Review

Tales From the Borderlands: Episode 3: Catch a Ride

I’ve been reviewing Telltale’s games for some time now. Beyond their desire to tell interesting stories and deliver a certain level of quality, a constant I’ve observed is the “third episode ramp up”. Though there’s usually an odd number of episodes per adventure game, the third one seems to act as a mid-season finale of some sort. This trend holds true to Tales From the Borderlands. “Catch a Ride” is the most over the top episode yet, which given the source material is saying something!

In this episode we see Rhys and Fiona continuing their jaunt across a wasteland while being interrogated by the strange gunman. This time their flashback depicts the happenings at Old Haven after finding a secret building under the town. Vasquez and August were forcing them to construct the Gortys Unit – a device that could lead them to a vault – when all of a sudden, an alarm is triggered and armed turrets start mowing people down! Narrowly escaping with their lives, Rhys and the gang flee the facility only to be confronted by a group of nasty looking bandits lead by a woman named Vallory. Apparently, she was the person that Vasquez was going to give the original vault key to. Looking for compensation, and someone to blame for their deal going south in the first place, she puts a hole into a certain bad guy. She then fires on Fiona, who’s saved at the last second by…well, you’ll have to play this episode to find out!

Though our protagonists have been able to stave off a bloody death time and time again, their leaps from the pan have finally led them to the fire. What this means for the player is nearly nonstop action coupled by a decent amount of QTE’s. You’ll need to subdue giant mutant plants, run from weird jellyfish-like creatures, and take out a pair of mercenaries all while hanging upside down. The game even throws past vault hunters at you in one epic showdown (when it comes to adventure game standards at least). The good news about all of this is that the action segments where handled very well. It seems that Telltale has gotten used to things going boom, or at least have been working on their implementation; there’re no bad aiming sections, events that require impeccable timing to conquer, or annoying strings of on screen prompts that blocks the action. No, everything was streamlined in such a way that these segments felt natural as opposed to an intrusive mechanic used to spice things up just because.

Catch a Ride felt more Borderland-esque because of all the shooting going on. But what intrigued me the most about this particular segment of the franchise was the storytelling – this is the most cohesive story we’re probably ever going to get. At the same time, I still feel that the decisions do not hold as much weight as they should. Why have two characters tell their sides of the same story, promote their ability to spin it in their favor, and then not utilize their differences when crafting the main narrative? I’m not asking for hundreds of different outcomes. Just something that would reflect those bold-faced lies. As it stands, the impact of the dual storylines is only in the game in theory; the only reason we know or care about the two different sides of the story is because the game says we should. And though you’ll still make somewhat meaningful choices, they won’t be made because Fiona or Rhys were exaggerating.

Like the other episodes, underutilized story threads didn’t derail my enjoyment. I’m still laughing at the jokes, wide-eyed at the sights, and wishing I can see more of Pandora. Lingering questions, like what exactly is the Gortys Project and who is the masked gunman, plague my mind. Basically, I’m invested in the ongoing story. Could things be better? Of course. But that doesn’t mean we should skip this series outright!