This was unfortunately but unsurprisingly a pretty big step down from the original TOTB which I really enjoyed.

Even for the standards of an episodic adventure game it's such a passive experience, to the point that the boring button presses actually detract from just watching and enjoying what's going on. I failed a few QTEs and had to spend 2-3 minutes rewatching the same scene play out, which was dumb.

On the plus side I liked the three central characters and the VA was generally very good. The problem is that the script is so inconsistent - the humour ranges from amusing to cringe, like somebody on Twitter wrote it. It clearly wants to be Guardians of the Galaxy but it's just not there. It doesn't help that the story is just a completely forgettable nothingburger.

Visually it looks a lot better than most of the Telltale stuff, at least.

All in all this wasn't a chore to play but it probably should've been a bit shorter with how little dramatic meat it had on its bones. I can't imagine this'll get a second season and it's easy to appreciate why.

Is this game better or equal to the original Tales from the Borderlands? No. Sadly, it's no contest that the first game is still leagues above this one, but I will say that I despite some very confusing relationship statistics that I feel never actually mattered or contributed to anything, the last 2 episodes of this game are pulled off pretty well, especially the 5th episode which is what I wish the entire game could have been like. If you're a fan of the original Tales from the Borderlands, I think I'd still recommend it just because by the end I feel most of the characters do grow on you, but at the same time there are very gearboxy borderlandsy parts of the game that the original was better off not having that you might have to push through a thing or two this go around.

I always considered Tales from the Borderlands one of the best Telltale games, so I had huge expectations for this sequel. Unfortunately, I was sourly disappointed. The gameplay was more or less OK (I mean, it's a narrative adventure game with mostly dialogues and QTEs, no surprises there), but the story was quite bland, to say the least, and the three protagonists were downright terrible and unbearable for me. Some of the side characters were much more fun, and I found myself wishing I could be controlling them instead more often than not. And there's also that confusing skateboard system which I could never fully figure out, and to me it made absolute zero sense how the choices I made affected the final outcome. Reaching one of the endings was more than enough for me, thank you very much. Give me rather Rhys, Fiona and the original game any day of the week.

While it's graphically miles better than the first Tales from the Borderlands, the story itself leaves much to be desired. The writing is shocking, even when you consider that it's set in the Borderlands universe. One of the main character's voice acting is a bit wobbly, with their accent wavering in and out. The Vaultlanders mini-game was the most fun I had playing this, I just wished there was more of it. As with some of the past games, while it's giving you choices throughout the game, you do start feeling that the dialogue choice isn't deciding what happens but more how it happens.

The original Tales From The Borderlands is still not only my favorite Telltale adventure games, but one of the funniest adventure games I've honestly ever played. It helped emphasize the wackiness and over-the-top comedy of the Borderlands universe by removing the addictive gunplay, and it worked well.
So all these years later, I was just as cautious as many others with Gearbox deciding to make a follow-up, especially after the (agreeably) poorly-written Borderlands 3. It may have been developed in-house, but nevertheless, New Tales From The Borderlands gathers these new writers with some ex-Telltale devs to create a game that thankfully reaches highs in some ways.

From a gameplay stance, I was actually quite surprised by this one. While the original game was your traditional linear-esque Telltale story, loaded with QTEs, dialogue choices, and item interaction, this follow-up actually has much more to offer. QTEs here are also amounted to button combinations, timed button taps, and even fun little plays on those at time. There are even several sections with unique, mini-game style sequences, all which add to the flavor and humor of the story. It does play a bit more like an interactive movie, but it pays off with its great animation and scene quality.
The biggest difference here is how dynamic your choices are, this time around. Not only are there multiple endings this time, but a surprising amount of dialogue choices and even refusing to hit certain QTEs can impact the plot, sometimes through a fun little scoring system presented at the end of each episode. Also, HUGE shoutout to the surprising amount of accessibility here with the gameplay, giving prompts before an action is about to take place and allowing all mini-games to be skipped.

