In the analysis of the previous chapter, we commented on the surprising thing that Telltale chose a world like Borderlands to create one of his interactive stories that have been working so well in recent times. And also a nice surprise that this scenario worked so
well with this type of game despite its wild and anarchic nature. Much of the blame for this was the main characters: the Hyperion executive, Rhys and the Pandora swindler, Fiona , well accompanied by their respective companions and other characters that appear –
particularly important is the appearance of Jack the Handsome, that will play an important role in the plot and that brings the game its peculiar charisma-.
It is their sparkling dialogues, the tension between them and their moral dilemmas that gives life to Telltale’s game . Thanks to the fact that they are narrating history in the past and from their respective points of view, the plot allows all kinds of
jokes and uses of the “liar narrator” technique to increase the comic sense of the game. However, this taste for humor is not at odds with the hyper violent and amoral nature of Pandora, in fact our two characters are not precisely little sisters of charity, although
depending on our decisions can be more or less ruthless according to our preferences. This contrast between humor, amorality and violence, applied to a fundamentally narrative game, is one of the unique elements of the game.
At the beginning of this chapter, the narrator lets go: “Yes, it’s been a while, everyone knows.” The phrase refers to the large amount of time that has passed between the first chapter and the second, which has been somewhat disconcerting for those who want to follow the chapters. The truth is that this inconsistency with dates is one of the weak points of the episodic structure that
Telltale poses. Unlike a television series, or games like the recent Revelations 2, it is clear that the studio has to develop content between episode and episode,
which is complicated to plan. But facing the user, it is difficult to justify such an anarchic calendar and the truth is that only gives new arguments to the many who prefer to wait for the “seasons” are complete (which also always allows to get some kind of rebate).
Now, with that said, it is appreciated that the time between episodes has been well taken advantage of. There is a greater variety of scenarios and sequences more complex than we usually see in Telltale games, in addition to a greater degree of care.
It is true that in the time that these two episodes have appeared, Telltale has given him time to make three episodes of Game of Thrones.,
but it is noticeable that this second episode of Tales from the Borderlands is at another level of production. It is also good news that the direct action has been modulated against what was seen in the previous game. That idea that because it was a Borderlands game
had to include mini-games and QTE shots could sound good on paper, but in reality they were a bad resource for this engine. Instead we find the usual direction QTE and press repeatedly, put in just enough to give a little extra interest to the moments of action, but discreetly.
What is really interesting, as always in the titles of this study, are the decisions, dialogue options (and the consequences).
We are not yet in the part of the story arc where these consequences can be fully appreciated, but some are already visible and others begin to intuit. Loyalty and trust among the strange group of scammers will be put to the test and it will depend on
us what attitude we want to adopt before them. The fact that you can not say that any of them is a saint helps to have some freedom when choosing dialogues,
since many times it is not clear what is the “correct” decision if there is one that can be considered as such. In fact, even in those in the first episode that could seem more “noble”, we see in the second episode that they can have a double face
