Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 5: The Vault of the Traveler review

Warning - this will contain spoilers for previous episodes of the game and mild ones for the episode.

    It's been a long and hilarious road but, bluntly, I think Tales from the Borderlands may rival The Walking Dead as my favorite Telltale experience. They're at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to lightheartedness as well as character death but the games are both amazing in their own special way. Is the game perfect? No, there's some slow parts and there's iffy parts but I was overall satisfied with how the game finally came together. My only complaints are fairly minor and relate to the gameplay more than anything else.

    But we'll get to all of that.

I liked you Jack but, honestly, it's time to move on.

    The premise of Episode 5 is Rhys has either voluntarily agreed to upload Handsome Jack into the Hyperion mainframe or been body-jacked into it. Jack now has resumed control over Hyperion and, surprise, turns out to be an untrustworthy evil psychopath the same as he's always been. I confess, I was disappointed. Surely, Jack, we've been through so much together you could have let me have just a little bit longer as the President of Hyperion? Still, that pizza I ordered was good.

    Oh well.

    Dealing with Handsome Jack and his newfound digital godhood occupies roughly half of the story with the remaining half dealing with our heroes trying to find the Vault of the Traveler. The game goes in unexpected directions like the identity of the bounty-hunter holding our heroes captives being the, literal, LAST PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE I would have expected them to to be. Also, a gigantic robot and monster fight. All of our choices throughout the game matter and I'm pleased to say they do so in a way which comes together in an understandable way.

    There's even a little romance.

Fiona-fu vs. Big Gun! Who will win!

    The scenes between Rhys and Handsome Jack are the emotional highlight of the episode. Watching Rhys become well and truly disillusioned not only with Handsome Jack but his legacy as a whole is heartbreaking. I also love how Jack points out, despite all of Rhys' protestations to the contrary, they're not so different in terms of the people they've killed to get what they want. The final choice as to whether to spare or destroy Jack was surprisingly difficult, probably more so than the villain deserves.

    But even the best villains die.

    See you in hell, Jack.

    The emotional reunion between Fiona, Rhys, and their loved ones actually made me misty-eyed. I really have come to believe all of these weirdos are a family, of sorts. Even if I'm not a Rhys and Sasha shipper, I think these guys will be together for the rest of their possibly short lives. The fact the game fakes you out and plays straight with several characters' fates was delightfully wicked. I never knew who was going to die permanently and was delighted when some turned out to be alive who appeared to be gone forever.

    I didn't expect Tales from the Borderlands to make as many changes to the gameworld canon as they did but the world of Pandora is greatly different after our (anti)heroes' actions. Longtime characters to the franchise are dead, structures have been destroyed, and groups have been annihilated. At least one is reborn too.

Ready to form Voltron!

    About my only complaint with the finale was so much of the final battle was nothing more than a series of quicktime events. I love a good fight scene as much as the next person but too much of the ending was taken up with the big monster fight. Even so, the game had a long-enough epilogue and enough dramatic scenes I can't complain too much. I also think some characters get the short-end of the stick in terms of development with Vallory's role being sadly truncated.

    Fans of the series will enjoy the finale more than those who have come onto the franchise solely through Telltale's entry. There's a lot of continuity with previous games and the wedding plans between two characters won't matter nearly as much to newcomers as they will to someone who has been with a certain character since the original Borderlands game. Some of what I experienced in my playthrough won't carry over to other choices in the game but the fact this is an episode where choice actually matters makes it all the more special.

    Tales from the Borderlands was an experience. A great experience. It had humor, action, drama, and craziness galore. The mystery Vault Hunter also is something people have to save their money in order to hire. It wouldn't be a Borderlands game without them. This was a love-letter to the Borderlands franchise and probably better than Borderlands 2 (which I never thought I'd say). I don't think anything more needs to be said about the adventures of Rhys and Fiona but damn if I wasn't glad to get to know them.

9.5/10