New Tales from the Borderlands is a boisterous yarn through space featuring bombastic characters, dangerous experiments, and enigmatic alien forces, all presented in the signature Borderlands style, for better or for worse. Luckily, in this case, that's mostly for the better.

Though the tale is told in sci-fi trappings, the core of the New Tales from The Borderlands story revolves around the relationships between three seemingly irredeemable duds, each sporting their own special flavor of awkward. Players will take control of all three of these main characters in separate sequences throughout the game. Anu is an altruistic and ambitious scientist who can barely salvage a single conversation without embarrassing herself and others. Octavio, her brother and her opposite in many ways, thinks of himself as a charming, clever entrepreneur. Unfortunately, none of those descriptors actually apply to him. And Fran is a frozen yogurt artist with a hover chair full of gadgets and a dangerous rage problem.

The game opens with Anu establishing herself as a staunch animal rights proponent, as she sets free the Jabbers (monkey-like creatures) that her company, Atlas, uses for experiments. Players soon learn about her earnest plan to create a world without killing - anyone who's played a Borderlands game would know how unlikely that is in this universe. From there, the focus shifts to Octavio, who's off to help a robotic friend commit some casual, sanctioned murder. Finally, players meet Fran, serving frozen yogurt as usual in her recently bombed-out restaurant.

In this opening chapter, the game takes its time and the audience gets a good feel for the heroes of New Tales from the Borderlands. Unfortunately, the pacing going forward feels just a little off, rushed in some instances, while dragging along through extraneous banter in others. There's a slight narrative imbalance: a lack of genuine moments of development that the characters deserve is exacerbated by the occasional prolonged relishing in a bit or silly conversation. Some players will have to resist the urge to click through a handful of conversations where the goofs overstay their welcome and little value is offered.

But thankfully, the imperfect pacing and comedic fumbles don't much hamper the otherwise great writing. Importantly, the game largely graduates from the potty humor mindset the mainline looter/shooter entries are known for, and replaces it with, quick, clever, and surprising jokes that will elicit sincere laughter from players. New Tales from the Borderlands throws in some pop culture references that don't particularly do much, and the game does dip back occasionally into fart jokes, but by and large, the trio's goofy charm and sharp back-and-forth are a huge pleasure to witness.

The main crew is joined by a cast of characters that more than hold their own, each bringing something weirdly unique and hilarious. The writers were able to extend the life of these side characters beyond just the obvious inherent joke they embodied, finding new ways to make them meaningful and funny throughout the story. A psycho (the Borderlands' term for a group of marauding, unstable killers) who wants to stop being a psycho, and the robotic L0U13 (or Louie) who's on a journey of self-realization are two stand-outs.

However, the colorfully inventive characters and great dialogue wouldn't have been able to reach the heights they did without the incredible voice acting on display. The cast of New Tales from the Borderlands is a huge part of what makes the story and humor work. Heroes, villains, and ancillary characters are all played with awareness and exuberance that gives them life. Players will be drawn in with laughter until the very end, likely never tiring of hearing the characters speak.

Motion capture adds yet another layer of realism and personality. Anu's awkwardness, though incredibly well performed vocally, simply wouldn't sell as well without the uncomfortable, constrained movements that mo-cap was able to harness. Nor would Octavio's unearned swagger and panicky gestures bring so much to the character.

In terms of gameplay, though New Tales from the Borderlands is not a Telltale project, it still features the same bones. The action plays out with quick time events that are nearly impossible to fail unless players want to, and dialogue choices also make up a big part of player agency. In both cases, what players say, do, or don't do will have narrative consequences, affecting future conversations or scenes. They will even determine the outcome at the end of the game.

Spread across the game's five chapters are a small collection of mini-games but most of them don't add anything meaningful and aren't satisfying to complete. Luckily, they can be skipped, but it's still a disappointment how little interaction and effort they require, even in a genre that is partially defined by its limited gameplay. The mini-games largely consist of pressing one button on repeat. Players will occasionally get the chance to play a collectible miniatures game called Vaultlanders, which, again, mostly consists of pressing one button, but adds the need to dodge enemy attacks with a directional input. For the type of experience games like New Tales from the Borderlands offer, deep gameplay is not expected or desired; it's about the story and characters. But the mini-games are so bland that it may leave players wondering why they were included at all.

At the end of each of the five chapters, players are presented with a results screen that details how the bonds between each of the three main characters are developing, as well as an overall team cohesion rating. It also allows players to see what important choices they made and the percentage of players who made the same choice. Unfortunately, it's not always apparent what choices led to the level of bond they currently share by the end of the level, or what exactly a better bond would allow players to do in the future.

Despite some dodgy pacing, unsatisfying mini-games, and the occasional attempt at dated humor, New Tales from the Borderlands is a funny and sometimes hilarious story full of charming characters. A game featuring performances of this quality is a true rarity and the potential replayability inherent in a choice-based game such as this makes it worth checking out.

New Tales from the Borderlands is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S. Game ZXC was provided a PC code for this review.

New Tales From the Borderlands

New Tales from the Borderlands is a comedic, interactive choose-your-own-adventure game with a story separate from the main Borderlands series. This graphic adventure developed by Gearbox Studio Quebec and published by 2K is the successor to Tales from the Borderlands. Similarly to its predecessor, players move the protagonist around the world, explore areas, and complete events. The choices that the player makes along the way have an effect on the outcome of the story.