In one of my first posts on this site I wrote about the announcement of a Tales from the Borderlands panel at SXSW, wherein the developers would give us the first details of the joint venture between Telltale Games and Gearbox Software. Now that the festival-conference and panel have taken place, we finally know something about what to expect from the game.
Tales from the Borderlands focuses on two greedy characters, Fiona the con-artist and Rhys the Hyperion company man, retelling a story that took place on Pandora using the unreliable narrator technique that an increasing number of games are employing. Their details of the account differ, you'll notice as you play, and the player will never get the real story according to the developers.
Since Telltale is developing the game with Gearbox's Borderlands IP, it would be understandable if you assumed the gameplay would be similar to their The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us titles. If that was your bet: congratulations, you nailed it. Like those titles, the gameplay will be choice and narrative driven, with light action sequences.
Unlike those other two franchises however, Borderlands is a series known for its humor and bizarre charm, something the developers acknowledged and will keep alive. On that topic, Telltale's Kevin Brunner said, "We've got all this pent up comedy in boxes around the studio that we've been wanting to unpack."
No footage was shown off during the panel, but they gave a few more details about the gameplay. You can use Rhys' robotic arm to hack electronics, quick-talk your way out of situations with Fiona's silver tongue, and play through ocassional Telltale-style shooting sections.
Telltale wants to expand gamers' conception of what the Borderlands universe could be and create interesting characters. "Borderlands can be more than just shooting people in the face repeatedly," Gearbox's Burch stated. "That it could be shooting people in the face repeatedly and then talking to them is a cool possibility for us." Tales from the Borderlands is due out some time later this year.
Source: Polygon
