![]() What starts as a generic gross out gag become a hilarious conversation between two great characters, which is what I appreciate so much about TFTB. One of those eyeball scenes, though, gave me the biggest laugh of the series. There are two scenes involving an eyeball, and a severed face at one point. Speaking of entrails, though, TFTB is pretty gross, as you’d expect from a Borderlands game. One thing I've always disliked, and is here plenty, is mashing 'Q' to fill up a meter. But often times, the humor and direction are just fun to be a part of, like the time pressing ‘W’ caused Rhys to unintentionally gut a monster and cover himself with entrails, or a battle which sends up anime and fighting games wonderfully. It’s not challenging and really, it lacks everything I typically like about games: rules to learn and exploit, decision-making and strategy. The action, as usual, is mostly about pressing a key when prompted, or clicking on the thing that needs shooting. (I usually avoid doing that, as it tends to ruin the illusion of choice and consequence.) Looking back, there are all kinds of character interactions I probably didn’t get to see because of my choices, and this is one of the rare times I want to replay a Telltale game to find out what I missed. Having been told about some of the variables, I’m convinced that the finale can play out in a ton of different ways-even if it probably ends up at the same place. And then there’s the kicker: at the very end, Telltale finally surprised me with a major decision that pulled from all my previous decisions. ![]() I do like Rhys’ cyber-vision, though, which offers funny notes about points of interest around him if you remember to use it. ![]() I was hoping that manually trying to use items on things in the environment would surprise me, for instance, but I never found that it did anything. New opportunities for comedy, like an inventory system, are rarely used, and only automatically. It’s mostly familiar: shift the tone of a conversation, choose to lie or tell the truth, make a binary choice here and there, and awkwardly poke around small areas until you’ve looked at everything. I like the format, and think it’s still an interesting way to present multiple angles on a plot, but I was a bit disappointed that Telltale didn’t deviate too much from its other games. They all end up running around the dangerous, alien Pandora searching for one of Borderlands’ legendary vaults, getting into death races with bandits, befriending robots, exploring technological ruins, and struggling to balance their ambitions with their consciences-which is where we interact. They’re both on shady ground when they meet, Fiona running a scam with her sister Sasha, and Rhys trying to screw over his corporate Hyperion boss with his best friend Vaughn. They’re a funny, self-interested pair with questionable morals-almost, but not quite a cheeseball bickering anime duo. I love the main characters-Fiona and Rhys-who are sardonic, conflicted, and cute but not nauseatingly so. There are are plenty of gruesome deaths, to be sure, but Telltale has created a stand-alone comedy adventure that succeeds because of great storytelling, not ‘midget psychos’ or freaking Claptrap. It’s not serious, but finds its levity through character-driven jokes more than screaming violence. It’s a story adventure spin-off which balances Borderlands’ urge to be impressed with itself for using swears with some great new characters and a tinge of sincerity.
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