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Tag: TellTale

Weekly Gaming: Tales from the Borderlands (Xbox One)

As some of you may be aware, I started Tales from the Borderlands just over 2 years ago when the game was first released. As a Borderlands fan, I couldn’t wait to see Telltale’s take on the series, especially given how much I loved other franchises Telltale took on. The issue is, the game completely forgot that I had completed the second chapter, meaning it had lost all of my choices and decisions. Whilst some would say “Just select the third chapter and let the game randomise it for you!”, I felt this was horrendous – the whole point of a telltale game is to see the consequences and results of your actions, something that would feel contrived and wrong should I not have made those decisions myself.

Alas, I gave up. For the last 2 years I’ve proceeded to ignore the game even existed, Let alone see it through to its conclusion.

…. Until this last weekend that is, where I was meant to finally sit down and play FFXV, but decided to play a shorter game so that I could at least finish it before the weekend was over.

Looking through my list of games that I’m still yet to play, Tales from the Borderlands stood out as a game I actually wanted to see the ending of, despite it’s bastarding ability to delete my saves. So, getting some cups of tea ready and proceeding to hanker down, I decided to complete the remaining game within one sitting. Here’s my thoughts.

As I said in previous reviews of the episodes, Telltale have done a fantastic job in the presentation department for Tales from the Borderlands. Everything is crisp and sharp, with each character looking splendid. The cel-shading looks tremendous, even going so far as to make the world look more distinctive than before, making it look weirdly realistic as opposed to cartoony.

The presentation does wonders given the events that unfold in each of the episodes, with many characters being on display at once, and even large vistas that play to the cel-shading aesthetic even more. Animations also seemed to improve throughout each episode, with the last episode even going so far as to have an all out battle between your heroes and the crazy Vault monster. All in all Tales from the Borderlands was an absolute delight to witness, so much so I cannot wait until Borderlands 3 is released on this generation of consoles.

As for the story – overall it’s mediocre at best. Set on the planet of pandora, with all of it’s weird monsters and inhabitants, your main players, Rhys and Fiona, make their way across the planet searching for money and riches beyond their wildest dreams, all whilst avoiding all the trouble they manage to make in their path. It’s a basic set up, which has some nifty turns throughout, but overall fell flat if not for being pretty inconsequential in regards to the “lore” of Borderlands (if you could say Borderlands even has lore).

Characters themselves were fantastic, and fairly fleshed out, but I couldn’t help but feel a lot of their interactions between them were contrived, much to the point as to make it a detriment to the game. For example, in Episode 3 there’s awkward scenes (at least for me), where the Telltale team push heavily for your main character Rhys, and a side kick Sasha to get together. The issue was it come out of nowhere – there was no forewarning, no way to make questions lead up to the romance options, it was instead entirely forced upon me as the player of my own story. I felt so annoyed by this direction that I even proceeded to google whether there was anyway out of this romance, thankfully to find there was in the final scene of the final chapter.

That last paragraph may have sounded a little silly considering it was merely a romance in a game, the issue is all options within the game forced the romance, even when it wasn’t what I wanted. I felt like there was no way around it, a terrible feeling when Telltale games are renowned for making YOU feel in control of the events that unfold – both good and bad.

As for the gameplay, it’s the same as every other Telltale game – you proceed to walk around areas, talking to other characters, learning as much about the world as possible. Then take part in Quick Time Events (QTE’s), followed by long dialogue scenes, all with the signature “[Name] will remember that”. It may be harsh to say, but man oh man is the same gameplay time and time again getting boring. I know Telltale are meant to be about telling intriguing, new stories in established universes, but you’d think they’d mix the formula up a bit after doing sooooo many new games.

Comedy wise, Tales from the Borderlands actually manages to impress. The characters are so brilliantly written (by themselves) that the things they do in situations feels organic and got more than its fair share of laughs and chuckles. Should the narrative between the characters have been just as funny, I may have enjoyed the overall story more.

Regardless of my criticisms, was it worth going back to the game after 2 years? Meh, not really. Whilst Tales from the Borderlands has some key story elements which will be canon come the next instalment in the next franchise, I feel I could have skipped this entirely and got the jist of things in a simple note at the beginning of Borderlands 3. Maybe I’m still bitter about the loss of my save file, resulting in me playing the same episode again for 2 hours, but overall I found Tales from the Borderlands mediocre at best. It’s a shame I’ve failed out of love with Telltale game’s recent forays into franchises: some of my best gaming moments of the last few years was thanks to their pushing of the medium forward. Alas, all good things must come to an end.

3/5

11/08/2017
Weekly Gaming: The Walking Dead: Michonne: In too Deep (PC)

Hey all!

