And so it comes to this - the grand finale of what is probably one of the best Telltale games ever made, certainly one of the best interactive narratives in recent memory. As Tales From The Borderlands makes way for the surreal concept that is Minecraft: Story Mode, it's going to be hard to look at this new kid on the block and not think one thing: "Fine, but what happened to the other guy?"

 

Not that it's been an unsatisfying ending to the series by any means. Whilst Tales From The Borderlands does end in a way that's suggestive of an incoming sequel, nearly all the plot points are nicely wrapped up and the characters get some excellent fleshing-out as the stakes go high and the questions we've had since Episode One are answered in rapid succession: Who is the stranger in the desert? What is Handsome Jack planning? Will we get to see the contents of yet another Vault? Can we please, please, please have Athena back in the story? Pretty please?

 

All these get answered in this episode, though perhaps a little hurriedly. When insane plot twists and epic reveals come too quickly and barely leave you time to breathe, it does feel like this story was trying to fit itself into yet another short, two hour instalment. Why? This is the big finish after all, why not push yourself and go for the three hour mark?

 

That said, the story is nothing if not delightfully good fun, though it's not all childish games. One of the things that Telltale have always excelled at is heartfelt moments of genuine sorrow. I still can't play the end of The Walking Dead: Season 1 without sniffling like a bloodhound and some of the scenes in The Wolf Among Us cut me like a knife.

 

And they haven't forgotten that magic when it comes to TFTB. There are two moments, one in the first third of the game and another right at the end, both of which made me feel genuinely sad, and it's not hard to see why. When characters make you smile, make you feel happy just by being around, you can't help but feel miserable when you have to see them leave. After all, you only know a valley when you compare it to a peak. It's something a lot of game writers would do well to remember.

 

Now, I won't spend a lot of time talking about the gameplay for the same reason I wouldn't spend much time talking about a fast food burger - either you know what you're in for and you're not interested, or you've already been won over long before I got here. Needless to say it's the same branching narrative with dialogue choices and Quick-Time Events (a lot of these near the end, actually), but it seems that more of an effort has been put in to make your choices over the game matter, something that seemed to be missing from Telltale's more recent titles. There's even an option to get a mystery vault hunter guest if you've been saving all your money throughout the game, which luckily enough I'd been doing, allowing me to blow it all on this little lottery. Would I be lucky enough to earn the hilarious Tannis, or would they stick me with the insufferable Pickles?

 

Well, all I'll say is that they made a bold choice with their pick of cameo. Something tells me that it'll be a polarising option for them to make, believe you me.

 

There are a couple of other little niggles I have with it. The subtitles don't always match to the dialogue properly, which is highly distracting, and like in Episode 3 there were moments where the animation seemed more than a little funky. At times I noticed Rhys' lips seemed to be having different conversations to the audio, while Fiona's head bounced unnaturally like a noddy dog on a car dashboard.

 

But these issues are a minority and they can't take me out of the phenomenal story, the excellent VO work and the touching character moments. TFTB stands tall with the other Telltale gems like the aforementioned Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us, even eclipsing them at points and climaxing with an incredibly dumb action sequence that had me grinning like a fox for about half an hour. You could do a lot worse than to play this game, and not much better. Grab a beer, a big bag of nachos and a napkin for your inevitable spit-take laughter, and settle down to the finally-finished odyssey that is Tales From The Borderlands. You won't regret a thing.