You'll love it if:
- You love a good tales game.
- You are a fan of the Borderlands franchise.
Not for you if:
- You hate QTE events.
- You have no humour at all.
Having to write a New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review is tricky. Tales games are hard to capture and talk about without actually spoiling the story. Choices I made have outcomes later in the story and showcasing these might influence your own decision making when playing it. Because yes, this New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review is all about telling you that you should play New Tales From The Borderlands.
I will also be doing this review purely based on New Tales From The Borderlands and not do the whole comparison with Tales From The Borderlands. Different studio, different team and it’s been ages since I had a look at Tales From The Borderlands.
New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review – TL;DR
New Tales From The Borderlands is a polished experience that runs beautifully on the PS5. I’m happy to tell you I had zero bugs or crashes. I also feel bad that the gaming industry has come to the point that a well running game on release is now a positive point.
While New Tales From The Borderlands is pretty short for a single run, it does offer re-playability and enough diverging choices that make a replay interesting. Although at the end there won’t be too much difference (ending-wise) even if you made completely different choices.
The story and writing for New Tales From The Borderlands is both good and bad. Some sections are engaging and funny with well placed jokes and other conversations are just plain bad. Not even having me chuckle or increase the airflow from my nose. I sighed at some comments and silently shook my head at the attempt to be funny.
Overall the consensus of this New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review is that New Tales From The Borderlands is a good game and I enjoyed my time playing it.
New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review
New Tales From The Borderlands is a Tales game, this basically means that you are watching a story unfold and influence the direction it goes by choices. The survival of the characters is dependent on those choices and your quick reflexes to push X or O. If you dislike Quick Time Events in general, stay away.
Your choices and dialogue options carry over chapters all the way to the conclusion and decide the ending you will get. Thus creating some re-playability or talking topics with friends that also play the game.
New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review – Story
This New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review is completely spoiler free. This means I will not be going any deeper than a conspiracy theorist reading an actual scientific study on horse dewormer.
After Maliwan invaded Promethea the regular people tried to rebuild their life and get on with it. We follow the backlash of that corpo war on said citizens and their normal daily routines, about three years after the incident.
The Crew
We have Anu who fled Promethea and started working for Atlas as a scientist. Trying to harness the power of Eridium to create a gun, I mean, device. Said device would help the people of the galaxy instead of murdering them.
Then we have Octavio, the younger adopted brother of Anu and a highly successful entrepreneur. At least he thinks so; he’s a swindling thief trying to make a name for himself in the business world through deals and connections. He’s also the dumbest person you will ever have encountered.
And last but definitely not least, Fran. The owner of a Froyo shop which got destroyed by the Maliwan laser in an attempt to force Rhys (CEO of Atlas, wearer of moustache) into surrender in Borderlands 3. She is struggling to keep her business afloat due to the huge gaping hole in the building and her outstanding debt to Tediore. All those troubles and worries have her fighting the rage boiling inside her and she’s struggling to keep it all contained.
The Adventure
The story jumps from character to character and unveils a greater plot in the making as you progress. The first chapter is all about character building and setting the narrative. Filling up the holes in what happened before and how each character got to where they are now and showing off their truly unique and well written personas.
As the first trailers of New Tales From The Borderlands hit I was dreading this game. It looked cringy and boring, and I still had a bad taste in my mouth from the story Borderlands 3 shat out. While my colleague Jason had more enthusiasm to do a New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review. He lacked one major thing: a PS5. As I write this New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review I admit that I liked the characters a lot more than I anticipated. The story was engaging and unique enough to keep me going. And I’m happy I gave New Tales From The Borderlands the benefit of doubt.
The story takes a familiar turn as Promethea is once again invaded for exactly the same reasons Maliwan did. Only this time it’s Tediore doing the invading. Each of our main protagonists already has a small connection to each other that leads to their meeting. After that the Adventure of three normal citizens who try to do heroic things starts. Whether they succeed or fail is up to your choices and quick wits.
New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review – Gameplay
As I mentioned before, you are basically watching a movie unfold and simply steer the direction it goes. This is done by selecting dialogue options and story choices. The ending is purely based on a metric called skateboards and the strength of the relationship between the characters.
I’m a role-player and I roleplay my characters even if my gamer brain tells me its a bad option. It’s how I play RPGs and I have never regretted it, simply because the stories make more sense if you stay true to the path you choose for a character. A great example for this New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review is that I always had Anu have a panic attack when the option was there and I played Octavio as the dumbest dimwit to inhabit the galaxy. This led to some hilarious encounters that weren’t always the “best” choice game wise.
Making choices for characters, especially when they are all together, is shown by a small portrait in the dialogue wheel. So you always know what character will now respond, helping out with your role-playing needs. Or when doing a replay, your optimizing needs for a different ending.
New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review – Visuals, sound and writing.
All three aspects we are going to discuss are just of such good quality it felt like Gearbox reinvented the cell shading graphic style again. The visuals are true to the whole Borderlands franchise and look as crisp as Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands updated version.
An extra addition I noted while playing for this New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review is that they added wrinkles and small facial details to the faces. The small detail made the faces look more genuine and expressive during the conversation. It enlarged the emotions carried by the voice acting. Especially funny when Anu has a panic attack or Octavio’s dumb frown makes up 80% of your screen.
The dedication of the voice actors to their roles is sublime. The animations are so fluid and unique per character it makes them stand out and the scenes are enjoyable to watch. The exaggeration of little quirks and movements is done just right. Not too much to make it annoying but just right to make them traits of the characters.
The writing of the story and dialogue is filled with well placed jokes, fleshed out character remarks that are unique and fitting. Or sometimes also just plain lame and uninventive. Certain jokes had us crack out a laugh or snuck in a smart throwback to Borderlands 3. While others just had me nearly facepalm at the stupidity or uselessness considering the situation of the characters or story.
New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review – conclusion
Just get it. It’s good and you will not feel like you wasted your money or your time. Finish it once and leave it for another rainy day to pick it up again and replay it with new choices. I don’t have anything more to say about it in this New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review. I’m glad I got the chance to play it and have a small new glimmer of hope for the Borderlands movie.
Thank you CD Media for the key. I had a blast while blasting so many Tediore grunts. Buy your New Tales From The Borderlands PS5 version if this New Tales from the Borderlands PS5 review convinced you.