Well I certainly didn't expect to be writing this review quite sosoon after the last one, I was thinking Christmas at the earliestjudging by the simply awful release schedule this game has had, butno Tales from the Borderlands sneaked in under the radar to ourdigital marketplaces with barely a whisper of it's announcement,wonder why that was eh Telltale?
It's getting to the point now where it feels like Telltale seem tonot care about it's Borderlands baby as much as it did it's otherchildren and whilst this isn't a bad episode, nor have we had one sofar, by this point in the series it absolutely feels like somethingis missing in TftB.
So after the explosive finale of episode 3 and our heroes held atgunpoint by Vallory, it seems she has a proposition for them. Helpher access the vault and she will spare their lives; the only problemis the last thing they need to access the vault is a beacon that isbeing stores all the way up on Helios station in Handsome Jack'soffice.
So it seems our team must build a space ship, fly up to Helios,infiltrate Jack's office without being noticed, steal the thingy andrun on back to Pandora...piece of cake right?
Now whilst the story is certainly exciting and well written, not tomention a great expansion of the Borderlands universe...it has neverquite managed to really grab your attention and hold it there. EscapePlan Bravo does try in some significant ways to try to hold yourattention, not to mention attempting one hell of a cliffhanger, butultimately it leaves you not as excited as you would think, nor doany of the episodes real hard hitting moments actually seem hardhitting. Some would put this down to borderlands humour killing themood, but as we have seen from Borderlands 2 and some sections of thePre-Sequel, it is completely possible for Borderlands to have thesemore touching moments that Tales from the Borderlands seems to failpulling off.
In comparison to the other episodic series I'm currently playing,Life is Strange, I am simply not that fussed about Escape Plan Bravohaving ended or the events that occurred in it, but during LiS' 4thepisode I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire runningtime, cried and even shouted at the screen in anger during the finalscene. It appears that TftB lacks the weight that other episodicgames currently have, including previous Telltale titles such as TheWolf Among Us and The Walking Dead.
The episode runs relatively smoothly with only small frame rateissues and few loading times, the standard affair we expect from theTelltlae tool.
So how will our adventure end? Will we open the Vault of theTraveller? What will Vallory do to us? What will the A.I of HandsomeJack do next? And most importantly, who is the guy interrogating Rhysand Fiona for the information in the first place? Well, looks like wehave to wait to find out and sadly, I'm not on the edge of my seat inanticipation.
Talesfrom the Borderlands
Episode4: Escape Plan Bravo - 7/10
+VeryVery Funny
+GreatTitle Sequence
+SomeReally Good Gameplay Sections
-NoEmotional Impact From Intended Sections
-It'sSimply Not Exciting
