Well we’re back again and once again I find myself impressed with progression of the story, Episode 4 retains the intensity of episode 3 but adds more of the humour we’ve grown accustom to in the Borderlands series in a big way. In an effort to make this review less repetitive the following section will discuss major spoilers so please avoid it if you’re not interested in spoiling the experience.

 

The episode quickly picks up from where the previous one left off and immediately hits the ground running with the heroes being set the task of breaking into Helios, the Hyperion moon base featured prominently through Borderlands 2 and the Presequel. With the help of the Handsome Jack AI in Rhys’ head it gives the heroes an edge but the ambiguity of Handsome Jack presents a moral dilemma of trusting an antagonist known for brutality killing his rivals and snarky one liners, whom thus far has benefitted my Rhys’ journey through the game thus far but is that simply because his existence is tied to me and was based on a policy of self- preservation? That much is not yet clear, my ending to the episode concluded with Rhys becoming the new president of Hyperion and Jack seemingly keeping his end of the bargain which has me suspicious with things going too well for our heroes. Additionally obviously with the heroes retelling this while being held hostage, it seems as though something clearly goes wrong for them to end up in that situation, which I’ve always considered the hubris of prequels and games which start their story near the end and go back the beginning only to go back to the point the player was initially with all the perspectives explained giving them context of the situation they were placed in at the beginning of the game. This episode has a larger emphasis on humour with it featuring the best finger gun battle in history of Video games which had me laughing throughout the duration of the sequence, seriously. It was probably the best thing I’ve ever seen in a Telltale game period, you should play it just for that section.

 

-Spoilers/ miniature rant end here –

 

Point being, if you or anyone is reading these reviews up until this point I imagine you’ve done so based upon some interest into how this game plays. To put simply if you’ve played any of the previous Telltale games, it’s the same core experience with the choice but with the humour of the Borderlands games. So as I’ve stated 3 episodes in a row if you have any interest in Borderlands as well as Telltale style games you’ll probably enjoy this one I know I am. That said if you don’t really know anything about Borderlands but enjoy the Telltale games, I’d recommend playing Borderlands 2 ahead of playing this as the game expects you to have at least played that one for the context, personally I’d recommend playing the original as well as the second the presequel would be ideal but not necessary.

 

In conclusion, I give this episode of Tales from the Borderlands 4/5 the strongest episode thus far in my opinion.