of quieter moments.
But the other reason you should play the game is because I think it will add to your enjoyment of the overall experience of Borderlands 3. Playing just the demo mission of Borderlands 3, one of the main quest-givers was Rhys, the Tales protagonist, now in a new role several years after the events of his own game. And I have no doubt that we will see other characters from Tales crop up in Borderlands 3 as well.
Past that, Tales from the Borderlands does have a few very, very important story moments for the Borderlands universe that I have to believe will have ramifications in Borderlands 3. I won’t get into specifics to avoid spoilers, but there’s one (apparent) major character death of someone who has been in the game from the start, and may not appear in the sequel as a result. There’s also the destruction of a particular landmark that seems rather important as well, given the events of Borderlands 2.The point is, Tales from the Borderlands is a solid game on its own, or at least a solid story with vaguely game-like mechanics, and at least some of what happens there will show up in Borderlands 3, as I’ve already seen at least one big example of that happening from the demo alone. It’s definitely worth it to spend six hours or so to beat this thing, and I’m pretty sure it’s dirt cheap everywhere by now.
My next decision is whether or not playing the Pre-Sequel is worth it, and if you have an opinion on that, do let me know.
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