New Tales From The Borderlands Impressions – Time To Dodge People Juice

It’s surreal to think that Tales From The Borderlands isn’t buried deep in the cold, wet earth. So many surprise hits achieve their cult status, and then meet misfortune and fade away into the annals of fanfiction and desperation. I mean, the studio that made it absolutely died (and sort of came back, but I digress).

So now we have New Tales From The Borderlands, and while it may not be a full-blown sequel, it absolutely is a spiritual successor to the underdog story of yesteryear. And I know this because the passionate peeps who are working on the game told me that factoid with their very mouthholes.

I was incredibly fortunate to spend some time with Gearbox Software’s James Lopez, Director of Production, and Frédéric Scheubel, a producer who clearly loves what they are making. The best part? They actually gave me a guided walkthrough of a gameplay segment – complete with branching choices and examples of precisely what awaits you if you encounter a ‘hard fail’ on an encounter. In short – brutal consequences. There is a lot that can (and will) happen to you as you navigate the rich narrative that awaits you and see which of the five endings you will uncover. Better start noting down those big choices, folks.

The scene opens with our three characters descending into the sewers beneath Fran’s frozen yoghurt shop – a much-beloved staple of Promethea, and an amazingly miniscule callback to a single line of dialogue from Borderlands 3. This is of course how characters and locations often materialise within the Borderlands series, a question being asked about a joke that existed for a fraction of a second. Or, as James explains – the creative mantra of “There’s not a lot of things that we think are ‘TOO DUMB’ to go along with.”

So now Anu, her brother Octavio, and the fierce Fran are escaping through the sewers. Octavio fortunately receives a call from his associate Paco (probably more of an acquaintance judging from his willingness to murder Octavio), who grimly details that the sewers are actually crawling with Tediore troops. So we are faced with a choice – do we meticulously murder these poor saps to get through, or try a more stealthy approach?

The arguments are solid. Fran details very clearly that her hoverchair is very much equipped with neck snapping capabilities, by way of robotic arms that facilitate the inability to scream due to a crushed windpipe. Anu however questions if we are absolutely married to the idea of sowing death – regardless of Fran’s compelling confidence – when we could instead simply sneak past them.

Frédéric indulges my curiosity by first choosing the ‘Murder’ approach, with Fran advising that we stay light on our feet – in case we need to dodge any people juice. She then quietly approaches a Tediore trooper to engage, where her robot arms quietly unfold and get ready to do some wet work. Button prompts appear on the screen, and Frédéric deftly performs the first two actions before spectacularly fucking up the third. The result? A shocked trooper whirls around and blasts Fran in the chest and abdomen with bullets. Her form slumps in the chair, and the scene lingers for juuuust long enough to make it awkward. Thankfully the screen then smash-cuts to a ‘Continue’ screen, and series regular Marcus explains that it was just a little joke in his storytelling. That isn’t what actually happened.

Sure enough, the game reloads to the point of our initial choice – meaning that if that scene has perhaps put us off the approach of the murder-hobo, we could instead choose stealth. James and Frédéric explain that the Quick Time Event gameplay is designed to still feel engaging and interesting, so that when you are performing a task in game it feels rewarding. However, they also acknowledge that not everyone is a fan of these kinds of gameplay experiences, and some may instead wish to just guide the narrative specifically. For that audience, there are options in the menus to actually change how these QTEs behave to suit your wishes.

We kick off on a new path this time – with the decision made to instead move forward stealthily. After seeing Fran get gunned down, I am relieved at this choice. Again, there are QTEs, but this time they are more oriented at simply sneaking and distracting a target. Move when someone is facing away from you, throw a rock to distract someone – the textbook stealth experience. That is, until we reach a bridge and there is a Tediore dork standing clear in our way.

The crew takes a moment to discuss the issue, and ideas are floated. Could Fran zoooom up to him and knock him out? Nah, the chair is noisy at higher speeds. Octavio does have a familiar idea though, and honestly it’s a classic. He will hide under a box, and only approach the guard when he is not looking. Seems like a…SOLID plan. A plan that is SOLID like METAL. Get up to GEAR with the SOLID, METAL, plan.

Look, I am murdering the joke – but in context it’s great. The camera angle and game UI completely change to mirror the expected Solid Snake sneak-a-thon. The music swells with a dramatic tempo that would make David Hayter jump into character, and Octavio starts his journey. The guard slowly walks towards the end of the bridge furthest from you – and you start heading forward. The top right hand of your screen clearly reads a status of UNSEEN as you approach the target. The guard stops, and so too does Octavio, readying himself to lie in wait for his next opportunity to sneak.

