New Tales from the Borderlands brings Metal Gear Solid nods, figurine battles

digitaltrends.com:

Tales from the Borderlands is considered by many to be one of the best stories crafted by the no-longer-defunct Telltale Games. It’s mix of humor, action, and surprising amount of heart left a strong impression with players. Now, the series returns with New Tales from the Borderlands, an all new interactive narrative game.

It’s a successor, not so much a proper sequel, though series alumni have contributed to the development. I sat down with the team at Gearbox Quebec for a hands-off early demo of the upcoming title to see if they have been able to recapture that Telltale magic. They have, though that’s because Gearbox seems comfortable sticking with the script rather than totally reinventing the narrative genre.

My demo began early into the second chapter of the story. The protagonists Anu, Octavio, and Fran pursue armed troops of the gun manufacturer Tediore into the sewers. The classic Borderlands humor is front and center as Octavio takes a call from his “friend” Paco, who, after threatening to kill Octavio himself, advises everyone to take a stealthy approach. This is the first moment of player division. And after selecting military jargon-heavy answers, Octavio asks “Weapons and equipment OSP?” in a line lifted directly from Metal Gear Solid. 

“Our choices are designed so that their flow feels natural,” Lin Joyce, head of writing at Gearbox, tells Digital Trends. “Rather than using indicator text … the characters themselves are going to respond in ways that make their feelings clear. We wanted to keep you immersed in the experience, and let the game do the talking.”

The dialogue tree itself is fairly conventional. Each cardinal direction represents a different answer with text indicating the feel of the response,