Tales from the Borderlands Unofficial FAQ (Read before posting!)
Vainamoinen
Moderator
Unofficial FAQ (Last Update on June 28, 2016)
Please note all information here is compiled by volunteer moderators who are not Telltale Staff members.
Community moderators such as Jennifer, Vainamoinen, and Blind Sniper helped write this 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!
If you are having trouble downloading an episode or are having trouble running the game on your system, please consult the Telltale Games Support Center. There are solutions for the most common problems there. If you can't find an answer to your problem there, please submit a request or send an e-mail to support@telltalegames.com.
(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."
(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.
Comments
Something of a logical question from me, which would also apply to Game of Thrones... if you haven't played any of the previous Borderlands games, are you going to be totally lost story wise? One of the nice things about Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us was that I had only read the first arc of the former (and have yet to see any of the television series) whilst with the latter I haven't read a Fables comic yet. But they were still totally easy to pick up and play and enjoy. So I was wondering if people like me might be considered with Borderlands or if I'm going to have to track down the two previous games so I know who Handsome Jack and all the Robot types are.
There is ... of course ... no official info yet, but it's an interesting question!
That probably depends on how easy the setting and mechanics of the world of Borderlands (Pandora) are to understand. As Telltale is mostly focusing on new stories and new characters, that remains a pretty decisive factor. They usually don't bring in much of all that complex history that comes with already established characters, which in principle makes their series ideal for new players.
Getting the gist of the franchise storyline across wasn't really a problem for The Walking Dead, where six words totally suffice to explain the entire setting ("zombie apocalypse, everyone's got the virus"). The Wolf among Us was a bit more complex here, although it's a prequel in principle. Telltale solved the issue by adding a 'dictionary' to the game ("Book of Fables") to explain central concepts and characters.
Bottom line, Telltale really wants to make these games approachable to everyone. I guess they will always try to find a way to introduce newcomers to their franchises.
Thanks! Something to bear in mind. I have to say that the Book of Fables in TWAU really helps with the background of the world of Fables, but as you say with Walking Dead, since it's taking place in the same universe but not with the same characters, an indepth knowledge of who that bloke called Rick and that nasty Goverenor fellow with the eyepatch isn't essential. So whilst I all for games building up complex universes it's important to let newbies like me jump in, see if I enjoy myself and then possibly go and nab the other games. The exact premise - a wild west cyborg alien world - does interest me after all and this might be a nice jumping in point.
Same goes for GOT - I know, shocking that someone HASN'T seen that yet and whose knowledge of the series extends to 'there's a blonde dirty princess girl with a pet dragon, some short Lanisomething in charge, a really big wall of ice and some very incestous siblings' but it does happen. I know if there was actually a Doctor Who TT game, as a fan I wouldn't expect everyone playing to know their Axons from their Autons and their Zygons from their Zarbi.
As long as the games can cater to fans and newcomers alike I'll be happy.
It probably usually works the other way 'round, but you're absolutely not alone here. Of course, Gearbox would finally have to come to gog.com or at least the Humble store DRM free before I pick up their stuff. BUT I'd be first in line, and we probably still have another year to catch up!
Ha ha. One day Telltale will be doing episodic games for everything. It'll be beautiful.
Honestly can't wait for a Doctor Who and Breaking Bad one. I can feel it coming.
Can I expect something about the game to GDC, E3 or Gamescom 2014?
Just updated the FAQ with a few details from the SXSW Tales from the Borderlands panel.
Please telltale games change poster of tales from the borderlands at games page please then its look more interesting..i have requested you..
They haven't openly shown much of the game - even taking the panel into consideration - so I'm not sure there is much they could add to the picture that they are willing to show fans at this point.
(I personally cant stand the talking trash can :P )
The less I know about claptrap, the better. Just recently got done playing through the robot revolution on BL1. The satisfies of shooting a thousand claptraps was... great.
What I want to know is if the episodes are going to be short or reasonable. I mean, when I played TWAU and TWDS2, their episodes are so damn short. They are like maybe 1 hr. and a half or less. I was somewhat disappointed in TWAU ep. 5 when it came out. It literally almost took me 1 hr. to beat. I love this company and their games, but these episodes are just short now; compared to TWDS1.