As the guard turns, he immediately remarks: “Oh weird. Guy in a box.”

Well, fuck.

Octavio is only partially amazed his plan didn’t work, and quickly turns to words as the guard lazily points his gun at the unthreatening nerd who is rapidly discarding his…disguise. In a rare moment of trigger discipline, it seems the request of “DON’T SHOOT” and “”WE AREN’T THE PEOPLE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR” is enough for the guard to listen, at least for a moment, until he notices something fall out of Octavio’s pants pocket.

“Is that a…? No! It couldn’t be! A Vaultlander!”

Hoo boy. How to explain this. So, according to James and Frédéric, Vaultlanders started their life as simply random collectibles within the game – little Amiibo-esque statues of Borderlands characters that could be rummaged out of a bin or behind a bookcase. But as fate would have it, the question was asked, “What if we could do duals with these?” And thankfully, the development mantra of ‘NOTHING IS TOO DUMB’ gave birth to perhaps my favourite bit of macguffin-based problem solving ever.

The guard offers a challenge. The crew can pass, if Octavio can defeat him in a Vaultlander duel. If Octavio is defeated, he will lose not only his Vaultlander figure – BUT HIS LIFE. Sounds like a rough wager, but given the situation (and the gun) it seems that they must do honourable combat by way of toys to govern their fate. Eve

The fight is every bit as intensely stupid as I could have dreamed. The two figures remain perfectly still, their static poses do NOT change, as they repeatedly bash into each other like a toddler battling their action figures. The entire time this happens, PUMPING music blasts in the background, and a tough-guy voice over calls out the kind of stuff you’d hear in an early noughties shooter – “SICK! TOASTY! MOMMY, I’M SCARED!” as the two dolls slam into each other in unique and silly ways. Eventually the guard’s Vaultlander is defeated, its health points reduced to zero – and this rite of combat has been completed.

The guard slumps, defeated both physically and spiritually, and the trio scoot right past this shattered husk of a man. What follows is an ending scene where our intrepid adventurers witness the full ineptitude of Tediore, as they attempt to use a Vault Key by jamming it into random holes. A guttural roar from the darkness at a threat unseen signals the end of my time witnessing New Tales From The Borderlands.

In just a short 20-something minute section of gameplay, I have seen that the spirit of Tales From The Borderlands is more than alive and well – it’s thriving. The motion captured animations bring a life to the characters that absolutely elevates the experience beyond what we saw in 2014, with snappy controls to pick dialogue options rapidly to influence conversations as they are happening, instead of moments after the opposing character has awkwardly stared at you. Even the richness of characters promises a Borderlands that does more than highlight the ‘littles guys’ of this bullet-ridden world, showcasing that EVERYONE has a place in this bleak reality, where sometimes the laughter is just the easiest way to cope with the absurdity of it all. I asked what actually drives a character’s design – whether it was the narrative shaping who they become or if a character’s development will impact how they write. James was diplomatic in explaining that the original pitch for the game was “Shark Tank meets Borderlands,” with worldbuilding establishing the first pillar for how these characters would come to be. In an iterative process, this means that as they develop the characters, this would then develop the world – and vice versa. The planet of Promethea had a head start in how it was introduced within Borderlands 3, so really it came down to the minutiae of what makes a ‘developed’ corporate world within the Borderlands universe tick, and how that would then trickle down to the poor schlubs trying to make a living in that pit.

It was also exciting to hear how all of these new tools and pipelines that are being developed for the sake of storytelling in such a rich and powerful way are being designed with the future in mind – to enhance stories across all manner of future titles. The hardest thing to do in a game is tell a story in a compelling way, with interactive media giving those who experience it a proper hand inside the puppet, where they can then wreak whatever havoc they want. New Tales From The Borderlands has three brilliant characters that each have their own desires and dreams, far more mundane than a Vault Hunter wanting to open an ancient alien hoard of treasure. These are motivations that can be as mundane as simply wanting to be recognised and popular, or the tragic plight of a scientist who works for a gun company and instead wants to save lives, rather than end them.

Oh, and Fran just wants to kick Susan Coldwell’s ass for wrecking her FroGhurt shop. As valid a motivation as any.

My short time with New Tales From The Borderlands has me all abuzz with proper excitement. It looks like a title I can openly binge and feel zero guilt as I chase down all five endings. I have to extend a huge thanks to James Lopez and Frédéric Scheubel for sharing their passionate enthusiasm with me on a cold winter morning – bring on the return to Promethea in 2022.