Starts strong but does not sustain it
Whether you are familiar with the Borderlands universe or not, this is a great experience if you enjoy superb voice acting, a well-written story, and wry humour.
This is a dialog-driven game where situations unfold depending on your choices. There is also a sprinkling of exploration and a dash of simple quick-time events to keep things from getting stale.
The stylized cel-shaded graphics that Borderlands is known for is on full display here, and looks great. Being a dialog-driven game, the voice acting will make or break this game. Fortunately the voice acting here, for all characters, and especially the major ones, is generally top-tier especially in The first two episodes but takes a drop in the Third.
Ive originally awarded 4 stars as there are some minor gameplay and technical issues. Sometimes it isnt obvious what a certain dialog choice will do; sometimes you choose a response but the character plays it out differently than how you interpreted it. Technically the graphics stutter in a few spots, which is a common occurrence in TellTales engine apparently.
With the release of Episode 3, and having played through it, Ive dropped my rating to 3 stars due to the noticeable reduction in overall quality. This one seemed rushed out the door, with weak writing, dialog, and disjointed real-time events. And as much as I hate to say this, much of the previously strong voice acting is sub-par relative to what weve seen in Episode One and Two. Though much of that can be attributed to the uninspired writing in this episode. I had hoped for better, and I can only hope that this series will recover its footing and end as strongly as it began in its final two episodes.
Edit: now that the series has ended and Ive had a chance to play the entire game, I can say that it has been an overall exceptional experience. I would award 4.5 stars if I could, because there are a few issues with the mid-game quality and some of the voices dont have correct volume (Gortys episode 5 is one example, during the final battle). But these minor issues are not enough to drag this down to 4 stars, so I award 5. Great work! Lets encourage more games like this.
Cryolathe about
Tales from the Borderlands, v1.3