As for the story and writing, it's obviously not as raunchy as Borderlands 2 or Tales From The Borderlands, but it's definitely not as rough as Borderlands 3 was. (Hell, this one's rated M too, so it also tops the dialogue in the recently-released Tiny Tina's Wonderlands.) It's another story of nobodies stuck in the middle of the on-going wars between the cities and the corporations, this time focusing on two siblings from different sides. The main cast and their performances here are just lovely, from the street-smarts Octavio, to his stressed-out sister Anu, to even their always-horny frozen yogurt-serving gal Fran. My personal favorite from the cast is probably LOU13, a robot assassin who is programmed to only kill those with a registered bounty, leaving a lot of openings for clever moments in the plot. Throughout, I would say this main cast is pretty fleshed out for the most part, each one with their own arcs being built through the five episodes. On the other hand unfortunately, most of the side characters you meet along the way don't get that opportunity of more screen time, making certain moments towards the last episode or so feel very abrupt.
The humor here is what will probably make or break this one, for most people. I, myself, grew up with early internet humor and cringe culture, but I found myself only scoffing at about half of these nods, all of which range from topics like remote work to OnlyFans. What really made me chuckle were the several moments of pure stupidity and absurdity that solidifies the Borderlands series for me. Whether it be the banterings between the Tediore soldiers or the hired intern who only knows how to strip dance and say "free labor", there are some really funny moments here. I think one of the best bits involves one of these Tediore soldiers re-appearing in the most random locations and challenging you to a match with Vaultlander figurines. Dumb, stupid comedy is better than the various parodies scattered throughout the commentary.

This is really just a "new generation" Tales From The Borderlands, with its downgraded writing balanced out by some surprising gameplay sequences, fun performances, and even a great soundtrack. Whether it's worth the full $40 price or not, that's totally up to you. But for me, someone who enjoys playing these comedic adventure games, I say it's worth your time.

4 skateboards out of 5.

Telltale games worked, at least in the beginning. Most would say that's because they were effective choose-your-own-adventure games, but we quickly learned that Telltale's formula was to give you branches that eventually led back to the same ending. So if your choice wasn't the true seller, it meant Telltale were just really good at grabbing you with well written stories. Once they put too much on their plate and their writing became rushed the magic was lost. In my opinion, Tales from the Borderlands was the best Telltale game. An interesting, thrilling, and hilarious adventure in the Borderlands universe from the perspective of people who have no superpowers, no high tech guns, and no clue what they're doing. New Tales from the Borderlands however almost feels like a parody of a Telltale game, because it seems no one in 2K has any real idea what made the original Tales (or Telltale plots in general) so special.

I could see how from the perspective of other companies Telltale games seem simple, especially with the Telltale secret formula now known by everyone, but in reality they were bigger than anyone else realized and honestly that was part of the beauty of them. Tales from the Borderlands was a story that was fully ingrained in the Borderlands universe. Sure these characters were involved in less action and explosions, but they travelled all over Pandora. Every episode had new locations, new characters, special guest legacy characters, and new interesting lore. Tales even went so far as to forever change the franchise plot by affecting a beloved character who had been around since the first game.

New Tales feels like it has no agency, half the game-time length of the original, and possibly no budget. Seemingly 50% of this entire game takes place in the same location. Our 3 main characters just meander about doing nothing until all of a sudden the plot comes to them, and maybe that would be alright if our characters were extremely lovable and fun to watch but the only main character I truly fell in love with was Fran the frogurt lady.

All the new side characters have little to no time to make an impact on the player except for LOU13 who in all fairness is the best character in this game. The character Stapleface also stuck out to me, but again she was only there for an extremely limited amount of time. When it comes to legacy characters, as far as I can tell we got 2: Rhys who is only really in the first chapter and felt a little... off for some reason, and Lor who has I think a single 2 word line also in the first chapter (Lor is Lorraine from Borderlands 3 who has since transitioned which honestly makes me wish they were actually in the plot of this game).

