Tales From The Borderlands: Episode One - Zer0 Sum Reviews
Telltale didn't hit the same heights with this year's releases that it did with the first season of The Walking Dead, but Tales from the Borderlands, despite being tonally very different, is off to an incredibly strong start.
Tales from the Borderlands – Episode One: Zer0 Sum does a brilliant job of drawing the player into the world of Pandora. Both fans of the franchise, and players being introduced for the first time, will appreciate the engaging characters and their story.
Zer0 sum is like an impressive pilot to greenlight a TV show. Hopefully the rest of the season is just as good.
Tales from the Borderlands Episode 1 is a hilarious, fantastic start to Telltale's trip to Pandora
Everything I'd expected from Telltale's take on this franchise, executed with such skill that it's hard to find anything to complain about...It's an enjoyable, violent and well-crafted introduction to the series. Episode Two can't come soon enough.
Zer0 Sum is a great start to the series. It brings Borderlands to life in promising new ways, it's genuinely funny, and it has a terrific cast. The choices one makes are naturally not as gut-wrenching as those found in Telltale's darker games, but that doesn't really matter.
Tales from the Borderland: Episode One is light on challenge but makes up for it in a big way with story and presentation. This is a great opening chapter to the series regardless of your familiarity to the Borderlands world.
Telltale has given us an excellent first chapter in what is gearing up to be one of their best series. While it had its hit and miss moments with the humor, and some of the choices outside of dialogue were less than impressive or nonexistent, I loved getting a different view of Pandora and the Borderlands universe. Putting you in the shoes of people who don't have the mindset of 'shoot-and-loot first, ask questions later' brought an experience that I didn't even know I really wanted on Pandora. I thought that I was content with how Borderlands told its stories, but Telltale proved that there is another side to hearing the tales of the vaults with a superb inaugural episode that barely lets up and ends on a note that left me wanting so much more. Let's just hope they can keep up the pace, humor, and bring more choice to the action for the other 80% of the season.
Tales from the Borderlands may be light on gameplay, but it's long on entertainment. An easy recommendation for fans of adventure games and the Borderlands series alike.
Admittedly, the QTE portions won't be for everybody. I've also noticed minor glitches like character lips not moving sometimes during dialogue. If you like point-and-click adventures, however, Tales from the Borderlands is another solid and entertaining addition to Telltales' lineup of games.
It's the perfect blend of Borderlands' humour and Telltale's penchant for great writing and narrative-driven gameplay, and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of the season. I just hope that Fiona will come into her element soon, the way Rhys did right from the opening credits.
A very promising start to what is mechanically just another Telltale adventure, but where the comedy and characterisation feels very different to their more recent games.
Tales from the Borderlands: Episode One is just one (relatively) big nudge in the ribs to all Borderlands fans as if to say "did you get that reference? Did'ya?" Luckily, in true Telltale style, there's something good for the rest of us as well. It's a solid first episode that brings in anticipation for episodes to come.
Gearbox's first-person shooter RPGs translate surprisingly well to a dialogue-driven adventure game – at least when the focus is on the dialogue
Praise be: Tales from the Borderlands has a really strong opening episode, and easily proves that Borderlands' unique blend of comedy and ultraviolence (and occasional dips into heartfelt drama) is a really good fit for Telltale.
Tales develops an interesting world filled with rich characters that was imprisoned within the shoot & loot framework of Borderlands and Borderlands 2. Free from those constraints, Tales is already well on its way to telling a damn good story, and that's the best kind of loot there is.
Telltale Games bring their trademark style of adventure gaming to the chaotic wastes of Pandora in Tales for the Borderlands, a surprisingly refreshing take on the world made popular by Gearbox Software's first-person, role-playing series
Tales from the Borderlands: Episode One – Zer0 Sum is a brilliant start to the season, showcasing a strong cast of characters, speedy pacing, while managing to sustain the Borderlands tropes without hurting what people like about the cinematic adventure genre.
Telltale has demonstrated that their knack for writing and developing characters is as solid as ever, even with the wacky 'Borderlands' license. With 'Zer0 Sum,' the first episode of 'Tales from the Borderlands,' Telltale got the story heavy take on the colorful world humming. The characters and script are smart and snappy, and elicited a chuckle from me more than a few times through the brief playthrough. If they can lock down the bugs cropping up in the technical performance, this would be about as good as it gets for an adventure game.
Another hit to add to Telltale Games ever growing library.