They'll hopefully be longer. Telltale does take fan and critic criticism into account, and the length of their newest games is one of the biggest complaints for The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead Season Two. Also, there will be more action in this game too (it looks like we'll be getting something other than QTE fights for a change), so hopefully that will help the length somewhat.
Btw, maybe you can answer a question for me. People keep talking about a "Fast walk" button or something. I don't know what it is or noticed anything about it. Unless they were talking about what they had when I played TWD S1. For example, I have the Xbox 360. So while I played TWD S1, and replayed an episode, I pressed the X button or the "Back" button on the controller and it skipped part of a cutscene. I don't if that was the "Fast Walk" button or not because I tried using that button while I replayed episodes from TWAU and TWD S2 and it doesn't work this time; which is a little annoying on my part.
The fast walk button is what you can hit to make the character walk faster than their normal speed. It wasn't there in The Walking Dead Season One, but it's been added for The Walking Dead Season Two. It's enabled with the right trigger button on the Xbox 360.
Ah okay. Thank you. I'll be sure to try that in episode 4.
Recent interviews says 5 episodes.
They also stated "Android, vita, kindle" aside consoles and mobiles.
Do you have a link for that? The most recent articles I could find still state that Telltale hasn't announced an exact amount of episodes, and still leave the platforms ambiguous.
Adam Sarasohn, Producer at TTG, in this interview (important bits from 2:27 on):
Thanks for the link.
I'll update the FAQ with this information.
Oh, and Kevin Bruner himself said it will be released "this fall" on "about monthly" basis.
Better take that last statement with a grain of salt (unless we want users take the whole salt lick, Kenny-style).
This, 5:05 mark:
Thanks again for the info. I'll update the FAQ, though I think I'll keep the roughly 5-8 weeks wording for episode releases just to be on the safe side.
This (obviously) confirms the PC platform (mark at 3:29):
Oh, on a side note, he also confirms GoT from 2014.
I'm kind of confused but I'm sure someone can clear it up for me. On PC, will every episode cost $5 in addition to the $25, or will it be a one and done payment kinda deal? What I mean by that is, will there only be one payment that is $25?
It will just be one payment of $25 for the whole season. You'll be able to download the episodes when they're released without having to pay anything extra.
I'm noticing on Steam that "Tales from the Borderlands" is exclusively available for Windows and Mac, at least for the moment. My arcade setup here is Linux. Will there be any ports to Linux-based operating systems, like Ubuntu and SteamOS, in the future?
I can see, from the interview with Kevin Bruner, that you're hoping to hit pretty much every platform conceivable. That's great! Android is one more form of Linux. Will it be available that way through Steam, though?
Kevin Bruner specifically mentioned Linux in a reddit ask me anything session. He said that Linux and Steam was on Telltale's radar. However, he also said that it won't be until "perhaps a little further out", so we won't see Tales from the Borderlands launch on Linux. They did say that they have more platforms to announce later, so it is possible (but not certain) that a Linux port might come after launch.
Well, I THINK, that you dont have to have played Borderlands before to understand, it is my impression this is totally like TWD or TWAU, click and point and do your missions. However, If you have not played Borderlands, then I would really really recommend you do hehe. Cause they are awesome games. I have played through 1 2 and Am now on the Pre-Sequel. I think its a good idea to know the characters as well. You would also become familiar with the terms and the diffrent worlds, but I can only speculate here if they are going to have things like teleportation to other worlds and so on. Borderlands is the one and only FPS that has attracted me since Unreal Tournament. Simply because you get missions, some hard and some not so hard, you have conversations with the other characters...
If you play Borderlands you should also get PokerNight 2, cause then you might earn yourself something for the game (you will onderstand)
I think the idea of this co-operation is really cool, since I love telltale and I love frakkin gearbox
Check out their site for some information
http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/
Can someone peaaase tell me when it will be avaiable for Mac? thanks ;D
when the tales from the borderlands will be avaiable on the app store on Mac??
You might not get some of the jokes that different characters make, and some other references from the previous Borderlands games, but you will still enjoy it a lot.
How familiar does a person need to be with the Borderlands game series into to be able to get into the story of this game? I ask this because I've never played the Borderlands games before. Will I be unable to understand a lot of what's going on [in the story] because of that?