Since its release back in 2009, I’ve been a big fan of the Borderlands franchise by Gearbox Software and 2K Games. The somewhat cartoony art style with thick black outlines, the abundance of weird and wacky characters, the character-building aspects, and best of all, the bazillion guns. It’s really hard to fault the series, and I lost hours building up my favourite character, Mordecai. On the surface, the game’s story was quite cliché, with players seeking out an alien vault to earn fame and fortune. It’s when you look further into things and see that each character has their little story arc that things really start to take off.

Based on the Borderlands franchise, Tales from the Borderlands is a little different from what we’ve all come to know and love. As a Telltale Games title that’s been developed under license from Gearbox Software and 2K Games, it’s more of an interactive story than a full-fledged game, but this allows us to better follow the story of our protagonists. Playing as Rhys, a Hyperion employee eager to take the place of recently deceased Handsome Jack, and Fiona, a con-artist native to Pandora who really wants to screw Hyperion over, players will follow their story as they attempt to find an open a Vault of their own. Following the same successful format used in The Walking Dead, players will complete a total of 5 episodes in which their choices and actions will have benefits and consequences as the story goes on.

Now, some of you may be thinking that you’ve seen this title before, and you’d be right. Tales from the Borderlands was originally released back at the end of 2014 and won several awards in 2015, including the best narrative in The Game Awards, Best Adventure Game in Hardcore Gamer’s best of 2015, and multiple comedy awards in the 2015 NAVGTAR Awards.

Unfortunately in 2018, Telltale Games suddenly closed and most of their titles were pulled from sales, nearly making them a collector’s item from a bygone era, but earlier this month 2K Games was able to acquire the rights to Tales from the Borderlands and those who missed out have a chance to enjoy this title once more.

For those not familiar with the Telltale style, players will have minimal movement and instead rely on making quick decisions with timed dialogue or action events to move on with the story. There is a small amount of free roam available, in which players can explore their limited environment while investigating certain items throughout the scene, but for the most part, Tales from the Borderlands will push you along a path to your next timed event.

Even before its re-release this year, Tales from the Borderlands remains true to the franchise in every non-gameplay aspect. It features the same unique art style and the music is as exciting as ever. The characters are as twisted as ever, and each is voiced to perfectly reflect the character’s composure. While I had avoided Telltale Games titles when they were more common, Tales from the Borderlands has encouraged me to reconsider my opinions, and we are fortunate enough to be able to enjoy this title once again.

Written by: Mathew Lindner