Telltale’s Game of Thrones and Tales from the Borderlands
Telltale has very recently released two new games: Tales from the Borderlands and Game of Thrones. Over the weekend, I had a chance to play the first episode of both. I’m going to walk you through a bit of the (spoiler-free!) story and setting, and share my experiences with you.
First, let’s talk about Tales from the Borderlands.
Tales is the story of Rhys and Fiona, two “not-vault-hunters” whose lives become intertwined on Pandora. Rhys is a company man and has spent his entire career up on Helios working for Hyperion. Fiona is a con-artist, living with her sister on Pandora. Rhys and his friends develop a plot to obtain a vault key before their boss does, and thus, the story begins.
I’m going to start with the graphics and say that Telltale’s signature style is well-suited to Borderlands, which should be obvious if you’ve ever played a Borderlands game. The styles are so similar, and that really helps Tales feel connected to the Borderlands universe. There isn’t much more to say about this except that it worked well.
The characters in Tales are very likeable. Rhys feels a lot like Jack at the beginning of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel to me, but with more good in his heart. He’s snappy, sarcastic, scheming, and hilarious, which really helps draw you into the gameplay. Fiona is smart, kind-hearted (for a con-artist, that is), and ambitious. The side characters were written well, too, and I really enjoyed Vaughn and found the dynamic between him and Rhys to be absolutely hilarious. Sasha is a bit boring when interacting with her sister Fiona, unfortunately. However, there’s a whole sequence of events that requires Sasha to interact with Rhys, and it definitely helped make her character shine.
The story is interesting and fits well within the Borderlands universe. It’s nice to see some action from the perspective of someone who isn’t a vault hunter, though Zero (teased in the trailer) appears numerous times throughout the first episode. The story is told through flashbacks, similar to how The Pre-Sequel’s story was told. This does feel a bit old at this point, since Pre-Sequel is so new, but I admit that might be because I am also playing through Dragon Age 2 at the moment which is also told entirely via flashbacks. No. More. Flashbacks. Please. Get a new story-telling mechanic, games.
Rhys and Fiona
It appears that Telltale is trying to implement some new features into their games. In Tales specifically, you can pick up money and items, and then use that money to purchase items in the future. In the first episode, these items were pretty inconsequential, but it’s a step in the right direction and something I hope Telltale keeps up. Another interesting feature is the way you can occasionally interact with Rhys’ cybernetic implants (like his eye, and his arm), but this does feel a bit superficial so far and I hope that Telltale expands on this more.
Overall, I really enjoyed the first episode, but I did want to talk about a few more points that might cause others to not enjoy it. First of all, this game will flat-out not be interesting to you if you have never played Borderlands 2 or are not a fan of the Borderlands universe. This is unique for a Telltale game, because you don’t need to know the story of The Walking Dead to enjoy their installment in the universe, nor do you need to know the Fables comics to enjoy The Wolf Among Us as the idea of zombies and fairy tales are both deeply ingrained in our culture. Even Game of Thrones, which we’ll get to in a minute, doesn’t suffer this as much as Tales does (though it does, to a point). I would also recommend playing through The Pre-Sequel before playing through Tales, as it does set the stage for this entry in the series. It’s not necessarily a requirement, but I believe it would make Tales a more enjoyable experience. My opinion? I would recommend Tales from the Borderlands if you enjoyed Borderlands 2 and the style of Telltale games.
Now let’s talk about Game of Thrones.
Warning: spoilers exist if you are not caught up through Season 3 of the TV show. Nothing in the game will be spoiled.
Game of Thrones is set in between seasons 3 and 4 of the TV show, and more specifically, right at the moment of the Red Wedding. This series follows House Forrester, which is only mentioned in passing in both the show and the books. You will play from the perspective of three characters in this first episode. Ethan is the heir of Lord Forrester, Mira is Ethan’s older sister and a handmaiden to Margaery Tyrell in King’s Landing, and Gared Tuttle is a squire to the elder Lord Forrester.
The first installment of this series was intense in the true Game of Thrones-style, and I expected no less. It’s hard to mention anything without spoiling the game, but you will be forced to make some tough decisions. My ending was heart-wrenching and while I won’t say I was surprised (considering who I was dealing with at the moment), I was definitely sad. I enjoyed seeing cameos of my favorite (and sometimes not-so-favorite) Lannisters, including Cersei and Tyrion. Interacting with Margaery as Mira was fun, especially because I still can’t read her character (I am only on book four).
Environments in Game of Thrones
Unfortunately, I have mixed feelings on the graphics. The environments and backgrounds certainly can be pretty when you don’t have to interact with them. The oil-painting style is a departure from the “signature” Telltale style, and I definitely think that it suits the Game of Thrones universe much more than the comic “cel-shaded” style of their other titles. However, in practice, it does make the game look a bit dated. I’ve seen many people compare these to PS2-era graphics, and while I disagree, they certainly do feel a bit outdated for 2014. I also noticed that the animation in this title isn’t as smooth (for example, at the beginning of the game, your character toasts another and your arm movements look very unnatural) even when running at a high FPS. This might have been existent but hidden in the other animation style, but unfortunately it really stands out here. I can’t help but wonder why Telltale pushed this game out so quickly. They teased us with it at the end of 2013 and then we didn’t hear anything for almost an entire year. Suddenly, we had a teaser trailer. Then information and photos. Then a launch trailer, and the next day the game was out–all in the span of a couple weeks. In my opinion, Telltale should have pushed the release back a bit and spent some more time on these graphics. I hate to have to say it because the game was otherwise an enjoyable experience, but it appears that Telltale was a bit too ambitious for their abilities given their time frame.
This first episode is fun and intense with plenty of screen time for our characters that we love and love-to-hate in the TV show. You will quickly come to care for House Forrester with the way that Telltale draws you in. Fair warning: you should be caught up through season 3 of the TV show before playing this game. You could also be caught up through book 3 if you are reading, but if you haven’t seen the TV show yet I would strongly recommend watching it before playing this game, as there are a couple small ways that the show’s canon departs from the books’ and one of them is relevant in this game. My opinion? If you are a Game of Thrones fan and you are also a fan of Telltale games, you will enjoy this game despite the graphical shortcomings. However, it’s doubtful that it will add much to the TV show narrative, so if you don’t enjoy Telltale games, you can probably safely pass on this title.
