Overview
Tales from the Borderlands is a five-episode narrative adventure developed by Telltale Games and set between the events of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 3. The full collection, including all five episodes, is available now across PC, consoles, and mobile platforms. Rather than putting guns in your hands, it puts words there instead, and the results are surprisingly effective.
The story is told through two unreliable narrators: Rhys, a mid-level Hyperion employee with ambitions well above his station, and Fiona, a Pandoran con artist whose latest scheme goes badly sideways. They end up handcuffed together, figuratively speaking, and the game traces how that forced partnership evolves over five episodes of escalating chaos. The dual-protagonist structure gives the story a genuine push-and-pull tension that straightforward single-character narratives rarely achieve.
Gameplay and mechanics
At its core, Tales from the Borderlands is a point-and-click adventure game built around dialogue choices, quick-time events, and branching story paths. The choices you make shape relationships, shift character dynamics, and determine which moments land as comedy versus tragedy. Key gameplay features include:
- Dual-protagonist perspective switching
- Dialogue trees that affect character relationships
- Quick-time action sequences
- Branching story outcomes across all five episodes
- Collectible items that influence later scenes
The QTE sequences are more cinematic than challenging, which suits the tone perfectly. This is not a game that wants to test your reflexes; it wants to make you feel something, then make you laugh about it two minutes later.
World and setting
Setting a Telltale game inside the Borderlands universe was a smart move because the universe already had a distinct visual identity and a cast of memorable characters to draw from. Pandora looks exactly like it does in the mainline games, cel-shaded and sun-baked and full of things trying to kill you, but the story shifts the focus away from Vault Hunters and onto the people who have to live with the fallout of their adventures.
Rhys and Fiona cross paths with familiar faces from Borderlands 2, including Handsome Jack in a form you probably didn't expect, and the game introduces new characters like Rhys' best friend Vaughn and Fiona's sister Sasha who hold their own against the established cast. The writing treats the Borderlands universe as a place with actual consequences rather than just a backdrop for loot drops.
Does the story hold up as a standalone experience?
Yes. Familiarity with Borderlands 2 adds context and sharpens a few jokes, but Tales from the Borderlands works as a standalone narrative adventure. The game spends enough time establishing its world and characters that newcomers can follow the story without feeling lost. Returning players get extra layers, but they're bonuses rather than requirements.
The writing quality is genuinely high, which was not guaranteed given how uneven Telltale's output could be. The comedy lands more often than it misses, the emotional beats earn their weight, and the pacing across five episodes stays tight enough that the story never drags into filler. For fans of choice-driven narrative games, this remains one of the genre's stronger entries.
Content and replayability
The complete package includes all five episodes, making it a full story experience from start to finish. Replaying to see alternate choices reveals a few meaningfully different scenes and outcomes, though the broad story arc stays consistent across playthroughs. The game also ties into New Tales from the Borderlands as part of the Deluxe Edition bundle, and appears in the Borderlands Collection: Pandora's Box for players who want the full franchise sweep.
For anyone who bounced off the mainline Borderlands games because of the looter-shooter structure, Tales from the Borderlands offers a genuine entry point into a universe that has a lot more going on than its gun-drop economy suggests.