The second episode picks up where we left off, with the discovery of a secret ATLAS project and the re-emergence of the one and only Handsome Jack, episode 2 continued the humour that has become the moniker of the Borderlands series but retained the moral dilemmas that the Telltale games are accustomed to that, while lacking in the first instalment seemed to have up the ante in this episode, although the length was somewhat disappointing my brief stint back into the game was for the most part enjoyable.

 

The episode reintroduced us to Characters we’ve all known and love, particularly Scooter the best mechanic on Pandora but also possibly the dumbest, the writing as mentioned previously is still top notch, with the humour retaining my attention throughout. The introduction of new characters and returning characters are handled quite well and the exchanges are in a very Borderlands esc way, for someone who’s not a fan of the Borderland style humour will probably not change their mind here as the humour is in force and isn’t anything different from what you’d expect from a Borderlands game.

 

It never ceased to be amazed at the degree of captivation I felt playing through a Borderlands game without excessive use of firearms, the main selling point of the main games has always been shooting alien creature or psychotic bandits with the series’ signature “87 Bazillion guns” but the interesting thing about the Telltale game is I haven’t felt like I needed to blast my way out of trouble, it’s interesting how the closest we get to a gun is a shot pistol that is only used as a last resort, opposed to the classic borderlands response to any problem of “Shoot it in the head” not to say I would be against giving my character a gun, it would help deal with certain antagonists who are just infuriating.

 

The issues I found with the game was the continual issues I’ve had with Telltale games with awkward and jerky loading screens and awkward scene skipping in between dialogue that doesn’t ruin the experience per se but is quite disappointing to see this as an continual issue. Furthermore the inventory system is interesting as beyond keeping track of items I’ve gathered I’ve yet to find an actual use for it; the same can be said about the money mechanic for Fiona, only existing for cosmetic reasons which seem like a wasted opportunity. That said Rhys’s echo eye mechanic returns for a puzzle sequence and brief segment after but beyond the brief sequence being entertaining, the mechanic doesn’t seem to have the same amount of utility than before.

 

Overall I’m quite pleased with how the episode ran, it was enjoyable run through Pandora as always and the writing and the story kept me playing throughout but the game is still hampered by the technical issues that seems to plague the Telltale Games, I’d rate the game 4/5 a worthy addition to the series.