Lore-wise I feel this game was nearly completely separate, and don't see anything they set up ever coming back in any real way. It's certainly possible, what with the vault treasure that the games plot is centered around and what happens to the Tediore corporation, but I just don't believe this game was meant to have such an impact.

It's really sad how disappointed I was in New Tales from the Borderlands. I don't hate it by any means. It's still got some good humor and decent attempts at heart. Sadly tho I have to say this is my least favorite entry into the Borderlands universe.

the first tales from the borderlands was an intriguing experiment from the getgo. telltale had basically shot itself into the stratosphere, however briefly, and had announced collaborations with IP after IP. most of these were middling, such as the illfated game of thrones and guardians of the galaxy, but many others were quite good! especially interesting was in the post-walking dead world of telltale, was that the poorer the IP being adapted fit to their style, the better it worked. fables was a mostly mediocre comic carried by a solid-gold concept, but telltale managed to turn that into easily one of my favorite titles of the gen. borderlands, a series that had a good story in the sense that it had a really amazing bad guy and lore that made sequels incredibly easy- new evil corporation, new vault to find, bring protags from prior game back as NPCs, was the other biggest surprise of this era.

and now some eight years later, a sequel is announced and release in a three month span. as someone in the unfortunate position of a borderlands apologist, i was easily sold. and what i found here... is very confused. it occasionally hits the same notes as tales, spinning a decently funny tale about the nonpowered, everyday denizens of a world that is built around violence, crime and killing. but when it tries to do anything besides riffs on classic borderlands tentpoles, it seems dead in the water.

the three protagonists are all enjoyable, but they never gel together in the way the game kind of needs them to. anu, an anxiety riddled scientist, doesnt really seem to have a bad relationship with her estranged brother when they meet- but we're told they had a major split. same with fran, who's supposed to be a rageaholic with a tragic past that... is explained away in a joke? when the intrigue of the world takes a backseat to characters, new tales struggles to find footing, a shame compared to how incredible the character dynamics in the og are. this is all made worse by how badly the game tries to have recurring bits for every character in the game, it's insane. there are very few jokes, and a TON of recurring gags and bits- tell more than one kind of joke please! borderlands gore is very funny! do that and never use the word "himbo" again!

i can't say new tales isn't worth the time for a borderlands fan, nor can i say i didn't enjoy it in all honesty. it's a world i begrudgingly enjoy despite it's almost universal disdain on the internet writ large. chalk it up to all the late night skype (later discord) calls with my brother while we farmed loot and raced each other to finish questlines or find items before the other. new tales isn't going to convince you to change your mind on borderlands, nor do i think it cares to. i just wish this sequel gave a little more effort to follow up to its predecessor and a little less to making bits land. (a good half don't, the other quarter are tolerable, the last quarter actually made me chuckle)

Just finished it and although it isn't as good as the first one, it has its charms. The characters are hit or miss, except Fran who never misses, and almost all the side characters are better and funnier than the main cast. If you liked the first game, don't come thinking it's a talltale game. There are multiple choices and quick time events like the first one, but the dialogue charm of the first just isn't up to par with it.

The villain and the mega corp were nothing special as well. It was just Hyperion, but written to fit the Tales style. A bit of a spoiler, but the main villain literally copies Handsome Jack's pre-sequel machine, but actually uses it. Although she copies Jack's plans, she has no charm like Jack and you can't really sympathize with her either. This just makes her a cold and ruthless character with no real motivation apart from greed which doesn't hurt her character, but nothing makes her stand out apart from being technologically inept despite owning a mega corp.

Really had high hopes for the game, but it really was just alright at best. Like it's bad when the only thing that was reaction worthy was the last ending scene with Marcus. I feel like they wanted to make a new story without the cast relying on old characters, but that was the appeal of the first game in a lot of ways. They could have used them in a meaningful way like they did with Scooter in Tales, or just as an action cameo like with Brick and Mordecai. In the end I hope they use that ending as a stepping stone for Borderlands 4 and actually used the characters teased.

P.s. I don't know if my other logged got posted since it froze, but I'll delete the old one if it duplicates.