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Tales from the Borderlands Unofficial FAQs (Read before posting!)

Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
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Tales from the Borderlands: Unofficial FAQs

Please note all information here is compiled by volunteer moderators who are not Telltale Staff members.

Community moderators including Vainamoinen, Jennifer, Blind Sniper, and InGen_Nate_Kenny have helped create this unofficial FAQ. We check our facts thoroughly and have a lot of Telltale experience on our backs, but this is not an 'official' source, we're just volunteers!

Having technical issues? Contact Telltale Support!

For assistance with your problem, feel free to consult the Telltale Support Center. From there, you can search for the solution to your problem depending on which Telltale series you are playing as well as the platform you are playing on.

If you still need further assistance, you may also try the following:

To see what current and future projects Telltale are working on, follow our "Future of Telltale FAQ" thread for frequent updates!

Latest Updates:

July 19th:

  • Revamped the FAQ

Comments

  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited July 2017

    Tales from the Borderlands FAQ

    Original FAQ by Vainamoinen

    (1) What exactly is "Tales from the Borderlands"?

    TftB is an episodic game set in the Borderlands game universe after Borderlands 2 and its DLC.

    (2) What kind of game can we expect?

    Telltale has only just established its new trademark game style with The Walking Dead in 2012. As such, that style hasn't changed completely for Borderlands. Telltale focuses on new storylines, (mostly) new characters and aims to tell new, intricate stories in well-known settings. The game progresses through the player's dialog and plot choices, interspersed with carefully orchestrated QTE action sequences.

    (3) So no shooting?!

    Oh, in one way or another, people certainly do shoot and get shot at. Shooting isn't done in the FPS kind of way, and doesn't occur quite as often though. Shooting sequences fall somewhere in between the Borderlands and Telltale style of action sequences.

    (4) Do I have to play the other Borderlands games before I can play Telltale's series?

    You will get more from the game if you are aware of the franchise before you play it, but it is not necessary. Telltale does a good job of adding things that people who know the franchise will appreciate, while keeping the game from getting confusing for people who are new to the franchise.

    (5) When and where in the Borderlands timeline is this game set?

    The game takes place in Pandora after Borderlands 2 and its DLC.

    (6) Who do you play as in Tales from The Borderlands?

    The narrative switches between the perspective of two original characters created for the game - Rhys and Fiona. Both narratives conflict with each other and sometimes reality, as both characters are driven by greed.

    (7) Do characters from the original Borderlands games return, and do the original voice cast come back?

    Some characters from the original Borderlands games will be making a return, as will their voice actors. Dameon Clarke is reprising his role as Handsome Jack, and he is joined by other members of the Borderlands cast as well as actors new to the Borderlands series, such as Partrick Warburton, Laura Bailey, Troy Baker, Nolan North, and Chris Hardwick.

    (8) The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us both have players making tough choices. What kinds of choices do you make in Tales from The Borderlands?

    Instead of tough moral choices, players are presented with a couple extremely desirable options - picking what they feel is the better of the options to choose. The two playable characters - Rhys and Fiona, are both driven by greed, so that comes into play as well.

    (9) Are the original creators of the Borderlands game involved?

    Telltale community lady @puzzlebox has described the project genesis on her twitter as follows: "Telltalegames and Gearbox Software got drunk at last year's VGAs and now they're having a Borderlands baby".

    The father will get visiting rights. In the May 2014 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, it was revealed that Gearbox Software has a consulting role, making sure that the story and characters stay true to the greater Borderlands universe.

    (10) For which platforms is Tales from the Borderlands available?

    It's available for PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and iOS. It's also available on Android and Kindle. A Vita release has previously been hinted at.

    (11) How much does it cost?

    It costs the usual price for a Telltale season - $5 for an episode and $25 for a season. On some systems (for example PC) there is no option to buy single episodes and the entire season must be purchased. Prices vary by system.

    (12) I'm new to all that episodic game stuff. How are they doing this?

