“On the unforgiving world of Pandora a Hyperion suit and a con artist embark on an adventure to recover cash they both think is theirs.”
Tales from the Borderlands|Developer: Telltale Games|Publisher: 2K Games|Platform: Xbox 360|Originally Played From: July 16, 2016 – July 23, 2016|Released: April 26, 2016 (Complete Collection; all five episodes originally released from November 2014 – October 2015)
Episode One: Zer0 Sum
As always with Borderlands games, Marcus narrates the intro.
Rhys was exploring a place called Prosperity’s Junction when a raider knocked him out. He then tells the raider his tale…
He joined Hyperion because he always wanted to be a businessman. After Handsome Jack died, Rhys said that Hyperion got worse.
He was summoned to Hugo Vasquez’s office for the promotion that he – along with some help from Vaughn and Yvettte – had earned.
Hugo jettisoned a guy named Henderson out the airlock to promote himself. He then makes Rhys… the janitor.
However, he has some attributes that he puts to use in getting even. He overhears Hugo trying to negotiate the purchase of a Vault key and steals the details off of a distracted Hugo’s computer. Rhys’ artificial right arm (by Hyperion, of course) ends in a hand with a holographic interface.
Outside of Hugo’s office, Rhys tells Vaughn what happened.
Rhys comes up with the plan to one-up Hugo by stealing the Vault key right from under him. Vaughn wires the $10 million with his crazy smartglasses. Then, the guys convince Yvette, who is also a requisitions officer, to back them up as they go planetside… to Pandora.
Prosperity Junction, before it became even more awful as shown in the opening scene. The guys were supposed to find the Vault key in a shop called World of Curiosities. Unable to find it, they ask some dudes for directions. Said dudes recognize Rhys as Hyperion staff and attack him.
Things get crazy. Rhys asks Yvette for a loader bot, and she says, “Already?”
After LB mops up some guys, he says, “War. Does not compute. What is it good for?”
This game has QTE action scenes, and you can die. Rhys initially hurts himself trying to punch a bandit, so he then uses the stun rod that Yvette gave him. It works. It can even send a bandit flying with a good swing.
In the chaos, a sign falls down, revealing the sign for WoC. Rhys and Vaughn slip over a gate with LB’s help. But then, the bandits start tearing LB apart. You can order LB to self-destruct or evacuate, and he will remember what you chose. Choose to evacuate, and he thrashes around as his jets warm up, throwing the bandits around like a blood party.
Rhys: “I will call my firstborn, Loader Bot.”
Rhys then adds that he probably won’t.
Unlocked Welcome to Pandora, Kiddos. 1/35
I like how the title screen is just like the other Borderlands games. The font is the same, too.
You Are Winner
WoC offered some… stuffed and mounted humans, like Bewm, Commander Steele, Nakayama, and Shade. Except that Shade jumps out at Rhys and Vaughn, scaring them. Shade owned the WoC, and introduced them to August, the guy with the Vault Key.
The exchange was hampered a bit by August’s girlfriend, Sasha, who had a “feeling” that made her suspicious of Rhys and Vaughn. Rhys tried to allay her fears, but then August got cold feet. Rhys tried to convince him to not miss out on the deal of a lifetime.
August: [crying] “I… am a… winner. I am a winner!”
Back in the present, a young lady in a dapper outfit said that Rhys was lying to the raider. He let her tell her side of the story.
She was there when Rhys and August fought over the briefcase, hiding in a vent shaft.
Then, a cross-shaped cut appeared in a sign for Prosperity’s Junction, and the Vault Hunter Zer0 burst through it.
The lady, Fiona, backs up a little. She and her younger sister, Sasha, were orphaned and taken in by Felix, a con man with a British accent. They had set up the deal of a lifetime: a fake Vault key for a ton of money…
Felix is rather protective of Fiona and Sasha. He gave the former a gun that she hid away in her sleeve. It only had one bullet…
Fiona headed to the Purple Skag – the bar where Sasha worked – to set up August for the deal.