I wanted to do less episodic gaming this year (as I swear I played far too many episodic games last year, which is kind of cheating when you’re meant to be completing a game a week!), but here I am, playing another Telltale episodic game. My reasoning for this one is that VGChartz.com needed someone to review Michonne, and since I’ve recently completed watching theTV show from scratch, I wanted to see how one of my favourite characters played out in a game.

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/263526/the-walking-dead-michonne-episode-1-in-too-deep-pc/

Unfortunately, as my review above will attest, it does not turn out well at all. When you make a character driven series like The Walking Dead, you have to make sure you actually care about the characters, something Michonne doesn’t allow you, as the player, to do in any way, shape or form.

If I had to give the game a score out of 5 (like I usually do), I’d give it a 2/5 so far, as it genuinely doesn’t live up to any expectations the previous telltale games set.

Until next week!

-Dan

29/04/2016
Weekly Gaming: The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 3 (PC) SPOILERS!!!

With the previous episode not getting off on the right foot for me due to (in my opinion) not much happening, I was looking forward to Episode 3 to see if Telltale games have managed to better themselves at character building and the circumstances around said characters would make for better story telling and character progression.

With Episode 2 of the second season of Walking Dead not really gripping me, I was looking forward to jumping into episode 3 to see what would become of the group of characters being slaves in a supermarket, considering how angry and psychotic one of the characters behaved at the end of the last episode. This was certainly going to be a better episode if not purely for the fact the season has to make a lot of plot points to tie it all up nicely within the next 2 episodes, so with more characters, more deaths and more decisions, I was hoping for the best.

The episode starts out by introducing you to a few new characters at a new place: a superstore that has been barricaded and held up. We’re told the group currently occupying the place has done such a good job of holding up that they have electricity, guns, water and are even starting to grow their own food to ensure they constantly have a food source once the rations run out. The new characters you meet are just as diverse as the rest of the characters you’ve met so far, with Reggie being a kind and sincere gentleman (who is in charge of ensuring you don’t cause a ruckus and are introduced to others safely), Mike being a harsh but up front kind of guy, and Jane being a loner that seems to have survived by herself quite well before being captured and turned into a slave. (we are told she was found with zombie guts and blood all over her, meaning she knows that this is one way to hide from zombies from our past experience in the first season). The group is told to get an early nights sleep as they’ll be working around the clock tomorrow.

The group are held up and constantly watched by their superiors, ensuring that they don’t do anything out of line. It’s out here in the courtyard that you’ll actually have time to make your plans to escape, with Clementine and her small physique being put to good use in sneaking and gathering resources.

On your first day of working you’re introduced to more characters that work throughout the superstore, and are even made to work for a lot of it, refilling ammo, cutting branches etc. to please Carver, the brains behind this operation. Throughout all of it you’re told this is for the best, to ensure you continue to survive and to ensure that everyone trusts each other after your group escaped once before. Throughout all of this, Carver takes Clementine aside and speaks to her one to one, asking her what it’s like to be raised in a world like this and also saying that him and her are alike, that they’re strong and need to do what has to be done in order to survive, unlike the others. It was a nice moment, one which showed a bit more of Clementines bad side which we rarely see. She may act nice, but she has to be strong in order to continue living in this hellish world.

The “storm” that’s fast approaching is in fact a massive amount of zombies that are invading the superstore. Using this storm to their advantage, the group decide they’ll escape among the chaos, a wise decision but one with many troubles.

After a few days of hard work, the group work on a plan to escape this “prison” by getting a walkie talkie to Luke, who managed to never get captured in the first place, and activating all of the speakers outside the supermarket to attract the hoards, ensuring their escape is masked even more. With Clementine being the smallest character, you’re kind of forced into doing most of this work for the team yourself, a task which is annoying, but allows the rest of the characters quality time to start up arguments on how they should proceed. Nick is definitely quiet in this episode, which may be because many players may have had him killed in the last episode, meaning the writers of this episode couldn’t factor him in through fear of many players not having him to begin with.

Once all is in place, the final day is upon your group, all thats left now is to proceed with the plan. As Clementine you manage to sneak into the managers office, start up the microphone, and set about attracting the hoards of zombies to the building. It’s here that your group will be stopped by Carter at gun point, to which Clementine manages to dissolve the situation by jumping on him and disabling him. What follows next is pretty gruesome, but needed in progressing Clementines story and narrative for future episodes: she watches as Kenny beats Carver with a crowbar. You can choose to walk away from this, but I felt it was best if Clementine saw this, to ensure she was strong for the future episodes.

Decisions are reasonably big in this episode, with their consequences up front and deep. Here, you’re given the choice to kill the zombie, or cut Sarita’s arm off. I made the latter decision myself to ensure she survived (I won’t know if she did or not until the next episode).