    You can expect to receive a new episode roughly every five to eight weeks. Each episode contains an individual part of a story that is held together through a narrative that connects all of the episodes together into what Telltale calls a season. Think along the lines of a serialized television series such as Lost. An episode usually lasts about as long as a good movie would.

    (13) How many episodes will there be?

    Tales from the Borderlands consists of five episodes. The names of the episodes are Zero Sum, Atlas Mugged, Catch a Ride, Escape Plan Bravo, and The Vault of the Traveler.

    (14) When will the episodes be released?

    As the Season progresses, Telltale will share release date information for each Episode on Twitter, Facebook, and their blog. We volunteer moderators will compile this information in Release Date Discussion threads for each episode, where we will edit the threads as Telltale announces release dates or other news.

    Release Date Discussions for each episode can be found here.

    (15) What time of the day are episodes available?

    This depends on the store in question. Most companies update their digital store in the evening in their timezone. Telltale sometimes makes releases at midnight in their timezone (PST) in their store, but this isn't always a certainty.

    (16) Will the different platforms release simultaneously?

    Almost. Telltale has come a long way since 2009, when the PC and console releases of their episodes were months apart. Nowadays, most platforms released within days of each other, and even these small lags were only due to the different release schedules of XBLA and PSN NA. However, PSN Europe always lagged a bit more. It is to be expected that these lags will also be apparent and unavoidable during the "Tales from the Borderlands" release. Be prepared!

    (17) Are there concrete release dates for all these episodes?

    Ok, here's the really really important part. There absolutely are not!! While Telltale doesn't start each new episode 'from scratch', large parts of the development cycle still take place during these release months. From writing to animation to voice acting to possible gamer input from the forums, it all comes together to form a new episode only weeks and days before release; and eventually, another time frame insecurity is added when console manufacturers receive the final build of the episodes for their quality assurance process.

    As a consequence, since Telltale has to sync up release dates with all of their distribution partners, fixed dates will only be announced mere days before an episode releases (in Telltale's blog, on their twitter, facebook page, etc.). Don't ever believe dates given by various unofficial sites! These are nothing but estimates, placeholder dates and possibly wishful thinking.

    (18) Telltale has so many games in development. Will this affect the quality or development time of this game?

    No. Since the success of Walking Dead: Season 1, Telltale has sized up from 70 people to near 350 people, and now have five times the amount of staff members they had during Season 1, so multiple projects at once should not be a concern. They now have a big enough staff to work on four projects at once as well as extra staff members to work on side projects.

    Even though Telltale announces their projects ahead of time, this doesn't mean that each game is in full production. All games by Telltale Games are first started with a small team of just a few people, who do things common in very early development, such as sorting out the season wide story and working on concept art. As the deadline nears, more people are brought in to work on other things, but it is still a small team. Full production doesn't start until the current seasons wrap up, and seasons that are announced years in advance won't begin full production until long after that. The currently ongoing series also don't affect each other, as different teams are working on each project. Even in the case of shared staff, the work load is light enough for these staff members, that their working between projects doesn't have any affect on the quality or development time of either project.

    In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, Kevin Bruner stated that "Telltale's approach to game development is much more like television than most other game developers. Across all of our series — The Walking Dead, Minecraft: Story Mode and more — the development process at Telltale spends a significant amount of time upfront in the writer's rooms not just with writers, but designers, directors and creative input from all across the studio. It's not unusual for our games to exist longer on whiteboards and sticky notes and in scripts than they do in traditional game production. It's incredibly similar to how TV often spends so much time in preproduction and planning before moving into actually shooting."

    To see what current and future projects Telltale are working on, follow our "Future of Telltale FAQ" thread for frequent updates!

    (19) For which languages will the game be available?

    No info yet. At launch, Telltale mostly only does English.

    (20) Will there be a bonus/free collector's DVD version available when I purchase the game directly from the Telltale store?

    It's unlikely, as there wasn't one listed at the Telltale website on release, and every collector's disc to date has been listed as a bonus for Telltale store orders from day one.

This discussion has been closed.