He isn’t as nice as you may hope. He had the bar’s bouncer, Tecton, kill a guy because he owed money…
Unlocked My Turn to Speak. 2/35
While Rhys begged August for the money, Sasha told Felix and Fiona that Rhys had an ECHO eye implant. If Rhys scanned the fake key, he’d know that it was a fakey fake. Fiona had to sneak into the vents to plant an EMP device on the briefcase with the key. But first, she had to get the hat scared off of her by Shade lurking in the vents. [shakes fist]
Sasha’s speech about feeling that Rhys and Vaughn were sus was her way of buying Fiona time to plant the EMP. But she triggered it at the wrong time, causing Rhys’ robotic arm to lock up and drop the key. It shatters like so many dreams.
And then, Bossanova and his bandits came crashing through the WoC. BWUH-BWUH-BWUH
But Zer0 chased after them.
One of the bandits got the briefcase, but they can’t open it without Vaughn’s biometrics and passcodes.
August told Hugo what happened.
August shot Felix in the shoulder, but he, Fiona, and Sasha all got away in the chaos.
The con artists, Rhys, and Vaughn form an uneasy alliance to get the money back…
Yvette couldn’t help them track the briefcase, but Rhys picked up Nakayama’s ID chip, so he tried to plug it into his wetware neural interface port. It shorted out his brain, knocking him unconscious. He also heard a voice mocking Nakayama as a “code monkey”.
Death Race 3000
Rhys and Sasha infiltrated the bandit base to find the money. Felix stayed behind to mind the getaway vehicle. Fiona and Vaughn were roped into a death race.
When Rhys tried to hack some Atlas systems, his holographic interface became glitchy. He accidentally let some skags free.
Rhys: “I got this!”
“Do ya, champ?”
Though Sasha wasn’t defenseless with her electric submachine gun, she and Vaughn were in a bad spot until they were rescued by Zer0.
Bossanova offered up the Hyperion “box of mystery” as a prize for the death race. When Rhys, Sasha, and Zer0 emerged on the track, Bossanova offered an extra $20 Gs to whoever killed the “plastic ninja freak”.
Unlocked Partners in Crime, Not Alone in the Dark, 2 Fast 2 Fiona. 5/35
I take it that Sasha and August have broken up.
Sasha asked Rhys how he could work for Hyperion. Ever since he was a kid, he wanted to run a business, and Hyperion is the biggest business around.
Bitch Better Have My Money
Hugo called. He offered to split the 10 million if Rhys let Vaughn take the blame. Rhys told Hugo to scratch his own nuts.
Hugo: “Oh, I’ll scratch ‘em. I’ll scratch ‘em real hard.”
The briefcase wound up on the racetrack, and ultimately, in Felix’s mitts. He betrayed his kids. But he didn’t know that the case was rigged with a bomb (Vaughn told Fiona about it before the race; I thought he may be lying, but I guess he’s not the type). Fiona warned Felix at the last moment. He threw the briefcase away. It exploded, making it rain all over the track.
Rhys: “This is officially the worst day ever.”
LB suddenly dropped down. “Righteous father! I have found you!” [thumbs up]
However, the impact of LB’s fall made Rhys descend into an old Atlas bunker. There, Sasha geeked out over a rare SMG; Vaughn found a collector’s smartwatch; and Rhys and Fiona found… a device that projected a map.
A map… to a Vault.
That wasn’t all. The voice in Rhys’ head called it the Gortys Project. They were going to find it… and Handsome Jack was probably going to kill them all when they did. Rhys gasped.
Decisions, decisions. You could make a TTG account to compare your decisions with other players.
73.1% of players told LB to evacuate
88.8% of players chose Vaughn
37.3% of players warned Felix
I don’t dislike him. If it was a character that I did dislike, like the protagonist of Enchanted Arms, however…
Zer0 mentioned looking for a bandit named Gortys.
Unlocked Blood Money and Devil on Your Shoulder. 7/35
Episode Two: Atlas Mugged
Marcus narrates the beginning of each episode.
Only Rhys could see Jack.
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