Overall the Episode was a lot more interesting than the previous one, with decisions left and right, all making me question what I actually wanted to do. There were many different groups of people making me choose between them, and I never knew the right thing to do. This episode was a perfect example of how The Walking Dead works best, with many different factors making your decisions all the more important, but with little time to make those said decisions. I found myself constantly regretting any decision I made the second I made it, with was a fantastic feeling from any game. If the last two episodes play out in any way like this one, then I’ll be happy and would have had a fulfilling and fantastic experience. The tension is building on Clementines journey north, and I for one and happy to see where this is going.

4/5

03/10/2014
Weekly Gaming: The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 1 (PC) SPOILERS!!!

Having followed Clementine from Season 1 of The Walking Dead, Season 2 should expand on her story further, allowing us to grow more attached to this character, and the personalities that surround her.

I loved The Walking Dead Season 1. It was a masterclass in how to narrate a game, and how to build a world to make you feel that your decisions and your progress in the game actually shaped and formed the world you encompassed. Many agreed, with the original winning many awards and having a hand in Telltale games being able to grab franchises such as Borderlands and Game of Thrones, ensuring their dominance of the story telling adventure game genre was theirs and theirs alone. Season 2 is a return to their routes, the series that got them on the map, and is certainly one of the most anticipated games to release for a while.

Christa and Omid are the only survivors you’ll recognise from the first season of The Walking Dead, but be warned, you won’t be with them for long, as Telltale really want to start from scratch again in this Season it seems.

The game starts you out from the offset as clementine, you won’t be controlling anyone else this season, so you best get used to being a small child in this frightening and gruesome world. You’re with two members of the old party from the first season, and things seem to be going fine, until events take a turn for the worse. Suddenly, Clementines alone and having to fend for herself, and its not long until you come across a camp with a lonely dog who seems both cautious of you, but also helpful in trying to get a common goal for the two of you: food. It’s here that I found one of my first annoyances of the game: the lack of choice in your decisions. Once you manage to find food for the pair of you to eat, you get the decision of whether to share your food with the dog or not, to which I chose to, as no one in their right mind would want to anger an animal when they’re alone and hungry. To my surprise, the dog decides to attack Clementine, and so begins a QTE to ensure you manager to survive this ordeal. Now, this emotive sequence of helping a dog for it to suddenly turn on you definitely tugged at the heart strings, especially when you have the choice on whether to put it out of its misery or not, but it was the lack of decisiveness in my decision that annoyed me. It was apparent as soon as I made the decision about feeding the dog or not that I actually never had a decision to begin with, with the game just giving me the illusion of choice rather than actually giving me a decision to make. The Walking Dead Season 2 has a narrative it wishes to fulfil, and player choice will not play a part in it.

Graphics haven’t changed much since the first season, with most of the world looking graphically similar. There are times when the lighting looks better, but that may be myself finding differences where there are none. I suppose you’re not here for the graphics though, and are here for the story right?

The story continues with Clementine being found by a group of survivors who manage to save her from a bunch of walkers, to then find she’s bitten and believe it’s from an infected. It’s here Clementine becomes a true player in the game rather than being mummy-coddled, with her arm infected and no one willing to help her until the morning, she must fend for herself and fix it herself to stop the wound from getting infected and potentially dying as a result. You’ll sneak around the groups house, and find the supplies needed to fix yourself up before heading back to the shed they locked you in in order to fix your wounded arm. The next scene where you have to stitch Clementines wound together was gruesome, but necessary in order for players to realise that Clementine is her own person now and can fend for herself.

Sneaking around a house isn’t the best way to tell a story, but it worked well in allowing players to hear what other characters thought of Clementine if they felt inclined to eavesdrop.

Like previous Walking Dead Episodes in Season 1, you’re given a cliff hanger to finish the episode on, with one big decision on who lives and who dies. I won’t say who I decided on, but it seems like this decision too wasn’t in my hands and was going to be the same regardless of who I chose. It all felt contrived and annoyingly so, like this wasn’t my story anymore and instead I was just a pawn in the writers Chess board.

Clementine will spend a lot of time alone in this episode, but the walking dead thrives on character interaction and reminding players that the walkers aren’t the evil things in this world, but people are. Playing a lonely child moves away from this philosophy, which is refreshing, but not great narratively.

I look forward to getting tucked into the second episode, but am a bit worried as to the direction this season is taking. I’m not a huge fan of the lack of decisions I have (they all feel contrived so far, like I don’t actually have a say, a far cry from the originals ability to make you feel that everything was your fault), but I feel the story may get better with all the new characters that its introduced.

I’ll review each episode individually so we can see how my mood changes as the season goes on.

3/5

12/09/2014